#eurovision history

[r0semultiverse]

Wait so do you Eurovision fans pay to vote every year only to have some jury decide the winner instead? That is such a scam. Literally.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Why does Andorra not participate in Eurovision anymore?

Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, but it has never come back since.

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What happened?

In 2004, ATV (Andorra’s public TV channel) sent Marta Roure, who sang in the Catalan language for the first time in Eurovision history. Catalan is the native language of Andorra, but also of the rest of the Catalan Countries: Catalonia, the Valencian Country and la Franja in the state of Spain; Northern Catalonia in the state of France, and the city of l’Alguer in Italy. ATV didn’t have enough money to send a participant alone, but Andorra wanted to take part in the contest and to promote their language (Catalan) and culture.

For these reasons, they decided to partner with TV3, the public TV channel of Catalonia. This makes sense, given that it’s part of the same nation, with the same language, and Catalonia has a bigger population and a music industry that’s a bit more developed, and TV3 has more money than ATV because of its population and size. The contest to choose who would be sent was made in collaboration between ATV and TV3 and aired simultaneously in both TV channels.

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Spain’s threat to not air Andorra’s song

When TVE (the Spanish TV) saw that Andorra was working with Catalonia and one of Andorra’s purposes for participating in ESC was to promote Andorra’s language (Catalan), the director board of TVE threatened that they would not air Andorra’s performance because they considered it was a way for Catalan people to be present in Eurovision, which they didn’t think should be allowed. Basically, TVE would air the whole contest as usual, but cut to commercials when Andorra performed as if they did not exist.

After negotiations, the directors of TVE did not change their mind, but for unrelated reasons the director was changed in April 2004. The new directors didn’t care as much about Andorra’s participation and they decided to air the whole festival.

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Andorra’s results and TVE’s meddling

Andorra’s songs never did well in the classifications, they never had enough votes to pass to the final. The change arrived in 2009, the song chosen was “Get a life / La teva decisió” by the Andorran-Danish singer Susanne Georgi. After its release before Eurovision, the song was a success in Andorra and in the state of Spain. The hopes were high for the song receiving many votes!

But, last minute, TVE (Spain’s TV) decided to not air live the Eurovision semi-final where Andorra was taking part. TVE decided to record the semi-final and air it on a different day. This means that Spanish citizens (including most Catalan people), who could have voted for Andorra, had no way to watch the semi-final and, as a result, they could not vote.

Once again, Andorra didn’t get to the final. And this was when they thought they had a chance with a successful song! After this, Andorra has never come back to the song contest. The fact that they never qualified for the final, Spain’s continuous meddling, and the high economic cost of participating in ESC (which is very difficult to afford for a microstate’s TV) grew even more difficult with the economical crisis that was starting in all the continent.

However, Andorra has always maintained that they would like to come back to ESC.

Andorra has been the only country to sing in the Catalan language in ESC. Even though most Catalan-speaking territories are under Spanish rule and about 10,000,000 Catalan speakers live in the state of Spain, Spain has never sent a song in Catalan. In fact, when they chose the Catalan singer Joan Manuel Serrat in 1968, he said he would sing the song (called “La, la, la”) in Catalan. Then, the Spanish TV decided to take him out of the contest because they would only allow songs in Spanish. The song was given to the Spanish singer Masiel, who sang the same song in Spanish and won the Eurovision Song Contest 1968. Spain has never sent a single song in one of the languages of the territories its state occupies, even when some like Catalan and Galician have millions of speakers, and Basque has hundreds of thousands.

[auguste-marmonts-only-fan]

Ok so,

Losing Waterloo totally sucked for Boney and his crew (by crew I mean his army) but look on the bright side....

WE GOT THE REVOLUTIONARY, GROUNDBREAKING, GROOVY POP HIT "WATERLOO" BY ABBA

Happy 209th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo 💞

[goat-esc-winner-showdown]

Hey @cappuccinopoweredsprite what if I told you that not only has Ireland won more than once, but that with SEVEN victories under their belt, Ireland is the country with the highest number of wins

In fact, Ireland absolutely dominated during a certain decade. They won three years in a row!

[restless-one]

ESC History

The ECS finals are this weekend and while I’m hoping LotL will score a good place, while I hope for a fun-filled evening, there is something I want to share, to remember, that is having its 30th anniversary as well.

