1956
Lugano, Switzerland
|
First ever Eurovision Songcontest on May 24, from Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland
First song: De vogels van Holland sung by Jetty Pearl for the Netherlands
First
winner: Refrain, refrain by Lys Assia for Switzerland
First victory
on homesoil, for Switzerland
First and only time each country had two entries
First
and only male presenter so far, that wasn't acompanied by a woman
First time
participating for the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, (West-)Germany, France,
Luxembourg and Italy
First victory for Switzerland
|
1957 Frankfurt am Main, West-Germany
|
First
open voting, the first jury being the one from Switzerland in Basel
First scoreboard,
first points going to the Netherlands
First televised ESC
First visual gimmick:
Margot Hielscher from Germany holding a telephone singing Telefon, Telefon
First
performance by a duo: Gustav Winckler and Birthe Wilke for Denmark, doing also
the first and longest kiss on an ESC stage
First artists returning: both Lys
Assia and Corry Brokken, who sang the second Dutch entry in 1956
First time
each country had only one entry
First time taking part for the United Kingdom,
Austria and Denmark
First time the host country didn't win
First victory for the Netherlands
|
1958
Hilversum, Netherlands
 |
First
time the winner of the previous year organized the contest
First major technical
problems, which caused that the Italian song (first to perform) had to be reperformed.
This never happened again
First time the contest was won by a singer that hadn't
performed a song in the contest before (yes, even Lys Assia already had in 1956
as Refrain Refrain was her second song that evening)
First time the
contest was won by a male soloist
First time taking part for Sweden
First victory for France
|
1959
Cannes, France
|
First
time a country won for a second time, also first time the same textwriter (Willy
van Hemert) was involved with a winning song a second time
First time out of
fifteen the United Kingdom came second, with the song Sing little birdie by
Teddy Carr & Pearl Johnson
First moving stage
First time taking part
for Monaco
|
1960
London, United Kingdom
|
First
time the contest was held in a capital city
First time a family member of
a previous contestant took part: Jacquelline Boyer, the French singer, was a daughter
of Jacques Pils (Monaco 1959)
First of four times Catherine Boyle presented
the Eurovision Song Contest
First of two times Luxembourg sang in its authentic
national language Letzebuërgesch
First time a song contained lines in
a non-national language: Bonjour, ma chérie by Wyn Hoop for West-Germany
First
time the country that performed last won
First up-tempo song to win the contest
First
time taking part for Norway
|
1961
Cannes, France
 |
First
time the contest was held in a city (or country), that hosted the contest before
First
time the contest was presented by a presenter for the second time, the one being
Jacquelline Joubert
First contest held on a Saturday (although the 1962 contest
was on a Sunday)
First time taking part for Spain, Yugoslavia and Finland
First victory for Luxembourg
|
1962
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
|
First
time the contest was won by a country for the third time
First
year without any new country taking part
First time the top 3 songs were all
in the same language (French, repeated in 1986 (French), 1992, 2000, 2001,
2002 and 2005 (English)).
First time a voting system was used in which every country
had to give out the same set of votes to a fixed number of countries: each country
had to award a 1, a 2 and a 3 points.
