In preparation for the May 25 kick-off of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, here’s a look at Europe’s favourite TV show.
The contest, featuring some 1,100 songs, has become a modern classic, strongly embedded into Europe’s collective mind.
After 54 years, the database with Eurovision Song Contest facts and figures, stories and anecdotes is huge! A true, die-hard fan knows how many points Luxembourg got in 1980 (56), who came last in 1972 (Malta, with 48 points) and how many times the Netherlands got 12 points in 1996 (once, from Austria). Because no one can expect you to become a living Eurovision Song Contest encyclopedia, let’s take you through the contest’s history in fast forward. It’s all you need to know before you dive into the rich history of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Here’s the Israeli quartet Eden singing Happy Birthday:
Happy Birthday is an up-tempo number, heralding the increasingly dance-oriented outlook of the Eurovision Song Contest, with the band singing about the simple joy of having a birthday and celebrating it with a party. Significantly, the somewhat American sound of the song was provided in part by two of the vocalists (Eddie Butler and Gabriel Butler) being black Israelis, the first black participants on the Eurovision stage for Israel.
Eden was not able to capitalise on their Eurovision appearance, and disbanded in 2001. Member Eddie Butler would go on to represent Israel as a solo artist in the 2006 Eurovision.
You can see Butler’s 2006 Eurovision performance here.
The news appearing a couple of days ago on an Israeli news website has finally been confirmed.
The Israeli public broadcaster IBA has officially announced that their representative at Eurovision 2010 will be Harel Skaat. The song that Harel will perform in Oslo will be selected out of four through the show Kdam Eurovision.
An internal panel of IBA have agreed that the song selection process will be televised on Reshet, an operator of Channel 2. The show, called as usual Kdam Eurovision, will feature four songs, out of which the public will decide the one to represent the nation in Oslo.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed to Chinese and Central Asian leaders holding a joint song competition called “Intervision” to rival the Eurovision Song Contest.
Such an event would see Chinese crooners competing for a prize with Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Russians and Kyrgyz.
“Conducting an international modern song contest, Intervision, would strengthen cultural ties between our nations,” Interfax news agency quoted Putin as telling a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government in Beijing.
It was not immediately clear whether Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan, which have SCO observer status, would take part.
The annual Eurovision contest started in 1956 and reaches a TV audience of some 100 million, despite its reputation in many countries as a celebration of kitsch.
Countries in and near Europe enter a song and the winner is decided through a lengthy voting process which sometimes appears to be based on geopolitical factors rather than musical merit. Moscow hosted the contest last May.
Norway has won the 54th Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, when singer Alexander Rybak beat 24 other contestants with his song “Fairytale.”
Rybak scored a record 387 points, beating Iceland with 218 points and Azerbaijan with 207 points. It was the third time Norway has won the competition, one of the most watched television shows in Europe every year.
“Now Norway is really on the map,” said an overjoyed Rybak at the post-tournament news conference.
The floppy-haired Rybak, a 23-year-old ethnic Belarussian who grew up outside Oslo, had been the pre-tournament favorite and he wooed the crowd with his singing and violin playing in the final at a stadium built for the 1980 Olympic Games.
The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest has officially opened in Moscow.
Moscow won the right to host the event for the first time after Russian pop singer Dima Bilan took first place in last year’s Eurovision, held in Belgrade, with his song “Believe.”
The venue of the competition, Olympiyski Indoor Arena, built for the 1980 Olympic Games, has an impressive record of hosting major TV events in recent years, including the all-European tennis and basketball finals. For the Eurovision, it has been transformed into a giant concert hall.
Representatives of 41 European countries plus Israel will take part in the competition.
Over 8,500 police and security officers will be on duty at the event.
As Europe – no the world – no the universe gets ready for Eurovision 2009, the organizers have released the suite of preview videos and here they are, along with some Eurovision classics:
Georgia said it was pulling out of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow this May after organisers banned its song for taking a swipe at Russian Prime Minister Vladimar Putin.
Broadcasting official George Chanturia said Georgia was withdrawing after refusing to change its song, entitled “We Don’t Wanna Put In.”
Organisers of the 43-nation contest had demanded that the former Soviet republic ditch the song or rewrite the lyrics because they breached the rules by being political.
“Our song … does not contain political statements and the public broadcaster is not going to change the text of the song and refuses to go to competition in Moscow,” Chanturia, head of production at Georgia’s state broadcaster, First Channel, told a news briefing.
Georgians have vilified Russia’s Putin since last year’s five-day war between the two countries.
The group Stefane & 3G had been due to sing the Georgian song. In a clear pun on Putin’s name, the chorus runs, in English:
“We don’t wanna put in,
Cuz negative move,
It’s killin’ the groove,
I’m gonna try to shoot in,
Some disco tonight,
Boogie with you.”
Chanturia also said the Georgian public broadcaster had written to the Eurovision Song Contest’s governing body, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to contest the ban. He also hinted the letter would suggest that Russia had exerted pressure on the EBU to bar the Georgian song.
The EBU declined to comment.
Last year more than 100 million television viewers watched Dima Bilan win the contest for Russia for the first time, giving it the right to host this year’s event.
The last countries to pull out of the contest were Lebanon in 2005 over Israel’s participation and Serbia and Montenegro in 2006 because of an internal row over their entry.
