EUROPE'S BEST SONG

If in the mid-1950s the members of the European Broadcasting Union had not taken to the idea of creating a spectacular entertainment programme to bring the cultures of Europe together, then today Azerbaijan would not be hosting this grand festival of music called "Eurovision". And this all began back in 1955 when Marcel Bezencon, the general director of Swiss Television, proposed holding an international song contest to determine Europe's best song. This idea was supported and approved at the General Assembly of the EBU in Rome on 19 October 1955. A competition emerged as a result of the reformation of the Italian San Remo Festival. Marcel Bezencon, who was very much taken with this project, saw the contest as an opportunity to bring nations together after the war.

The San Remo Festival still exists today. But "Eurovision" is one of the most eagerly-awaited and popular events in European music. Up to 600 million viewers all over the world watch this competition every year. Eurovision is relayed to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Lebanon, South Africa, South Korea, the USA and some other countries even though they do not take part in the competition and are outside Europe. Since 2000 the contest has also been on the Internet: in 2006 74,000 people watched the on-line relay and the live relay of "Eurovision-2008" was seen by over 400 million.

The competition's officially declared aim is as follows: "The 'Eurovision' Song Contest is an annual festival which is relayed throughout Europe and has been created to help the emergence of talented and original songs in the pop-music genre through competition between songwriters and singers by comparing their creative ability at an international level." To what extent the competition's declared aim justifies the amount of money that various countries annually spend on its organization is a question to which there is probably no answer, because the "quality" of the Eurovision hit-songs has always been a matter of dispute.  Originally, one of the objectives of the show was to help improve the popularity of television in the 1950s. Who could have known at the time that the "Eurovision" music competition would become a stage on which the alignment of political forces in the international arena would have a major impact, especially after some countries of the former Soviet Union joined it. Since then from year to year this event has acquired even greater poignancy and scale depending on where it is staged.

Most interest among the programmes

Be that as it may, the competition, which was originally known as the "Eurovision Grand Prix", was first held on 24 May 1956 in the town of Lugano (Switzerland). Seven countries took part, each presenting two songs. This was the first and only time that one country presented more than one song. The competition was won by the host country, in particular Lys Assia with her song "Refrain".  As time passed the number of countries wishing to take part in the contest gradually increased and they could not all perform at the same time. The decision was then made to eliminate from the contest the following year those countries which had the worst results. In 2004 the contest was split into a semi-final and final so that all who wanted to could take part. Since 2008 there have been two semi-finals.

"Eurovision" today is an annual song contest which is held among contestants from countries who are part of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Azerbaijan became a member of the EBU in 2007 and began taking part in the contest in 2008. Performers from Israel and other countries outside Europe may also be seen among the participants in the competition. For example, Morocco (which took part in the 1980 contest), Armenia, Georgia and Cyprus in the Mediterranean have also taken advantage of the right of membership of the EBU. One should also mention Russia and Turkey which are only partially in Europe.

One participant from each member-country, who sings only one song, qualifies for "Eurovision". The winner of the contest is decided by ballot among viewers and juries from each participating country. A television and radio company which is a full or associate member of the EBU has the right to broadcast the competition. That said, the broadcaster relaying the competition does not have the right to cut out or replace anything in it.

"Eurovision" has to a considerable extent influenced the reputation of the artistes taking part in it. For example, the legendary ABBA (Sweden, 1974) and Celine Dion (Switzerland, 1988) became known throughout the world after their triumphant performances in this song festival. It was victory in the contest that turned an unknown singer into a real star.

Every year before the competition there is a process of preliminary pre-selection which helps to decide on the list of the member-countries. Performers from the countries of the Big Four of the EBU - Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France - automatically qualify as founders and are always in the final.

The citizenship of the "Eurovision" performers is of no importance. This was confirmed by the participation in the competition of Katrina Leskanich. She was born in America but performed with the group Waves from Cambridge. Another foreigner who represented Great Britain in the competition was Ozzie Gina G, and the Greek Nana Mouskouri and the Belgian Lara Fabian appeared for Luxemburg in 1963 and 1988 respectively.

In 1986 the contest was won by the 13-year old Belgian Sandra Kim with her song "J'aime la vie". Now the "Eurovision" rules stipulate that performers must be over16 years or age.

There are strict rules for the competition final. For example, there can be no amplifiers on stage and a drummer must play on the drum kit provided. A performer must use a basic backing track. Any song over three minutes long may be disqualified. Everyone remembers that "brevity is the sister of talent". 

