Russia gained its first contest win, represented by Dima Bilan and the song “Believe”; it was Bilan’s second appearance in the contest, having previously come second for Russia in 2006. A new record 43 countries competed in the contest, with Azerbaijan and San Marino making their first appearances in the contest. A new landmark was achieved at this contest with the performance of the 1,000th song in Eurovision history, when Ireland’s Brian Kennedy performed “Every Song Is a Cry for Love” in the semi-final. The winning song, announced at the end of the show, was “Waterloo” by ABBA, the winning song from the 1974 contest for Sweden. Broadcast live in 31 countries which had competed in Eurovision at that point, the combined votes of the viewing public and juries selected a winner over two rounds. Greece’s Helena Paparizou became the winner of the anniversary edition of the contest with “My Number One”, the first win for Greece after 31 years of competition.

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The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the fifty-fifth edition of the contest, organised by NRK and held on 25, 27 and 29 May 2010 at the Telenor Arena in Oslo, Norway. The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the fifty-fourth edition of the contest, organised by Channel One (C1R) and held on 12, 14 and 16 May 2009 at the Olimpiyskiy Arena in Moscow, Russia. The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the fifty-third edition of the contest, organised by the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) and held on 20, 22 and 24 May 2008 at the Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia. The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the fifty-second edition of the contest, organised by Yleisradio (YLE) and held on 10 and 12 May 2007 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. 45 years after first entering the contest, Finland secured its first win, represented by Lordi and “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. Serbia and Montenegro had intended to compete, but controversy over the winner of their national selection resulted in their late withdrawal.

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Australia would advance directly to the final, meaning 27 countries would compete in the largest final ever seen in the contest. The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the fifty-seventh edition of the contest, organised by İctimai Television (İTV) and held on 22, 24 and 26 May 2012 at the Baku Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan. Norway secured its third contest win, as Alexander Rybak earned a runaway victory with “Fairytale”; with 387 points, Rybak earned the highest points total yet seen in the contest, which remains the highest total under this system. Juries returned to the contest this year, with the points awarded in the final decided by an equal mix of jury and televoting; the qualifiers from the semi-finals however remained predominantly decided by televoting in this contest.

A second semi-final was introduced at this contest, with all countries except the hosts and the “Big Four” now competing on one of the two semi-finals. With its victory, Estonia became the first country from the former Eastern Bloc to win the contest, sparking an eight-year chain of victories for new countries, and Aruba-born Benton became the first black artist to win the contest. Following the successful trial in 1997 televoting took place in the majority of countries for the first time at this contest. 19 countries were again present, with Israel and Greece returning but Yugoslavia and the Netherlands withdrawing, the latter for the first time; in both cases the contest clashed with national memorial days, with the Remembrance of the Dead held in the Netherlands and in Yugoslavia the anniversary of the death of President Josip Broz Tito. 19 countries in total took part, with Ireland returning and Israel declining to participate as the date of the contest clashed with Yom HaZikaron, with Greece also withdrawing at a late stage after broadcaster ERT decided that their potential songs were too low quality for the event.

With no rules in place to break a tie for first place all four countries were declared victors, the only time that more than one country has won in a single year. A tight voting sequence saw France, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in contention for first place, when with the votes of the final jury, all four countries finished on an equal number of points. The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the eleventh edition of the contest, organised by CLT and held on 5 March 1966 at the Grand Auditorium de RTL, Villa Louvigny in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. It was the first time that a pop song had won the contest, which would become an international hit for Gall, and would have an influence on the type of songs entered into the contest in years to come. Sweden’s entry caused some controversy when their entry was performed in English, rather than in their national language Swedish; as there was no rule in place to dictate in what language a country could perform this aw33 online was allowed despite protest from other competing countries.

A new qualifying system was introduced at this contest, principally to appease Germany, one of the contest’s biggest financial backers, which otherwise would have been relegated, which saw all countries, except the host nation, competing in an audio-only qualifying round. Norway scored its second contest victory with the Irish-Norwegian duo Secret Garden and the song “Nocturne”; some criticism arose following its victory that, as a mainly instrumental number containing only 24 words in total, the winning song should not have been eligible for the song contest, to no avail. Seven countries joined the contest for the first time, replacing the bottom six countries from Millstreet, and Italy which withdrew voluntarily; Luxembourg, one of those countries relegated, subsequently failed to return the following year, and their 1993 entry would remain their last for 31 years. Changes in Europe in the 1990s were first reflected at this contest, with several new countries formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and breakup of Yugoslavia wishing to compete for the first time. Ireland’s Linda Martin emerged the winner with the Johnny Logan-penned “Why Me?”, giving Ireland its fourth win and Logan his third as both performer and songwriter; it was Martin’s second contest appearance, having previously come second for Ireland in 1984. This was the second edition of the contest to be held in Italy, and was presented by the two previous Italian winners, Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno.

• The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the contest, organised by Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) and held on 11 March 1959 at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.
• The Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was the nineteenth edition of the contest, organised by the BBC and held on 6 April 1974 at The Dome in Brighton, United Kingdom.
• The United Kingdom decided not to compete in this edition, however Sweden made its debut, keeping the total number of competing countries at ten.
• France set a new record in recording its fifth Eurovision win, with Marie Myriam taking the contest with “L’Oiseau et l’Enfant”, in what would become France’s last victory to date.

The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the twenty-fourth edition of the contest, organised by the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and held on 31 March 1979 at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem. The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the twenty-third edition of the contest, organised by TF1 and held on 22 April 1978 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France. The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the twenty-second edition of the contest, organised by the BBC and held on 7 May 1977 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, United Kingdom. The Eurovision Song Contest 1976 was the twenty-first edition of the contest, organised by NOS and held on 3 April 1976 at the Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague, Netherlands. The Eurovision Song Contest 1975 was the twentieth edition of the contest, organised by Sveriges Radio (SR) and held on 22 March 1975 at the Stockholmsmässan in Stockholm, Sweden. The voting system was modified once again to bring back the system last used in 1970, with 10 jury members casting a single vote for their favourite song.

Switzerland recorded its third victory and first in 36 years, courtesy of Nemo with “The Code”, while second-placed Croatia obtained its best result as an independent nation. Romania, whose broadcaster TVR had been given additional time to finalise its plans, ultimately opted not to participate this year. The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the sixty-eighth edition of the contest, held on 7, 9 and 11 May 2024 at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden and organised by SVT. The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the sixty-sixth edition of the contest, held on 10, 12 and 14 May 2022 at the PalaOlimpico in Turin, Italy and organised by RAI.

The previous year’s host Sweden, in response to the protests during the 1975 event and fearful of the costs involved in staging the event should they win again, decided to withdraw, joining Malta and Turkey, however with Austria and Greece returning a total of 18 countries took to the stage for the Netherlands’ third contest as hosts. SR had initially been hesitant in staging the contest due to the expense that came with it, and had wanted all competing countries to share the costs, however these cost sharing plans were not implemented in time for the ’75 event. Ireland, which would go on to win more times than any other country, recorded its first win here, with Dana taking the contest with “All Kinds of Everything”. A draw was held to determine the host country of this contest following the four-way tie for first place in 1969, which chose the Netherlands as hosts over France, as Spain and the United Kingdom declined to take part in the draw due to having hosted recent contests. The Netherlands’s Teddy Scholten was crowned the winner with the song “Een beetje”, becoming the first country to win the contest twice.