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to create a consistent visual identity. The host country's flag appears in the heart.]] The Eurovision Song Contest () is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to represent their country in the international competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay despite the fact that they do not compete. Since 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online.
In the 1950s, as a war-torn Europe rebuilt itself, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)—based in Switzerland—set up an ad-hoc committee to search for ways of bringing together the countries of the EBU around a "light entertainment programme". At a committee meeting held in Monaco in January 1955, director general of Swiss television and committee chairman Marcel Bezençon conceived the idea of an international song contest where countries would participate in one television programme, to be transmitted simultaneously to all countries of the union. The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy, and was also seen as a technological experiment in live television: as in those days, it was a very ambitious project to join many countries together in a wide-area international network. Satellite television did not exist, and the so-called Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network. The concept, then known as "Eurovision Grand Prix", was approved by the EBU General Assembly in at a meeting held in Rome on 19 October 1955 and it was decided that the first contest would take place in spring 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland.
The programme was first known as the "Eurovision Grand Prix". This "Grand Prix" name was adopted by the Francophone countries, where the Contest became known as "Le Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne". The "Grand Prix" has since been dropped and replaced with "Concours" (contest) in these countries. The Eurovision Network is used to carry many news and sports programmes internationally, among other specialised events organised by the EBU. However, in the minds of the public, the name "Eurovision" is most closely associated with the Song Contest. A "country" as a participant is represented by one television broadcaster from that country: typically, but not always, that country's national public broadcasting organisation. The programme is hosted by one of the participant countries, and the transmission is sent from the auditorium in the host city. During this programme, after all the songs have been performed, the countries then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs: nations are not allowed to vote for their own song. At the end of the programme, the winner is declared as the song with the most points. The winner receives, simply, the prestige of having won—although it is usual for a trophy to be awarded to the winning songwriters, and the winning country is invited to host the event the following year. and the first international presentation of Riverdance ().
As national broadcasters join and leave the EBU feed, the EBU/Eurovision logo is displayed. The accompanying theme music (used on other Eurovision broadcasts) is the prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum. and as early as March.
The European Broadcasting Area is defined by the International Telecommunication Union:
:The "European Broadcasting Area" is bounded on the west by the western boundary of Region 1 (see below), on the east by the meridian 40° East of Greenwich and on the south by the parallel 30° North so as to include the western part of the USSR, the northern part of Saudi Arabia and that part of those countries bordering the Mediterranean within these limits. In addition, Iraq, Jordan and that part of the territory of Turkey lying outside the above limits are included in the European Broadcasting Area.
The western boundary of Region 1 is defined by a line running from the North Pole along meridian 10° West of Greenwich to its intersection with parallel 72° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection of meridian 50° West and parallel 40° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection of meridian 20° West and parallel 10° South; thence along meridian 20° West to the South Pole.
Active members include broadcasting organisations whose transmissions are made available to at least 98% of households in their own country which are equipped to receive such transmissions.
Fifty-one countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the year in which they made their début:
[[Image:EurovisionParticipants.png|thumb|300px|right|Participation since 1956: ]]
:a) Before German reunification in 1990 occasionally presented as West Germany, representing the Federal Republic of Germany. East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) did not compete. :b) The entries presented as being from "Yugoslavia" represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, except for the 1992 entry, which represented the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This nation dissolved in 1991/1992 into five independent states: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia reconstituted itself as Serbia and Montenegro in 2003—entered the Contest in 2004—and finally dissolved in 2006, making two separate states: Serbia and Montenegro; both of which débuted in the Contest in 2007.
Countries may select their songs by any means, whether by an internal decision of the participating broadcaster or a public contest that allows the country's public to televote between several songs. The EBU encourages broadcasters to use the latter, as this generates more publicity for the contest. These public selections are known as national finals.
Some countries' national finals are as big as—if not bigger than—the international Eurovision Song Contest itself, involving many songs being submitted to national semi-finals. The Swedish national final, Melodifestivalen (literally, "The Song Festival") includes 32 songs being performed over four semi-finals, played to huge audiences in arenas around the country, before the final show in Stockholm. This has become the most-watched programme of the year in Sweden. In Spain, the reality show Operación Triunfo started in 2002; the winners of the first three seasons proceeded to represent the country at Eurovision.
Regardless of the method used to select the entry, the song's details must be finalised and submitted to the EBU before a deadline some weeks before the international Contest.
