Trivia / Eurovision Song Contest

• Ascended Fanon: In 2008, a popular late show in Spain presented the comedian Rodolfo Chikilicuatre singing, in his own words, "the most ridiculous song it is possible to sing". He actually got to go to Eurovision. Enjoy.
• Banned in China: Chinese station Mango TV cut Albania and Ireland's performances from its broadcast of the first semi-final in 2018. The decision didn't sit well with the EBU, who promptly stripped the channel of the broadcasting rights.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: "Nul points", the phrase where a country gets no points is a popular term in the British populist media and Eurovision fans, but the phrase actually doesn't translate to "no points" in French (French for "no points" is actually "pas de points" or "zéro points") and is not used as an official term in the contest or is announced by the presenters^note a short montage in the first semifinal in 2023 narrated by Graham Norton featured the phrase, but he was only presenting the final that year. Terry Wogan, who co-hosted in 1998 and popularized the term, had a golden chance to actually mention this when Switzerland got "nul points", but this was not to be. Changes to the voting system in 2016 meant that countries with no points from the public vote do get announced. However, the presenters have so far used the term "zero points".
• Follow the Leader:
  • One of the most successful spinoffs outside Europe was the OTI Festival in Latin America (and also the U.S., Equatorial Guinea, Portugal and Spain, the latter two also regular constestants in the ESC) who last from 1972 to 2000, which was canceled due to the questioning of the voting system of the last shows, the lack of sponsors, the low quality of the entrants and the withdrawal of some of the most iconic countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Spain.
  • An American version, named American Song Contest, debuted in 2022, this time it will be limited to the United States for now, likely to avoid the same problems that affected the OTI Festival.^note While the American continent is more homogeneous on regards of language compared with Europe, as the most spoken languages are English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch, plus native languages, there's a giant gap on regards of media infrastructure between all the countries of American continent compared with their European peers and it hasn't changed too much from the times of the OTI Festival. For starters, the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Brazil are home of the biggest music industries in the region, which put in serious disavantage other smaller countries. Also, there's the fact some countries aren't able to do international events of such scale because either they're too poor (Haiti, Bolivia, etc), local crime rates are too high (Venezuela and all Central American countries excluding Costa Rica) or due to political reasons (the aformentioned Venezuela and Cuba)
  • In 2022, a Canadian version, imaginatively called Eurovision Canada, was announced as debuting in 2023. A Latin American version was also announced in 2022.
  • There was a Communist version during the Cold War era named Intervision Song Contest, which only members of the Eastern Bloc participated and lasted slightly longer than the Latin American version, running from 1977 to 2008 (albeit with a huge gap between 1980 and 2008).
  • The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has been organising the ABU TV Song Festival since 2012. It's basically the Asian counterpart of Eurovision, sans the competition and more of a transcontinental musical gala.
• In Memoriam:
  • The opening to the 2015 final in Vienna included a short tribute to Udo Jürgens, Austria's first Eurovision winner (and the only one before Conchita), who died the previous December, by way of a violin rendition of his winning song, "Merci, chérie" ("Thank You, Darling").
  • The 2018 final featured a brief tribute to Lys Assia, the first ever Eurovision contest in 1956, who had passed away two months prior.
  • The first semi-final of the 2022 contest paid tribute to Raffaella Carrà, who played an instrumental role in bringing Italy back to the competition in 2011, with a brief rendition of her song "Rumore" ("Noise").
• Missing Episode: The 1964 ESC in Copenhagen was never recorded, allegedly due to no tape recorder being available at the studio.^note This has caused the previous theory to the loss (a fire in the 1970s, a theory repeated on the official Eurovision website) to be incorrect. Video of the winner's reprise exists, as does audio of the whole show. The first contest in Lugano (1956) is also lost, although there is newsreel footage of the winning song and an audio recording (with 20 minutes missing) also exists.
• The Red Stapler: 2022 winner Kalush Orchestra featured an iconic pink bucket hat, which the frontman Oleh Psiuk wore onstage in Turin. They later sold this bucket hat as well as auctioned off their Eurovision trophy to help support the Ukrainian Army. Later, the pink bucket hat became merchandise to raise money for Ukrainian humanitarian aid.
• Release Date Change: The 2020 edition of the contest was supposed to take place in Rotterdam and have 41 entries, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first time since the contest's beginning where the contest did not take place. Despite its cancellation, the traditional album with all the entries would be released on 15 May, having been originally scheduled for 17 April and then pushed back to 8 May. By 2021 the situation had improved enough for the contest to go ahead in a slightly modified capacity.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor:
  • Popular German R&B singer Xavier Naidoo was initially internally selected to represent his country in 2016, with the plan being to host a national final to select his entry. Public backlash was swift, as Naidoo had already displayed some far-right sympathies, and within days the German broadcaster let him go and resorted to a typical national final.
