Eurovision: Making Europe Dance and Sing for Over a Century

WRITTEN BY JASON GREEN

ILLUSTRATION BY ARIADNE AVILA

“United By Music” became Eurovision’s permanent slogan in 2023; however, the most watched non-sporting event per year, the Eurovision Song Contest, has brought countries in Europe and beyond together in song for more than half a century.

Created by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), from its inaugural competition in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has fostered a sense of peace through music annually for 69 years. The 69th contest is poised to be held this May in Basel, Switzerland, as the Swiss singer Nemo won in 2024. The event last year amassed over 100 million viewers.

Eurovision organizes its setup by having countries hold a national competition or an internal selection for their representative artist or group with one original song. Around 35 or more countries participate each year.

Once countries select their pick, the participating countries are split and placed into one of two semi-finals on two separate days. Five artists are eliminated for each semi-final. To determine which countries are set to perform in one of the semi-finals, they are selected through a lottery system.

The public votes for which artist will enter the Grand Final. The audience in participating countries cannot vote for their own country.

After Australia joined in 2015, they opened voting to countries outside of Europe. In 2023, Eurovision opened the world vote in which anyone in non-participating countries can vote.

One unique aspect of this contest is that there are a total of five countries, known as the “Big Five,” that automatically head to the Grand Final: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. They are granted this privilege because they are the biggest financial contributors to the singing contest. A sixth country is included which is that year’s host country.

At the Grand Final, the voting system is split into two systems. Audiences vote again in deciding who wins the competition, but alongside a committee of judges from various participating countries. There is a show before the Grand Final where acts perform in front of the jury. Here, the jury casts their vote and the jury scores are announced at the Grand Final. In both systems, countries can give scores ranging from one to eight points on the songs they like, as well as 10 and 12, with 12 being the highest.

Whoever has the highest combined score wins the competition with a glass microphone-shaped trophy representing the grandness of Eurovision. The winning country hosts Eurovision the year after.

The inaugural contest was held incidentally in Luno, Switzerland in 1956. It was won by Swiss singer Lys Assia with her song “Refrain”.

The difference between the first edition and modern version of Eurovision was that in the first edition there were no semi-finals and judges solely voted behind closed doors with no public vote.

As successful years passed, a growing audience and traction with more country participation, iconic and legendary singers took to the world-watching stage.

One of the most famous winners was ABBA, representing Sweden with their song “Waterloo” in the 19th edition of the contest in 1974, bringing them international attention and launching their legendary band into stardom.

In recent memory, Swedish singer Loreen is considered one of the greatest artists to perform on the Eurovision stage by winning the contest twice. She won in 2012 with her pop hit “Euphoria.” Eleven years later she won again with “Tattoo” in 2023, contributing to Sweden’s tied record of the most wins with Ireland in Eurovision, which is seven. The only other singer to win twice was Ireland’s Johnny Logan in the years 1980 and 1987.

While there are countries that are passionate and dedicated to putting on a spectacular display, many such as Iceland, Armenia, and Croatia have never won the contest. Fans argue that Iceland would have won Eurovision in 2020 with Daði Freyr’s “Think About Things,” but Covid-19 struck the world and constituted a lockdown.

The highest score in Eurovision goes to Salvador Sobral of Portugal in 2017. His song “Amar Pelos Dois” (easily placed in my top 10 favorite Eurovision songs) not only gained Portugal’s first ever win, but also received 758 points. To put this into perspective, that same year, Bulgaria placed second with 615 points and Moldova placed third with 374 points. Even more, 2024’s winner, Nemo, received 591 points. Sobral won with a mic and lighting, no extreme graphics or dances. His voice was enough to perform a strong ballad.

While many Americans have little to no knowledge of Eurovision, there are a plethora of mainstream songs that originate from the contest. “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence was nearly impossible to ignore on TikTok in 2020-2021. Laurence won Eurovision in 2019, gaining over one billion streams on Spotify by August 2023, making it the most streamed Eurovision song in history.

Unfortunately, for some countries, money becomes an issue. Countries like Romania and Luxemburg discontinued their participation due to financial hardship. Luxemburg returned in 2024 after 31 years. Romania withdrew their participation in 2024 and this year as well. Bulgaria is also in the same boat as Romania, as they ended their acts at the contest after 2022. Turkey dropped their participation partly due to dissatisfaction of LGBTQ+ representation in the competition. Turkey has not competed since 2012.

This leads into the frustrating and problematic aspect of Eurovision: the attempt at non-political politics. It goes beyond fan uproar over their favorite artist not winning.

Russia was banned from participating in the singing contest after the Ukraine-Russia conflict commenced in 2022 because it goes against the values of Eurovision, but fans have found that to be hypocritical. As the conflict between Israel and Palestine peaked, Israel was still allowed to participate in 2024 with their selected artist, Eden Golan. Her song, “Hurricane” was originally named “October Rain” but the EBU found it unacceptable.

The EBU still let Israel compete after many artists signed a petition to ban them. The fans’ rage was palpable at the 2024 grand final in Malmö, Sweden. They shouted loud boos towards Eurovision executive, Martin Österdahl, when he appeared.

On a non-political level, fans were angered when fan-favorite, Joost Klien, was unrightfully disqualified after an altercation with a member of the press. Outside of the stadium, there was a protest as well. It is fair to say that 2024 was not the best year for Eurovision.

Hopefully 2025 will be a peaceful one, but there is already a controversy. Miriana Conte of Malta was forced to change the name and some lyrics of her song “Kant” to “Serving” due to its similarity to a well-known slur.

While Eurovision has been having a rocky relationship with fans, as someone who is not from Europe, I believe that Eurovision can readily bolster the theme of peace and celebration.

I believe Eurovision is like magic when done right. Let the fans be mad that their favorite singer lost and not be mad over politics. I will continue to watch Eurovision yearly. My dream is to see the contest in person and not have to stream it. Music is a language in itself and its language unites us all.