As I was procrastinating, I found out thanks to Wikipedia that in 2012 Peter Boström, a well known Swedish songwriter, has co-written the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, "Euphoria" (with Thomas G:son) but he also co-wrote the Norwegian entry "Stay" (along with Tooji himself and Figge Boström) performed by Tooji which finished last with 7 points.
The circus is back at it again in Europe and with more countries like Australia joining in, what do Americans think if it? Is it popular over there? If so, do you think you should be allowed to join it? Or do you just watch it for the memes?
In 2001, originally, countries which finished in the Top 15 were the ones who would be able to take part in the 2002 contest, thus allowing 22 participating countries : they would eventually add the 7 countries which didn't take part in the 2001 edition (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania & Switzerland).
But then the EBU decided to increase the number of participating countries from 22 to 24. So they allowed 2 more countries : the ones which finished 16th and 17th in the 2001 contest to take part in the 2002 contest. These countries were the following : Israel (16th) and Portugal (17th).
Israel accepted the invitation but Portugal didn't, so that opened a spot and the country which was awarded the invitation was Latvia - which finished tied-18th. Latvia was able to participate and eventually win the whole thing in 2002. How lucky they were ! First, with the extension of participating countries by the EBU and then had Portugal and RTP decided to participate, Latvia would have never been able to send Marie N and thus win.
- Austria : 48 years - (1966 - 2014)
- Denmark : 37 years - (1963 - 2000)
- Switzerland : 32 years - (1956 - 1988)
- Germany : 28 years - (1982 - 2010)
Italy : 27 years - (1963 - 1990)- EDIT : Italy : 26 years - (1964 - 1990)
- Israel : 20 years - (1998 - 2018)
It is also interesting to add countries which are currently waiting for another victory in the ESC (at least 20 years and countries taking part in this year's Eurovision Song Contest) :
- Spain : 50 years - last victory : 1969
- The Netherlands : 44 years - last victory : 1975
- France : 42 years - last victory : 1977
- Belgium : 33 years - last victory : 1986
- Switzerland : 31 years - last victory : 1988
- Italy : 29 years - last victory : 1990
- Ireland : 23 years - last victory : 1996
- United Kingdom : 22 years - last victory : 1997
NB : We should mention that Italy's situation is mainly due to the fact that between 1998 and 2010 they didn't take part in the Eurovision Song Contest thus extending the waiting.
For Example, I think if Koven took part for UK they'd easily make the top 10, same goes for Infected Mushroom for Israel - etcetera
Here are the ones that are confirmed from countries that have made their selections. The UK entry is the last one. Here is..Iceland. Um....
Thoughts?
