Around 160 million people tune in to watch the Eurovision every year, that’s a lot of people to watch us inevitably embarrass ourselves. Here, we’ve compiled a beginner’s guide to the song contest
It’s that time of year where our great nation willingly gets degraded in front of much of the Western world. That’s right, the Eurovision Song Contest – Europe’s most camp and bizarre singing competition where we inevitably end up with a string of nul points.
On Saturday (17 May), 26 countries – whittled down from 37 – will battle it out in music form as they prance around the stage in tight fitting sequin trousers or belt out ballads that you wish you paid more attention in GCSE French for.
This year the contest will be hosted in Basel, Switzerland, after singer Nemo topped the leaderboard with a huge 591 points for song “The Code” last year. Our Olly Alexander ended up with 46 points, finishing an impressive (for us) 18th – but will our infamously awful Eurovision streak differ this year with band Remember Monday?
Well, you’ll have to tune in and not just to see us triumph or embarrass ourselves (yet again). But, on the whole, Eurovision is never short of drama and controversy, meaning it can make for four hours of juicy viewing – and this year will be no exception.
Here, we’ve made a beginners guide to all things Eurovision – everything from how to watch, a dive into our nul point curse, why the same countries always vote for each other, Australia’s ‘random’ inclusion and what to look out for this year…
How did the Eurovision first start?
Eurovision seems like it has always forced itself onto the TV schedule since time began, with many Brits still wondering why on earth we take part if we are historically rubbish.
But, the song contest was a very important event to be part of when it was first formed in 1956. That’s because Eurovision was born out of a broken Europe after WW2, in a bid to bring the continent together through music.
The first Eurovision was broadcast on May 24, 1956 and proved to be a “technical experiment” in television broadcasting, with the idea being conjured by Marcel Bezençon, who was the director general of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
In its first year, seven countries competed: the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy. Despite both Austria and Denmark wanting to take part in the pilot contest, they missed the deadline to be included in the “live, simultaneous, transnational broadcast.”
Where were we? Apparently “busy”, according to the official Eurovision site. Maybe we should have used that excuse for the last 69 years….
Why does everyone ‘hate’ the UK?
That brings us onto why we have such a bad track record with the Eurovision Song Contest. Despite us churning out some of the biggest and most iconic musicians the world has seen, we fail to deliver the same quality or reaction for the annual competition.
Is it because we are really awful? Or is there another agenda on the cards to humiliate our little, but mighty, island? Well, perhaps a bit of both.
We’ve landed at the bottom of the leaderboard five times and all in this millennia, achieving the sobering score in 2003, 2008, 2010, 2019, and 2021. UK’s Mae Muller managed to just scrape second to last in 2023, when Liverpool got the chance to host.
The exception to the recent rule might be the impressive pipes of Sam Ryder, who belted ‘Space Man’ all the way to second place, narrowly being beaten by Ukraine – who co-hosted on our turf due to the ongoing war with Russia.
One of the reasons that could put us in bad stead, other than the fact we generally don’t take the competition seriously like most of the countries do, is that we are part of the ‘Big Five’.
The ‘Big Five’ consist of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain who are all automatically fast-tracked to the grand final of the contest.
This means we essentially skip the qualifying round that the other 32 countries have to go through. The problem with this is that we fail to gain any traction with our act or their song, with those having to compete building up a bit of mojo.
Coming back to the point that we don’t take Eurovision seriously, nor do we really care. Although 7.7million people in the UK tuned in last year, the competition isn’t as big of a cultural affair here.
Other countries will choose their best and biggest music act of the time, like Italian rock band Maneskin who were fresh out of X Factor and had charting songs, which built hype around them before the competition. They went on to win Eurovision 2021, and managed to spectacularly break through into international charts.
Us? We’ll just dust off Engelbert Humperdinck and hope for the best. Oh, and perhaps that Brexit vote didn’t help our relationship with a ‘connecting Europe’ contest either…
This year we’ve got girl band trio Remember Monday representing us, they’ve got a large TikTok following – which helped in Sam Ryder’s case but not for Mae Muller.
Can their colourful outfits, harmonising vocals and ‘girl boss’ anthem win the rest of Europe over? Or will it be another year of nul points?
In the history of Eurovision, we have won five times with Sandie Shaw (1967), Lulu (1969), Brotherhood of Man ( 1976), Bucks Fizz (1981) and Katrina & The Waves (1997).
Why do some countries ‘always’ vote for each other?
Eurovision is not supposed to be political, the whole point of the contest was to leave that at the door. However, it seems that no matter how many dry ice-machines or bedazzled bodysuits you throw at it – country relations seem to creep in.
That is evident as to why some countries always seem to vote for each other, or don’t. You might be thinking it’s some sort of wild conspiracy, but a study revealed that 60 years worth of data puts the proof in the pudding.
A paper titled ‘Examining collusion and voting biases between countries during the Eurovision Song Contest since 1957’ found that some nations did in fact tend to vote for each other – more often than they would have if it were to happen by random choice.
In 2017, the authors of the research from University of Central Florida found that, Greece and Cyprus, France and Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sweden and Finland were more likely to award points to each other.
“With 60 years of data, the results support the hypothesis of regional collusion and biases arising from proximity, culture and other irrelevant factors in regards to the music…which alone is intended to affect the judgment of the contest,” the paper revealed.
Another paper in 2020 found similar results, concluding “strong and recurring patterns of mutual point exchange between neighbouring countries.” They found that neighbouring countries, and those with similar culture, language and history, tended to vote for each other more so than not.