Boycotts, returns and non-participation

The preparation for staging the competition begins just a few weeks after the country's victory. Usually, but not always, the competition is held in the capital of the country. The biggest stage for holding the competition was the Parken football stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2011 where the attendance was 38,000. The smallest host-town for "Eurovision" was Millstreet in Ireland in May 1993 where the population is only 1,500. But more spectators than that attended the Green Glens Arena.

Sometimes countries have refused to stage the contest. In 1972 Monaco refused because of the lack of a suitable arena; in 1974 Luxemburg followed its example because of the high costs, and even Israel because of the cost of switching to colour television.

Great Britain has hosted the contest more times than anyone - eight - in 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982 and 1988: five times after winning the contest and three times after other countries declined. Ireland has hosted it seven times by winning the contest, and she is the only country to win and host "Eurovision" three times in succession.

Countries who used to take part in the contest but no longer do so are Andorra, Luxemburg, Morocco, Monaco and the Czech Republic. Italy, as one of the founder-members and leading finalists of the EBU (and the competition in the past) has the right to join the "Big Five" and has taken an active part in the contest for four decades, but boycotted it from 1998 to 2010. In 2011 Italy decided to return. In recent years the following countries have refused in principle to take part in the competition: Monaco (because of the "dominant influence" of the East European countries), and also Russia (1998), Georgia (2009) and a number of others. In different years different countries have given financial problems as their reason for refusing to take part.

Eight other member-countries of the EBU are able to take part in the "Eurovision" contest but so far have not done so. They include Algeria, Vatican, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein and Tunisia. In 2005 Lebanon submitted an application to take part but later refused because of Israel. Palestine, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates intend to become members of the EBU with the subsequent right to participate in the contest. They have the status of "approved participants", and Kosovo and Qatar are "expected participants". However, in the case of Palestine and Kosovo, this would be difficult to carry out for political reasons. Kazakhstan, which intends to become a member of the EBU and since 2008 has been waiting for her application to be granted, is also yet to participate.

In recent years Great Britain has expressed a proposal to take part in the competition as three separate teams - England, Scotland and Wales - like the European Soccer Championships. This could happen if the rules of automatic participation in the final of the "Big Four" countries is annulled. 

Some countries are situated in Europe but are not members of the EBU and have not taken part in the contest. These are Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. They are under the jurisdiction of the British crown, but are not part of Great Britain and are not in the European Union. Greenland is geographically not a part of Europe and the Faeroe Islands are also not legally members of the European Union.

The unrealized idea of the Soviet Union's participation

The Soviet Union, which was not a member of the EBU (as well as its East European allies), began internal TV coverage of the competition from "Eurovision-1965". Eduard Fomin, a former employee at the Ministry of Education, opened to journalists in 2009 one of the previously unknown pages of the history of Soviet culture. In 1987, at the beginning of perestroika and openness, the Soviet Ministry of Education looked into the possibility of the USSR taking part in the prestigious "Eurovision" music competition. "Georgiy Petrovich Veselov has proposed sending Valeriy Leontyev, a young gifted singer," the official said. However, this idea was not supported by the Soviet Communist Party and, strange as it may seem, by the very initiator of perestroika and openness, Gorbachev. Even the majority of officials in the Ministry of Education were of the mind that the Soviet Union was not ready for such radical steps.

Voting

The voting system used in the competition was originally conceived in such a way that a single outright winner among the huge number of candidates could be selected. Many countries use such a system to elect their candidates; some of them hold several rounds of voting before declaring the winner. The voting system at the contest has been changed a number of times. The current system was first adopted in 1975. Each participating country awards points to what it thinks are the ten best countries. The song receiving the highest number of votes in each country receives 12 points, the second song - 10 points, the third - 8 points and the songs from fourth to tenth receive 7-1 point respectively.

Historically, the voting has been carried out with the help of a national jury, but in 1997 five countries (Austria, France, Germany, Sweden and Great Britain) decided to stage an experiment with the tele-voting, giving viewers the opportunity to choose the best song at the contest. The experiment was a success and the following year all the participating countries brought in tele-voting. However the national jury still remains in place in all the countries - in the event of a technical hitch the jury will decide how many points to award and to whom. The voting is conducted with the help of text messages or telephone calls in all the participating countries (both in the semi-final and the final). Since 2009, apart from viewers, a jury made up of five professionals in the musical sphere from each country, also votes. In the interval between performance and vote counting viewers are usually given a special non-competition number. The TV channels can use this time for commercials.

The criticism of tele-voting is that neighbouring countries often vote for one another, regardless of which songs were the best. This practice is frequently called "viewers' vote-for-my neighbour principle".

