Eurovision is back!

Camp, kitsch and cheesy, the annual Eurovision Song Contest is back! Love it or hate it, Eurovision has become a big event in the TV calendar; with questionable lyrics, outrageous wardrobe choices and weird and wonderful characters guaranteed. If you’re a casual observer indulging a guilty pleasure or a super-fan who hosts their own Eurovision party, you’re in for a treat as the world’s biggest TV talent event takes centre stage.

who’s representing Britain at Eurovision?

Michael Rice will be flying the flag for the UK with the song Bigger Than Us, a powerful ballad that we hope will impress the continent’s voting public and judges alike. 21-year-old Rice appeared on ITV’s X Factor five years ago and also experienced success on BBC’s All Together Now, winning the first series in 2018. It’s usually pretty tough for a British entry to win, so ending up on “the left of the screen” (where the top of the leaderboard is displayed) in the final scoring should be considered a great success.

Who are favourites to win Eurovision?

There are a few countries tipped for the win, the bookmakers’ favourites to look out for are The Netherlands with the song Arcade by Duncan Laurence, Sweden’s John Lundvik with Too Late For Love and Australia’s entry Zero Gravity sung by Katie Miller-Heidke. Sweden will have extra incentive as they aim to claim a 7th Eurovision win and become joint leaders in the history books. The host nation usually scores well too as the public tend to reward a well put on event but rarely does a country win back-to-back Eurovisions, so Israel will have to do something exceptional again to win European hearts. The UK will have to outperform our recent entries to get towards the top of the table but with Eurovision, it seems anything is possible.

Have Britain ever won Eurovision?

Yes! Believe it or not, the UK have a rich history of winning the contest having won 5 times, but not since 1997 when Katrina and the Waves claimed victory with Love Shine A Light. Fans with longer memories will have Buck’s Fizz vividly in their minds with their colourful rendition of Making Your Mind Up, which famously won in 1981. The camp and catchy Save Your Kisses For Me won it for the UK in 1976 and in the 1960s, Lulu and Sandie Shaw shot to fame with winning entries too. The UK has also been runner-up a record 15 times. The most successful country at Eurovision is Ireland with a record 7 victories, most recently in 1996 with Sweden nipping at their heels on 6.

Why is Israel hosting Eurovision?

Eurovision is always hosted by the winners of the previous year’s contest, so this year Israel are the hosts (despite not technically being in Europe) thanks to Netta with Toy in 2018, a fun song with a social message. For many Israel is a controversial host nation with several organisations and individuals calling for a boycott of the competition due to accusations of long-standing human rights violations in the region. This year’s event will be held in the city of Tel Aviv for the first time.

Why are Australia in Eurovision?

Eurovision, as the name suggests, is a pan-European event but that doesn’t mean only European nations compete; Israel being the most successful example of countries outside Europe entering Eurovision. Others include Turkey (only partially in Europe) and Australia who first entered in 2015. Australia is perhaps the most peculiar of the non-European nations, in that it is several thousand miles away and 10 hours ahead of most of Europe. Over the years Eurovision has developed a large following of fans in Australia; they were first invited to compete to celebrate the contest’s 60th anniversary year and have been in it ever since, to the delight of their early-morning viewers.

How does the Eurovision scoring work?

Historically, scoring was done by jury, until the 1990s when scores became determined by public vote. During the contest, viewers are encouraged to vote for their favourite song and at the end of the show the results of each country get announced. Since 2009 a combination of public vote and jury decision from each voting country has decided the scoring (one set of scores from each nation’s judges and one set of scores from each nation’s public vote). Successful entries will aim to get as many 12 points and 10 points scores from the judges and the public votes as possible. It generally helps to have friendly neighbours if you want to do well in Eurovision as countries with lots of borders tend to score well from countries close by, but this doesn’t guarantee success as the song regarded as the best does usually win.

The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest is on BBC1, Saturday 18th May from 8pm