Victories
(country)
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IRELAND
has won the ESC a total of 7 times (1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994,
1996). Next are the United Kingdom, France and Luxembourg with each 5 wins, then
Netherlands and Sweden with 4.
Several countries never won the ESC, but
some of them only have given it a try a on only a few occasions. See also Waiting
for the victory below
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Victories
(artist)
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IRELAND's
Johnny Logan is the only artist to have won the ESC twice. He did so in
1980 with What's another year and in 1987 with Hold me now. Actually,
he won the contest three times, as he also was the composer of the 1992 winner
sung by Linda Martin.
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Victories
(author/composer)
Consecutive
victories
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IRELAND
won the ESC three times in a row in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Spain, Luxembourg
and Israel all won in two consecutive years, though Spain had to share its second
victory with three other countries. The year before, 1968, title holder United
Kingdom came second to Spain by one point. The four victories from Ireland in
the 5 year interval 1992-1996 make up another record. France did a comparable trick
between 1958 and 1962, when they won three out of five consecutive contests.
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Second
places
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UNITED
KINGDOM have come to an unendangered record of 15 second places in
49 years of ESC history. The last time was in 1998 with Where are you?
from Imaani.
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Last
places
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NORWAY
- If we do count 24th place in the 2004 final as a last place, Norway currently
holds the record with 10 last places. The last decade they have
been fighting for this record with Belgium and Finland. They both came last on
8 occasions. Third runner up is Austria with 7 last places, then there's a gap
to Germany coming last 5 times.
Norway's bad years were 1963, 1969, 1974,
1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001 and 2004. The song The first day of love
in 1974 was also the first song in English to come last.
Several
countries never came last. Considering only countries that took part at least
10 times these are: France, Greece, Israel, Russia, Estonia and Poland.
Poland came shared last in 2008, but on tie-break rules it was actually 23rd of 25.
The
record of last places for an artist goes to a Norwegian singer as well. Anne
Karine Ström came last twice, in 1974 with the above mentioned The
first day of love and in 1976 with Mata Hari.
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Participations
(country)
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GERMANY
participated
a record of 51 times in 52 contests, only missing out on the 1996 final, participating
though in that year's qualification round. It is thus the only country that had an entry
in each ESC. France and the United Kingdom both participated in 50 of the 52 contests,
with a record for the United Kingdom concerning the most consecutive participations.
The UK didn't miss a contest since 1959, making that 47 consecutive participations.
Spain participated 47 times in a row, but unlike the UK it didn't miss a contest
since its first participation.
Morocco only participated once,
in 1980. San Marino and Azerbaijan made their debut in 2008; Azerbaijan made it to the final on its first try, just like Georgia and independent Serbia in 2007, Armenia in 2006, and Moldova in 2005. Czech Republic took part twice, but, like San Marino and Andorra, which took part 5 times, it didn’t make it to the final yet.
In 1976 apparently in Liechtenstein there was interest to take part, and even a song was chosen: Little cowboy
sung by Biggi Bachman.
However it was impossible to take part as Liechtenstein didn't have a
public television broadcaster. Some rumours state that Swiss television
had eventually offered to take part as Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
In the end though only the name Switzerland appeared on screen and on
the scoreboard.
In 1977 Tunisia planned to take
part, but withdrew a few months before the actual contest. In 2005 similarly Lebanon
withdrew two months in advance.
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Participations
(conductor)
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IRELAND's
Noel Kelehan is possibly the person with the most ESC participations on
his name. He conducted the orchestra for Ireland on 25 occasions, and if
the orchestra still was used in ESC he'd probably still be there every year! Apart
from conducting for Ireland he also conducted some songs for other countries that
weren't able to send their own conductor, in those years when
the contest was held in Ireland. Since Kelehan is Irish, he's also the one who
conducted the most winning entries: six.
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Participations
(composer)
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GERMANY's
Ralph Siegel composed a total of 18 songs that reached the
ESC final, achieving a victory in 1982 with the song Ein Bisschen Frieden.
His first entry was in 1974 for Luxembourg with Bye bye, I love you. Fourteen
compositions represented Germany, the other three Luxembourg. The 18th entry was the song If we all give a little representing Switzerland in 2006.
In 1980 Siegel was
responsible for both the Luxembourgeois and the German entry. Three composers, coincidentially
two of them German too, repeated this achievement: Dieter Bohlen composed both the Austrian
and German entries in 1989 , David Brandes composed the Swiss and the German entries
in 2005 and Thomas G:Son, who is a Swede, composed the 2007 entries for both Norway and Spain. Karen Kavaleryan wrote the lyrics to both the Ukraine and Georgia entries in 2008, backing two entries for a second consecutive times, as he also wrote the lyrics of both the entries from Armenia and Ukraine in 2007
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Participations
(artist)
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BELGIUM/SWITZERLAND/NORWAY
- Fud
Leclerc is the only singer to have performed four times as a soloist,
under the same name, for the same country, and in the same language, the contests
being 1956, 1958, 1960 and 1962. He was thus the singer of four of the first five entries,
selected by the Walloon broadcaster (INR at the time, now RTBF). Swiss Peter,
Sue and Marc competed as a trio four times, in 1971, 1976, 1979 and 1981.
