The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual singing contest that has been held every year since 1956. It initially consisted of contestants from member countries of the European Broadcasting Union, however it has since been enlarged significantly to include countries as far away from the traditional European homeland as the Caucasus. In 2015, Australian contestants joined the fray as part of that year’s contest’s “Building Bridges” theme, and Australia has been one of the competing countries ever since.
Arguably the biggest act ever to emerge from the Eurovision is ABBA, which dominated the global pop landscape for eight years following their Eurovision victory at the Dome in Brighton, UK, back in 1974. Estimates for the Swedish group’s record sales range between 140 and 500 million records.
This year, the Eurovision Song Contest will be held at the 20,000-capacity Altice Arina in Lisbon, Portugal, following Salvador Sobral’s victory with the song “Amar pelos dois”. Seeing as there are no fewer than 43 competing countries vying for glory at this year’s edition, two semifinals will be held on May 8th and May 10th respectively. Countries vote for one another via televoting system, however, there’s also a jury vote from each country that contributes to entrants’ final rankings. Television audiences for the contest have exceeded half a billion people during some years.
Only 26 out of the 43 countries will make it through to the grand final on May 12th, but more importantly, which entries do you think are worthy of making it to the grand final? I’ve put this collection together for you so that you can decide for yourself:
