Assumingly, the majority of people change the channel when Eurovision comes on your tv every springtime. Just hear me out, what if you didn\u2019t pick up the remote and submerged yourself in all things European for a few hours. Now would that be so bad?<\/p>\n
The Eurovision Song Contest first aired in the UK around seven decades ago, the idea from a Swiss journalist named Marcel Bezencon \u2013 also the director of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). This 60th anniversary was honoured by a show in London and the addition of Australia to Europe\u2019s music competition. Moreover, the EBU is a broadcasting company made up of members in 56 countries around the world who co-operate to produce Eurovision. Bezencon had the idea for Eurovision from what my Italian friend described as Sanremo. The Sanremo Music Festival has happened every year on the Italian Riviera since 1951 and is made up of varying artists singing different genres like pop, rock and opera born in different parts of Italy. This sky-rocketed famous Italian artists into the limelight such as Andrea Bocelli and the trio of Il Volo. The native Italian artists had to first perform their song and an international guest would perform it in the next time \u2013 allowing the guests to reach the Italian audience with singers like Shirley Bassey performing \u2018La Vita\u2019 in 1968 and Stevie Wonder in 1969 with \u2018Se Tu Ragazzo Mio\u2019 first debuting from the contest. As well as Sanremo\u2019s winner being Italian\u2019s Eurovision participant, the Sanremo music festival is still a hit, even internationally, with the televised performances in 2020 reaching 11.4 million viewers on the final night. My personal favourite from Sanremo this year is \u2018La Genesi Del Tuo Colore\u2019 translating roughly to the Genesis of Your Colour.<\/p>\n
The first Eurovision Song Contest was held on May 24th<\/sup>, 1956 with seven countries performing. As the contest grew in popularity, strict rules began to be introduced to the competition with the national language having to be used in every song so judges could understand it.<\/p>\n Along with performances, since 1975, the contest has always had the same voting system. Voters award points ranging from 1 to 8, 1 to 10 and finally 1-12 \u2013 famously known as \u2018douze points\u2019 – to non-native songs. From 1997 when countries started televoting, all countries are now encouraged to do it. Audiences can not only stream their favourite Eurovision songs on music platforms, but they can vote by using SMS and telephone \u2013 however, they CANNOT vote for their native songs. Additionally, all countries except France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK and the host country must be in the top-10. (Eurovision website)<\/em><\/p>\n Now I\u2019ve given you a rundown on the contest\u2019s history and rules, there are other facts why people love Eurovision. It\u2019s held in a different country every year meaning the audience (pre-COVID) get to travel around the world, exploring another culture and place. The United Kingdom has had five winners since Eurovision started \u2013 Sandie Shaw in 1967 with \u2018Puppet On A String\u2019 and LuLu with \u2018Boom Bang-a-Bang\u2019 tie win at the end of the 1960s. Brotherhood of Man won 6 years later with \u2018Save Your Kisses For me\u2019 in 1976, the Bucks Fizz had the most famous skirt-reveal win in 1981 with \u2018Making Your Mind Up\u2019 and Katrina and the Waves won with \u2018Love, Shine A Light\u2019 in 1997. Even if I haven\u2019t fully convinced you to watch Eurovision this year, at least these will be good knowledge for the pub quizzes when COVID restrictions lift. Another significant part of the Eurovision Song Contest is the visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals \u2013 this was shown in 2014 with the Eurovision winner of Conchita Wurst for Austria singing \u2018Rise Like A Phoenix,\u2019 and the first LGBTQ+ themed performance in 1986 with Ketil Stokkan from Norway performing \u2018Romeo\u2019 with the drag troupe \u2018the Great Garlic Girls\u2019. Even though people see the Eurovision Song Contest as politically influenced, the increase in positive representations of the LGBTQ+ community is growing. In conclusion, even if you don\u2019t speak another European language, it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t keep the channel on and enjoy the songs.<\/p>\n Article by a Young Reporter<\/strong> Assumingly, the majority of people change the channel when Eurovision comes on your tv every springtime. Just hear me out, what if you didn\u2019t pick up the remote and submerged yourself in all things European for a few hours. Now would that be so bad? The Eurovision Song Contest first aired in the UK around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[369,11],"tags":[626],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-5Pl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22404,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22403\/revisions\/22404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFirst appeared in Grimsby Telegraph 18th May 2021<\/em><\/p>\n\n