Fly on the wings of love!
Since it's happening at the moment, I thought I'd do some pointless trivia about the Eurovision Song Contest.
Finland's 2015 entry, "Aina mun pitää" by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, is the shortest Eurovision song ever, at only 85 seconds long.
The youngest ever entrant was Jean Jacques, who represented Monaco in 1969 with the song "Maman, Maman" at 12 years old. The oldest entrant was Emil Ramsauer, a member of the band Takasa who represented Switzerland in 2013 with their song "You and Me", who was 95 years old at the time.
The country with the most wins is Ireland, with seven overall - they won in 1970 with "All Kinds of Everything" by Dana, 1980 with "What's Another Year" by Johnny Logan, 1987 with "Hold Me Now" by Johnny Logan, 1992 with "Why Me?" by Linda Martin, 1993 with "In Your Eyes" by Niamh Kavanagh, 1994 with "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan and 1996 with "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn. They are also the only country to win three years in a row.
In 1969, four countries got joint first place with 18 points each - Spain with "Vivo cantando" by Salomé, United Kingdom with "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu, Netherlands with "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr and France with "Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara. This was the only year in which more than one country won, since back then there were no rules for what to do in case of a tie. Nowadays, if more than one country is tied, the country that received points from the most countries will win.
The country with the longest streak of entries without a single win is Portugal, who finally won for the first time in 2017 with "Amar pelos dois" by Salvador Sobral, making it 61 years without a win. The new holder of the longest losing streak record is Cyprus, which has never made the top four in the history of the contest.
In the first contest in 1956, Switzerland entered two songs, both by Lys Assia - "Refrain", sung in French, and "Das alte Karussell", sung in German. "Refrain" won the contest.
The first year to have an entry in English from a non-English-speaking country was 1963, with Austria's entry "Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder" by Carmela Corren, which was sung in German and English. The first year to have a song entirely in English from a non-English-speaking country was 1965, with Sweden's entry "Absent Friend" by Ingvar Wixell. The first year to have an entry which was neither in English nor in the participating country's native language was 1960, with Germany's entry "Bonne nuit ma chérie" by Wyn Hoop, which was sung in German and French. The first year to have an entry which was entirely in neither English nor an official language of the participating country was 2007, with Cyprus's entry "Comme ci, comme ça" by Evridiki, which was sung in French and Latvia's entry "Questa notte" by Bonaparti.lv, which was sung in Italian.
Morocco has only ever participated once, in 1980 with "Bitaqat Hub" by Samira Bensaïd. They came second-last with 7 points, given to them by Italy.
The country that has come last the most is Norway - 1963 with "Solhverv" by Anita Thallaug, 1969 with "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" by Kirsti Sparboe, 1974 with "The First Day of Love" by Anne-Karine Strøm feat. Bendik Singers, 1976 with "Mata Hari" by Anne-Karine Strøm, 1978 with "Mil etter mil" by Jahn Teigen, 1981 with "Aldri i livet" by Finn Kalvik, 1990 with "Brandenburger Tor" by Ketil Stokkan, 1997 with "San Francisco" by Tor Endresen and 2001 with "On My Own" by Haldor Lægreid.
The very first entry in the very first contest was the Netherlands, with the song "De vogels van Holland" by Jetty Paerl.
Apart from the winner, no one knows the results of the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, since they have never been published.
The youngest person to win the contest was Sandra Kim, who represented Belgium in 1986 with her song "J'aime la vie" at 13 years old.
The most covered Eurovision song is "Nel blu dipinto di blu" by Domenico Modugno, Italy's entry in 1958. It's been covered (sometimes under the title "Volare") by artists such as Dean Martin, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and others.
ABBA, Céline Dion, Cliff Richard and Julio Iglesias began their successful music careers through Eurovision. The Canadian singer Céline Dion was the first person to win the contest representing a country she wasn't from - she won representing Switzerland in 1988 with "Ne partez pas sans moi".
2003 was the first year to have an entry in an invented language, with Belgium's entry "Sanomi" by Urban Trad.
Hosting Eurovision is so expensive that many countries have pleaded poverty just to get out of doing it, including the Netherlands, France, Monaco and Luxembourg.
All Eurovision songs must be no longer than three minutes, and acts must not consist of more than six people on stage, including backup singers and dancers. Until 1971, the limit was three people on stage.
From 1978 to 1998, there was a rule that each country had to sing in one of their national languages.
Live animals are not allowed on stage at Eurovision.
Turkey's entry in 1983, "Opera" by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, consists solely of the word "opera" repeated over and over. Spain's entry in 1968, "La, la, la" by Massiel, contains a total of 138 "la"s.
Norway's winning entry in 1995, "Nocturne" by Secret Garden, contains only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos.
Israel is the only winning country that didn't participate the following year. They won in 1979 with "Hallelujah" by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey, but didn't return in 1980 because the contest was being held on Yom Hazikaron, Israel's official remembrance day. The contest was hosted by the Netherlands instead.
Russia's 2015 entry, "A Million Voices" by Polina Gagarina, was the first non-winning song to score more than 300 points.
The first openly transgender person to perform in Eurovision was Sharon Cohen, professionally known as Dana International, who won for Israel in 1998 with her song "Diva". Contrary to popular belief, 2014's winner Conchita Wurst is not transgender, as he described himself as "a young gay man with a beard who likes dressing up in women's clothes". He's a drag queen by profession, and Conchita is his drag queen persona.
The first openly gay person to perform at Eurovision was Paul Oscar, who represented Iceland in 1997 with the song "Minn hinsti dans".
In 1957, a scandal occurred when Danish singers Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler kissed for 11 seconds at the end of their performance of "Skibet skal sejle i nat", provoking a furious reaction.
