Eurovision: Who takes part? Why does it include Israel and Australia? & More News Here

The first Eurovision Song Contest was in 1956. And to start with, there have been seven. 

Long earlier than the arrival of Eurovision icons like ABBA and Conchita Wurst, the primary nations to bravely dip a tentative toe into the waters of the transcontinental songwriting competitors had been Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and hosts Switzerland. And 66 years later, except for Luxembourg which hasn’t competed since 1993, they’re all nonetheless there. 

Having watched from afar and observed that nothing exploded, different nations steadily drifted in. Austria, Denmark and the UK turned up in 1957, adopted by Sweden (1958), Monaco (1959), Norway (1960) and, in 1961, a trio of recent faces: Finland, Spain and Yugoslavia. 

As know-how developed, smaller and creating nations hopped aboard the annual bandwagon, together with Portugal (1964), serial winners Ireland (1965) and Malta (1971). Then, in 1973, got here a newcomer whose participation has prompted quizzical questions ever since: Israel. 

Although viewers throughout Europe dug out their old style atlas to see if Israel was in Europe, they had been losing their time: the entry mechanism just isn’t geographical, however is contingent on membership of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes and transmits the competition. The Israel Broadcasting Authority was within the EBU, so Israel was on the present – and received in 1978 (with the very Eurovision track title A-Ba-N-Bi) and 1979. 

Greece (1974), Cyprus (1981) and Iceland (1986) started Eurovision participation which lasts to at the present time; Turkey (1975-2012) and Morocco (simply 1980, thanks) much less so. That took the variety of contestants as much as about 20 per 12 months – however Europe was about to alter considerably. 

Enter the easterners

The Soviet-allied nations of Eastern Europe had held their very own model of a continental get-together – the Intervision Song Contest – between 1977 and 1980 in Gdansk, Poland. (The 1981 occasion was canceled due to the rise of the Solidarity motion close by, and they by no means acquired again spherical to rearranging it.)

But in 1987, it later emerged, the USSR’s training minister recommended the nation ought to enter the Western model. Leader Mikhail Gorbachev overruled it, and the EBU might not have allowed a non-member to partake anyway – however all that modified within the Nineteen Nineties. 

First, in 1993, got here new nations from the previous Yugoslavia: Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia. The following 12 months introduced seven new entrants: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Estonia (which received in 2001, thus taking the next 12 months’s occasion behind the previous Iron Curtain for the primary time), Lithuania, Slovakia and Russia. 

Ranks had been additional boosted by North Macedonia (1998), Latvia (2000) and Ukraine (2003) earlier than the variety of contenders acquired so nice that the EBU was compelled to take a historic choice: from 2004, there must be a qualifying semi-final.

Since then, one other 14 nations have taken half, ranging alphabetically from Albania to Serbia, and geographically all the way in which to Australia. Not all have caught at it – Andorra was knocked out in six successive semi-finals earlier than hanging up its microphone.

But others loved it a lot they caught round: Australia’s 2015 debut was imagined to be a one-off, however a rustic which had broadcast each Eurovision since 1983 noticed no purpose to duck again out of the limelight after a solitary track. 

Politics and distinction

The variety of contestants peaked at 43 in 2011 and 2018, and 40 have participated within the 2022 occasion. Russia is excluded, however it just isn’t the primary nation to be barred from participation: Romania was banned in 2016 over money owed owed to the EBU by its broadcaster. 

Nor is Russia’s moratorium the primary time politics has intruded on Eurovision. For the 2009 contest in Moscow, Georgia’s entry We Don’t Wanna Put In was decreed to be a none-too-subtle dig at Russian President Vladimir Putin. A request to alter the lyrics was refused and Georgia pulled out. 

Israel’s participation has additionally precipitated political issues in elements of the Arab world which don’t, or didn’t, acknowledge the nation. Some broadcasters would minimize to commercials through the Israeli entry, and in 1978, when it turned clear A-Ba-Ni-Bi was going to win, the Jordanian broadcaster minimize this system altogether, declaring Belgium the winner.

An analogous state of affairs might have occurred in 2014, when some broadcasters initially refused to transmit footage of Austria’s entrant – bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst. However, Eurovision now has sufficient energy that the EBU might insist broadcasters transmit each second – and Wurst turned the story of the night time by romping to victory. 

There have additionally been quarrels of a much less political nature. The longstanding rule that songs should be sung within the participant’s native language was of specific irritation to Sweden’s 1978 entrant, Bjorn Skifs, who deliberate to sing in English. 

At the final second, he modified his thoughts – however could not bear in mind the Swedish phrases, so he sang the primary verse in gibberish. It’s testomony to the border-defying, gloriously loopy enchantment of Eurovision that outdoors Sweden, not many individuals observed: He was awarded 26 factors, which is 26 greater than his Norwegian neighbor Jahn Teigen with Mil Etter Mil.