Iconic & Notable Eurovision Performances
In 1956 the European Broadcasting Union launched “Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne” or in English, the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Prix, as a way to test and launch international live broadcasting. It also became a way to unite the countries together after the chaos of World War II ended in 1945.
The initial format for the contest based on the Italian music festival “Sanremo”. Active members of the EBU and various other associates are invited to participate in the show. The most notable ones are France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy. These countries are known as the Eurovision's “Big 5” and make the most notable financial contributions to the EBU. Over the years Eurovision has evolved and is now the longest running international contest that is televised.
Despite its huge success, Eurovision has had its fair share of backlash and hatred thrown its way, some people think the music broadcasted on the show isn't good, and that the show is only using art as a way to profit from it. Others say that it’s too long and cringeworthy. In recent years politics has become the main reason for peoples disdain towards the contest, with Russia invading Ukraine in 2022 being a huge part of the contest to as recently 2024 where many performers spoke out in support of Palestine.
But regardless of all this, the impact the show has is undeniable, I’ll be taking a look into a few of the most impactful and noticeable performances from the competition. Some of these are winners of the contest, and some are not. To be clear, these are just what I personally feel are important Eurovision performances.
You might disagree, and that's okay
Refrain - Lys Assia (Switzerland 1956)
1956 was the first year of the competition and the only year where countries could have two entries, and Lys Assia sang both songs that were chosen to represent Switzerland; “Refrain” which was originally sung in French & “Das alte Karussell” (The Old Carousel). Originally sung in German. Since the voting was kept secret, it's unclear where Switzerland's second entry placed in the competition.
Refrain is a chansen style song that is about lamenting the loss of adolescents and youth. It was composed by jazz pianist and composer Géo Voumard and written by Émile Gardaz, a swiss author.
Lys Assia was still involved in the Eurovision even after her iconic win. She performed at the 50 year anniversary show in 2005, and also presented the winning trophy in 2009. She even attempted to enter the competition again in 2013, but didn't qualify.
She passed away in 2018 but is still remembered for her bittersweet performance of “Refrain”.
Waterloo - Refrain (Sweden, 1974)
Abba could arguably be the most successful participants of the contest to date, you can say you don't listen to them, but you certainly know who they are whether you remember them from their work on the soundtrack of “Mama Mia!” or for this iconic entry that marks the first of Sweden's seven victories.
The group was formed in 1972 when 2 married couples combined their talents together,Despite not being very well received by Swedish audiences, the group had some moderate success before the competition, releasing songs and playing at festivals around sweden.
They entered the Melodifestivalen (Sweden's way of picking their Eurovision entry) in 1973 with their song “Ring Ring” but didn't qualify, afterwards the band began working on their entry for the following year as they saw the potential the contest had to launch the group into the industry, and to open themselves up to an international crowd. since then the band have skyrocketed, having received many Grammy nominations and even winning various awards such as a Brit award and the AGVA's Vocal Entertainer of the Year award in 1981.
Dana International-Diva (Israel, 1998)
The 1998 Eurovision was a huge moment for LGBTQ+ representation, as it was the first time in the competition an only transgender person would compete and also win the competition.
Yaron Cohen, known also as “Dana international” began her career in 1987 as a drag queen and had her first notable success when she launched a satirical version of Whitney Houstens “My Name Is Not Susan”. She legally changed her name and underwent gender affirming surgery in 1993 and took on the stage name “Dana international”
She first entered the Eurovision Qualifying Contest for Israel in 1995, as it had been a childhood dream to compete, but her entry for the year came second in the preselection. She would go on to release an EP and album in the following years before being chosen in 1998 to represent Israel in the 43rd year of the contest's runtime.
Despite huge backlash from conservative communities in Europe, Dana overcame all of the pushback and took home the trophy with her song “Diva”. A song praising many strong powerful women throughout history.
Many orthodox jews were opposed to her presence in the contest and she received a lot of death threats. This entry was the first time a Trangender person had not only been seen on the contest stage but had also won the show, making it a huge celebration for the LGBTQ community.
Conchita Wurst - Rise Like The Phoenix (Austria,2014)
2014 was another memorable/controversial time for the contest, Austria's chose to send a drag artist as their entry for the 58th Eurovision. This made her the first drag artist to take the stage, as well as being the first artist to perform on the stage without backing vocals or dancers.
Conchita Wurst, real name Thomas Neuwirth, is a drag artist and performer originally from Styria, Austria. Before taking on the persona of “Conchita Wurst” Neuwirth competed in an austrian talent/scouting show in 2006 and finished third, later he would go on to form a boy group known as “Jetzt Anders!”, the group would disband later the same year
It was after this he developed the persona of “Conchita Wurst” and would go on to place second place in the Austrian Eurovisons selections for 2012. Two years later she would be selected to represent Austria in the 2014 Eurovision contest with the song “Rise Like A Phoenix”, a powerful ballad about overcoming difficulties.
Her presence and success sparked a lot of controversy among viewers, with a lot of more conservative groups taking great offence to the performer's presence. Some countries even went as far as to create and sign petitions to have the performance excluded from the broadcast. This controversy highlighted the ongoing disagreement between Eastern and Western Europe on homosexuality, but her win once again shone a positive light onto the LGBTQ+ community.
