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| Tanel &
Dave, Estonia |
TATU, Russia |
Marie N,
Latvia |
In 1956, Eurovision kicked off in
Lugano with just 7 countries competing. As this meant a very short
show, each country was allowed to enter 2 songs. A year later 3
more countries had joined the fold so we inaugurated the
one-song-per-nation that we still enjoy today. As the
Sixties dawned so the number of participants increased to the
mid-teens. This was still the Cold War era and
the Eurovision Song Contest was essentially a Western Europe
event. It all came down to broadcasting politics.
"Eurovision" was essentially an organization of Western
European broadcasters. The communist countries had their own
version called "Intervision".
As the 60s progressed the
Intervision countries broadcast the contest without being able to
enter. As the 70s dawned new (non-communist) countries were
welcomed - Malta in 1971, Israel in 1973, Greece in 1974 and
Turkey in 1975. The 80s kicked off with a fleeting
appearance by Morocco followed by debuts from Cyprus in 1982 and
Iceland in 1986. As the decade ended big things were kicking-off
in Eastern Europe. Eurovision was suddenly an option for the
Warsaw Pact countries. At the same time the break up of
Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia & the USSR was creating new
nations.
In 1992, Yugoslavia competed at
Eurovision for the last time. There were 23 entrants in Malmo. The
next year there was a slew of new countries gagging to enter. The
EBU (the venerable European Broadcasting Union who run the
contest) organized a pre-selection contest in Llubjana, Slovenia. 7
countries took part and the top 3 qualified for the main contest
in Millstreet, Ireland. They just happened to all be
ex-Yugoslavian states: Bosnia, Croatia & Slovenia.
At this point it was deemed that
there were just too many new nations desperate to enter so drastic
action was taken. The lowest scoring nations in 1993 would be
relegated to make way for the 1994 debuts for the Eastern
countries. Hence 7 nations debuted in 1994: Estonia,
Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia & Slovakia. The last-placed relegation rule
lasted 2 more years but there was a re-think for 1996. This year,
every nation that wanted to compete submitted a song and there was
a preselection by juries listening to audio tapes. This
resulted in the elimination of debutants Macedonia, and, much more
controversially, Germany. This method was immediately scrapped :)
From 1997 the averages system came
into play. The average points of the last 5 years was calculated
and the worst countries were omitted from the next contest, with a
proviso that they could return the next year. However some
countries were exempt. Just like in soccer, Eurovision has a
hierarchy. France, Germany, Spain & United Kingdom pay lots of
money to the EBU so it was deemed that they would always get
automatic participation in Eurovision. In 2001 the rules changed again and
we were back to the last-placed relegation again (with the
safety-net for the Big-4 countries). This led to the relegation of
Ireland (all conquering in the 1990s and 7 times winners).
For 2004 the EBU derived a system
where everyone could come to the party. The contest final now
has a fixed number of 24 countries. Four places are
reserved for the "Big 4" , and ten for the best scoring
countries from the previous year. All other interested
entrants participate in a "semi-final" a few days before the
contest, to fill the ten remaining places.
In 2006 37 countries selected
a song for the semi and/or final. That included four
countries from former Yugoslavia and no less than eight from the
former USSR. Now neighbour voting has always been apparent
throughout the history of the contest, witness the regular
swapping of top marks between Greece and Cyprus, the UK's
lavishing of points on Ireland and Scandinavian pulling together
(most notoriously in 1966). But in 2006 all 37 countries
voted in the contest final whether they have qualified or not,
and the overt neighbour voting of the "new" countries from the
East is seriously threatening the credibility of the contest
with broadcasters and viewers. Some have argued that this can be
explained by similar tastes in music, but that argument is blown
away when you hear the songs, which hardly ever sound ethnic to
their country of origin. Some countries like Turkey, Russia and
the ex-Yugoslavia have a head start of something like 50 points
regardless of the quality of their song. That's not enough to
win the contest, but can make the difference between making the
final or making the top 10 for next year.
Allied to this is the "diaspora"
effect, where a sizeable immigrant population in another country
will vote for their homeland. Again the countries of Eastern
Europe have been the main beneficiaries. This has been
most exaggerated when the TV audience in the immigrant country
has been low (eg. when that country is not participating in the
final itself). In 2005 Austria was the first country to vote and
the voting figures were low, they had not made the final : every
single point Austria awarded from 1 to 12 points went to a
country East or South of Vienna. Additionally,
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In 2004 the top five songs
and seven of the top ten came from South-East Europe.
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In 2005 the top seven songs
came from South and East Europe.
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The Big 4 countries of Spain,
the UK, France and Germany finished in the bottom four
places.
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In 2006 eight of the
top ten songs came
from east of Vienna.
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In 2007 all ten
semi-final qualifiers were.
Some mooted
solutions have been to limit voting to countries participating,
to reduce the effect, or to revert to jury voting. At
present the EBU have shown no readiness to make a change, the
revenue from all those phone calls is a strong incentive to
retain the status quo.
However, in 2008
they split the
semi-finals by seeding in an attempt to make the semis fairer by
keeping traditional allies apart, and this was deemed a success.
However no changes were made for the final. Feedback from
national broadcasters after the 2008 final was strong enough to
force the EBU to bring in an element of jury voting for 2009.
More news when available.
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