Cheesy Pop Music - A Brief History of the Eurovision Song Contest

A Brief History of the Eurovision Song Contest

In 1955, the European Broadcasting Union created an international song contest whereby countries, represented by their respective broadcasters, would compete in one television show. The secret to the contest's cross-border mass appeal lies in a curious mixture of camp irony and mild controversy. Read about this year's Serbian winner and take a look at some memorable moments from the past.

Here's a tip for those beleaguered bureaucrats in Brussels trying to redraft the rejected European Union constitution: Instead of publishing yet more pages of soporific legal jargon, record the document as a Hi-NRG dance track and give it to a drag queen to perform on live TV. Europeans would register their Yes votes faster than you could say Butter Mountain. After all, dubious-quality pop music, in the form of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, has come closer to uniting Europeans, than the single currency or common trade policies ever will.

Unlike the EU, which finds itself in the throes of a mid-life crisis as it celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its founding treaty this year, 51-year-old Eurovision continues to grow in popularity. Over 100 million TV viewers watched monster-masked death-metal rockers Lordi roar (literally) to victory for Finland last May.

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