One of the most popular world music competitions for more than half a century is Eurovision. The participant from the country is selected a few months before the competition, the state, which hosts Eurovision, has been preparing for a whole year. It is hard to imagine that only 7 countries participated in the first musical battle.
First Eurovision Song Contest
The first of its kind Eurovision Song Contest was held in 1957 in the city of Lugano in Switzerland. 7 European countries took part in it: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany. Denmark, Austria and the United Kingdom were also going to take part in it, but for technical reasons they were suspended because they did not submit the application on time.
Two performers performed their songs from each participating country. The organizers considered it desirable that the songs of each of the participants were selected by a strict jury - the audience of the competition in each country. There were practically no restrictions on songs, performances, the number of props and participants in the number, although they should not have lasted more than three and a half minutes. The order of the countries' performance was determined by the draw, but the participants themselves decided which song to play first. The first winner was Switzerland, which was represented by singer Lis Assia with the song "Refrain".
In the first Eurovision, and until 1997, the winner was determined by a qualified jury selected in each country. According to the rules, the jury also does not have the right to vote for their own country. Since 1997, the jury has been abolished, and voting is carried out online. The jury was elected even then, it voted, but the marks made by the jury were given to the artists only in conditions that did not allow the population to vote. However, since 2009, their grades are again taken into account when setting total points.
New rules for participants
Now Eurovision has overgrown with many rules: every next contest is held in the country that won last year. The Eurovision participant must be over 16 years old, sing live, on stage at the same time can be only 6 participants of the number.
However, at different times in the competition there were more stringent rules. For example, from 1970 to 1998 at Eurovision, a song could be sounded only in the official language of the participating country. Until 2013, a song that could not be performed on stage until September 1 of last year could take part in a musical battle.
Annually, without participation in the semi-finals, a representative of the winning country, as well as the countries of the "Big Five" - France, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy can take part in the competition. The remaining participants, before performing on the stage of Eurovision itself, must win the hearts of the audience in the semifinals. Now in Eurovision about 40 countries participate each year.
Russia has already participated in the competition 18 times by 2014, the best result was achieved by the performer Dima Bilan, who brought Eurovision to Russia in 2009. The Eurovision Song Contest in Russia has become one of the most expensive and grand contests in history. It was during the Eurovision in Moscow that new records were set for the number of points scored by the winner and the number of people who voted for the performers.
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