  • In an example with ramifications for an entire country's Eurovision participation, Galasy ZMesta, a folksy political band, was internally selected to represent Belarus in 2021. Their entry, "Ya nauchu tebya" (I'll Teach You), was widely interpreted to be a thinly-veiled swipe at the Belarusian liberation movement and against those protesting dictator Alexander Lukaszenko. After a huge amount of public backlash (and a record amount of dislikes on the video's official Eurovision YouTube channel upload), the EBU declared "Ya nauchu tebya" ineligible and requested the Belarusian broadcaster submit something else. When their new entry was also deemed to be not-so-subtly political, Galasy ZMesta and Belarus were disqualified from competing in the 2021 contest. On July 1st the EBU voted to expel the Belarusian national broadcaster due their increasing censorship and airing of propaganda.
  • Russia's widely-condemned incursion into Ukraine on February 24 2022 which meant that their entry (Which hadn't been named yet) was disqualified after Nordic and Baltic nations stated that they would withdraw if the Russian entry competed, and the broadcasters offered to withdraw from the EBU.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In 1999, Rosario "Chayo" Mohedano, niece of all-time great Rocío Jurado, was initially announced by many media outlets as the Spanish entrant with Lere lele, the lead single of her debut album Agua de sal. However, TVE backed down and went with Lydia in what developed into a no-win scenario in the long run: Lydia finished last in Jerusalem with one solitary point (and took home the Barbara Dex award as the worst dressed in the contest), while Mohedano's musical career tanked and she only found relevance thanks to longstanding Mohedano family drama.
  • Comedian Bill Bailey has considered entering for Britain; whether he has attempted or been knocked back or whether he hasn't gotten round to doing it yet is unknown. He is indeed a talented musician (he has absolute pitch, ie. he is able to identify a note just by its sound), but we still have to remember that he's known mostly for his surreal comedy and bizarre musical interludes during his show, including a tribute to the music in Starsky and Hutch. Still, considering they're unlikely to win in the future anyway, they've got nothing to lose. Bill Bailey himself said as much on his twitter page.
  • If Wikipedia is to be believed, Greece considered a number of potential entrants for 2005, amongst them the previous year's Sakis Rouvas, superstar and former representative (for both them and her native Cyprus) Anna Vissi^note She'd go on to represent Greece on home ground the following year., and - perhaps most astonishingly - Scottish indie-rock superstars Franz Ferdinand. The latter (whose lead singer has Greek heritage, thus explaining the tenuous connection) didn't end up doing it since they didn't understand the rules of the competition and thought they could submit one of their older songs. In the end, they settled on Helena Paparizou, who would go on to win the 2005 contest with "My Number One."
  • Katrina Leskanich of 1997 champions Katrina and the Waves almost saw a return to Eurovision in 2005 on behalf of Sweden as a guest vocalist with rock group The Nameless, but failed to make it past the second-chance round. She wouldn't miss out on the Eurovision fun, though: she would team up with 2000 Latvian representative and 2003 co-host Renars Kaupers to host the 50th Anniversary contest later that year.
    • 2005 was pretty much the year of former Eurovision winners being denied comebacks: Denmark's Olsen Brothers tried to represent their country again five years after their win, only to lose to Jakob Sveistrup. Once again, turnabout turned out to be fair play with the 50th anniversary contest, as "Fly on the Wings of Love" was among the competing entries while Sveistrup served as a backing vocalist.
    • And once more: the legendary Johnny Logan, who had sworn off a Eurovision return after scoring his third(!) win in some capacity in 1992, co-wrote a song for the Dutch Eurovision selection that finished in second place. Both of the winners Logan performed would be represented at the 50th anniversary contest, with "Hold Me Now" finishing third overall and Logan himself performing both them and his latest single.
  • Back in 2007, it was a strong possibility that a song written (and possibly performed) by Alternative Rock hero Morrissey would be the United Kingdom's entry in the contest. Eventually the word came down that it wasn't going to happen. The UK's Eurovision entry that year finished near the bottom the pile.
    • Another artist who campaigned to represent the UK that year was Justin Hawkins of The Darkness. Logically, he was more than a little resentful to lose the gig to Scooch.
  • There was a persistent rumor in 2004 that the UK was going to try and do some damage control after Jemini's... less than stellar performance the previous year and send former Spice Girl Emma Bunton. Emma has said a few times that she'd like to do the show, but it's never came to be.
  • Several future winners and successful contestants spent years in their country's respective national selections before getting the coveted ticket. The Olsen Brothers, who won for Denmark in 2000, competed either together or separately six times prior to winning the Danish selection and bringing their country its second Eurovision victory.
  • Tomas N'evergreen, who alongside Christina Chanée represented Denmark in 2010 in Oslo, participated in Russian national selection a year earlier (N'evergreen has lived in Russia since mid-2000s, having moved there after one of his songs charted very high on Russian charts) with a song called "One More Try", which later made it to the album he recorded with Chanée.
