List of Eurovision Song Contest winners

List of Eurovision Song Contest winners

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Left: Ralph Siegel, the winning songwriter in 1982 for Germany and composer of twenty-three other entries between 1974 and 2015. Centre: Johnny Logan, the winning songwriter in 1987 and 1992 for Ireland, and also composer for the 1984 Irish entry. Right: Udo Jürgens winning songwriter in 1966 for Austria, and composer for the 1964 and 1965 Austrian entries.
Left: Lys Assia, the first Eurovision winner (1956), and Dima Bilan, winner in 2008. Centre: Johnny Logan, the winning artist in 1980, winning artist and composer in 1987 and the winning composer in 1992. Right: Loreen celebrating her Eurovision Song Contest 2012 victory in Baku.

67 songs written by 124 songwriters have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956 (with the exception of 2020), is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. The contest's winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history; centre to these have been the awarding of points to countries by juries or televoters. The country awarded the most points is declared the winner.[1] The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes (two per country), and only the winner was announced.[2]

There have been 64 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four. Twenty-seven countries have won the contest. Switzerland won the first contest in 1956. The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven. The only person to have won more than once as performer is Ireland's Johnny Logan, who performed "What's Another Year" in 1980 and "Hold Me Now" in 1987. Logan is also one of only five songwriters to have written more than one winning entry ("Hold Me Now" 1987 and "Why Me?" 1992, performed by Linda Martin).[3] This unique distinction makes Logan the only person to have three Eurovision victories to his/her credit, as either singer, songwriter or both. The other four songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are, Willy van Hemert (Netherlands, 1957 and 1959), Yves Dessca (Monaco, 1971 and Luxembourg, 1972), Rolf Løvland (Norway, 1985 and 1995) and Brendan Graham (Ireland, 1994 and 1996).

Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a unique opportunity for the winning artist(s) to capitalise on their success and surrounding publicity by launching or furthering their international career during their singing years. However, throughout the history of the contest, relatively few of these artists have gone on to be huge international stars. The most notable winning Eurovision artists whose career was directly launched into the spotlight following their win were the members of ABBA, who won the 1974 contest for Sweden with their song "Waterloo". ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of its time.[4] Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was Céline Dion, who won the 1988 contest for Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi".

Since 2008, the winner has been awarded an official winner's trophy of the Eurovision Song Contest. The trophy is a handmade piece of sandblasted glass in the shape of a 1950s microphone.[5][6] The song writers and composers of the winning entry receive smaller versions of the trophy.[5] The original design was created by Kjell Engman of Kosta Boda, who specialises in glass art.[5]

