Eurovision fever may be simmering down now, but the competition is still very much in everyone’s minds. With the UK performing far better than it has in years thanks to plucky TikToker Sam Ryder and the general standard of songs at the 2022 competition seeming much higher than in previous events, Eurovision isn’t showing any signs of fading from the public consciousness anytime soon. In that spirit, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back over the competition and share some interesting tidbits. Here are 10 fun facts about Eurovision.
1. The UK still has the competition’s best-performing song
While the UK’s reputation is just starting to pick up thanks to Sam Ryder’s “Space Man”, the fact remains that the UK still holds the record for Eurovision’s best-performing song. According to research by the Betway online casino, the UK’s “Save Your Kisses For Me”, which was the 1976 entry courtesy of Brotherhood of Man, received a staggering 80.4% of the total votes. True, there were fewer overall votes to gather back then, but that’s still the highest proportion of votes any act has ever received (prior to the introduction of fan voting, anyway).
2. Nobody who has performed second has ever won
If your country is due to perform second in the Eurovision Song Contest, then you’re almost certainly not going to win. Not a single country that has performed second in the contest since its inception back in 1956 has ever emerged victorious. That spell wasn’t broken this year, either, with the second performers – Romania – finishing in a rather mediocre 18th place. You have our condolences if your country ends up being the second performer in next year’s Eurovision.
3. The UK awarded ABBA zero points in 1974
Today, ABBA’s “Waterloo” is widely regarded as one of the best and most well-composed entries to have ever won Eurovision. However, in 1974, the UK’s specialist jury clearly didn’t agree, because the UK rather embarrassingly awarded ABBA zero points (colloquially known as “nul points”) for that year. The UK seems to have learned its lesson, though, because it awarded Sweden 7 points this year. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
4. The UK isn’t the least successful country in Eurovision
You might think that the UK is Eurovision’s least successful act given its dismal performance over the last few years, but this actually isn’t the case. Norway is the country that emerges with the worst performance record in Eurovision. Despite a 2009 win with the utterly charming “Fairytale” by Alexander Rybak, Norway’s performance in the competition has otherwise been pretty weak, with the country finishing in last place in eleven different Eurovision competitions.
5. The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest is the first to be cancelled
It’s easy to see why the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled. To hold such a massive event in light of the global pandemic would have been hugely irresponsible, so cancelling it was the right decision. However, it was the first time in history that the competition had ever been called off. Every single country that qualified for the final was, of course, invited back to compete in 2021 by way of an apology, although this didn’t stop the UK from achieving nul points yet again.
6. There were four winners in 1969
As if to commemorate the end of the egalitarian 1960s (or so some cultural commentators would have you believe), the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest had four joint winners. Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and France all achieved the exact same point total, and rather than trying to pick a single winner from this lineup, judges instead decided to award the victory to all four nations. The 1970 Eurovision Song Contest was subsequently held in the Netherlands.
7. The inaugural Eurovision Song Contest featured just seven entrants
2022’s Eurovision Song Contest saw 40 countries competing with one another for victory (although, given recent events, it was almost inevitable that Ukraine would win). Back in 1956, though, when Eurovision started, it had just seven participants: Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and France. That’s right – the UK didn’t even take part in the inaugural Eurovision contest, joining the next year with Patricia Bredin’s “All”.
8. One entrant has won Eurovision three times
Depending on your definition of victory, there’s a Eurovision entrant who has managed to secure victory across three different competitions. Ireland’s Johnny Logan won the competition for his country in 1980, going on to win once again in 1987. Later, Logan would write the competition-winning entry “Why Me”, performed by Linda Martin, in 1992, thus technically winning the competition again. Logan clearly had some kind of sixth sense when it came to Eurovision.
9. The 2012 Swedish winner set a record
Loreen’s “Euphoria”, which was the winning entry for Sweden at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, managed to set a record. So many countries loved this entry that it secured a 12-point endorsement from a staggering 18 different countries, thus demonstrating that the song’s huge popularity wasn’t just a fluke. Arguably, it went on to influence much of Eurovision’s future direction; it seemed that after Loreen, countries dialed back the silly and dialed up the serious.
10. Performances used to be orchestrated
If you’ve ever seen any footage of the old-school Eurovision Song Contest from before the 1990s, then you’ll know that many performers at the competition were accompanied by an orchestra. Now, singers and performers can perform against a backdrop of pre-recorded music thanks to some changes to the rules in the late 90s, meaning that you’re far more likely to see pop songs using synths (although some performers do still opt for live instrumentation).