  • Loreen competed in Melodifestivalen in 2011, failing to make it past the second chance round. The following year would see her sweep both it and Eurovision proper with "Euphoria."
  • Conchita Wurst tried to represent Austria back in 2012, only to lose out to the Trackshittaz, a crude Austrian Terrence and Phillip meets LMFAO, by a mere one percent of the vote. Of course, two years later, Austria decided to give her a chance, perhaps taking this trope to heart, and she went on to win it all.
  • Similarly, Jamala was one of the hopefuls to represent Ukraine in 2011, with the song "Smile", and placed third in the original final, but dropped out of the race due to the preselection's skewed voting process. Five years later, she decided to give it another go with "1944", and of course won it all in Stockholm.
    • That year Zlata Ognevich was another potential candidate with "The Kukushka". She placed second, in between Mika Newton and Jamala, but she too decided to withdraw from the new final. Just two years later she represented Ukraine in Malmö, and finished in a respectable third place, behind Azerbaijan and Denmark.
  • Swedish-Greek singer Helena Paparizou (winner for Greece in 2005) could have represented Sweden in 2014, but she was outvoted in favor of Sanna Nielsen, Ace Wilder and Alcazar.
    • And, once again, Loreen could have been representing Sweden in 2017, but got eliminated in Andra Chansen. Imagine the Broken Base and outcry this caused among European fans.
    • Papariozou was considered for a song to represent Cyprus penned by Greek-Swedish Alex Papaconstantiniou in 2018, after it was decided to internally choose the act. Papariozou and second choice, Georgian-Greek Tamta (who would represent Cyprus the next year with another song penned by him), were both rejected, so 3rd choice Eleni Foureira was chosen instead to sing Papaconstantiniou's song, called Fuego. And having been a complete outsider she went on to place 2nd, by far a national best, win a Besencon prize, and commercial success. Who knows how Papariozou would have done?
    • In 2016, Foureira had a submitted entry to Greek returning broadcaster ERT written by Doron Medalie (who would of course write the only song to place above hers two years later, ie Toy by Netta) rejected - this particular year saw Greece fail to qualify with an entry for the first time ever.
  • This video goes into detail of entries that were disqualified, withdrawn due to circumstances etc. at any rate, would have represented their respective countries but ended up not. These examples go back as far as 1967.
  • Apparently, Portuguese-Canadian singer Nelly Furtado was considered to represent Portugal in the 2004 contest with her song "Força". However, it didn't happen since RTP decided not to do an internal selection. In spite of this and due to European Championship being held in the country, it became a number one hit in Portugal and a Top 40 hit in continental Europe.
  • In 2009, it transpired that the Soviet Union were planning to enter in 1987 but never materialised as neither the Communist Party of the Soviet Union nor Mikhail Gorbachov were interested.
  • ABBA actually tried to participate in Eurovision in 1973, but their submission wasn't picked. They also had an alternate song for '74 which was more Eurovision-appropriate, but decided to take a risk with "Waterloo" and made Eurovision history.
  • In 2018, former RTVE director Ramón Colom revealed in a book about Alejandro Sanz that he tried to convince him to represent Spain in 1992, but he wasn't interested.
  • Netta of Israel being in a play off round in the Rising Star selection in 2018, where a judges reprive lead her on the way to victory.
  • At least two Arab League countries almost debuted in the contest before pulling out at the last minute. Tunisia were set to make their debut at the 1977 contest, with a position drawn in the running order, but withdrew shortly after (with many speculating that they didn't want to compete alongside Israel). In 2005, Lebanon were set to debut with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit", performed by Aline Lahoud, but withdrew shortly before the contest after refusing to broadcast the Israeli entry, which isn't allowed if you're a participating country.^note Once upon a time, the contest actually was broadcast in a number of Muslim-majority countries, but since they weren't active participants, the EBU was more lax on them cutting to commercial when Israel came on (hence the famous story about Jordan's broadcaster ending their transmission of the 1978 contest early and claiming Belgium won, when in fact Israel claimed their first victory). Nowadays, even passive participants aren't allowed to pull that, as China found out when they attempted to censor some entries in 2018 and were subsequently banned from showing the remaining two shows.
  • The 2020 contest is one big could-have-been - all of the songs had been released, but due to the cancellation, any returning contestants had to write a new song for 2021. Some saw a spike in popularity, whereas others less so, and one wonders who might have won had the contest gone ahead.
  • A petition was created after German broadcasters rejected the application of controversial Novelty Metalcore outfit Eskimo (later renamed to Electric) Callboy to compete in their 2022 selection Germany 12 Points, and got hundreds and thousands of signatures despite being ignored.
  • According to a Finnish website, Käärijä was supposed to wear a black jacket on stage in UMK and Eurovision while the green bolero was limited to the music video. However, the green bolero became so heavily associated with him, he kept it for all live performances.