Winners

By year

Year Host City Date Winner Song Performer(s) Songwriter(s) Language Points
1956 Switzerland Lugano 24 May   Switzerland "Refrain" Lys Assia French Not announced
1957 Germany Frankfurt 3 March  Netherlands "Net als toen" Corry Brokken Dutch 31
1958 Netherlands Hilversum 12 March  France "Dors, mon amour" André Claveau French 27
1959 France Cannes 11 March  Netherlands "Een beetje" Teddy Scholten
Dutch 21
1960 United Kingdom London 29 March  France "Tom Pillibi" Jacqueline Boyer French 32
1961 France Cannes 18 March  Luxembourg "Nous les amoureux" Jean-Claude Pascal French 31
1962 Luxembourg Luxembourg 18 March  France "Un premier amour" Isabelle Aubret French 26
1963 United Kingdom London 23 March  Denmark "Dansevise" Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann Danish 42
1964 Denmark Copenhagen 21 March  Italy "Non ho l'età" Gigliola Cinquetti Italian 49
1965 Italy Naples 20 March  Luxembourg "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" France Gall Serge Gainsbourg French 32
1966 Luxembourg Luxembourg 5 March  Austria "Merci, Chérie" Udo Jürgens German 31
1967 Austria Vienna 8 April  United Kingdom "Puppet on a String" Sandie Shaw English 47
1968 United Kingdom London 6 April  Spain "La, la, la" Massiel
Spanish 29
1969 Spain Madrid 29 March  France "Un jour, un enfant" Frida Boccara French 18
 Netherlands "De troubadour" Lenny Kuhr Dutch
 Spain "Vivo cantando" Salomé Spanish
 United Kingdom "Boom Bang-a-Bang" Lulu English
1970 Netherlands Amsterdam 21 March  Ireland "All Kinds of Everything" Dana English 32
1971 Republic of Ireland Dublin 3 April  Monaco "Un banc, un arbre, une rue" Séverine French 128
1972 United Kingdom Edinburgh 25 March  Luxembourg "Après toi" Vicky Leandros French 128
1973 Luxembourg Luxembourg 7 April  Luxembourg "Tu te reconnaîtras" Anne-Marie David French 129
1974 United Kingdom Brighton 6 April  Sweden "Waterloo" ABBA English 24
1975 Sweden Stockholm 22 March  Netherlands "Ding-a-dong" Teach-In English 152
1976 Netherlands The Hague 3 April  United Kingdom "Save Your Kisses for Me" Brotherhood of Man English 164
1977 United Kingdom London 7 May  France "L'oiseau et l'enfant" Marie Myriam French 136
1978 France Paris 22 April  Israel "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta Hebrew 157
1979 Israel Jerusalem 31 March  Israel "Hallelujah" Milk and Honey Hebrew 125
1980 Netherlands The Hague 19 April  Ireland "What's Another Year" Johnny Logan English 143
1981 Republic of Ireland Dublin 4 April  United Kingdom "Making Your Mind Up" Bucks Fizz English 136
1982 United Kingdom Harrogate 24 April  Germany "Ein bißchen Frieden" Nicole German 161
1983 Germany Munich 23 April  Luxembourg "Si la vie est cadeau" Corinne Hermès French 142
1984 Luxembourg Luxembourg 5 May  Sweden "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" Herreys Swedish 145
1985 Sweden Gothenburg 4 May  Norway "La det swinge" Bobbysocks! Norwegian 123
1986 Norway Bergen 3 May  Belgium "J'aime la vie" Sandra Kim French 176
1987 Belgium Brussels 9 May  Ireland "Hold Me Now" Johnny Logan
  • Johnny Logan
English 172
1988 Republic of Ireland Dublin 30 April   Switzerland "Ne partez pas sans moi" Céline Dion French 137
1989 Switzerland Lausanne 6 May  Yugoslavia "Rock Me" Riva Croatian 137
1990 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zagreb 5 May  Italy "Insieme: 1992" Toto Cutugno Italian 149
1991 Italy Rome 4 May  Sweden "Fångad av en stormvind" Carola Swedish 146
1992 Sweden Malmö 9 May  Ireland "Why Me" Linda Martin
  • Johnny Logan
English 155
1993 Republic of Ireland Millstreet 15 May  Ireland "In Your Eyes" Niamh Kavanagh English 187
1994 Republic of Ireland Dublin 30 April  Ireland "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan English 226
1995 Republic of Ireland Dublin 13 May  Norway "Nocturne" Secret Garden
Norwegian 148
1996 Norway Oslo 18 May  Ireland "The Voice" Eimear Quinn
  • Brendan Graham
English 162
1997 Republic of Ireland Dublin 3 May  United Kingdom "Love Shine a Light" Katrina and the Waves English 227
1998 United Kingdom Birmingham 9 May  Israel "Diva" Dana International Hebrew 172
1999 Israel Jerusalem 29 May  Sweden "Take Me to Your Heaven" Charlotte Nilsson English 163
2000 Sweden Stockholm 13 May  Denmark "Fly on the Wings of Love" Olsen Brothers English 195
2001 Denmark Copenhagen 12 May  Estonia "Everybody" Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL English 198
2002 Estonia Tallinn 25 May  Latvia "I Wanna" Marie N English 176
2003 Latvia Riga 24 May  Turkey "Everyway That I Can" Sertab Erener
English 167
2004[N 1] Turkey Istanbul 15 May  Ukraine "Wild Dances" Ruslana English, Ukrainian 280
2005 Ukraine Kiev 21 May  Greece "My Number One" Helena Paparizou English 230
2006 Greece Athens 20 May  Finland "Hard Rock Hallelujah" Lordi English 292
2007 Finland Helsinki 12 May  Serbia "Molitva" Marija Šerifović Serbian 268
2008[N 2] Serbia Belgrade 24 May  Russia "Believe" Dima Bilan
English 272
2009 Russia Moscow 16 May  Norway "Fairytale" Alexander Rybak
  • Alexander Rybak
English 387
2010 Norway Oslo 29 May  Germany "Satellite" Lena English 246
2011 Germany Düsseldorf 14 May  Azerbaijan "Running Scared" Ell and Nikki English 221
2012 Azerbaijan Baku 26 May  Sweden "Euphoria" Loreen English 372
2013 Sweden Malmö 18 May  Denmark "Only Teardrops" Emmelie de Forest English 281
2014 Denmark Copenhagen 10 May  Austria "Rise Like a Phoenix" Conchita Wurst English 290
2015 Austria Vienna 23 May  Sweden "Heroes" Måns Zelmerlöw English 365
2016 Sweden Stockholm 14 May  Ukraine "1944" Jamala
  • Jamala
Crimean Tatar, English 534
2017 Ukraine Kiev 13 May  Portugal "Amar pelos dois" Portuguese 758
2018 Portugal Lisbon 12 May  Israel "Toy" Netta English[N 3] 529
2019 Israel Tel Aviv 18 May  Netherlands "Arcade" Duncan Laurence English 498

