How old is Eurovision. Basic rules for the Eurovision Song Contest

What are the rules for the Eurovision Song Contest?

sisters Tolmachevs represented Russia at Eurovision 2014. In the final of the competition, held in Copenhagen on May 10, Anastasia and Maria performed the song "Shine" ("Shine"). One of the authors of the composition was Philip Kirkorov.
AiF.ru talks about how the winner of the show is chosen.

About the birth of Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest was first held in Switzerland in 1956 as an alternative to the Italian festival in Sanremo (this festival dates back to 1951, has been held annually with short interruptions up to the present). So, the organizers of the new contest decided that only representatives of countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) can participate in it, therefore it is not entirely correct to call Eurovision a competition of exclusively European countries, because representatives of Israel, Cyprus, Egypt also participate in it and other countries that are geographically related to other parts of the world.

The Tolmachev sisters will represent Russia at Eurovision. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

General rules of the competition

Throughout its history, the rules of Eurovision have changed only a few times, the last time the changes affected the principle of voting for the song you like. The key aspects of the current version of the rules are as follows:

Due to the large number of participants, the contest takes place in several stages: first, the semi-finals, which must be passed by representatives of all countries, except for the country hosting the contest, as well as the "big five" founding countries of Eurovision - Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Representatives of those countries that took the first to tenth places in the semi-finals are allowed to the final of the competition. In total, 26 countries are represented in the finals of the competition - 20 leaders of the semi-finals, five members of the "big five" and a representative of the country hosting the competition.

The Eurovision 2014 final will be held at B&W Halls, which is essentially an industrial building. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Audience voting rules

It is not always clear how exactly the points are distributed among the participants. In fact, everything is not so difficult.

Voting takes place in each country that sent its participant to the contest. Based on the voting results, the number of votes cast for a particular song is counted. The song that received the most votes gets 12 points - and this is the maximum score. The second most voted song gets 10 points, the third one gets 8 points. Then the songs in descending order get 7, 6, 5 - and so on up to one point each.

Until 1997, voting took place only among a specially selected national jury. However, it was decided to conduct an experiment and allow viewers to vote for their favorite composition. So, since 1998, televoting was introduced in all countries using sms messages or phone calls, while all of them were paid. From now on, the national jury did not participate in the distribution of points, but played the role of “insurance” so that if a technical failure occurs in any country, they will assign points to the contestants on their own. After the end of voting, each country in turn is invited to announce the results.

Due to the large number of participating countries, only the highest scores (12, 10 and 8 points) are named, and the audience sees the distribution of the remaining points on an interactive scoreboard.

If it happens that several participants receive the same number of points in the final or semi-final of the competition, then the winner is determined by the results of only the popular vote: the song that received more points from the viewers becomes the winner.

If in this case the winner is not revealed, then they look at the jury's scores - the song that was rated higher by the jury members from all countries becomes the winner.

The international music competition called Eurovision, the rules and conditions of which we will describe below, is the largest competition, which over the past few years has turned into a long-awaited show. Each time, the participants and the voting results surprise the audience, and no one knows how the project will end next year.

Eurovision - the history of Australia's appearance there

The Eurovision project as an International Song Contest was organized for the very first time in the mid-fifties of the last century in Switzerland. At that time, it became an alternative version of a similar event held in Italy, the San Remo festival (still held by Italians, but not so regularly).

The organizers decided to invite only representatives of those countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union to participate in it. In this regard, it is wrong to call the project exclusively European, since among the participants there are also musicians from Israel, Egypt, Cyprus and other countries that are not geographically part of Europe (for example, Australia).

Why does Australia participate in Eurovision? The decision that a representative from this state, which is neither part of Europe nor a member of the European Broadcasting Union, will participate in the competition was made in February 2015. The reason for this exclusion was two factors:

• First, the competition itself is hugely popular among Australian viewers, as noted by Mark Abeid, director of SBS;
• Secondly, 2015 marked the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the invitation from distant Australia became a kind of holiday surprise for the whole world.

