{"id":14317,"date":"2022-05-13T18:27:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T16:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=208133"},"modified":"2022-05-13T18:39:10","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T16:39:10","slug":"eurovision-history-from-the-first-competition-to-the-story-behind-voting-blocs","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/eurovision-history-from-the-first-competition-to-the-story-behind-voting-blocs\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision history: from the first competition to the story behind voting blocs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ellie Cawthorne\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 13 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Why did Eurovision begin?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Eurovision was started by the European Broadcasting Union in 1956.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people mistake the establishment of Eurovision as some sort of postwar expression of Europeanism, a desire for European integration,\u201d says Dean Vuletic, a leading expert on the history of Eurovision. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t really about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the creation of the show was driven by commercial imperatives. \u201cIn the 1950s, television technology was still nascent and there was a lot of scepticism across Europe as to whether it was worth investing in. The European Broadcasting Union was formed a way to pool resources in developing television technology, and in the production of programmes that could be shared. And the Eurovision Song Contest happened to be one of those programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was the first competition like?<\/h2>\n

The first competition took place in 1956, in a theatre in Lugano, Switzerland. Seven countries entered, with two songs each. People were formally dressed in tuxedos in evening gowns, and performers were accompanied by an orchestra.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, this seems rather quaint\u201d, says Vuletic. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean however that they were singing old fashioned songs. For example, one of Germany\u2019s entries, \u2018So Geht Das Jede Nacht\u2019 by Freddy Quinn, was in an early rock and roll style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Swiss singer Lys Assia, shortly after winning the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 with her song Refrain (Photo by Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

And politics were at play from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis automatically sent a message to the rest of Europe about how the West German state was trying to reinvent its identity following the Second World War<\/a>,\u201d says Vuletic.<\/p>\n

The voting was done in secret and not made public. The contest was won by a Swiss singer, Lys Assia, who sang a chanson in French called \u2018Refrain\u2019.<\/p>\n

On the podcast | Dean Vuletic speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about the history of the Eurovision Song Contest \u2013 and what it tells us about the changing face of Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n