Performers and songwriters with multiple wins

The following individuals have won the Eurovision Song Contest as a performer or songwriter more than once. Bold indicates a win as a performer. Italics indicates a win as a songwriter.

Wins Name Years
3 Johnny Logan 1980, 1987, 1992
2 Willy van Hemert 1957, 1959
Yves Dessca 1971, 1972
Rolf Løvland 1985, 1995
Brendan Graham 1994, 1996

Observations

Eleven Eurovision winners (alongside three non-winners) featured at the Congratulations concert in 2005, in which ABBA's "Waterloo" was voted the most popular song of the contest's first fifty years.[7]

Ireland has finished first seven times, more than any other country, Ireland also won the contest for three consecutive years (1992, 1993, 1994), more consecutive years than any other country. Three countries have won twice in a row, Spain (1968 and 1969), Luxembourg (1972 and 1973) and Israel (1978 and 1979). Serbia is the only country to win with its debut entry (in 2007), though Serbia had competed previously as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. The country achieving the highest position on its first appearance in any form in the Contest is Poland, which came second in 1994 (even Switzerland in 1956 won with its second entry of the night). Under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015, the winner of the contest was decided by the final voting nation on eleven occasions.[N 4]

Changes to the voting system, including a steady growth in the number of countries participating and voting, means that the points earned are not comparable across the decades. Portugal's Salvador Sobral holds the record of the highest number of points in the contest's history, earning 758 with the song "Amar pelos dois". Norway's Alexander Rybak holds the largest margin of victory in absolute points, a 169-point cushion over second place in 2009. Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti holds the record for largest victory by percentage, scoring almost three times as many as second place (49 points compared with 17 by the runner-up) in the 1964 contest. Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, the lowest winning score was Norway's Bobbysocks! 123 points earned (of the 216 available from the 18 other countries) when winning Eurovision 1985, while the lowest winning total ever is the 18 points (of the 160 total votes cast by 16 countries) scored by each of the four winning countries in 1969.

Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, in which each country gives maximum points to its first place choice, Sweden's Loreen won Eurovision 2012 with the most ever first place votes earned, receiving first place votes from 18 of 41 countries (excluding themselves). The 1976 United Kingdom entrant, Brotherhood of Man with the song "Save Your Kisses For Me" holds the record of the highest average score per participating country, with an average of 9.65 points received per country. 2011 winner Azerbaijan Ell & Nikki, hold the lowest average score for a winning song under that system, receiving 5.14 points per country.

In 2016, Jamala's "1944" became the first winning entry since the jury vote was added alongside the televote starting in 2009 to place first in neither area, coming second in the jury vote behind Australia and second in the televote behind Russia. Duncan Laurence's "Arcade," became the second such winner in the 2019 contest, having placed third behind North Macedonia and Sweden in the jury vote, and second behind Norway in the televote.

The United Kingdom has finished second fifteen times at Eurovision (most recently in 1998), more than any other country. The most successful country never to have won the Contest is Malta, having finished second in 2002 and 2005 and third in 1992 and 1998. Another island nation Iceland has also finished second twice, in 1999 and 2009.

There is no official runner-up for two of the contests – 1956 and 1969. In 1956 only the winner, Switzerland, was announced, whilst there were speculative reports that Germany ended up in second place with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" by Walter Andreas Schwarz, given that Germany was chosen to host the 1957 contest. In 1969 four songs shared first place by achieving the same number of points; fifth place was achieved by Switzerland, which is not considered an official runner-up, because of the draw for first place.