In the same year, Australia was represented in the competition by a charming singer named Guy Sebastian, who reached the final without participating in the preliminary stages of the competition with the song Tonight Again ("Tonight Again").

Eurovision Rules

Despite the fact that the Eurovision Song Contest has existed for several decades, the rules for its holding have changed only a few times throughout history. The extreme changes were related to the principles of choosing the best song.

To date, the key rules of the international music competition are as follows:

1. The participating country is represented by one singer who prepared a single song;
2. The performance is carried out live, the timing allotted for the performance is no more than four minutes;
3. The entry can only be shown to listeners from September of the previous year;
4. The age of the participants in the competition is from sixteen years old, younger singers can perform in the framework of a similar project for children - “ Junior Eurovision»;
5. Absolutely any singer can be a representative of a participating country, regardless of nationality and even citizenship (spectators often have questions about why, for example, a Ukrainian performed from Russia or vice versa);
6. The order of performances is determined by a draw;
7. Regarding the show itself: no more than 6 people can be on the stage during the performance of the participant, it is forbidden to use animals.
8. Audience voting starts from the first moments of the first performance and ends fifteen minutes after the last one.

Since the end of the 2000s, in addition to the vote of the audience, the vote of a professional jury has been involved in the formation of the results. The purpose of such an innovation is to avoid the "neighbourly" principle, according to which friendly countries usually voted for each other. The group of professionals is formed as follows: five people from each country represent such fields of activity as composing, writing lyrics, music production, DJing on radio, and artistic art. Together they make up the final rating of the songs.

Points are added up and lined up in order. The country with the most points is the winner. She, in turn, gets the opportunity to hold a new competition in her country. The singer, on the other hand, receives a contract with the European Broadcasting Union and undertakes to participate in all events organized by him.

Since about fifty countries participate in Eurovision every year, in each of which the most worthy representative must be chosen, the competition is divided into several stages. Semi-finals are organized for all countries except the host and the so-called "big five". Those countries that took places from 1 to 10 in the previous stage participate in the final. The total number of participants represented in the final is 26. Of these, twenty are the leaders of the semi-finals, five are members of the Big Five and one is from the host country.

Audience voting at Eurovision

Voting by the audience became possible only in 1997, when the organizers decided to conduct a kind of experiment, giving the audience the right to choose a favorite. Prior to that, only members of the professional jury were competent. Since 1998, the voting format has been paid SMS and phone calls, with the national jury acting as a "safety net" in case of a technical failure.

Each country that sent its participant to Eurovision has the right to vote. As a result, all received votes cast for a particular song are counted. Points are distributed as follows:

• 12 points - to the performance that received the largest number of audience votes;
• 10 - second in recognition;
• 8 - third and further up to one point.

So that the already lengthy event does not stretch all night, the presenters announce aloud only the participants who have scored the maximum number of points - from 8 to 12, the rest can be tracked on the interactive scoreboard.

You can also become the one who will decide the fate of the country you like at Eurovision by deciding to vote for your favorite. Today, this can be done by sending an SMS or making a phone call.

The choice of the language of performance is free and is carried out by the participating TV companies, and the maximum duration of the artist's performance on stage must be 3 minutes. A song from each country is performed once and in a live voice (music can be recorded on a phonogram, which should not contain vocals or imitation).

According to modern rules, contestants must be over 16 years old at the time of the competition, and a group of performers from one country can be represented by a maximum of six participants. A singer can only perform for one country in a given year. Animals are not allowed on the stage.

The semi-finals are traditionally held on Tuesday and Thursday, and the final of the competition is held on Saturday. The competition is attended by 46 countries - active members of the European Broadcasting Union (European Broadcasting Union). 26 active EBU participants are represented in the final.

After all the songs are performed, the audience votes for the song that they liked the most - except for the performance of the representatives of their country. All votes are counted and summed up, then each country transmits the results via satellite.

The best ten songs according to the results of the voting receive points: for the first place - twelve points, for the second - ten points, from the third to the tenth - from eight to one point in descending order. The winner is the country whose performance scored the most points. She gets the right to host the competition next year.

