Template:MPDidYouKnow

The Eurovision Song Contest made its debut in Lugano, Switzerland on 24 May 1956. Seven nations took part performing two songs each. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

The contest was initially developed as a way to not only introduce new broadcasting techniques but also as a way to bring the countries of Europe closer together through music as the continent continued to rebuild after World War II. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

In 60 years, over 1,400 songs have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

The first contest to be broadcast in colour was in 1968. The first contest to be broadcast in high definition was in 2007. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Live vocals have always been mandatory since the very first contest, and from 1956 until 1998, so was live music by an orchestra. By 1999, instrumental backing tracks replaced all live orchestral music in the contest. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Noel Kelehan conducted five winners (1980, 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1996), all for the same country - Ireland. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Dutch conductor Dolf van der Linden conducted for seven different countries (Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland). [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Three women conducted a combined 4 entries between 1973 and 1985. Nurit Hirsh conducted two of them, both for Israel (including the winning song in 1978, which she composed). [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Johnny Logan won the Eurovision Song Contest three times. In 1980 and 1987 he represented Ireland as performer and won both times, in 1992 he wrote Linda Martin's winning entry "Why Me?". [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Johnny Logan is part of a group of five people who have written two winning songs (1987 and 1992). The other four are Willy van Hemert (1957 and 1959), Yves Dessca (1971 and 1972), Rolf Løvland (1985 and 1995) and Brendan Graham (1994 and 1996). [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Lys Assia, Gigliola Cinquetti, Linda Martin, Elisabeth Andreassen and Dima Bilan are the only five artists to win one year and finish second another year. Linda and Dima are the only two of these five to win on their second try, having finished second on their first. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Poland made the most impressive debut in 1994, when Edyta Gorniak came 2nd with To nie ja, closely followed by Serbia's victory in 2007. Latvia were the third most impressive in 2000, finishing in third place. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Although Serbia and Montenegro had been represented twice before, and before again as part of Yugoslavia, 2007 was the first time that both Serbia and Montenegro took part as independent countries (Serbia won in its debut in 2007, while Montenegro qualified for the final for the first time in 2014). [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Four artists have presented the show in the year following their win. They are Toto Cutugno (won 1990, presented 1991), Marie N (won 2002, presented 2003), Eldar Gasimov (won 2011, presented 2012) and Måns Zelmerlöw (won 2015, presented 2016). [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Germany holds the longevity record, missing only 1 contest in its history when it failed to advance from the audio-only qualifier in 1996. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

The United Kingdom has the longest uninterrupted streak of participation dating back to 1959. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Norway could be found at the bottom of the list as many as eleven times! Sometimes with the infamous Nul Points! The unfortunates came last in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2012. Nevertheless, they also won three times (in 1985, 1995 and 2009). [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Ireland won a record seven times. Sweden has won 6 times, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom 5 times, and The Netherlands 4 times. 26 different countries have won the contest at least once. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

ABBA is the most successful Eurovision winner. The Swedish pop band won the contest in 1974. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Portugal took the longest to achieve its first win in 2017, waiting 53 years. Austria waited the longest to get its second victory, a 48-year gap between 1966 and 2014. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Malta has been waiting the longest for its first win, over 40 years since its debut in 1971. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

In 2008, a record number of 43 countries took part, just like in 2011. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

The most covered Eurovision entry is Domenico Modugno's "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu", also known as "Volare". The song has been covered by famous stars such as Frank Sinatra, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and many more. One of the best known is a 1989 flamenco-style cover by French band Gipsy Kings. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Televoting was introduced in Dublin in 1997 and was tested in five countries. Since 2009, it has been part of a 50:50 split vote alongside professional juries. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

No song has ever won from the second spot in the running order, leading people to believe that this particular performing spot is "cursed". [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

In 2004, the first televised Semi-Final was held. In 2008, a second Semi-Final was introduced due to the growing number of participating countries. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

In 2009, some 124 million people watched the three live shows on television. In 2011, over 105 million people tuned in for the shows. In 2016, an estimated 204 million people watched the shows live. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Australia has been broadcasting the contest on their public channel SBS since 1983. 2009 was the first year they sent its own commentators, and in 2014 DR rewarded the country's loyalty and enthusiasm by inviting them to participate in the second semi-final's interval act in Copenhagen. In 2015, they competed as a guest participant in Vienna, finishing in 5th place and receiving 2 sets of 12-point scores. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

During the Grand Final of 2012, more than 1.5 million tweets were posted with the hashtag #Eurovision, peaking already 20 minutes into the live broadcast. Over 7 million tweets were posted during the final of the 2016 contest. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Everyway That I Can was the first (and at present, only) song to win performing out of the fourth slot in the running order. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

The 1957 contest is the first to feature a scoreboard, following the secret jury of 1956. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Valentina Monetta of San Marino broke the "prophecy" of winning at least once in three consecutive participations. She returned to the contest in 2017.[?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Echo (You and I) received all of its points from the Jury - it received Nul Points in the televoting [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

German group Wind was such a hot favorite going into the 1985 contest in Gothenburg that European bookies were only offering odds against them winning! [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

None of the 5 winners for Luxembourg were from that country - four of the winners were French while the fifth was Greek. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Parken Stadium in Copenhagen was the largest venue to ever host Eurovision, over 38,000 spectators attended the 2001 contest. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Norway has finished last a record 11 times, four of those with the dreaded Nul Points. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Both of Johnny Logan's wins in 1980 and 1987 had a German entry place second behind him. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Yardena Arazi is said to be deeply superstitious. In 1988, she agreed to represent her country when a tarot reader told her the song performing ninth would win the contest (Israel had been in the ninth spot, but with the withdrawal of Cyprus, that spot went to Switzerland, which went on to win the contest) [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

"A Little Peace", the Full-English version of Ein bißchen Frieden, was the 500th UK Number One single in the UK charts. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Conchita Wurst is the first artist since Dana Scallon in 1970 to win performing alone. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Prelude to Te Deum" is best known to fans as the "Eurovision Anthem" that precedes and follows every contest broadcast. But did you know Belgian band Télex sampled it in their 1980 entry which coincidentally is called Eurovision? [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]

Kristian Kostov of Bulgaria holds the record for the highest-scoring non-winning song at the contest - his 2017 entry Beautiful Mess scored 615 points. [?action=purge Click here for a new fact]