Winners by country

Map showing each country's number of Eurovision wins up to and including 2019.[N 5]
Table key
dagger Former countries that have been dissolved.
Wins Country Years
7  Ireland 1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996
6  Sweden 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015
5  France 1958, 1960, 1962, 1969, 1977
 Luxembourg 1961, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1983
 United Kingdom 1967, 1969, 1976, 1981, 1997
 Netherlands 1957, 1959, 1969, 1975, 2019
4  Israel 1978, 1979, 1998, 2018
3  Norway 1985, 1995, 2009
 Denmark 1963, 2000, 2013
2  Spain 1968, 1969
  Switzerland 1956, 1988
 Italy 1964, 1990
 Germany 1982, 2010
 Austria 1966, 2014
 Ukraine 2004, 2016
1  Monaco 1971
 Belgium 1986
 Yugoslavia dagger 1989
 Estonia 2001
 Latvia 2002
 Turkey 2003
 Greece 2005
 Finland 2006
 Serbia 2007
 Russia 2008
 Azerbaijan 2011
 Portugal 2017

The year 1969 is in italics to indicate a joint (4-way) win

Ranking

Table key
  Former countries that have been dissolved.
Rank Country Winner Runner-up Third place Next best placement
(frequency)
1  Ireland 7 4 1 4th (three times)
2  Sweden 6 1 6 4th (twice)
3  United Kingdom 5 15 3 4th (five times)
4  France 5 4 7 4th (seven times)
5  Netherlands 5 1 1 4th (twice)
6  Luxembourg 5 0 2 4th (five times)
7  Israel 4 2 1 4th (twice)
8  Denmark 3 1 3 4th (twice)
9  Norway 3 1 1 4th (three times)
10  Germany 2 4 5 4th (four times)
11  Spain 2 4 1 4th (twice)
12  Italy 2 3 5 4th (twice)
13   Switzerland 2 3 3 4th (six times)
14  Ukraine 2 2 1 4th (once)
15  Austria 2 0 1 4th (once)
16  Russia 1 4 4 5th (once)
17  Belgium 1 2 0 4th (four times)
18  Monaco 1 1 3 4th (four times)
19  Turkey 1 1 1 4th (three times)
20  Azerbaijan 1 1 1 4th (once)
21  Greece 1 0 3 5th (twice)
22  Estonia 1 0 1 4th (once)
23  Latvia 1 0 1 5th (once)
24  Serbia 1 0 1 6th (once)
25  Yugoslavia 1 0 0 4th (three times)
26  Finland 1 0 0 6th (once)[N 6]
27  Portugal 1 0 0 6th (once)[N 6]
28  Malta 0 2 2 5th (once)
29  Iceland 0 2 0 4th (once)
30  Bulgaria 0 1 0 4th (once)
31  Cyprus 0 1 0 5th (three times)
32  Australia 0 1 0 5th (once)
33  Poland 0 1 0 7th (once)[N 7]
34  Serbia and Montenegro 0 1 0 7th (once)[N 7]
35  Romania 0 0 2 4th (once)
36  Bosnia and Herzegovina 0 0 1 6th (once)[N 8]
37  Moldova 0 0 1 6th (once)[N 8]
38  Croatia 0 0 0 4th (twice)[N 9]
39  Armenia 0 0 0 4th (twice)[N 9]
40  Hungary 0 0 0 4th (once)
41  Albania 0 0 0 5th (once)
42  Lithuania 0 0 0 6th (once)[N 10]
43  Czech Republic 0 0 0 6th (once)[N 10]
44  Belarus 0 0 0 6th (once)[N 10]
45  Slovenia 0 0 0 7th (twice)
46  North Macedonia[N 11] 0 0 0 7th (once)
47  Georgia 0 0 0 9th (twice)
48  Montenegro 0 0 0 13th (once)
49  Slovakia 0 0 0 18th (once)[N 12]
50  Morocco 0 0 0 18th (once)[N 12]
51  San Marino 0 0 0 19th (once)
52  Andorra 0 0 0 12th (semifinal, once)


By language

  English (46.42%)
  French (20.32%)
  Hebrew (5.82%)
  Dutch (4.32%)
  German (2.92%)
  Norwegian (2.92%)
  Swedish (2.92%)
  Italian (2.92%)
  Spanish (2.92%)
  Danish (1.42%)
  Ukrainian (1.42%)
  Croatian (1.42%)
  Serbian (1.42%)
  Crimean Tatar (1.42%)
  Portuguese (1.42%)

Between 1966 and 1973, and again between 1977 and 1998, countries were only permitted to perform in their own language; see the main Eurovision Song Contest article.

