List of Eurovision Song Contest winners

Sixty-seven songs have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. The contest's winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history; centre to these have been the awarding of points to countries by juries or televoters. The country awarded the most points is declared the winner.[1] The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes (two per country), and only the winner was announced.[2]

    Left: Lys Assia, the first Eurovision winner (1956), and Dima Bilan, winner in 2008. Centre: Johnny Logan, the winning artist in 1980, winning artist and composer in 1987 and the winning composer in 1992. Right: Loreen celebrating her Eurovision Song Contest 2012 victory in Baku.

    There have been 64 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four. Twenty-seven countries have won the contest. Switzerland won the first contest in 1956. The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven. The only person to have won more than once as performer is Ireland's Johnny Logan, who performed "What's Another Year" in 1980 and "Hold Me Now" in 1987. Logan is also one of only five songwriters to have written more than one winning entry ("Hold Me Now" 1987 and "Why Me?" 1992, performed by Linda Martin).[3] This unique distinction makes Logan the only person to have three Eurovision victories to his/her credit, as either singer, songwriter or both. The other four songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are, Willy van Hemert (Netherlands, 1957 and 1959), Yves Dessca (Monaco, 1971 and Luxembourg, 1972), Rolf Løvland (Norway, 1985 and 1995) and Brendan Graham (Ireland, 1994 and 1996).

    Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a unique opportunity for the winning artist(s) to capitalise on their success and surrounding publicity by launching or furthering their international career during their singing years. However, throughout the history of the contest, relatively few of these artists have gone on to be huge international stars. The most notable winning Eurovision artists whose career was directly launched into the spotlight following their win were the members of ABBA, who won the 1974 contest for Sweden with their song "Waterloo". ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of its time.[4] Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was Céline Dion, who won the 1988 contest for Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi".

    Since 2008, the winner has been awarded an official winner's trophy of the Eurovision Song Contest. The trophy is a handmade piece of sandblasted glass in the shape of a 1950s microphone.[5][6] The song writers and composers of the winning entry receive smaller versions of the trophy.[5] The original design was created by Kjell Engman of Kosta Boda, who specialises in glass art.[5]

