The origins of Eurovision: ten facts from the contest's 70-year history

A long feature on HistoryExtra traces the evolution of the Eurovision Song Contest from its 1956 founding to today through ten landmark facts. Across its 70-year history, the contest has become an important part of European culture and of the continent's soft-power dynamic.

The first edition took place on 24 May 1956 in the Swiss town of Lugano. Seven countries (Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Luxembourg) each entered two songs. The winner was the Swiss singer Lys Assia with the song "Refrain", which collected 102 points.

The founding rationale was that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) needed to test its shared technical infrastructure with a continent-wide music contest modelled on Italy's Sanremo festival. A second goal was to test whether continuous live broadcasting across the continent could be sustained.

The number of participating countries grew from 7 in 1956 to 37 in 2026. That figure accelerated after the end of the Cold War, with the participation of Eastern European countries. Ukraine first entered in 2003 and Russia in 1994; Russian participation has been suspended since 2022.

ABBA's 1974 victory for Sweden with "Waterloo" created a global breakout for Swedish pop. According to data cited by HistoryExtra, ABBA's worldwide album sales passed 25 million within three years of that win.

The voting system has itself evolved. The 1957 format of 12 jury points per country was replaced in 1975 by the now-familiar 12-10-8-7...1 scoring scheme. Televoting was added in 1997; in 2016 the jury vote and the televote were split into two parallel scores presented separately.

Political tension has surfaced in every era. In 1969 four countries shared the title (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and France), which led the EBU to add a rule for a single winner in future finals. The 2019 hosting of the contest by Israel drew political protests.

Turkey first competed in 1975 and won once, with Sertab Erener's "Everyway That I Can" in 2003 — the country's only Eurovision victory. After hosting the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey has been absent from the contest since 2013.

Observable economic effects include accommodation revenue. According to an EBU report cited by HistoryExtra, the total contribution to the 2024 host city Malmö was about 47 million euros, with tourism up 18 per cent.

The contest today runs over three evenings: two semi-finals and a grand final. The EBU's official figures recorded a total live audience of 163 million for the 2024 edition. The number confirms Eurovision's status as one of the largest television events in Europe.