Wins Language Years Countries
33 English 1967, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,[N 13] 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,[N 14] 2018,[N 3] 2019 United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine,[N 13][N 14] Greece, Finland, Russia, Norway, Germany, Azerbaijan, Austria, Israel
14 French 1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1986, 1988 Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium
4 Hebrew 1978, 1979, 1998, 2018[N 3] Israel
3 Dutch 1957, 1959, 1969 Netherlands
2 Italian 1964, 1990 Italy
German 1966, 1982 Austria, Germany
Spanish 1968, 1969 Spain
Swedish 1984, 1991 Sweden
Norwegian 1985, 1995 Norway
1 Danish 1963 Denmark
Croatian[N 15] 1989 Yugoslavia
Ukrainian 2004[N 13] Ukraine[N 13]
Serbian[N 15] 2007 Serbia
Crimean Tatar 2016[N 14] Ukraine[N 14]
Portuguese 2017 Portugal

Gallery

Performers

Songwriters

Deceased winning performers

Year Won Country Winning Performer Death Date
1963 Denmark Grethe Ingmann 18 August 1990
1961 Luxembourg Jean-Claude Pascal 5 May 1992
1969 France Frida Boccara 1 August 1996
1958 France André Claveau 4 July 2003
1959 Netherlands Teddy Scholten 8 April 2010
1966 Austria Udo Jürgens 21 December 2014
1963 Denmark Jørgen Ingmann 21 March 2015
1957 Netherlands Corry Brokken 31 May 2016
1965 Luxembourg France Gall 7 January 2018
1956 Switzerland Lys Assia 24 March 2018


See also

Notes and references

Notes


  1. Croatian (the language of the 1989 winning song) and Serbian (the language of the 2007 winning song) are fully mutually intelligible and often considered varieties of a single language, Serbo-Croatian. However, they are listed separately in Eurovision statistics.

References


  1. ABBA win 'Eurovision 50th' vote. BBC News (23 October 2005). Retrieved 22 August 2007.

Bibliography

  • Between 2004 and 2007, the contest included a single televised semi-final::— In 2004 the semi-final was held on the Wednesday before the final. Between 2005 and 2007 the semi-final was held on the Thursday of "Eurovision Week"

  • Since 2008 the contest has included two semi-finals, held on the Tuesday and Thursday before the final.

  • This song was partially sung in Hebrew.

  • 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2003.

  • Yugoslavia's 1989 victory is shown in the lower inset.

  • Tie breaker between Finland and Portugal: Finland's next best placement is four times in 7th place, whereas Portugal's next best placement is twice in 7th place.

  • Tie breaker between Poland and Serbia and Montenegro: Poland's next best placement is once in 8th place, whereas Serbia and Montenegro has no additional appearances.

  • Tie breaker between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova: Bosnia and Herzegovina's next best placement is once in 7th place, whereas Moldova's next best placement is twice in 10th place.

  • Tie breaker between Croatia and Armenia: Croatia's next best placement is once in 5th place, whereas Armenia's next best placement is once in 7th place.

  • Tie breaker between Lithuania, Belarus, and Czech Republic: Lithuania's next best placement is once in 9th place, the Czech Republic's next best placement is once in 11th place, whereas Belarus' next best placement is twice in 16th place.

  • The country used to participate under the name F.Y.R. Macedonia (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) until it changed its name in February 2019.

  • Tie breaker between Slovakia and Morocco: Slovakia placed in 18th place out of 23 contestants, whereas Morocco placed in 18th place out of 19 contestants

  • This song was partially sung in Ukrainian.

  • This song was partially sung in Crimean Tatar.

  • Extract from the rules for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 22 August 2007. Archived 7 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine

  • Eurovision 1956. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 24 May 2008. Archived May 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

  • O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3

  • BBC News (6 December 2005). ABBA's Bjorn says no to reunion. Retrieved 15 March 2008.

  • "Trophy". Eurovision Song Contest. Retrieved 31 May 2019.

  • "Eurovision Crystal Trophy". Kosta Boda. Retrieved 31 May 2019.

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