Curiously enough they sang four times in a different language, respectively French, English,
German and Italian. Norwegian Elisabeth Andreassen though participated
in the ESC four times as well, once as a soloist (1996), once in a duett (1994
- with Jan Werner Danielson) and twice as part of a group (1985 - Bobbysocks;
1982 - Chips (for Sweden)), Lys Assia sung in three different contests,
1956, 1957 and 1958, but competed with four different songs for Switzerland, since
in 1956 each country had two entries. The latter two have both won the ESC once,
and both returned after winning.
Lys Assia, Corry Brokken (Netherlands
- 1956-1958) and Udo Jürgens (Austria - 1964-1966) are the only singers that
have competed in three consecutive occasions as a lead singer. All of them have
also won it once, respectively on their first, second and last try. Corry Brokken
notably only had one entry in 1956, the other Dutch song was the song by Jetty Pearl (see Songs and Artists).
Several artists competed three times
as a lead singer, sometimes as part of a group/duo. To name a few but
not trying
to be complete: Anna Vissi (Greece 1980, Cyprus 1982, Greece 2006),
Carola Häggkvist (Sweden 1983, 1991, 2006), Stella Maassen
(Netherlands 1970, Belgium 1977, 1982 - each time
in a different language), Hanne Krogh (Norway 1971, 1985, 1991), Sandra
Reemer
(Netherlands 1972, 1976, 1979), Kirsti Sparbö (Norway 1965, 1967,
1969),
Anne Karine Ström (Norway, 1973, 1974, 1976), Sigríður
Beinteinsdóttir (Iceland 1990, 1992, 1994), Gary Lux (Austria,
1983, 1985,
1987), Constantínos Christoforou (Cyprus 1996, 2002, 2005),
Ireen Sheer (Luxembourg 1974,
1985, Germany 1978), Romuald (Monaco 1964, 1974; Luxembourg 1969),
Marie Bergman
(Sweden 1971, 1972, 1994), Evridiki (Cyprus 1992, 1994, 2007), Eirikur Hauksson (1986, 1991, 2007)
Note that only lead singers were taken into account.
Several artists have competed more than four times as a backing singer.
Notably The Dolls from Sweden were backings for Nova in 1973, but also for several of
the 1975 contestants, when the contest was held in Sweden.
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Break
from ESC (country)
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MONACO
re-entered
the ESC in 2004 after a gap of 25 years. Malta had a break for 16 years
between 1975 and 1991. Denmark abandoned the contest after 1967, but returned in
1978 after an eleven-year break. In case Morocco might ever want to return they'd
break the record, being absent since 1980, when they were in ESC for the first
and so far also last time. |
Longest
gap between two victories
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DENMARK
had
a gap of 37 years between
their two victories in 1963 and 2000. Very interesting
is that both songs were sung by a duo, where one of the two artists was
named Jørgen, in 1963 Jørgen and Grethe Ingmann, in 2000
Jørgen and Nils (or Brøderne, Brothers) Olsen.
In 2009 Spain and Austria (if it returns) will be the only countries able to break this record; the latest Spanish victory dates to 1969, for Austria the last victory was in 1967.
Thanks to Jakob from Denmark for the correct spelling of Jørgen Ingmann's name
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Waiting
for the victory (longest)
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FINLAND
has been waiting 44 years since their debut in 1961 to achieve their first victory in 2006.
In fact in their 39 participations before they didn't even achieve a top 5 placing,
coming the closest to that in 1973 with a 6th place.
Portugal will, when it takes part in 2009, have been waiting even
45 years for a victory, without any more luck than a 6th place in 1996.
There's still hope for Portugal though: Apart from Finland, Greece had to wait 31 years until their
first victory in 2005. Belgium had to wait 30 years, followed by Turkey and former
Yugoslavia (both 28 years), then Norway (26 years). |
Waiting
for the victory (shortest)
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SERBIA/UKRAINE
- Not
counting the countries that participated in the first ESC, Serbia won on its first attempt as a fully independent state. But of course Serbia had been taking part as part of Yugoslavia since 1961.
More impressively Ukraine won on its
second attempt in 2004 with Ruslana's Wild dances. Latvia won almost
equally impressive on its third turn in 2002, while Israel and Ireland did so on their sixth
tries in 1978 and 1970, and Estonia on its seventh in 2001. |
Consecutive
run of first-time victories
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From
2001 to 2008 a record of eight countries consecutively achieved their
first victory, in chronological order: Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia (although Yugoslavia had of course already won in 1989, be it with a Croatian entry) and Russia.