First time several countries scored zero
points: Belgium, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands
Last contest not te
be held on a Saturday
|
1963
London, United Kingdom
 |
First
time the juries were called in appearance order, not in reverse order of appearance
First
big controversy about neighbourly voting and cheating when it looked like Norway
changed it votes last-minute to let Denmark win
First and only contest so far
where the orchestra (if there was any) wasn't in the same hall as the stage
First
time the contest was won by a duo
First voting that wasn't decided until
the last vote was given out
First victory for Denmark
|
1964
Copenhagen, Denmark
 |
First
time and so far the only time the broadcast was disturbed by someone in the audience,
protesting for political reasons
First singer to appear under a first name
only: Rachel for France
First group in ESC: TNT for Spain, although they were
officially listed as Tim, Nelly and Tony as groups weren't allowed to participate
yet
First
time taking part for Portugal, first debuting country to score 'zero' points
First victory for Italy
|
1965
Naples, Italy
|
First
song to be sung entirely in a non-national language: Absent friend by Ingmar
Wixell for Sweden. Rules about language were introduced immediately after
First
time taking part for Ireland
|
1966
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
 |
First black singer to participate: Milly Scott for the Netherlands, singing Fernando en Filippo
First victory for Austria
|
1967
Vienna, Austria
|
First
time a country withdrew from ESC for a period longer than one year: Denmark. They
returned in 1978
As a consequence of that this was the first year the number of participating countries had decreased
First winner that performed barefoot
First victory for the United Kingdom
|
1968
London, United Kingdom
 |
First
contest to be broadcasted in colour
First winning song with a nonsense chorus:
La, la, la by Massiel for Spain
First victory for Spain
|
1969
Madrid, Spain
1970
Amsterdam, Netherlands
 |
First
time there was a draw to decide which country was to organize the contest
First
postcards: the introduction of the songs was done by a short movie clip showing
the artists in the capital of the country they represented
First major boycot
by five countries: Austria, Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Finland. They withdrew
because of the absence of a tie-break rule
|
1971
Dublin, Ireland
 |
First
time each country sent two jurors to the host city, that had to give a mark between
1 and 5 openly to each song
First group to perform officially under their group
name: Family Four for Sweden
First participation by Malta
|
1972
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
|
First
and only time Ireland had an entry in Irish, instead of English: Céol
an ghra
|
1973
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
|
First
time for a country to win for a second time in succession without having to share
any of those victories
First time countries were allowed to sing in every
language they wished (rule abolished after 1977, reintroduced in 1999).
Marion Rung from Finland thus was the first non-English/Irish singer to
perform in English legally
First
female conductor, for Sweden (and a few songs later the second one for Israel)
First entry for Israel, first non-European country
to enter
|
1974
Brighton, United Kingdom
 |
First
group to win the Eurovision Songcontest: ABBA from Sweden
First and only time
a country withdrew a few days before the contest: France withdrew since their
president Georges Pompidou passed away
First song composed by the almost legendary
Ralph Siegel: Bye bye, I love you for Luxembourg
First and only time
the juries were called in random order
First entry for Greece
First victory for Sweden
|
1975
Stockholm, Sweden
|
First
time the voting system with the maximum of 12 points was used (until now)
First
time the song opening the contest won
First entry for Turkey
|
1976
The Hague, Netherlands
|
First
time the contest was presented by a former participant: Corry Brokken (Netherlands
1956, 1957, 1958)
First time several artists were 'interviewed' in the green
room (repeated in 1980 and the years after 2002)
First and only time all artists were awarded flowers after their performances
Last
time the scoreboard wasn't in English or French - it was in Dutch
|
1977
London, United Kingdom
|
First
and only time so far the contest was postponed a few weeks, due to a strike of
BBC technicians
First time an African country, Tunisia, planned to enter the
contest. A few weeks before the contest they withdrew and never showed up again
First
scoreboard featuring the flags of each country
|
1978
Paris, France
 |
First
time the contest was presented by more than one presenter on stage (in 1976 there
was a second presenter in the green room)
First time backstage shots were shown
of artists mounting and going off the stage (repeated in 2000)
First time for
Turkey and Greece to participate in the same contest
First not entirely mechanical
scoreboard (points were indicated by lights)
First year with 20 or more participants
First victory for Israel
|
1979
Jerusalem, Israel
|
First
contest to be held outside Europe
|
1980
The Hague, Netherlands
|
First
time the previous year's winner didn't participate. Israel couldn't afford hosting
again and as the Netherlands eventually set the date to the Israeli Remembrance Day, Israel
didn't even enter
First time the votes of each jury were announced in ascending
order, and not in order of appearance
of the songs obtaining votes
First
and so far only time each artist was introduced by a presenter from the country
they represented
First victory for Johnny Logan - also first time the contest
was won by an Australian singer
First year in which one of the contestants
was dressed in an animal costume: a backing for Luxembourg, dressed as a pinguin
First
(and so far only) identical twin to participate: Sophie and Magaly for Luxembourg
First
year in which a composer/textwriter duo had two entries for different countries:
Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger for Germany and Luxembourg (happened again in
1989 and 2005)
First entry about the songcontest itself: Belgium's entry Euro
Vision by Telex
First and only entry for Morocco, the only African country
so far to take part
|
1981
Dublin, Ireland
|
First
entry for Cyprus
|
1982
Harrogate, United Kingdom
|
First victory for Germany
|
1983
Munich, West-Germany
|
First
time the contest was held in a sports hall, rather than a concert or conference
hall.
