Eurovision, the biggest European song contest with a 62-year history, connects music lovers throughout the continent and each year gathers millions of viewers in front of their TVs.
Since Eurovision fever is here, the Kyiv Post prepared a cheat sheet trying to answer the most salient questions about the event.
What is Eurovision?
For performers, Eurovision is a great chance to start a career and gain recognition. For fans, watching the shows has become a unifying tradition. For adventurous fans, or groupies, it’s a reason to travel abroad to the host city.
Kyiv hosts Eurovision this year by virtue of Crimean Tatar singer Jamala’s victory in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden.
How many people will come to Kyiv?
Organizers expect up to 20,000 guests during the 14-day period ending May 14.
How it all started
Swiss journalist Marcel Bezençon came up with the concept. As director of the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of public service media, he wanted to test the limits of live television broadcast technology.
The first-ever Eurovision was held in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1956. Seven nations (The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Italy) took part in the competition, performing with a live orchestra. It was mostly a radio show since not many Europeans had a TV set at that time.
Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom had to skip the first contest as their broadcasters missed the deadline for applying. The host country won, hosting the even for a second time in a row, but changed the venue’s city — Frankfurt am Main.
How it works
As many as 42 countries are sending their participants to Ukraine this year. Each country’s broadcaster has chosen a representative — a solo singer or a band with a maximum of six people. Each of them will perform a song that wasn’t released before the beginning of September in any language.
Russia’s contestant, Yulia Samoylova, was banned from entering Ukraine for three years because she visited the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea illegally in June 2015. Russia was offered to replace the contestant or have Samoylova perform via Skype, but the country preferred to withdraw completely and cancel the Eurovision broadcast on its TV.
The contest is divided into two semi-finals (May 9 and 11) and a grand final (May 13). Though many fans and participants question the tradition, the so-called Big Five, countries that co-founded Eurovision and pay the biggest contributions to the EBU — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom — as well as the hosting country are automatically pre-qualified for the grand final.
For other countries, to qualify for the grand final, contestants have to get into top 10 in their semi-final. They must sing live, while no live instruments are allowed.
After the last performance, each performing country gives out marks — from one to eight points, as well as 10 and 12 points to other participants. For the sake of justice, countries can’t vote for themselves. The mark is based on a local jury’s decision, as well as telephone voting by fans.
The winner brings back home not only a trophy, but also a right for his country to host next year’s Eurovision.
Countries
Starting with seven nations performing in the first song contest, every year Eurovision broadens the list of its participants.
After the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990s Central and Eastern European countries have expressed a wish to compete and successfully joined the contest in the next years.
Because of the Eurovision extension, in 2004 the EBU have tried the semi-final format, which grew into two semi-finals in 2008.
The last participant that joined the Eurovision family was Australia in 2015.
Trophy
The iconic glass statuette in the shape of a microphone was first presented in 2008. Since then the unique handmade trophy, designed by famous Swedish glass artist Kjell Engman, is transferred to the new winner from the last year’s one. The mini versions of the trophy are also gifted to the winning song writers and composers.
The representative of Norway Alexander Rybak, who won Eurovision in 2009, has broken the glass microphone. After that it was strengthened with two metal rings.
Ukraine wins twice
Ukraine’s first representative in the history of the competition was Oleksandr Ponomaryov in 2003. Though the singer didn’t make a splash and finished in 14th place, for the next year Ukraine have prepared something special.
In 2004 Ruslana Lyzhychko, more known as Ruslana, performed the “Wild Dances” song and made the Eurovision audience fall in love with her positive energy and sincerity. She won an honor for the country to host next year’s contest and came back home as a new heroine.
In total Ukraine have taken part in the contest 13 times, and was in the final each of them. Apart from Ruslana’s performance, other outstanding appearances were made by Verka Serduchka (second place, 2007), Ani Lorak (2nd place, 2008) and Zlata Ognevich (3rd place, 2013). But none of them can be compared to the last year’s success of Ukrainian singer from Crimea Jamala.
Her emotional song ‘1944’ tells about the destiny of Crimean Tatars, who were deported from the homeland by Soviet Union authorities. The lyrics were released after the new persecutions of the citizens of the peninsula, brought in after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Jamala’s performance has reached out to the hearts of many Europeans and became historical for Ukraine as it has won Eurovision for the second time and brought the contest to Kyiv again.