Finland's 2015 entry, "Aina mun pitää" by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, is the shortest Eurovision song ever, at only 85 seconds long.
The youngest ever entrant was Jean Jacques, who represented Monaco in 1969 with the song "Maman, Maman" at 12 years old. The oldest entrant was Emil Ramsauer, a member of the band Takasa who represented Switzerland in 2013 with their song "You and Me", who was 95 years old at the time.
The country with the most wins is Ireland, with seven overall - they won in 1970 with "All Kinds of Everything" by Dana, 1980 with "What's Another Year" by Johnny Logan, 1987 with "Hold Me Now" by Johnny Logan, 1992 with "Why Me?" by Linda Martin, 1993 with "In Your Eyes" by Niamh Kavanagh, 1994 with "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan and 1996 with "The Voice" by Eimear Quinn. They are also the only country to win three years in a row.
In 1969, four countries got joint first place with 18 points each - Spain with "Vivo cantando" by Salomé, United Kingdom with "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu, Netherlands with "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr and France with "Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara. This was the only year in which more than one country won, since back then there were no rules for what to do in case of a tie. Nowadays, if more than one country is tied, the country that received points from the most countries will win.
The country with the longest streak of entries without a single win is Portugal, who finally won for the first time in 2017 with "Amar pelos dois" by Salvador Sobral, making it 61 years without a win. The new holder of the longest losing streak record is Cyprus, which has never made the top four in the history of the contest.
In the first contest in 1956, Switzerland entered two songs, both by Lys Assia - "Refrain", sung in French, and "Das alte Karussell", sung in German. "Refrain" won the contest.
The first year to have an entry in English from a non-English-speaking country was 1963, with Austria's entry "Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder" by Carmela Corren, which was sung in German and English. The first year to have a song entirely in English from a non-English-speaking country was 1965, with Sweden's entry "Absent Friend" by Ingvar Wixell. The first year to have an entry which was neither in English nor in the participating country's native language was 1960, with Germany's entry "Bonne nuit ma chérie" by Wyn Hoop, which was sung in German and French. The first year to have an entry which was entirely in neither English nor an official language of the participating country was 2007, with Cyprus's entry "Comme ci, comme ça" by Evridiki, which was sung in French and Latvia's entry "Questa notte" by Bonaparti.lv, which was sung in Italian.
Morocco has only ever participated once, in 1980 with "Bitaqat Hub" by Samira Bensaïd. They came second-last with 7 points, given to them by Italy.
The country that has come last the most is Norway - 1963 with "Solhverv" by Anita Thallaug, 1969 with "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" by Kirsti Sparboe, 1974 with "The First Day of Love" by Anne-Karine Strøm feat. Bendik Singers, 1976 with "Mata Hari" by Anne-Karine Strøm, 1978 with "Mil etter mil" by Jahn Teigen, 1981 with "Aldri i livet" by Finn Kalvik, 1990 with "Brandenburger Tor" by Ketil Stokkan, 1997 with "San Francisco" by Tor Endresen and 2001 with "On My Own" by Haldor Lægreid.
The very first entry in the very first contest was the Netherlands, with the song "De vogels van Holland" by Jetty Paerl.
Apart from the winner, no one knows the results of the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, since they have never been published.
The youngest person to win the contest was Sandra Kim, who represented Belgium in 1986 with her song "J'aime la vie" at 13 years old.
The most covered Eurovision song is "Nel blu dipinto di blu" by Domenico Modugno, Italy's entry in 1958. It's been covered (sometimes under the title "Volare") by artists such as Dean Martin, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and others.
ABBA, Céline Dion, Cliff Richard and Julio Iglesias began their successful music careers through Eurovision. The Canadian singer Céline Dion was the first person to win the contest representing a country she wasn't from - she won representing Switzerland in 1988 with "Ne partez pas sans moi".
2003 was the first year to have an entry in an invented language, with Belgium's entry "Sanomi" by Urban Trad.
Hosting Eurovision is so expensive that many countries have pleaded poverty just to get out of doing it, including the Netherlands, France, Monaco and Luxembourg.
All Eurovision songs must be no longer than three minutes, and acts must not consist of more than six people on stage, including backup singers and dancers. Until 1971, the limit was three people on stage.
From 1978 to 1998, there was a rule that each country had to sing in one of their national languages.
Live animals are not allowed on stage at Eurovision.
Turkey's entry in 1983, "Opera" by Çetin Alp & the Short Waves, consists solely of the word "opera" repeated over and over. Spain's entry in 1968, "La, la, la" by Massiel, contains a total of 138 "la"s.
Norway's winning entry in 1995, "Nocturne" by Secret Garden, contains only 24 words accompanied by long violin solos.
Israel is the only winning country that didn't participate the following year. They won in 1979 with "Hallelujah" by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey, but didn't return in 1980 because the contest was being held on Yom Hazikaron, Israel's official remembrance day. The contest was hosted by the Netherlands instead.
Russia's 2015 entry, "A Million Voices" by Polina Gagarina, was the first non-winning song to score more than 300 points.
The first openly transgender person to perform in Eurovision was Sharon Cohen, professionally known as Dana International, who won for Israel in 1998 with her song "Diva". Contrary to popular belief, 2014's winner Conchita Wurst is not transgender, as he described himself as "a young gay man with a beard who likes dressing up in women's clothes". He's a drag queen by profession, and Conchita is his drag queen persona.
The first openly gay person to perform at Eurovision was Paul Oscar, who represented Iceland in 1997 with the song "Minn hinsti dans".
In 1957, a scandal occurred when Danish singers Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler kissed for 11 seconds at the end of their performance of "Skibet skal sejle i nat", provoking a furious reaction.
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