Since 1971, each participating country has been required to provide a preview video of their entry, ostensibly to be broadcast in all the nations taking part. Broadcast of the previews was compulsory until the mid 1990s, but is no longer so, providing each country provides access to the videos online.
, Stockholm: host of Eurovision 2000.]] Preparations for the event start a matter of weeks after the host wins in the previous year, and confirms to the EBU that they intend to—and have the capacity to—host the event. A host city is chosen—usually the capital—and a suitable concert venue. The largest concert venue was a football stadium in Copenhagen—Parken—which held approximately 38,000 people when Denmark were the 2001 hosts.—although the Green Glens Arena venue could hold up to 8,000 people.
The hotel and press facilities in the vicinity are always a consideration when choosing a host city and venue. In Kiev 2005, hotel rooms were scarce as the Contest organisers asked the Ukrainian government to put a block on bookings they did not control themselves through official delegation allocations or tour packages: this led to many people's hotel bookings being cancelled.
Each participating broadcaster nominates a Head of Delegation, whose job it is to coordinate the movements of the delegate members, and who acts as that country's representative to the EBU in the host city.
hosting a press conference at Eurovision 2006.]] After each country has rehearsed, the delegation meets with the show's artistic director in the video viewing room. Here, they watch the footage of the rehearsal just performed, discussing camera angles, lighting and choreography, in order to try to achieve maximum æsthetic effect on television. At this point the Head of Delegation may make known any special requirements needed for the performance, and request them from the host broadcaster. Following this meeting, the delegation hold a press conference where members of the accredited press may pose them questions.
Before each of the semi-finals, one or more full dress rehearsals are held. Since tickets to the live shows are often scarce, tickets are also sold in order that the public may attend these dress rehearsals. Similarly, two or more full dress rehearsals are held after all semi-finals are finished, before the live transmission of the grand final on Saturday evening.
After the semi-final and grand final there are after-show parties, held either in a facility in the venue complex or in another suitable location within the city.
A Euroclub is held every night of the week; a Eurovision-themed nightclub, to which all accredited personnel are invited.
During the week many delegations have traditionally hosted their own parties in addition to the officially-sponsored ones. However, in the new millennium the trend has been for the national delegations to centralise their activity and hold their celebrations in the Euroclub.
Historically, a country's set of votes was decided by an internal jury, but in 1997 five countries (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom) experimented with televoting, giving members of the public in those countries the opportunity to vote en-masse for their favourite songs. The experiment was a success, and from 1998 onwards all countries were encouraged to use televoting wherever possible. Back-up juries are still utilised by each country, in the event of the televoting failure. Nowadays members of the public may also vote by SMS, in addition to televoting.
Votes are read out in ascending order, culminating with the maximum 12 points. The scores are repeated by the Contest's presenters in English and French, which has given rise to the famous "douze points" exclamation when the host repeats the top score in French. In 2005, the votes from the non-qualifying semi-finalists were announced first, in their running order on the Thursday night; then the finalists gave their votes in their own order of performance. Since 2006, a separate draw has been held to determine the order in which countries would present their votes.
From 1971 to 1973, each country sent two jurors, who were actually present at the Contest venue (though the juries in 1972 were locked away in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle) and announced their votes as the camera was trained on them. In 1973 one of the Swiss jurors made a great show of presenting his votes with flamboyant gestures. This system was retired for the next year.
In 2006, the EBU decided to conserve time during the broadcast—much of which had been taken up with the announcement of every single point—because there was an ever-increasing number of countries voting. From then onwards, the points from 1–7 were flashed up onto the screen automatically, and the announcers only read out the 8, 10 and 12 points individually.
In the event of a tie for first place at the end of the evening, a count is made of the total number of countries who awarded any points at all to each of the tied countries; and the one who received points from the most countries is declared the winner. If the numbers are still tied, it is counted how many sets of maximum marks (12 points) each country received. If there is still a tie, the numbers of 10-point scores awarded are compared—and then the numbers of 8-points, all the way down the list. In the extremely unlikely event of there then still being a tie for first place, the song performed earliest in the running order is declared the winner, unless the host country performed first in the running order. The same tie-break rule now applies to ties for all places.
