Viewers to select best Eurovision song for anniversary
The European Song Contest celebrates 50 years of glamour, glitz and catchy pop tunes with a special jubilee show today that lets viewers in 31 countries pick the best song in the popular event’s history.
Eurovision fans have narrowed the field to 14 songs, including Swedish pop sensation Abba’s 1974 winner Waterloo, Celine Dion’s Swiss entry Ne partez pas sans moi of 1988, and this year’s winner My Number One by Greece’s Helena Paparizou.
The songs will be performed by the original artists or by other performers. Viewers of the show, broadcast live from the Danish capital Copenhagen, will cast their votes on the 14 entries by telephone, in the same way that the winner is selected in the regular Eurovision contest.
The two-hour show will feature performances by British bands Brotherhood of Man and Bucks Fizz, Ireland’s Johnny Logan, Israel’s Dana International, Marie Myriam of France and Swedish singer Carola Haggkvist.
Switzerland’s Lys Assia, who was the contest’s first winner in 1956, also will be on stage along with Paparizou, while Dion will appear in pre-recorded footage.
The show has been titled Congratulations, after Cliff Richard’s second-placed song in the 1968 edition of the contest.
Each year millions of viewers across Europe and the Middle East watch the Eurovision contest, which was created in 1956 by the European Broadcasting Union.
The show is often derided as a showcase of kitsch and the winners often fade into obscurity – although it launched the career of supergroup Abba.
“Either you love or you love to hate it,” Mads Lebech, Copenhagen mayor said on the eve of the anniversary event. ”Anyhow, it’s great entertainment.”