By the way, the host state of Eurovision should develop its own slogan and symbol, which will be added to the main logo. The main rule: they must reflect the spirit of the competition and the national characteristics of a particular country.

The rules of the Eurovision music contest have changed several times during its existence. In the first competition, which took place back in 1956, seven countries participated, each of which represented two songs. Later, it was decided to perform one song and the next year to remove from the competition the countries that showed the worst results.

Since the beginning of the history of Eurovision, the winners have been determined by the National Jury, but in 1997 the gradual introduction of televoting by the audience began, and in 2003 the audience's sympathy became the determining factor. In 2004, the competition was divided into a semi-final and a final - so all interested countries could take part and "show themselves".

In September 2008, changes were made to the rules for summing up the results of the competition, as the spectator voting system of 2004-2008 caused a huge amount of criticism. Starting again, not only the audience began to evaluate, but also a professional jury.

The jury consists of five members, including the chairman. Each of its representatives must appoint an understudy in case they are unable to attend the event. Jury members must not be employees of the participating broadcasters, but must be from one of the musical professions - presenter, performer, composer, lyricist or music producer. None of them can be involved in the production and performance of the songs of the contest participants. The names of the jury members cannot be revealed until the final.
Jury votes are used in the semi-final and final scoring and are decisive if two or more songs receive the same number of TV viewer votes.

In September 2007, a decision was made: only the host country of the contest and the countries representing the "Big Four" (Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain) automatically qualify for the Eurovision final - a year later, with Italy returning to the contest after a 13-year absence, The Big Four has become the Big Five. Also in 2007, the tradition of transferring the Eurovision symbol was established. Belgrade accepted the rights of the host city from Helsinki: the Serbian capital was awarded the iconic Helsinki Insignia, which subsequently began to be transferred to each next Eurovision host. The symbol is made in the form of a key with the inscription Eurovision Song Contest Host City, on which all the years of the competition and all the host cities are engraved.

The organizers of the contest "Eurovision-2010" have made changes to the SMS voting procedure. You could vote for your favorite performer during the entire competition. Voting began with the beginning of the first song and ended 15 minutes after the performance of the final song. The organizers of the competition considered this order more logical. This innovation also made it possible to avoid overloading telephone lines, calls to which were previously available only during the last 15 minutes of the final show.

The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 will be determined by a 50/50 vote by a professional jury and viewers. The same principle will apply to the semi-finals. The European Broadcasting Union has decided that at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 the voting of the viewers will take place after the end of the performance of all performers.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

• No more than 45 countries - active members of the European Broadcasting Union take part in the competition.
• 5 countries are guaranteed participation in the final of the competition: the host country and the founding countries of the competition - Germany, Spain, France and Great Britain.
• All participating countries hold their own national selection competitions. The rules for their conduct are established by the TV company participating in Eurovision at its own discretion. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure proper transparency of the process.
• No more than 40 countries can take part in the semi-finals of the competition. The Organizing Committee of the competition determines, by drawing lots, how these countries will be divided into two semi-finals.
• 25 countries take part in the final of the competition.
• The order of performance in all concerts is determined by lottery. From each semi-final, 10 countries will advance to the final of the competition.

Song and performance requirements

• The entry for the competition (lyrics and music) must not be released or publicly performed before 1 October of the year preceding the competition.
• The maximum length of a song must be 3 minutes.
• During each performance, up to 6 people at least 16 years old are allowed on stage.
• Animals are not allowed on stage.
• The choice of execution language is free.
• All artists must perform the song live, accompanied by a backing track.
• Lyrics and performance should not create a negative reputation for the competition.
• Songs containing political statements or advertising, swearing or obscene language are not allowed to the competition.
• Artists are not allowed to represent more than one country in the Eurovision Song Contest in the current year.