As of , the only time since 1969 when two or more countries have tied for first place on total points alone was in 1991, when France and Sweden both totalled 146 points. In 1991 the tie-break rules did not include counting the numbers of countries awarding any points at all to these countries, but began with tallying up the numbers of 12 points awarded. Both France and Sweden had received four sets of 12 points. However, because Sweden had received more sets of 10 points, they were declared the winners. Had the current rule been in play, France would have won instead.
From 1956 until 1998, it was necessary for the host country to provide a live orchestra for the use of the participants. Prior to 1973, all music was required to be played by the host orchestra. From 1973 onwards, pre-recorded backing tracks were permitted—although the host country was still obliged to provide a live orchestra in order to give participants a choice. If a backing track was used, then all the instruments heard on the track were required to be present on the stage. In 1997 this requirement was dropped. Several winners in the mid-1970s took advantage of the newly-found allowance, with performers from non-English-speaking countries singing in English, including ABBA in 1974.
In 1977, the EBU decided to revert to the national language restriction. Special dispensation was given to Germany and Belgium as their national selections had already taken place - both countries' entries were in English.
In 1999 the rule was changed to allow the choice of language once more. In 2006 the Dutch entry, "Amambanda", was sung partly in English and partly in an artificial language. In 1981 JRTV did not broadcast the voting because the name of Israel appeared on the scoreboard.
In 2005, Lebanon intended to participate in the Contest. However, Lebanese law does not allow recognition of Israel, and consequently Lebanese television did not intend to transmit the Israeli entry. The EBU informed them that such an act would breach the rules of the Contest, and Lebanon was subsequently forced to withdraw from the competition. Their late withdrawal incurred a fine, since they had already confirmed their participation and the deadline had passed.
Because the Contest is a live television programme, a reasonable time limit must be imposed on the duration of the show. In recent years the nominal limit has been three hours, with the broadcast occasionally overrunning. Also to be introduced that year was relegation. The lowest-placed countries in the 1993 score table were forced to skip the next year, in order to allow the countries which failed the 1993 pre-selection into the 1994 Contest. The 1994 Contest included also—for the first time—Lithuania, Poland and Russia.
Relegation continued through 1994 and 1995; but in 1996 a different pre-selection system was used, in which nearly all the countries participated. Audio tapes of all the songs were sent to juries in each of the countries some weeks before the television show. These juries selected the songs which would then proceed to be included in the international broadcast. Norway, as the host country in 1996 (having won the 1995 Contest), automatically qualified and was therefore excluded from the necessity of going through the pre-selection.
One country which failed to qualify in the 1996 pre-selection was Germany. As one of the largest financial contributors to the EBU, their non-participation in the Contest brought about a funding issue, which the EBU would have to consider. On 31 December 2010; it was announced on the official participation list published by the EBU that Italy would automatically qualify into the final, thus joining the other qualifiers to become the "Big Five". Germany became the first Big-Four country to win the Contest since the rule was made in 2000; this occurred when Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.
The ten most highly-placed non-Big Four countries in the grand final were guaranteed a place in the following year's grand final, without the need to participate in next year's semi. If, for example, Germany came in the top ten, the eleventh-placed non-Big-Four country would automatically qualify for the next year's grand final. From 2008 onwards, the scoreboard position of any previous years has not been relevant, and—save for the automatic qualifiers—all participating countries have had to participate in the semi-finals, regardless of their previous year's scoreboard position. The only countries which automatically qualify for the grand final are the host country, and the Big Five: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, who continue to enjoy their protected status.
After the votes have been cast in each semi-final, the countries which received the most votes—and will therefore proceed to the grand final on Saturday—are announced by name by the presenters. Full voting results are withheld until after the grand final, whereupon they are published on the EBU's website.
Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was French Canadian singer, Céline Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi", which subsequently helped launch her international career.
Other artists who have achieved varying degrees of success after winning the Contest include France Gall ("Poupée de cire, poupée de son", Luxembourg 1965), Dana ("All Kinds of Everything", Ireland 1970), Vicky Leandros ("Après toi", Luxembourg 1972), Brotherhood of Man ("Save Your Kisses for Me", United Kingdom 1976), Marie Myriam ("L'oiseau et l'enfant", France 1977), Johnny Logan (who won twice for Ireland; with "What's Another Year?" in 1980, and "Hold Me Now" in 1987), Bucks Fizz ("Making Your Mind Up", United Kingdom 1981), Nicole ("Ein Bißchen Frieden", Germany 1982), and Herreys ("Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley", Sweden 1984). Many other winners include well-known artists who won the Contest mid-career, after they had already established themselves as successful. An example is Katrina and the Waves, representing the United Kingdom, who were the winners of the contest with the song, Love Shine a Light.
