Annual Song Contest «Eurovision» (English. Eurovision Song Contest; fr. Concours Eurovision de la chanson has been held every spring since 1956 in one of the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Since 1995, this event has occurred in the month of May, and previous competitions were held in both May, March, and April.
In 2024, the first and second semi-finals will take place on May 7 and 9, and the — final on May 11.
Today Eurovision is one of the popular shows and music competitions in the world. Its broadcast on television attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers, and since 2000 it has been broadcast on the Internet, where the number of views is also growing year by year.
Originally intended as a way to draw attention to television and increase its popularity in European countries, the competition nevertheless became a tool for promoting pop music, as well as an opportunity to promote talented authors and performers of this musical movement through competition between them. In addition, the competition turned into a real show and celebration.
The idea of holding the competition belonged to the General Director of Swiss Television, Marcel Besançon, who voiced it back in 1950. The first competition was held in Switzerland on May 24, 1956 in Lugano. Performers from seven European countries took part in it. Each of them performed two songs, which was the only time in the history of the competition. The winner was a performer from the country that hosted the guests.
Since 2004, the competition has been divided into semi-finals and finals, and four years later, there are two semi-finals. Each show (semifinals and final) is broadcast live.
The competition is held according to certain rules. Performers from member countries of the European Broadcasting Union who have submitted a timely application to participate can take part in it.
Each performer, representing his country, enters the competition with one song, for which certain requirements also apply. The execution should not exceed three minutes. At the end of the performance of all participants, audience SMS voting and jury voting are held, as a result of which the highest scores are determined. This gives the participant the opportunity to advance from the semi-finals to the finals, and the winner of the competition in the finals is also determined.
It is worth noting that the voting system has changed several times at Eurovision «», and this organizational point has always been the most criticized. The maximum number of finalists is determined by twenty-five participants, among whom the performer of the country in which the competition is held is guaranteed to be present, as well as singers from the countries of the so-called «Big Five» (Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy and Germany).
Among the requirements for participants and their composition are: a minimum age threshold of 16 years, a ban on the participation of a performer from two countries at the same time, a ban on the use of a phonogram and any computer effects of processing the performer’s voice (which guarantees «live» performance of the song). In addition, there are prohibitions on offensive, obscene, political statements and the content of the composition, as well as on commercial messages and the presence of live animals on stage during a performance. There are also restrictions on the number of people performing on stage during the performance of a song (backing vocals, backup dancers, etc.).
Participation in the competition also imposes certain requirements on the national jury and the broadcast of the competition by the participating country. The official languages of the competition are English and French. The venue for the next competition is the country whose representative became the winner in the previous year. The competition is financed by the European Broadcasting Union with the participation of sponsors and contributions from participating countries.
Over its long history, the «Eurovision» competition has acquired its own records related to the number of victories of representatives of a particular country, and has also become a certain kind of means of promoting many popular performers. In the first case, one cannot fail to mention Ireland, which hosted the competition 7 times as a result of the victories of its representatives, and this happened three times in a row. The UK hosted the competition 8 times: four times as a result of victory and four more times due to the refusal of some countries to host the competition for certain reasons. 6 times the winners of «Eurovision» were representatives of Sweden, 5 times the winners were participants from the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and the UK, 4 times – Israel, 3 – Denmark and Norway.
Since 2008, «Eurovision» has been held every year under a specific slogan.
Russia became a participant in the International Pop Song Contest in 1994, and in 2008, Russian contestant Dima Bilan became the winner, as a result of which «Eurovision 2009» was held in Moscow.
In total, 52 countries have taken part in the competition in all the years since its first edition.
The competition has many related projects created on the principle of geographical or regional reference (Italian Song Festival, International Song Festival in Sopot, Bundesvision, Turkvision and others). For children under 16 years of age, the International Pop Song Festival «Children's Eurovision» has been held annually since 2003.