    Winners by year

    Year Date Winner Song Performer Language Points Margin Runner-up
    1956 24 May   Switzerland "Refrain" Lys Assia French Not announced
    1957 3 March  Netherlands "Net als toen" Corry Brokken Dutch 31 14  France
    1958 12 March  France "Dors, mon amour" André Claveau French 27 3   Switzerland
    1959 11 March  Netherlands "Een Beetje" Teddy Scholten Dutch 21 5  United Kingdom
    1960 29 March  France "Tom Pillibi" Jacqueline Boyer French 32 7
    1961 18 March  Luxembourg "Nous les amoureux" Jean-Claude Pascal French 31 7
    1962 18 March  France "Un premier amour" Isabelle Aubret French 26 13  Monaco
    1963 23 March  Denmark "Dansevise" Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann Danish 42 2   Switzerland
    1964 21 March  Italy "Non ho l'età" Gigliola Cinquetti Italian 49 32  United Kingdom
    1965 20 March  Luxembourg "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" France Gall French 32 6
    1966 5 March  Austria "Merci, Chérie" Udo Jürgens German 31 15  Sweden
    1967 8 April  United Kingdom "Puppet on a String" Sandie Shaw English 47 25  Ireland
    1968 6 April  Spain "La, la, la" Massiel Spanish 29 1  United Kingdom
    1969 29 March  Spain "Vivo cantando" Salomé Spanish 18 No runner-up
     United Kingdom "Boom Bang-a-Bang" Lulu English
     Netherlands "De troubadour" Lenny Kuhr Dutch
     France "Un jour, un enfant" Frida Boccara French
    1970 21 March  Ireland "All Kinds of Everything" Dana English 32 6  United Kingdom
    1971 3 April  Monaco "Un banc, un arbre, une rue" Séverine French 128 12  Spain
    1972 25 March  Luxembourg "Après toi" Vicky Leandros French 128 14  United Kingdom
    1973 7 April  Luxembourg "Tu te reconnaîtras" Anne-Marie David French 129 4  Spain
    1974 6 April  Sweden "Waterloo" ABBA English 24 6  Italy
    1975 22 March  Netherlands "Ding-a-dong" Teach-In English 152 14  United Kingdom
    1976 3 April  United Kingdom "Save Your Kisses for Me" Brotherhood of Man English 164 17  France
    1977 7 May  France "L'oiseau et l'enfant" Marie Myriam French 136 15  United Kingdom
    1978 22 April  Israel "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (א-ב-ני-בי) Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta Hebrew 157 32  Belgium
    1979 31 March  Israel "Hallelujah" (הללויה) Milk and Honey Hebrew 125 9  Spain
    1980 19 April  Ireland "What's Another Year" Johnny Logan English 143 15  Germany
    1981 4 April  United Kingdom "Making Your Mind Up" Bucks Fizz English 136 4
    1982 24 April  Germany "Ein bißchen Frieden" Nicole German 161 61  Israel
    1983 23 April  Luxembourg "Si la vie est cadeau" Corinne Hermès French 142 6
    1984 5 May  Sweden "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" Herreys Swedish 145 8  Ireland
    1985 4 May  Norway "La det swinge" Bobbysocks! Norwegian 123 18  Germany
    1986 3 May  Belgium "J'aime la vie" Sandra Kim French 176 36   Switzerland
    1987 9 May  Ireland "Hold Me Now" Johnny Logan English 172 31  Germany
    1988 30 April   Switzerland "Ne partez pas sans moi" Céline Dion French 137 1  United Kingdom
    1989 6 May  Yugoslavia "Rock Me" Riva Croatian 137 7
    1990 5 May  Italy "Insieme: 1992" Toto Cutugno Italian 149 17  Ireland
    France
    1991 4 May  Sweden "Fångad av en stormvind" Carola Swedish 146 0  France
    1992 9 May  Ireland "Why Me?" Linda Martin English 155 16  United Kingdom
    1993 15 May "In Your Eyes" Niamh Kavanagh English 187 23
    1994 30 April "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan English 226 60  Poland
    1995 13 May  Norway "Nocturne" Secret Garden Norwegian 148 29  Spain
    1996 18 May  Ireland "The Voice" Eimear Quinn English 162 48  Norway
    1997 3 May  United Kingdom "Love Shine a Light" Katrina and the Waves English 227 70  Ireland
    1998 9 May  Israel "Diva" (דיווה) Dana International Hebrew 172 6  United Kingdom
    1999 29 May  Sweden "Take Me to Your Heaven" Charlotte Nilsson English 163 17  Iceland
    2000 13 May  Denmark "Fly on the Wings of Love" Olsen Brothers English 195 40  Russia
    2001 12 May  Estonia "Everybody" Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL English 198 21  Denmark
    2002 25 May  Latvia "I Wanna" Marie N English 176 12  Malta
    2003 24 May  Turkey "Everyway That I Can" Sertab Erener English 167 2  Belgium
    2004[N 1] 15 May  Ukraine "Wild Dances" Ruslana English[N 2] 280 17  Serbia and Montenegro
    2005 21 May  Greece "My Number One" Helena Paparizou English 230 38  Malta
    2006 20 May  Finland "Hard Rock Hallelujah" Lordi English 292 44  Russia
    2007 12 May  Serbia "Molitva" (Молитва) Marija Šerifović Serbian 268 33  Ukraine
    2008[N 3] 24 May  Russia "Believe" Dima Bilan English 272 42
    2009 16 May  Norway "Fairytale" Alexander Rybak English 387 169  Iceland
    2010 29 May  Germany "Satellite" Lena English 246 76  Turkey
    2011 14 May  Azerbaijan "Running Scared" Ell & Nikki English 221 32  Italy
    2012 26 May  Sweden "Euphoria" Loreen English 372 113  Russia
    2013 18 May  Denmark "Only Teardrops" Emmelie de Forest English 281 47  Azerbaijan
    2014 10 May  Austria "Rise Like a Phoenix" Conchita Wurst English 290 52  Netherlands
    2015 23 May  Sweden "Heroes" Måns Zelmerlöw English 365 62  Russia
    2016 14 May  Ukraine "1944" Jamala English[N 4] 534 23  Australia
    2017 13 May  Portugal "Amar pelos dois" Salvador Sobral Portuguese 758 143  Bulgaria
    2018 12 May  Israel "Toy" Netta English[N 5] 529 93  Cyprus
    2019 18 May  Netherlands "Arcade" Duncan Laurence English 498 26  Italy