Sanctions

A song may be disqualified for the following reasons:

• If an artist, a member of the delegation or a representative does not comply with the requirements of the TV company of the organizer or the executive director of the EBU and may, by their actions, interfere with the holding or broadcasting of the show.
• If the performance of the artist differs from that planned and shown at the dress rehearsals and thereby interferes with the organization or showing of the show.
• If the participants (TV company or artist) try to violate the rules of the competition at any stage of its preparation or conduct, or plan to violate them during the shows themselves.

The decision on disqualification is made by the Organizing Committee of the competition on the recommendation of the Executive Director of the EBU.

A TV company participating in the contest may be subject to sanctions, up to and including elimination from participation in subsequent shows in case of violation of the rules or withdrawal of the application after December 14 of the year preceding the contest. Such a sanction cannot be imposed for more than 3 years.

• In the final and semi-finals of "Eurovision-2010" voting will be held among viewers and a professional jury of 5 people. TV viewers and jury will each have 50% weight in determining the results of the competition.
• The top ten of the total voting in each of the semi-finals will advance to the final of the competition.
• During the Eurovision 2010 semi-finals and final in Oslo, voting will be open from the moment the first song starts and will continue for another 15 minutes after the end of the last song.
• You are not allowed to vote for your country of residence.
• In the event of a technical or other failure in televoting, only the results of the national jury vote will be taken into account.

Determination of the winner

The song with the most points at the end of the voting is considered the winner of the contest.

In the event of a tie for the last place in the semi-final qualifying for the final, or for the first place in the final, the song with the most points from the most countries wins. If this number is also the same, then the winner is the country with the most 12-point ratings. If this number is the same, then 10 points are considered, etc.

If in the semi-final the above procedure could not determine the finalist, then the right to enter the final will be given to the country that performed earlier (in order) in this semi-final.

In the final, if this procedure does not help determine the winner, both songs are declared the winners of the competition.

The organizers of Eurovision had a good goal: to merge the countries of Europe that were scattered after the Second World War in a single musical impulse. In 1956, the first competition was held, and the place was chosen in the best possible way: the action took place in Lugano, the southern city of Switzerland, distinguished by its diplomacy. The victory was also received by the representative of this country - Liz Assia with the song Refrain. The show has never been canceled since this year.

Eurovision rules

The participants are required to have a live sound (there can only be accompaniment in the recording), an original three-minute composition and no more than 6 people simultaneously on the stage. You can sing in any language. Participants must be over 16 years old: since 2003, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest has been founded for underage musicians (participants in the 2006 children's competition, the Tolmacheva sisters, represented Russia at the adult competition in 2014).

Popular

The show is broadcast live, and after that, SMS voting begins, allowing you to choose the best performers. Depending on the number of voters, participants receive from 12 to 1 point from each of the countries (or do not receive a single point if they are not voted for). And six years ago, music experts joined the audience: five professionals from each country also vote for their favorite songs.

Sometimes countries receive the same number of points - in this case, the number of 10 and 12 points is taken into account. By the way, in 1969, when this rule had not yet been taken into account, four countries were declared winners at once: France, Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain. The rest of the participants did not like it much, so now the jury is choosing the favorite more carefully.

Eurovision countries

Only countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (hence the name of the contest) can participate in Eurovision, that is, it is not the geography that matters, but the channel that will broadcast the show live. For many who wish, this regulation becomes a serious obstacle: Kazakhstan, which applied for membership in the EBU, was not approved by the organizers of the competition.

The Eurovision organizers do not advocate for new participants at all, but this does not interrupt the appetite of many countries dreaming of participating in the contest. Compared to 1956, the number of performers has increased 9 times: instead of 7 states, 39 are now competing. By the way, Australia will enter the stage this year. The green continent will be presented for the first time in history by singer Guy Sebastian. The only "but": in the event of Australia's victory, they have not yet been allowed to host Eurovision at home.

But there are those who are never denied participation: these are the countries of the so-called "Big Five", which includes the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. These states never tremble for qualifying performances and always automatically find themselves in the final.

Eurovision rejections

"Eurovision" is an expensive pleasure, so the most common reason for countries' refusals is economic. In second place is politics, which intervenes in the competition every now and then. For example, Armenia refused to send its musicians to Baku in 2012 due to strained relations with Azerbaijan, and Morocco was not shown at the competition for a long time due to conflicts with Israel.