First time an entry had the same title as a previous entry (Vivre)
First, and only time Greece didn't give any point to Cyprus
|
1984
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
|
First time an entry got severely booed off the stage: Belle and the Devotions for the UK
|
1985
Gothenburg, Sweden
 |
First victory for Norway
|
1986
Bergen, Norway
 |
Last
time one of the seven countries taking part in the first contest, got its first
victory
First entry for Iceland
First victory for Belgium
|
1987
Brussels, Belgium
|
First
and only time so far the organizing broadcaster (RTBF) didn't enter a song. The
Belgian entry was chosen by the Flemish broadcaster BRT (now VRT)
First and only time
so far a singer won the contest for a second time: Johnny Logan for Ireland
|
1988
Dublin, Ireland
|
First
time a country (Cyprus) was disqualified from the contest because the song had
already been aired a few years earlier, in fact in the 1984 Cypriot national final!
First time the Eurovision Song Contest was won by an American singer: Céline
Dion from Canada, for Switzerland
First
computer-scoreboard used
First mother and daughter duo on stage for West-Germany:
Maxi and Chris Garden
First participation
by a singer that once presented the contest: Yardena Arazi for Israel
First
contest to be sponsored onscreen
|
1989
Lausanne, Switzerland
 |
First
entry with two conductors; one of the two joined the backings on stage halfway:
Vi
mæler byen rød for Denmark
Last scoreboard so far in French.
All scoreboards after have been in English
First victory for Yugoslavia
|
1990
Zagreb, Yugoslavia
|
First
time artists left the stage before they had sung a note: Azúcar Moreno
did so because there was a technical failure with their backing track
First
and only time a jury didn't seem to remember where they were from: the Italian
jury presented itself as the Spanish one.
|
1991
Rome, Italy
|
First
time tie break rules had to be applied (well, they should have in 1969 too, but
they were non-existent back then)
First time each singer could be heard singing
two songs: one Italian song in the postcard and of course their entry
First
time the winner from previous year was co-presenter (repeated in 2003)
Last
time the artists and song titles were announced by the presenters
|
1992
Malmö, Sweden
|
Last
time the conductors were announced by the presenters
|
1993
Millstreet (Cork), Ireland
|
First
time the contest was held in a village, rather than a
bigger city or medium town (like Hilversum or Harrogate)
First time a preselection
was held (in Ljubljana, six weeks prior to the contest) for seven countries new
to Eurovision (or at least as independent states), of which three were to join
the 22 'regulars'
First time ending in the bottom seven meant a country had
to skip a year, due to 'new' countries wanting to enter in 1994
First appearance
in a Eurovision final for Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia as independent
countries
First appearance in a semifinal for Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary and
Romania
First
time a jury couldn't be reached and had to be called back at the end of the voting
(Malta)
Last entry so far for Luxembourg
|
1994
Dublin, Ireland
|
First
time the contest was held for the second time in a row in the same country
First
time the contest was won for a third time in a row by the same country
First
time the winning song got over 200 points (226)
First
time the spokespersons from the different juries were shown on television live
by sattelite
First time tickets for the live show were available for everyone
First
year some ESC regulars were relegated, e.g. Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Turkey
and Israel
First time taking part for Estonia, Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania,
Hungary, Russia and Poland
|
1995
Dublin, Ireland
|
First
time the contet was held for a second time in succession in the same venue (or
city), and for the or the third time in a row in the same country
|
1996
Oslo, Norway
|
First
year where all countries, except the host country Norway, had to enter a preselection.
Sound recordings of all songs were sent to juries in all countries in advance
and voted for. The 22 best song made it to the final. This system has not been
repeated since.