    Eleven Eurovision winners (alongside three non-winners) featured at the Congratulations concert in 2005, in which ABBA's "Waterloo" was voted the most popular song of the contest's first fifty years.[7]

    Ireland has finished first seven times, more than any other country, Ireland also won the contest for three consecutive years (1992, 1993, 1994), more consecutive years than any other country. Three countries have won twice in a row, Spain (1968 and 1969), Luxembourg (1972 and 1973) and Israel (1978 and 1979). Serbia is the only country to win with its debut entry (in 2007), though Serbia had competed previously as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. The country achieving the highest position on its first appearance in any form in the Contest is Poland, which came second in 1994 (even Switzerland in 1956 won with its second entry of the night). Under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015, the winner of the contest was decided by the final voting nation on eleven occasions.[N 6]

    Changes to the voting system, including a steady growth in the number of countries participating and voting, means that the points earned are not comparable across the decades. Portugal's Salvador Sobral holds the record of the highest number of points in the contest's history, earning 758 with the song "Amar pelos dois". Norway's Alexander Rybak holds the largest margin of victory in absolute points, a 169-point cushion over second place in 2009. Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti holds the record for largest victory by percentage, scoring almost three times as many as second place (49 points compared with 17 by the runner-up) in the 1964 contest. Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, the lowest winning score was Norway's Bobbysocks! 123 points earned (of the 216 available from the 18 other countries) when winning Eurovision 1985, while the lowest winning total ever is the 18 points (of the 160 total votes cast by 16 countries) scored by each of the four winning countries in 1969.

    Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, in which each country gives maximum points to its first place choice, Sweden's Loreen won Eurovision 2012 with the most ever first place votes earned, receiving first place votes from 18 of 41 countries (excluding themselves). The 1976 United Kingdom entrant, Brotherhood of Man with the song "Save Your Kisses For Me" holds the record of the highest average score per participating country, with an average of 9.65 points received per country. 2011 winner Azerbaijan Ell & Nikki, hold the lowest average score for a winning song under that system, receiving 5.14 points per country.

    In 2016, Jamala's "1944" became the first winning entry since the jury vote was added alongside the televote starting in 2009 to place first in neither area, coming second in the jury vote behind Australia and second in the televote behind Russia. Duncan Laurence's "Arcade," became the second such winner in the 2019 contest, having placed third behind North Macedonia and Sweden in the jury vote, and second behind Norway in the televote.

    The United Kingdom has finished second fifteen times at Eurovision (most recently in 1998), more than any other country. The most successful country never to have won the Contest is Malta, having finished second in 2002 and 2005 and third in 1992 and 1998. Another island nation Iceland has also finished second twice, in 1999 and 2009.

    There is no official runner-up for two of the contests – 1956 and 1969. In 1956 only the winner, Switzerland, was announced, whilst there were speculative reports that Germany ended up in second place with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" by Walter Andreas Schwarz, given that Germany was chosen to host the 1957 contest. In 1969 four songs shared first place by achieving the same number of points; fifth place was achieved by Switzerland, which is not considered an official runner-up, because of the draw for first place.