There are those who do not want to go to the show, accusing the judges of bias. The Czech Republic turned out to be the most dissatisfied country: since 2009, the state stubbornly avoided Eurovision (in three years of participation, the Czechs scored only 10 points in total), and only this year decided to try their hand again.

Türkiye said no this year, with a backlog of complaints. Muslims are unhappy with the victory of the bearded Conchita Wurst last year and Finnish Krista Siegfrids' lesbian kiss with her backing vocalist, which was captured by cameras during the semi-finals in 2013.

Famous participants of Eurovision

Many performers believe that Eurovision is a stepping stone to world popularity. In fact, the competition, even if it gives a few seconds of fame, gives few people a chance to become truly famous. There are also pleasant exceptions. For example, in 1974, the Swedish group ABBA, at that moment unfamiliar even within their native country, won first place with the song Waterloo. This victory instantly brought the team success all over the world: 8 singles of the group, one after another, firmly established themselves at the top of the British charts, and in the USA, three albums of the quartet became gold and one platinum. By the way, the Waterloo hit in 2005, thanks to the vote of viewers from 31 countries, was recognized as the best Eurovision song in history.

Celine Dion was already a star in Canada and France by the time of the competition. The victory in 1988 with the song Ne partez pas sans moi (the singer represented Switzerland) expanded her geography: Dion's records began to be sold in Asia, Australia and most European countries, and made her think about recording singles in English. Approximately the same story happened with the Spaniard Julio Iglesias, who in 1994 reached fourth place with the song Gwendolyne, and then learned to sing in Portuguese, French and Italian and made himself known in Europe.

The Brainstorm group, which took third place in 2000 (by the way, these were the first performers who performed in the competition from Latvia), Eurovision, if not opened the whole planet, but allowed them to successfully tour Scandinavia and consolidate their success in Eastern Europe, the Baltic states and Russia.

It also happened vice versa: when performers with a name took part in a music competition, but did not achieve leadership in the competition. So, Tatu, despite encouraging forecasts, took only third place, the British Blue became 11th, and Patricia Kaas - eighth.

Eurovision scandals

They like to criticize Eurovision: the first places are probably bought, the lyrics are unoriginal, and the countries vote not for the composition, but for their neighbors. Even the texts, behavior and appearance of some contestants become the cause of conflicts.

In 1973, fans of the Israeli singer Ilanit were seriously worried about the life of the singer. On the eve of the contest, the singer received threats from Islamic radicals who made no secret of the impending attack. Nevertheless, the performer took the stage, having previously put on a bulletproof vest. Fortunately, nothing dangerous for her life did not happen.

In 2007, a scandal arose around the Ukrainian participant - the singer Verka Serdyuchka (aka Andrey Danilko), in whose song the words "Russia, goodbye" were heard. The culprit of the story herself explained that the text contains the phrase Lasha Tumbai, which means “whipped cream” in Mongolian. Be that as it may, Verka's performance turned out to be prophetic: relations with Russia deteriorated sharply, and now the singer is a rare bird in our area.

And the Spaniard Daniel Dihes was “lucky” to be the victim of a bully in a red cap Jimmy Jump, who usually breaks into football matches to make the audience laugh and get into the frame. In 2010, Jimmy chose Eurovision as the venue and snuck onto the stage during Daniel's performance. Jimmy flaunted in front of the cameras for a full 15 seconds, until the shocked guards began to act. Dihes (who hadn't lost his temper during Jump's antics) was allowed to sing one more time.

Non-standard participants of the show, representatives of sexual minorities or alternative musical genres, also attract attention to themselves. Several times such musicians managed to win, which angered many spectators, but did not cancel their victory. In 1998, it was transgender Dana International from Israel; in 2006, hard rockers Lordi caused a wave of irritation, and last year Thomas Neuwirth became a bone of contention, who appeared on stage in the form of a woman with a beard Conchita Wurst.