I might date myself, but honestly I don’t really care much. The year was 1993 and I was a kid watching Eurovision with my parents. The time came for the voting and then this happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs-Bmme7qdI&list=RDHs-Bmme7qdI&start_radio=1

I was young and didn’t understand it at that time, but by now I know that the band from Bosnia are without doubt, the biggest badasses to ever. Because they were from Sarajevo, a city under siege for almost 10 months at that time, because they had to break out of the city to fly to Ireland and compete (their conductor? Yeah he was unable to come because the frontline had shifted and the corridor the band had used was no longer usable. The band had to borrow an Irish conductor).

This band was singing in Bosnian, they gained 27 points which earned them the 16th place, and then they went back... to Sarajevo, a city under siege until early 1996.

This was their  song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREeDXs9ijc

[esc101podcast]

Throwback to Episode 2 of ESC101, where we dive into the rules of the very first Eurovision Song Contest! Check out the origins of the world's largest music competition and see just how wild the first contest really was! Link to the show in the pinned post!

[leeenuu]

[granolabird]

Hi friends, I am learning this morning that Joost Klein and the Netherlands as a whole may be disqualified from Eurovision. Why is that, you ask? Well, our lovely Dutch gabber chose to do a little heckling during the press conference, shouting"Why not?" After the Israeli press rep told Eden Golan that she didn't have to answer a question regarding why she felt comfortable performing the show when it put others in danger. He also would actively cover his head with a flag during her speaking portions. As well, he explicitly asked for the Isreali team to not record him during some of their video filming. They did anyway. That takes us to today, where, from down the grapevine I hear that comments were made by the Israeli team regarding Joost's deceased father of whom his song is dedicated to, and he retaliated full force. Not sure what this means, or what will happen to him, but I support him in standing up to Isreal on what is at present one of the largest Israeli stages.

[partywithponies]

The entire Eurovision tag after the votes get announced every goddamn year:

[aangarchy]

If any of you fellow europeans have any backbone, you'll not watch Eurovision this weekend. If you have tickets, don't go to the show. I'm hoping the other countries refuse to perform, so they won't have a show to broadcast. Let eden and her sad little delegation perform her sad little act in front of an empty stadium.

[cant-get-worse-than-this]

I'm gonna sleep so well tonight knowing that Israel didn't win and that we just had the first non-binary winner ever. Congratulations Nemo!

Edit: and that someone who is against the war and not on Israel's side won!!!

[myeurovisionsongcontest]

El controvertido (y moderno) pijama con el que Laura Valenzuela presentó Eurovisión en 1969

Confeccionado en guipur blanco y adornado con un gran lazo en raso rosa en la cintura, la presentadora ofreció una imagen rompedora y muy avanzada para la época.

"TVE deseaba que Laura fuera de negro, pero Carmen Mir se ha opuesto. 'Ni hablar, de negro ya va el presentador', ha dicho. Laurita se ha dirigido a los talleres de Carmen y ha estado pasando modelos para ver cuál le sentaba mejor".

[panimoonchild]

Music is not beyond politics

The first Eurovision that I barely watch. In anticipation of the massive shelling by russia, I decided to go to bed early.

Ukrainians are sleep-deprived always.

Oh, Lithuania, we are voting for this boy, friends, we are all voting!! This boy has raised a lot of money for Ukraine

Cashback?)

Haha, yes!

"GOOD EVENING COSSACKS

I remind you who we are NOT voting for."

She was wrong about Croatia.

And yes, to support someone, you need to follow what they say, because music is not outside of politics.

I make it more clear. This list doesn't represent the support of the country or the people as a whole. But about representatives themselves. Some of them are openly Russophiles. Netherlands and Germany especially. They write and perform songs with Russians or ❗even be in Russia after the start of full-scale war. Or they are russians like Israeli and Czech representatives.

It's a pity they didn't make it.

Safe night everyone, except russia and russian supporters (China, Iran, and North Korea).

My loving Ukrainians please be careful. Now already russian UAVs are flying to Kharkiv. React to air raid alarms. We all need you alive. Your life matters.

[yourdailyqueer]

Dany Dauberson (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 16 January 1925 

RIP: 16 March 1979

Ethnicity: White - French

Occupation: Singer, songwriter, actress

Note: Represented France in Eurovision 1956 when it was in its first year of airing.