Watch out!!! - All this stuf is a bit heavy reading, if you aren't looking for loads and loads of ESC information, stop reading! We don't want to bog you non-fans down with a brief complete history of the contest! If you are trying to understand why some people (such as myself) love Eurovision so much, check out our guide to the funniest bits of Eurovision in ESCILLY. Also reccommended is the Well I Never section, which includes facts you (probably) never knew about the contest.

What Is It?

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is a European music contest, with the orginal aim of promoting inter-European In the mid-1950s, the members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) set up a committee to investigate ways of rallying the countries of Europe around a light entertainment programme. At Monaco in January 1955 the committee, chaired by Marcel Bezenson, Director General of Swiss Television, came up with the idea of creating a song contest, inspired by the very popular San Remo Festival. The idea was apprved by the EBU General Assembly on 19th October 1955, and it was decided the first "Eurovision Grand Prix" would take place in spring 1956, at Lugano, Switzerland. It has ran, uninterrupted, as an annual event ever since.

ESC's mission statement is: "to stimulate the output of original high-quality songs in the field of popular music by encouraging competition between authors and composers through the international comparison of their work". It is arguable whether or not Eurovision still achieves this aim (or if it ever has!).

The competition is restricted to active members of the European Broadcast Union, but not neccesarily those in Europe. This explains the participation of countries such as Israel (since 1973), Morocco (once in 1980) and the interest of Tunisia and Lebanon, who both entered once, only to withdraw before the contest.

The show itself is broadcast worldwide, all participants must show it, and it is also shown in Australia, Canada, and Japan, amongst other places. It is shown in over 35 countries, and gets around 600 million viewers,

In the UK, for example, in 2004 the event was watched by 8.3 million viewers, handing the BBC an average share of 42% between 8pm and 10pm, peaking at 10.7m during the voting.

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Rules

Participants

Until 1993, any country that wished to enter Eurovision was able to, provided they had broadcasted the contest the previous year, and that they had applied before the deadline. After the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, there was a massive increase in the number of countries wishing to participate. The EBU attempted many different ways to accommodate all of these new countries.

• In 1993, a pre-qualifier was held for the new countries, from which 3 qualified.
• The bottom 6 countries in 1993 were disqualified from the 94 contest, replaced by the new countries who hadn't made it in 1993.
• 1995 again saw the bottom 7 from the previous year disqualified, replaced by those who had missed a year.
• In 1996 all songs (except that of the host - Norway) were sent before the contest on an audio tape to juries from each participant country, who then awarded their points. The top 22 of the 29 qualified for the ESC proper. This method was used only once, and it led to the introduction of the "Big 4" Rule (*explained below) after Germany missed out on the show because of their low score in the pre-qualifier.
• Between 1997 and 2001, a relegation system operated, based on a county's average score over the past 5 years. This relegated the countries with the lowest average for a year, replaced by those who had missed out the previous year.
• In 2002 and 2003, there was a change to the relegaion system, as it was very hard for many countries to build up high scores to improve their 5 year averages. The top 15 countries from the previous year qualified for the final, They were joined by the 7 countries who had missed out the previous year, and, of course, any of the "Big 4" who had failed to make the top 15.
• 2004 saw the introduction of the Semi Final system. The top 10 songs from the previous year, and the "Big 4", automatically qualified for the final, whereas midweek before the contest, the remaining countries fought it out in the Semi for the 10 reserved places in the Final. The EBU set the limit for countries to 40, with the final always having 24 countries in, althoguh 2005 has seen this maximum be reached, so the EBU face another dilemma if/when this quota is passed.

For a chart of who participated what years, click here.

Length

Up until 1962, songs could be no longer than 3 and a half minutes, now 3 minutes is the limit.

Number of Performers

There can be no more than 6 people on stage in any performance. Between 1956 and 1971 there was no limit on this, except for in 1957 when it was cut to just 1 or 2 singers, with no backing vocals.

Orchestra

Until 1999, the hosts always provided an orchestra to play the song, but, since 1999, there has been no obligation for the host broadcaster to provide an orchestra, and the music has been played on backing tapes, wih no human voices allowed on them (Croatia were deducted points in 1999 because of this rule).

