I am an incurable Eurovision fan and have been watching the Eurovision Song Contest live on TV since 1978. Naturally, I was so glad - almost delirious - to see on Tuesday's first semi-final that Greece and Cyprus got the golden ticket to tomorrow's Grand Final. Congratulations to both of our amazing girls! Here they are at the first semi-final:
Ivi Adamou sings La La Love for Cyprus
And here is Eleftheria Eleftheriou also from Cyprus, who sings Aphrodisiac for Greece
The Eurovision Song Contest is 56 years old today. Here's how all started half a century ago, on May 24, 1956:
Already for 56 years, the Eurovision Song Contest is Europe's favourite TV show. After more than five decades featuring some 1,100 songs, the contest has become a modern classic, strongly embedded into Europe's collective mind. ..
In 1955, the EBU came up with the idea of an international song contest whereby countries, represeted by their respective public broadcasters, would participate in one television show, to be transmitted simultaneously in all represented nations.
This was conceived during a meeting in Monaco in 1955 by Marcel Bezençon, a Frenchman working for the EBU. The competition was based upon the Italian Festival di Sanremo, held for the first time in 1951, and was also seen as a technological experiment in live television: in those days, it was a very ambitious project to join many countries together in a wide-area international network.
Satellite television did not exist yet at that time, and the Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network. Le Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne was born!
Without interruption, the Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast every year since 1956, which makes it one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. In 2003, the first ever Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place, while the Eurovision Song Contest celebrated her 50th anniversity 2005. Viewers picked ABBA's Waterloo as best ever Eurovision Song Contest song.
2008 running saw a record of 43 represented countries, as Azerbaijan and San Marino joined the family.The competition has been broadcast throughout Europe, but also in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Korea, New Zealand and the United States, even though these countries do not participate.
(Information collected from Eurovision )
Eurovision 2005: Elena Paparizou gave Greece the victory for the first time with her amazing Number One.
And this is the best Eurovision song ever picked by viewers all over Europe! Waterloo by ABBA - Eurovision winner 1974
Finally, here are the 26 finalists from all over Europe for Eurovision 2012
My Best Eurovision Song Ever! Johnny Logan and Hold Me Now for Ireland - Eurovision winner 1987
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