United by Music

Despite winning the competition in 1957, the Netherlands did not automatically earn the right to host the third edition of the Eurovision Song Contest the following year. At the time, convention stated that broadcasters would take turns to stage the event. The EBU’s preferred choice was for the BBC to host the contest in the United Kingdom, however, disagreements with unions meant that this could not go ahead. After other broadcasters also declined the opportunity, Dutch broadcaster NTS did eventually receive hosting rights, and this established the Eurovision tradition of the contest being hosted in the previous year’s winning country. The contest was held on Wednesday (!) 12 th March, at the AVRO Studios in Hilversum.   The set consisted of a small stage, with an interchangeable background that could be removed to show the scoreboard during the voting, and the orchestra seated stage right. No significant rule changes were brought in following the 1957 contest, though the tim...

Before you read this post about Eurovision 2026, I encourage you to have a look at my statement on this year’s contest. The 2026 national final season is in full swing, with new Eurovision songs being selected left, right and centre. After a busy ‘Super Saturday’, which this weekend extended to Sunday as well, we now have 12 of our 35 entries for this year’s contest in Vienna, so I think it’s time to recap all the Eurovision news from the last couple of weeks. Firstly, let’s go to Ukraine , where the national final Vidbir was held last Saturday. It is a true testament to the Ukrainian spirit that the country has continued to organise a show every year since the Russian invasion, with the 2023 edition of Vidbir even being held in an underground metro station. This year, the contestants included Eurovision alumni Monokate (the solo project of Go_A’s Kateryna Pavlenko) and Jerry Heil; however, in the end, the clear winner was Lel é ka with the song “Ridnym” . She won the public vo...

The second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held on the 3 rd March, 1957 (still the earliest in the year it has ever been held) in Frankfurt, West Germany. Seeing as no full recording of the inaugural 1956 contest is known to exist, it is here that I have decided to start my review series. At some point I may go back and listen to the 1956 songs, but that will be a different form of review I think. The tradition of the contest being hosted by the previous year’s winner hadn’t yet been established, so it was German broadcaster HR that took on the responsibility after Switzerland declined to stage the event for a second consecutive year. A number of new rules were introduced for the 1957 contest, some of which are still in place today. Each participating country was now represented by just one song, which could be performed by up to two performers. Juries now consisted of ten people who each awarded one vote to their favourite song (not including their own country’s entry)...

Before you read this post about Eurovision 2026, I encourage you to have a look at my statement  on this year’s contest. The Eurovision 2026 season is well underway, with national finals beginning all over Europe and plans taking shape in Vienna for the contest’s seventieth anniversary. As I write, the first semi-final of this year’s contest is exactly 100 days away, so it seems only fitting to take a look back at everything that’s happened up to this point. First of all, Eurovision has a new look! Last August, the EBU unveiled a brand new logo for the contest. This new visual identity will be adapted each year to reflect different host countries, and replaces the previous generic logo which had been in use since 2015. Fans of the ‘Eurovision heart’ will be pleased to see that fixture retaining its place in the centre of the logo, and for this year only, the heart is being featured in the contest’s artwork to mark the seventieth anniversary. The new logo uses the custom font ...