The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held between active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in which participating countries each submit a song to be performed on live television; then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs, in order to find the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to go forward to represent the country in the international competition.
The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. It has been broadcast around the globe — beyond Europe — to such places as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand and the USA; even though these countries do not participate. Since the year 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet; with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online.
The Contest is historically known for being mainly a bastion of formulaic, orchestrated pop music. However it has featured a vast, diverse array of songs, including such musical genres as Arab, Balkan, Celtic music, Dance, Folk, Israeli, Greek, Latin, Metal, Nordic, Pop-rap, Rock, and Turkish.
Over the years, the Song Contest has grown from a mere televisual experiment into an international institution of mammoth proportions. Most countries in Europe have taken part at least once during the Contest's history, and such is the magnitude and scale of the Contest that the word "Eurovision" is one of the few household names to be recognised across an entire continent.
Past winners of the Eurovision Song Contest:
1956 Lys Assia - Refrain (Switzerland) 1957 Corry Brokken - Net als toan (The Netherlands) 1958: André Claveau - Dors, mon amour (France) 1959: Teddy Scholten - Een beetje (The Netherlands) 1960: Jacqueline Boyer - Tom Pillibi (France) 1961: Jean-Claude Pascal - Nous les amoureux (Luxembourg) 1962: Isabelle Aubret - Un premier amour (France) 1963: Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann - Dansevise (Denmark) 1964: Gigliola Cinquetti - Non ho l'età (per amarti) (Italy) 1965: France Gall - Poupée de cire, poupée de son (Luxembourg) 1966: Udo Jürgens - Merci chérie (Austria) 1967: Sandie Shaw - Puppet on a String (United Kingdom) 1968: Massiel - La, la, la (Spain) 1969: Salomé - Vivo cantando (Spain), Lulu - Boom Bang-a-Bang (United Kingdom), Lennie Kuhr - De troubadour (The Netherlands) and Frida Boccara - Un jour, un enfant (France) 1970: Dana - All Kinds of Everything (Ireland) 1971: Séverine - Un banc, un arbre, une rue (Monaco) 1972: Vicky Leandros - Après toi (Luxembourg) 1973: Anne-Marie David - Tu te reconnaîtras (Luxembourg) 1974: ABBA - Waterloo (Sweden) 1975: Teach-In - Ding-a-dong (The Netherlands) 1976: Brotherhood of Man - Save Your Kisses for Me (United Kingdom) 1977: Marie Myriam - L'oiseau et l'enfant (France) 1978: Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta - A-Ba-Ni-Bi (Israel) 1979: Gali Atari & Milk and Honey - Hallelujah (Israel) 1980: Johnny Logan - What's Another Year? (Ireland) 1981: Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up (United Kingdom) 1982: Nicole - Ein bißchen Frieden (Germany) 1983: Corinne Hermès - Si la vie est cadeau (Luxembourg) 1984: Herreys - Diggi-loo diggi-ley (Sweden) 1985: Bobbysocks - La det swinge (Norway) 1986: Sandra Kim - J'aime la vie (Belgium) 1987: Johnny Logan - Hold Me Now (Ireland) 1988: Céline Dion - Ne partez pas sans moi (Switzerland) 1989: Riva - Rock Me (Yugoslavia) 1990: Toto Cutugno - Insieme: 1992 (Italy) 1991: Carola Häggkvist - Fångad av en stormvind (Sweden) 1992: Linda Martin - Why Me (Ireland) 1993: Niamh Kavanagh - In Your Eyes (Ireland) 1994: Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan - Rock 'n' Roll Kids (Ireland) 1995: Secret Garden - Nocturne (Norway) 1996: Eimear Quinn - The Voice (Ireland) 1997: Katrina and the Waves - Love Shine a Light (United Kingdom) 1998: Dana International - Diva (Israel) 1999: Charlotte Nilsson - Take Me to Your Heaven (Sweden) 2000: Olsen Brothers - Fly on the Wings of Love (Denmark) 2001: Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL - Everybody (Estonia) 2002: Marie N - I Wanna (Latvia) 2003: Sertab Erener - Everyway That I Can (Turkey) 2004: Ruslana - Wild Dances (Ukraine) 2005: Helena Paparizou - My Number One (Greece) 2006: Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland) 2007: Marija - Molitva (Serbia) 2008: Dima Bilan - Believe (Russia)
Source: http://artists.letssingit.com/eurovision-song-contest-nf9lk/biography