Some artists, however, have vanished into relative obscurity, making little or no impact on the international music scene after their win.
The early years of the Contest saw many wins for "traditional" Eurovision countries: France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. However, the success of these countries has declined in recent decades: the Netherlands last won in 1975; France in 1977; and Luxembourg in 1983. The last time Luxembourg entered the Contest was in 1993.
The first years of the 21st century produced a spate of first-time winners, from both "new" Eurovision countries, and old-timers who had entered for many years without a win. Every year from 2001 to 2008 resulted in a country winning for the first time. The 2006 winner was Finland, which finally won after having entered the Contest for 45 years. Ukraine on the other hand did not have to wait so long, winning with their second entry in 2004. Serbia won the very first year it entered as an independent state, in 2007.
Another influential factor is the high proportion of expatriates, ethnic minorities and diaspora living in certain countries, often due to recent political upheaval. Although judges and televoters cannot vote for their own country's entry, expatriates and diaspora can vote for their country of origin from their current location.
Since the number of points to be distributed allotted to each country remains equal, and independent of their population, voters in countries with larger populations have less power as individuals to influence the result of the Contest than those voting from countries with smaller populations.
In a move to help reduce the effects of voting blocs since the advent of televoting in the Eurovision Song Contest, the 2009 edition re-introduced national juries alongside televoting in the final, both contributing to 50% of the vote. This hybrid system was implemented in semi-finals for 2010.
In Autumn 2005, the EBU organised a special programme to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Contest. The show, entitled Congratulations (after Cliff Richard's entry for the United Kingdom in 1968) was held in Copenhagen, and featured many artists from the last 50 years of the Contest. A telephone vote was held to determine the most popular Eurovision song of all-time, which was won by ABBA's "Waterloo" (winner, Sweden 1974).
== Critical studies ==
Category:Music competitions Category:Singing competitions Category:Song contests Category:European Broadcasting Union
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Alexander Rybak |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Born | May 13, 1986 |
| Origin | Minsk, Belarus |
| Instrument | Vocals, Violin, Piano |
| Genre | Pop, Folk, Classical |
| Occupation | Singer, Actor, songwriter Composer, Pianist |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Associated acts | Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Frikar |
| Url | www.alexanderrybak.com |
In the Norwegian national heats, Rybak achieved a clean sweep, gaining the top score from all nine voting districts and ending with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, while the runner up Tone Damli Aaberge received a combined score of 121,856.
The song competed in the second semi-final and won a place in the Eurovision final.
Rybak later won the Eurovision final with a landslide victory, receiving votes from all the participating countries (except Norway, which was not allowed to vote for itself). Rybak finished with a total of 387 points, breaking the previous record of 292 points scored by Lordi in 2006 and scoring 169 points more than the runner-up, Iceland. He is also the fourth most successful artist of Eurovision with 387 points, behind Dima Bilan, Carola and Chiara.
In 2009 he recorded the theme song called "I Don't Believe in Miracles / Superhero"for the Russian action movie Black Lightning produced by Timur Bekmambetov.
Category:1986 births Category:Living people Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Norway Category:Melodi Grand Prix contestants Category:Melodi Grand Prix winners Category:Naturalised citizens of Norway Category:Norwegian violinists Category:Norwegian male singers Category:Norwegian actors Category:Norwegian composers Category:Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2009 Category:Eurovision Song Contest winners Category:People from Minsk Category:Norwegian people of Belarusian descent Category:People from Nesodden Category:Norwegian multi-instrumentalists Category:Norwegian fiddlers
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Lys Assia |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Rosa Mina Schärer |
| Born | March 03, 1926 |
| Origin | Aargau, Switzerland |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1942–present |
| Url | }} |
Lys Assia (born 3 March 1926, Rupperswil, Aargau, Switzerland) is a Swiss singer.
Born as Rosa Mina Schärer, when she was a young girl she was a dancer. In 1940, however, she stood in for a female singer. People who heard her singing liked it, so she changed from dancing to singing.
In 1956 she was the winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year (see: Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956); she returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958.
Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:Swiss female singers Category:Eurovision Song Contest winners Category:Swiss Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1956 Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1957 Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1958 Category:People from Aargau Category:Schlager Category:French-language singers Category:German-language singers Category:Italian-language singers
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
