Eurovision Song Contest

"You can't guess my secret from looking at me. There are no outward and visible signs, no giveaway look in my eyes, no tell-tale scarring, that might tell people passing me in the street that I'm a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest. Seriously, I can't get enough of it. I wish it was monthly, weekly even."

(John Peel, A For ABBA, 1993)

The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la chanson), often shortened to ESC, Eurovision, or EuroSong, is an annual song competition held among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956.

Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programs in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, Suriname, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam, although these countries do not compete. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, via the Eurovision website.

Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides an opportunity for the winning artists to capitalise on the surrounding publicity and further their career. Artists whose international careers were directly launched into the spotlight following their participation at Eurovision include: Italian Domenico Modugno, who came third with the song "Nel blu dipinto di blu" ("In the sky, painted blue", popularly known as "Volare") in 1958; ABBA, who won the contest for Sweden in 1974 with "Waterloo"; Céline Dion, who won for Switzerland in 1988 with the French-language song "Ne partez pas sans moi" ("Don't leave without me"); the Spaniard Julio Iglesias, who has sold over 300 million records worldwide; and Bucks Fizz, who won in 1981 for the United Kingdom with "Making Your Mind Up".

Links To Peel
The earliest known comment on the Eurovision Song Contest by Peel was on 15 March 1967 (Radio London), when he mentioned disliking Sandie Shaw's eventual contest winner, "Puppet On A String", stating that it was:


 * "Dismal and won't stand much chance in San Remo."

It seems that Peel started taking an avid interest in the competition the following year, according to an article he wrote for the Observer on 17th May 1987 (later republished in The Olivetti Chronicles):


 * "Since 1968 when Massiel won for Spain with 'La La La', I have had a well-nigh ungovernable appetite for the Song Contest, an enthusiasm fired by the unchanging rituals of the competition, the increasingly anachronistic songs themselves, and the blatant tactical voting of the national juries."

On many occasions on his shows, Peel would comment on how he was looking forward to seeing the Eurovision Song Contest on television and also on the aftermath.

Peel saw the Eurovision Song Contest twice in person: first in 1987 in Brussels, Belgium, where he met the King and Queen of that country; and also in 1989, in Lausanne, Switzerland. On his show of 08 May 1989, he proclaimed the British entry, from Live Report, to be the best in the competition for many years:


 * "The best record, the best song and certainly the best performance featured in the Eurovision Song Contest for years and years and years - and it only came second. I was outraged."

On the same show, Peel explained why he took such an interest in the competition:


 * "As regular listeners will know, I'm a great admirer of the Eurovision Song Contest - genuinely so. I mean, I really look forward to it each year, because it does have a kind of innocence and charm to it and things which you don't often get these days, and also the record industry doesn't seem to be terrifically interested in it. And I said rather cynically over the past week that this was perhaps because it as impossible to kind of rig the results in any way, but that's probably not a very discrete thing to say."

Peel would sometimes contribute to documentaries and reports on the Eurovision Song Contest via radio and television.

Eurovision Songs Played
1981 1987 1989
 * 08 April 1981: Finn Kalvik: Never In My Life (English version of Norwegian Eurovision entry that received no points and ended up last)
 * Peel 060 (BFBS): Novi Fosili: 'Ja Sam Za Ples (I'm Up For A Dance) (7")' (Jugoton) (Yugoslavian entry that reached 4th place)
 * 08 May 1989: Live Report: Why Do I Always Get It Wrong? (7") Ariola (British entry that reached 2nd place)