Declaration of votes

After all the votes have been counted the presenters of the competition invite each of the voting countries in turn to declare the results of their national selection. Up to 1994 the votes were declared by telephone, but with the arrival of more reliable satellite networks the telephone was replaced by video. The votes are read out in ascending order, ending with the highest rating of 12 points. Whereas before the points were announced in English, now the presenters repeat them in French and vice-versa. From 1957 to 2003 the procedure for declaring votes was the same as the order in the contest. From 2004, because countries who had not reached the final started to take part in the tele-voting, the declaration procedure has changed. In 2004 the declaration was made in alphabetical order (according to ISO codes). In 2005 at first it was the countries that had not reached the final that presented their votes in the same order in which they appeared in the semi-final; then it was the turn of the finalists in the order in which they appeared in the final. In 2006 the order of declaration was decided by drawing lots.

In 1956 there was no public voting: the jury simply announced the winner of the contest. From 1957 to 1987 the points were displayed on a board and the numbers had to be updated manually. In 1988 points were displayed electronically in a manner that could be shown on television. Starting from 2006, because of the increasing number of participants and, consequently, the time taken in declaring votes, the countries who received 1-7 points were simply shown on the screen, and only the names of those countries which were awarded 8, 10 and 12 points were read out.

Equal number of points

It sometimes happens in the competition that two or more entries get the same number of points. In 1969 there was no procedure for deciding the places of countries if they had the same number of points. It so happened that four countries (France, Spain, Netherlands and Great Britain) had the same number of points at the end of the contest. Because there were no rules to decide the winner if points were equal all four countries were declared winners. Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Portugal did not take part in the competition the following year as a sign of protest at the results of 1969. This forced the EBU to adopt necessary regulations. If, at the end of the voting, two or more countries had the same number of points, the winner would be decided by the following criteria: the highest number of all the countries who voted for that country, whatever the mark; the highest number of marks of '12 points'; the highest number of marks of '10 points' and so on right down to all marks. And only if all these figures, right down to one point, were the same would more than one participant be declared the winners of the contest.

The only occasion when this rule was adopted to decide the winner was in 1991 when France and Sweden both scored 146 points. The first clause of the regulation did not then apply. France and Spain each had four top marks, but because Sweden had more "tens" it was declared the winner of the contest. There are also a number of other debatable situations. For example, if the parity of all the figures cannot elicit the country which occupied 10th place in the semi-final, the participant who had an earlier start number in the draw qualifies for the final.

"Voting for my neighbour"

It is believed in some quarters that viewers vote mainly for the representatives of those countries with whom they are bound by the closest cultural-historical ties. It has been noted that at the competition viewers often vote not for specific performers but for the country they represent. For example, the former Yugoslav republics, the republics of the former Soviet Union, the Scandinavian countries and strategic allies as a rule give maximum points to one another. But, as we know, the basic aim of the Eurovision Song Contest is to encourage the creation of original compositions in the field of popular music, and since the country principle of voting by viewers does not help in achieving this aim the competition organizers are seeking ways of minimizing its influence.

For the first time the "Eurovision" contest in 2008 operated according to the new rules and consisted of two semi-finals and a final. Two semi-finals was a competition innovation which caused lively debate all over Europe. This tough measure was taken following an urgent proposal by the head of "Eurovision" Svante Stockselius to reduce to a minimum the "incorrect practice of so-called solidarity voting by some of the member-countries".

Records

Ireland holds the record for the number of wins in the competition with seven, including three times in succession (1992-1994). She is followed by France, Luxemburg and Great Britain, each with five. Out of 54 competitions Britain has finished in the first three 22 times, winning it five times, runners-up 15 times and coming third twice.

In the early years the competition was won by the "traditional" Eurovision countries - France, Netherlands and Luxemburg. However in the last few decades none of them has been successful: the Netherlands last won in 1975, France in 1977 and Luxemburg in 1983. Luxemburg last took part in 1993. Germany was triumphant only in 2010.

The first years of the 21st century were victorious for countries who had never won the competition before, both the "new" Eurovision countries and those who had taken part for decades. Every year from 2001 to 2008 a new country was added to the list of winners. In 2006 Finland celebrated victory after 45 years of participation, whereas Ukraine needed much less time for its first victory, winning in only its second appearance in 2004. And finally Russia needed 12 years of participation, starting from 1994, before winning in 2008.

As of 2010, of the countries that have never won the contest, Portugal has been in it the longest. She first took part in 1964 and her best position is still sixth place in 1996. In 2008 Vania Fernandez came second in the semi-final with the song Senhora Do Mar (Negras Aguas), but could only finish 13th in the final.