    Winners by country

    Map showing each country's number of Eurovision wins up to and including 2019.[N 7]
    Table key
     Former countries that have been dissolved.
    Wins Country Years
    7  Ireland 1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996
    6  Sweden 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015
    5  France 1958, 1960, 1962, 1969, 1977
     Luxembourg 1961, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1983
     United Kingdom 1967, 1969, 1976, 1981, 1997
     Netherlands 1957, 1959, 1969, 1975, 2019
    4  Israel 1978, 1979, 1998, 2018
    3  Norway 1985, 1995, 2009
     Denmark 1963, 2000, 2013
    2  Spain 1968, 1969
      Switzerland 1956, 1988
     Italy 1964, 1990
     Germany 1982, 2010
     Austria 1966, 2014
     Ukraine 2004, 2016
    1  Monaco 1971
     Belgium 1986
     Yugoslavia 1989
     Estonia 2001
     Latvia 2002
     Turkey 2003
     Greece 2005
     Finland 2006
     Serbia 2007
     Russia 2008
     Azerbaijan 2011
     Portugal 2017

    Year 1969 is in italics to indicate a joint (4-way) win

    By language

      English (46.42%)
      French (20.32%)
      Hebrew (5.82%)
      Dutch (4.32%)
      German (2.92%)
      Norwegian (2.92%)
      Swedish (2.92%)
      Italian (2.92%)
      Spanish (2.92%)
      Danish (1.42%)
      Ukrainian (1.42%)
      Croatian (1.42%)
      Serbian (1.42%)
      Crimean Tatar (1.42%)
      Portuguese (1.42%)

    Between 1966 and 1973, and again between 1977 and 1998, countries were only permitted to perform in their own language; see the main Eurovision Song Contest article.

    Wins Language Years Countries
    33 English 1967, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,[N 8] 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,[N 9] 2018, [N 5] 2019 United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine,[N 8][N 9] Greece, Finland, Russia, Norway, Germany, Azerbaijan, Austria, Israel
    14 French 1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1986, 1988 Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium
    4 Hebrew 1978, 1979, 1998, 2018[N 5] Israel
    3 Dutch 1957, 1959, 1969 Netherlands
    2 Italian 1964, 1990 Italy
    German 1966, 1982 Austria, Germany
    Spanish 1968, 1969 Spain
    Swedish 1984, 1991 Sweden
    Norwegian 1985, 1995 Norway
    1 Danish 1963 Denmark
    Croatian[N 10] 1989 Yugoslavia
    Ukrainian 2004[N 8] Ukraine[N 8]
    Serbian[N 10] 2007 Serbia
    Crimean Tatar 2016[N 9] Ukraine[N 9]
    Portuguese 2017 Portugal

    See also

    • List of Eurovision Song Contest winning songwriters
    • Eurovision Song Contest winners discography
    • List of Junior Eurovision Song Contest winners

    Notes and references

    Notes

    1. Between 2004 and 2007, the contest included a single televised semi-final::— In 2004 the semi-final was held on the Wednesday before the final. Between 2005 and 2007 the semi-final was held on the Thursday of "Eurovision Week"
    2. This song was partially sung in Ukrainian.
    3. Since 2008 the contest has included two semi-finals, held on the Tuesday and Thursday before the final.
    4. This song was partially sung in Crimean Tatar.
    5. This song was partially sung in Hebrew.
    6. 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2003.
    7. Yugoslavia's 1989 victory is shown in the lower inset.
    8. This song was partially sung in Ukrainian.
    9. This song was partially sung in Crimean Tatar.
    10. Croatian (the language of the 1989 winning song) and Serbian (the language of the 2007 winning song) are fully mutually intelligible and often considered varieties of a single language, Serbo-Croatian. However, they are listed separately in Eurovision statistics.

    References

    1. Extract from the rules for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved on 22 August 2007. Archived May 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
    2. Eurovision 1956. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved on 24 May 2008. Archived May 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
    3. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
    4. BBC News (6 December 2005). ABBA's Bjorn says no to reunion. Retrieved on 15 March 2008.
    5. "Trophy". Eurovision Song Contest. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
    6. "Eurovision Crystal Trophy". Kosta Boda. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
    7. ABBA win 'Eurovision 50th' vote. BBC News (23 October 2005). Retrieved on 22 August 2007.

    Bibliography

    • Eurovision Song Contest history. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved on 19 August 2007.
    • History. ESCtoday.com. Retrieved on 19 August 2007.
    • John Kennedy O'Connor (2005). The Eurovision Song Contest 50 Years The Official History. London: Carlton Books Limited. ISBN 1-84442-586-X.

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