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Prelude To Te Deum, a fanfare by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, opens every Eurovision Song Contest. It is known as ‘The Eurovision Anthem’. That’s one for the iPods.
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Quickest Eurovision song: 1957 UK entry ‘All’ by Patricia Bredin. It lasted 1 minute 52 seconds.
Ruslana won the competition for Ukraine in 2004 and was later rewarded with a seat in parliament.
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Sandra Kim from Belgium is the youngest ever winner. She won in 1986 at the age of thir teen after her manager told organisers she was fifteen. In 1990 an age restriction was introduced – these days you must be at least sixteen to compete.
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Time zones. As the main contributors to the contest, the big 5 (UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) stipulate that the star t time of the final should always be 8pm GMT. The 2012 final in Azerbaijan began at midnight local time.
Yugoslavia in 1992, all of the ex-Yugoslav Ukraine revoked its normal visa countries have par ticipated in the ESC: requirement for visitors from the Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia. EU in 2005 to coincide with its hosting of the event. Zero points. 36 acts have received ‘nul points’ in the history ‘Volare’, aka ‘Nel Blu Dipinto of the ESC. Awkward. Di Blu’ by Domenico Mudugno, is the most covered Eurovision song ever. You know the one: Volare oh oh, Cantare oh oh oh oh!
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‘We are the winners of Eurovision, We are, we are, we are, we
are Go baby…. So you gotta vote Vote, vote for the winners Vote vote vote for the winners.’
These were the (rather presumptuous) lyrics of Lithuania’s 2006 entry sung in English by LT United. They came 6th.
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X Factor 2008 contestant, Ruth Lorenzo, will be representing Spain in this year’s contest.
Yugoslavia entered the competition 26 times between 1961 and 1991. Since the breakdown of the Socialist Federal Republic of
IMAGE CREDIT: Grand Final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest - Dennis Stachel (EBU)