Before this, the record was three in a row, from 1966 to 1968 (Austria, United
Kingdom, Spain), which equalled the record set in the first three contests (1956-1958). |
Host
(country, total)
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The
UNITED KINGDOM hosted the ESC on eight occasions in 1960, 1963,
1968, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982 and 1998. Four of these contests were held in capital
London, the others in Brighton, Edinburgh, Harrogate and Birmingham. Three times
the contest was held in the UK after the previous year's winner refused to host
the contest. Ireland hosted seven times, see below.
Of course there are
still more than a handful countries that didn't host the ESC yet, but the most
apparent among these is Monaco. This country so far remains the only country that
once won the contest, but never hosted it. |
Host
(country, consecutively)
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IRELAND
is the only country to host more than one contest in consequence and even
hosted three of them in a row in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
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Host
(city)
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IRELAND's
capital Dublin has had the honour of hosting a total of six ESC's.
These were the contests in 1971, 1981, 1988, 1994, 1995 and 1997.
Trivia: Dublin's Point Theatre is the only location in which two consecutive contest
were held. The shortest distance between two consecutive contest locations apart
from the three in Ireland in the mid 90's was between 2002 and 2003. Tallinn and
Riga are only 278 kilometers apart. The longest distance was Birmingham-Jerusalem
between 1998 and 1999 with 3766 kilometres.
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Hosting
without winning first
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UNITED
KINGDOM - Apart from the first hosts, Switzerland, three countries have hosted
the ESC without winning it the previous year. The United Kingdom even did it four
times: in 1960 when the Netherlands couldn't afford to host it again after doing
it two years before; in 1963, when France declined for exactly the same reason;
in 1972 when Monaco couldn't find a suitable venue on their tiny territory, and
in 1974 after Luxembourg had won for the second time in a row. When Israel did
the same in both 1978 and 1979, the Netherlands took over the organization
of the 1980 contest. Germany is the other country that hosted the contest
without winning it first in 1957. By that year there wasn't possibly a rule that
said the winning country should host the contest the next year, but it's also
possible that Germany offered to host, since Switzerland (winners in 1956) had
already hosted the contest the year before.
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Worst
result for a host
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NETHERLANDS
holds the dubious record of obtaining the worst result on homeground after
winning the previous contest. In 1957 Corry Brokken won the contest with Net
als toen. In 1958 she took part again, but Heel de wereld scored just
one point and came shared last.
Not to great results either for
Sweden in 1992 (22nd place out of 23 with 9 points) and Latvia in 2003 (5 points,
all from neighbour Estonia, and a 24th place with 26 participants). |
Best
worst result
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RUSSIA
- The country whose worst result ever is the best among all is Russia. Their
worst result was 17th with 17 points in 1995 with the song Kolybelnaia
dlya volkana sung by Philip Kirkorov.
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Worst
best result
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SLOVAKIA
- Apart from Morocco, that participated only once, and the countries that
yet have to participate in an ESC final (Czech Republic, San Marino and Andorra)
Slovakia is the country with the worst best result, coming 18th with 19 points
in 1996 with Kym nas mas by Marcel Palonder. Macedonia comes
second with a 12th place as best result in 2006.
Of the countries yet to make it to a final San Marino came last in its semi on its first and only try, while Czech Republic came last on its first, and second last on its second try. Both countries so far scored a total of only 15 points with three songs.
From the countries that already took part before 1994 Portugal
holds the worst record and came sixth at best, in 1996 with O meu coração não
tem cor.
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Best
debut (country)
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POLAND/SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
- Apart
from the winner of the first ever ESC (Switzerland) and the arguable Serbian and Serbomontenegrin debuts in 2007 and 2004 respectively, the best debut ever was the
Polish one in 1994. To nie ja! by Edyta Gorniak coming 2nd.
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Worst
debut (country)
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PORTUGAL/LITHUANIA/CZECH REPUBLIC
- Both Lithuania and Portugal ended up with empty hands at their first participation:
zero points for Oração in 1964, and exactly as many
for Lopsine myllimai in 1994.
The Czech Republic scored just 1 point in the semifinal of 2007, resulting in an unique 28th place.
In 1993 Hungary, Romania, Slovakia
and Estonia had their debut in a preselection, but failed to qualify. The same
thing happened to (FYR) Macedonia in 1996. In 2004 Andorra and Belarus and in 2005 Bulgaria
ended up in the lower regions of the semifinal on their debut and thus didn't
qualify either.
Malta came last on their first two participations in 1971 and 1972, not
without points, though it should be noted that in these years due to a
different voting system it wasn't possible to score 0 points.
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