While these papers claimed that countries vote for their ‘friends’, in 2022 the Eurovision was actually embroiled in a ‘rigging’ scandal where the jury votes from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino were scrapped.
The juries of the six countries were found to have “irregular voting patterns,” according to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that oversees the contest. The attempt at “manipulating” the vote was discovered in the Semi-Final, which pushed for Eurovision to alter their voting system the following year.
“I think I, along with a lot of fans, were very disappointed that certain countries were trying to game the system and manipulate their way into the Grand Final,” said Anthony Granger, editor-in-chief at Eurovision fan website Eurovoix, in 2023.
As of 2024, the public votes makes up 50% of the final score and the jury – a set of ‘experts’ from each of the 37 countries – makes up the rest. Due to the issues discovered in 2023, there was the introduction of a rest of the world vote – which opened for just 24 hours before both the Semi-Final and the Grand Final.
What is happening with Israel?
Israel’s entry Yuval Raphael admitted that she has been ‘practising being booed’ at this year’s Eurovision contest. The country’s participation in the Switzerland-hosted event is proving particularly controversial, embroiling the wider competition at the same time.
Yuval, 24, is set to perform in the semi-final on Thursday with song ‘New Day Will Rise’ after surviving the barbaric October 7 attacks just a year and a half ago.
She survived the brutal attack after seeking refuge in a tiny bomb shelter with 50 others. Yuval bravely hid under the dead bodies of others who attempted to seek shelter after Hamas opened fire at the Nova music festival until she was rescued.
Yuval’s heartbreaking survival story and wish to “spread the light” through music is predicted to be overshadowed by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, however.
Last year, there were several campaigns to block Israel’s participation from the contest – with their entry Eden Golan being booed in the semi-final in Malmo, Sweden. Police reported that more than 8,000 pro-Palestinian protestors took to the streets at the time. Similar scenes are predicted to be witnessed in Basel over the weekend.
It is expected that Yuval will face the same reaction as Eden due to continual campaigns to cut Israel from the competition, with more than 70 former Eurovision contestants signing a letter to push organisers to implement a ban.
Irish national broadcaster RTÉ requested the EBU for a discussion on the inclusion of Israel. Director general, Kevin Bakhurst, explained that he was “appalled by the ongoing events in the Middle East and by the horrific impact on civilians in Gaza, and the fate of Israeli hostages”.
It is known that Spain and Slovenia’s broadcasters also asked the EBU for a discussion of Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision.
The October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people. Gaza’s health ministry claims that more than 52,800 people in Gaza have been killed through Israel’s retaliatory assault since.
The EBU faces a complex situation, having to navigate a supposedly ‘non-political’ competition that can be altered by on-going political situations.
As it stands, the EBU has allowed Israel to participate in the Eurovision. Israel has been part of the contest since 1973, despite not being in Europe.
According to the EBU, Israel – without taking the controversies into account – is allowed to enter as it’s represented by the public services broadcaster, Kan, rather than its government.
Why is Australia in Eurovision?
You didn’t misread. Australia is in fact participating in Eurovision – despite being thousands of miles away from the continent of Europe.
So what’s the Land Down Under doing all the way over here? Well, it’s all to do with whether the country has a broadcaster operating inside the EBU – and Australia does with SBU (Special Broadcasting Service).
This means, despite not being in Europe, our barbequing mates are eligible to enter the competition and first received an invitation to join as a ‘guest competitor’ in 2015. It took quite a while for Australia to be welcomed into the realm of Euro pageantry, having first broadcasted the competition since 1983.
Singer Guy Sebastian managed to come 5th in Australia’s debut in 2015, with the country managing to reach the final seven times out of nine contests. Not bad going!
The Australian Idol singer was allowed to be fast-tracked to the Eurovision final in their first year thanks to the EBU and host broadcaster ORF. This was put down to being the 60th Anniversary of Eurovision, which was hosted in Vienna, Austria.
However, New Zealand and China haven’t been so lucky with their Eurovision bids – having both failed to be handed an invitation for the world’s biggest non-sporting broadcast event.
This year Australia’s sequin-clad lad Go-Jo will be hoping to secure a place in the final with ‘Milkshake Man’.
How much will a pint cost at Eurovision?
Switzerland might be known for its mountains and neutrality, but they’re also notorious for being a pretty pricey country. And so it’s no surprise that drinks in the EuroClub – the official party venue for accredited Eurovision Song Contest delegates, press and fans – is pretty steep.
One insider managed to snap a photo of the drink prices list inside the venue, let’s just say it is perhaps better that the sign is so blurry as your wallet wouldn’t to see the cost of beverages.
Charging in Swiss Francs (CHF) the venue has priced a bottle of mineral water at 5.50CHF(£4.94) and the same goes for fizzy drinks, like Coca Cola.
The prices continue to hike, with a draft beer costing 7CHF (£6.28) and a glass of prosecco priced at 8CHF(£7.18). If you want a bottle of bubbles? Then those in the venue can expect to pay 52CHF(£46.88).
Cocktails are priced from 16CHF(£14.36) to 12CHF(£10.77) – which is pretty similar to what you would pay in London.
How to watch?
If you’ve got through all of that and still want to tune in to watch the drama unfold, then you can catch the Eurovision grand final on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday 17 May – with coverage starting at 8pm.
And if you’re really engrossed, the second semi-final will air tonight on BBC One at the same time.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