In numbers of votes received by the winners the nominal record (78.82%) belongs to the British group Katrina and the Waves, who triumphed in 1997; the absolute record (387 points) was established at Eurovision-2009 by Alexander Rybak, Norway.

The youngest Eurovision winner was Sandra Kim from Belgium who was only 13 when she won in 1986. According to the current regulations competitors must be over 16. The youngest winner in the 21st century is the then 19-year old German Lena Meyer-Landrut, and the oldest, Dave Benton, who was 50 when he represented Estonia.

Style of music

The performance of Lordi at Eurovision is believed to be one of the most extravagant in the history of the competition. Officially, there are no restrictions on style of music and the choice of musical genre is down to the performer and the body that chooses the song. The one restriction is there must be no obscenities, political exhortations, and that sort of thing. But throughout its existence the competition has developed its own "format" whereby songs are written taking into consideration the tastes of the viewers voting for them. In most cases the participants perform pop-music (Europop), jazz or folk, but recently there have been more performers of more "unorthodox" styles.

Exponents of rock, blues, jazz and rap sometimes take part in the contest but are rarely successful because Eurovision viewers are by no means their target audience. A rare exception was in 2006 when the competition was won by the gaudily-dressed Hard Rock group Lordi. In 2010 the alternative rock-group manga from Turkey almost repeated Lordi's success when it came second. But many other, lesser known "genre" performers, such as Terasbetoni, The Ark, Zdob si Zdub, Mumiy Troll, Vanilla Ninja, Wig Wam, Mor ve Otesi, Roger Cicero, Alenka Gotar, and others, have never had any success in the competition.

Criticism and Incidents

The competition has received most criticism for its voting system, especially the vote-for-my-neighbour principle, as we have seen. Such criticism has been expressed by some countries and has been the basis for their non-participation for claims of "underscoring", "dominance" and also political reasons. Non-participation and scandals on political grounds have broken out leading to confrontation between some of the participating countries.

The credibility of the competition is being placed in question in some countries; for example in Great Britain they treat it as a joke but, nevertheless, it is respected, mainly thanks to the sarcastic comments of the leading British radio and TV presenter Terry Wogan, but in Italy the significance of the competition has waned to such an extent that it was boycotted after 1997. On the other hand, the countries of Eastern and Southern Europe see the competition as an opportunity to show off their country and its culture.

However, after Germany's victory at Eurovision-2010 the competition's credibility increased in Western Europe because the last time one of the Big Four countries (France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain) won the competition was in 1997 (Great Britain). The victory of a West European country proved it could be achieved despite the vote-for-your-neighbour principle. 

Over the years there have been scandals at the competition with accusations of plagiarism, bribery and other claims, as well as incidents. Twice performances have been subjected to disruptions by invaders and demonstrators: at Eurovision-1964 in Denmark an unknown person appeared on the stage holding a placard reading "Down with Franco and Salazar!", protesting at the participation of Spain and Portugal, which at that time had dictatorial regimes under these leaders; in the final of Eurovision-2010 in Norway the performance of the Spanish entry was interrupted by Jimmy Jump, a well-known pitch invader, wearing a black T-shirt and a red Catholic beret, who ran on to the stage in the middle of the song and took up place in the middle of the group of performers, folding his arms and smiling at the soloist. This led to the organizers for the first time taking the decision for the participant to give a repeat performance after the last number.

Related events

l The Eurovision children's contest has taken place every year since 2003 for children from 10 to 15.

lThe "Our Sound" song contest, similar to Eurovision, is due to be held among the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

lAn international song festival has been held in the Polish town of Sopot since 1961.

lThe "Intervision" song contest was held between 1977 and 1980 between the socialist countries, and was revived in 2008.

lThe World Music Festival was held for the first time in Sarajevo in 2005 and includes participants from Europe and Asia.

lThe "Bundesvision" song contest has been held annually since 2005 between 16 regions of Germany.

l"World Vision: An American Anthem" is a planned competition based on the "Eurovision" format between the states of the USA.

lThe Italian Song Festival has been held in San Remo since 1951. This is what inspired the founders of the Eurovision Song Contest.

In the autumn of 2005 the EBU organized a special television show to mark the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 22 October at the Forum Arena in Copenhagen. During the broadcast, the name of which comes from Cliff Richard's song "Congratulations" (1968), the ABBA group's song "Waterloo" (the 1974 winner) was chosen as the best song in the history of the competition. Of the 14 songs which were sung at the jubilee contest, 10 were chosen by Internet-voting and the other four by the festival's organizing committee.