First year Germany didn't qualify and thus couldn't take part
- Germany was the only country that participated in all contests so far
First
Eurovision Song Contest with an official website
First contest with a break
in the middle to allow certain broadcasters to show commercials
|
1997
Dublin, Ireland
|
First
year in which the countries able to participate were decided upon their average
number of points in the previous five years
First year in which it was allowed
to have all music on tape, rather than using the live orchestra, even
when no instrumentswere on stage. Austria's Bettina Soriat was the
first one to use this rule in One Step.
First year
when televoting was used in some countries, being Austria, Switzerland, Germany,
Sweden and the United Kingdom
|
1998
Birmingham, United Kingdom
|
First
year when televoting was recommended for all countries
First entry for Macedonia
First
year in which the scoreboard could show all countries in ranking order, among
some other graphical features
Last year when an orchestra was required
by EBU. Since 1998 no country has chosen to have one, so this was the last year
so far with a live orchestra
First and so far only transsexual singer to participate, and even win: Dana International for Israel
|
1999
Jerusalem, Israel
|
First
year with three presenters
First year in which the UK, France, Spain and Germany were
guaranteed entrance as the 'Big 4'
|
2000
Stockholm, Sweden
|
First
entry for Latvia
|
2001
Copenhagen, Denmark
 |
First
time there was a special webcast available of the contest on the internet
First
time a country formerly east of the Iron Curtain won the contest
First time
a black singer won the contest
First mention of some 'naughty words' on the ESC
stage, by Aqua during the interval act
First victory for Estonia
|
2002
Tallinn, Estonia
 |
First drag act to perform at Eurovision, Sestre from Slovenia
First victory for Latvia
|
2003
Riga, Latvia
 |
First
scoreboard that showed countries in ranking order throughout the entire voting,
rather than order of appearance
First points from Cyprus to Turkey
(after 20 times participating together)
First time a song in the English language (Cry baby, UK) scored 0 points
First entry for Ukraine
First year that in addition later in the year a Junior Eurovision Song Contest was held, in Copenhagen
First victory for Turkey
|
2004
Istanbul, Turkey
 |
First
year with a televized semifinal, as an integrated part of the contest, held in
the same venue as the final itself
First year in which all countries used televoting
First year when countries not participating in the final (but with a song in the semifinal) were allowed to vote.
First
time the televotes were controled centrally by the German company Digame
First
semifinal entry for Andorra and Belarus
First year in which the winning artist of the previous year did some
'interviews' in the green room (has been repeated in 2005 and 2006)
First point from Turkey to Cyprus
First
final entry for Serbia & Montenegro (as an independent country) and Albania
First victory for Ukraine
|
2005
Kiev, Ukraine
|
First
entry for Bulgaria (semifinal) and Moldova (through semifinal to final)
First victory for Greece
|
2006
Athens, Greece
|
First
entry for Armenia
First a capella song (Latvia)
First performers wearing (monster) masks on stage (Finland)
First time a country not submitting a song was allowed to vote (Serbia & Montenegro)
First time during the voting sequence only the votes 8, 10 and 12 were
announced by a spokesperson, the lower votes appearing only on screen
First time an entry was threatened to be disqualified because of swearing (Iceland)
First time the winner of the semifinal won the final as well
First time the top 4 was all male (except for one female keyboard player)
First victory for Finland
|
2007
Helsinki, Finland
|
First
entry for Georgia and Czech Republic, as well as for Montenegro and for Serbia independently
First time a 'new' country won on its 'debut' (apart from the obvious Switzerland in 1956)
First time a few lucky countries got to pick their own slot in the running order (Austria, Slovenia, Latvia, Andorra, Turkey, Armenia, Germany and Ukraine - decided by draw)
First victory for Serbia
|
2008 Belgrade, Serbia
|
First contest with two televized semifinalss
First time a presenter was also involved as a composer
First time the backup juries decided one out of ten semifinal qualifiers
First entry for San Marino (semifinal) and Azerbaijan (semifinal + final)
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| |
Thanks
to Deryn, Eleonor, Jethro, Martin, Marcus, Mickey, Pedro, Peter, Phil, Simon
and Zeljko for their corrections and additions to this page. |
|