Sandra Kim - J'aime La Vie (Belgium,1986)
Belgium's Sandra Kim (real name; Sandra Caldarone) became the youngest person to compete and win the competition in 1986 at only 13 years of age.
Born in Montegnee in Belgium, Kim started singing when she was only seven years old. In March of 1986, she won the national selections and performed at the 30th Eurovision Contest held in Norway and took first place for Belgium making it their first and only win so far.
The song “J’aime La Vie” is an upbeat bubblegum pop song about the joys of life and living, though at the time the song made Kim appear to be 15 years of age. Once her real age had been revealed the Switzerland began a petition to have the song disqualified from the contest. After this all a rule was brought in that all contestants had to be over 16 to compete (at least on the day of the Finals)
Dave Benton, Tanel Padar & 2XL - Everybody (Estonia, 2001)
Dave Benton made history by being not only the oldest person to claim victory at the contest, he was also the first person of colour to win the show. The performance is Estonia's first and only win to date in the competition, which also makes it the first of the Baltic states to take home the title.
Born in 1951 on the Caribbean island Aruba, He moved to the US and performed as a backing vocalist and drummer for many artists. Afterwards, Benton would move to Estonia after marrying his wife in 1997. He has had a broad musical career partially due to his ability to speak 8 different languages. He has also had career in acting appearing in films "The Dissidents" and "Infinite Summer".
The win was a shock as Estonia didn't place in the top 10 of oddsmakers and betters.
Despite the song's victory, it was not immediately available as a single and could only be found as part of a compilation album released by BGM Germany. Dave Benton initially declined to perform on the song, but changed his mind a few days later when asked again.
Paul Oscar - Min Hinsti Dans (Iceland, 1997)
In 1997, Pall Oskar Hjalmtysson (more commonly known as Paul Oscar) joined the international spotlight as the first openly gay man to perform in Eurovision. Having already had national success, he was chosen to represent his home country of Iceland at the 42nd iteration of Eurovision hosted in Dublin Ireland.
Born in 1970, Oskar was a very musical child, singing and performing a lot, but was deeply affected by bullying in school. This only worsened when at the age of 16, he came out to his family as gay. In 1993 he released his album “Stu “ he soon after joined the band Milljónamæringarnir and released 2 albums with them, in 1995 he began his solo debut with the album “Palli” released under his own recording company. It went on to be the best selling Icelandic album of that year.
He co-wrote and performed the song “Minn Hinsti Dans” representing Iceland, the performance featured four women performing with him latex acting suggestive on a sofa, while the performance only placed 20th in the semi finals, it captured the attention of viewers for its boldness, particularly among the LGBTQ audience.
Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland, 2006)
The audience of the 51st iteration of Eurovision got quite the shock when Finnish metal band Lordi took to the stage with their song “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. The band are known for their extravagant monster outfits and are even known as “the Finish monsters”. The band would be crowned winners and take home Finland's first and only victory in the contest.
The band originally formed in 1996 after meeting at a KISS concert the year before. They knew early on they wanted to perform with crazy pyrotechnics and be dressed as different monsters. The costumes are heavily inspired by KISS and Horror elements. The band are never seen without the masks on, no matter what.
Up until this time, the songs in the contest were more predominantly europop, pop or ballads. heavier and alternative genres were not seen in the contest until Lordis performance. Many called the group devil worshipers. In fact, a group of Greek priests were certain the band were satanic and told Kerrang magazine the group wasn't welcomed in the country.
Despite this Lordi’s performance opened the doors of Eurovision for more non mainstream artists, their win and performance have had a huge impact on the way people would perceive the contest. And undoubtedly paved the way for other non mainstream artists to succeed in later shows.
Joost Klein - Europapa (Netherlands, 2024)
This years eurovisions had a lot of really notable performances, some for good reasons, some for more controversial, I found it hard to pick one to talk about, but felt i needed to mention this years contest due to everything surrounding it, and I think the story of Joost Klein makes the most sense to mention.
Despite many viewers choosing to boycott the show this year due to Israel's presence amidst the political climate, “Europapa” took the world by storm and spread like wildfire over social media. It was exactly the type of song you’d expect at Eurovision, an upbeat techno song about loving Europe and needing to come together during tough times. with wild and quirky stage production.
The sentiment of needing to unite against hate was incredibly strong this year, with many performers voicing the same message in their shows. but Joost’s stage charisma and established popularity as a dutch performer made him stand out amongst the rest. Making his sudden disqualification from the contest a huge shock.
After qualifying for the grand final, a female camera woman claimed Klein allegedly made threatening remarks towards her, and after an investigation into these claims, the EBU released a statement disqualifying Joost from the final. Many fans were shocked by the news as it's the first time an act has been disqualified from the contest.
Since then, speculation around the EBU’s decision has mainly centered around a prior incident during a press conference between Klein and Eden Golan, the Israeli representative. During this event Klein would not make eye contact with the Israeli singer, and when she was questioned on if her presence at the contest was a safety issue. Golan refused to answer but Klein pushed back, adding he felt she should.
Joost's disqualification added even more tension to the contest this year, especially with ongoing outcry for the EBU to take a firmer stand on Israel. With the 2025 Eurovision already scheduled to take place in Basel, Switzerland, many fans will be waiting to see whether Israel will be cut loose from the competition or if History will be repeating itself.