The Eurovision Song Contest, which has been held every year since 1956, is one of the world’s longest-running television shows. Since its inception in the 1950s, the Eurovision Song Contest has grown to become one of the most popular television programs in the world, with an estimated annual audience of between 100 and 600 million viewers, despite ongoing criticism of the quality of the music.
Following WWII, members of the European Broadcasting Union decided that holding a music competition for the best new song from one of the member countries would be a fun and community-building experience. It was always intended to be a television broadcast, using the cutting-edge television technology that was sweeping the globe at the time. Seven countries competed in the first Eurovision Song Contest: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Since then, more than 50 countries have competed at least once, including San Marino and Azerbaijan, the new 2008 competitors.
Each country selects one song to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest through local and national competitions. The selection methods vary by country, with some using traditional judging standards and others allowing citizens to vote for their favorite. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the international competition has grown so large that a semi-final round has been added to reduce the number of songs performed at the final judging.
The finals are traditionally judged by assigning a score from 1 to 12 to a song, with nations not being allowed to vote for their own country’s entry. Individual countries have recently begun to allow tele-voting, or voting by phone or text message. This new trend continues the competition’s tradition of using new technology in the broadcast whenever possible. The winning nation almost always hosts the next competition, and the winner receives acclaim and a trophy.
The sensationally popular Swedish band ABBA is probably the most successful group to ever win the Eurovision Song Contest. With their song “Waterloo,” the group stormed to first place in 1974, before quickly rocketing to international stardom. However, the competition is frequently chastised for having extremely poor and somewhat hokey music, and ABBA remains the lone post-competition success story.
Regardless of the winners’ future careers or the good-natured jabs at the venerable competition, the Eurovision Song Contest continues to be a hugely popular event across Europe. Prior to the competition, host countries hold Eurovision Week, which is filled with lavish parties and local activities. The original founders’ goals are unmistakably fulfilled in the modern show, in which various countries collaborate admirably to create friendly competition as well as a sense of connection between very different lands.