*The "Big 4" Rule

Since 1999 (after Germany missed out on the 1996 contest through lack of points), France, Germany, Spain and the UK have been exempt from relegation, (and now they automatically qualify for the final). This is because these 4 countries contribute the most money to the Contest, and without their support the Contest would be unable to run, or would require at least a massive budget cut.

Language

When the contest first began, there was no rule for the language of the song, but after Sweden's victory in 1974 with the English-language "Waterloo", the EBU made a ruling that all countries must sing in one of their country's official language. This rule seemed to give an advantage to English-language countries, especially after Ireland's 4 wins in the 90s, and so in 1999 this rule was abolished, and the Free-Language Rule was re-introduced. This has led to an increase in the number of songs being sung in English, and has seen Bosnia-Herzegovina sing in French, and Belgium sing in an invented language in 2003, finishing 3rd!

Ties

After the debacle in 1969, with a 4-way tie between France, te Netherlands, Spain, and the UK for 1st place, rules were made to ensure a repeat was never possible. In 1970 it was decided that if 2 or more songs tied for 1st place, the songs would be performed again, and the juries from the other countries would state by a show of hands which song they preferred. If it was still tied, it was officially a draw.

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Facts

In the first year, 1956, each of the 7 participant countries entered 2 songs (Ever since this has been only 1). The participants were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Austria, Denmark and the UK registered too late to participate, but all 3 were in the 1957 contest.

To see what countris participated in what years, look at this chart.

Voting procedures have changed throughout the years too:

• In 1956, there was a single jury consisting of 2 delegates from each country. They watched the show on a small tv screen, and each juror awarded each song a mark betwen 1 and 10. The jurors were allowed to vote for the entries from their own countries if they wished. The song receiving most points was crowned as the winner.
• 1957 saw the first rule change, with each country having their own jury of 10 people, who could each award a single point to their favourite song (excluding their own country's).
• In 1959, proffessional composers and publishers were banned from sitting on juries.
• In 1962, each of the 10 jury members could award a total of 6 points, 3 to their favourite, then 2 and 1. These were added to the votes from the other 9 national jury members, and the top 3 totals were awarded 6,3 and 1 votes from that country.
• The following year, 1963, saw an increase in the number of jurors to 20, and they were now allowed to award points to their 5 favourite songs.
• The juries were halved in 1964 back to 10 members, who had 9 points each to award. The top 3 would recieve 5, 3 and 1 points repectively, unless less than 3 countries recieved votes. If only 1 country got votes, they would recieve all 9 points, if 2 just songs, the top would get 6 points, and the 2nd place 3 points.
• From 1966 onwards, national juries consisted of members of each country's general public.
• In 1967 the voting system reverted to that of 1957, with 10 members each awarding their favourite song 1 point.
• Between 1971 and 1973, each country had 2 jury members, one younger than 25, and 1 older. They awarded points between 1 and 10 for each song.
• From 1974, juries once again consisted of 10 members, with 5 male members and 5 female, 5 of them 16-25, the other 5 25-60 years old. They could give between 1 and 5 points their top 5 songs,
• The current system of 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points from each country to their top 10 was introduced in 1975, and since then the only change has been the replacing of juries by televoting.
• In 1997, 5 countries (Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) introduced televoting, where the general public of each country vote for their favourite song by telephone.
• 1998 saw many more countries adopt televoting, though a few countries were excepted, as they didn't have an adequate telephone infrastructure, (eg. Bosnia-Herzegovina) or had timezone issues (Russia).
• 2004 saw the first time every single participant used 100% televoting to give their votes.
• As well as televoting, every country has a back-up jury in case of a technical error. In 2003, Ireland had to give their jury votes, as they had not finished counting the televotes in time!

The country who has participated the most is Germany, who have been in the contest 48 times. The only year they have missed was 1996, when they failed to qualify from the Pre-Qualifier.

Well I Never!

For unbelievable (in the loosest terms of the word) facts about Eurovision, check out this section!!! Including famous performers and songs from Eurovision, and things you (probably) didn't know!

Go here!