Eurovision, officially known as the Eurovision Song Contest, is an annual competition between musical acts representing participating countries. On the Eurovision stage, acts perform short, original songs, which are then voted on by music industry professionals, fellow performers, and viewers.
The event was created by the European Broadcasting Union, a collective of public broadcasters, in 1956 as an experiment in live, simultaneous transnational broadcasting and an attempt to unify postwar Europe. Since then, it has moved to include some countries from outside Europe. Throughout its history, the event has launched the international careers of several artists, including ABBA, who represented Sweden in 1974, and Céline Dion, who represented Switzerland in 1988.
Although Eurovision aims to be nonpolitical, critics have noted that its voting habits and performances still sometimes mirror the realities of European and global politics. That hasn't stopped it from being a popular event, with the 2025 event reaching an estimated 166 million viewers.
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The contest has been around since 1956 and has amassed an impressive catalog of winning songs in that time. This list from The Guardian ranks them all, allowing you to time-travel through 70 years of Eurovision.
It's one thing to write a great song for Eurovision, but it's another to execute its performance on one of the world's biggest stages. This list runs through 10 of the most impressive, with memorable entries from a Finnish metal band, a Swedish crooner, and a German comedy troupe.
The annual song contest spectacle is no stranger to controversy. This list breaks down some of the most scandalous, including claims that 2021 winners Maneskin were snorting cocaine, Georgia's 2009 rejection for submitting a protest song, and Jordan's refusal to recognize Israel in 1978.
This short Wall Street Journal documentary goes behind the scenes at Eurovision to show how the elaborate stage show—which features a production manager, speedy run crews, and a digital floor outlining the location of every prop for every performance—hums along so smoothly.
Countries pay to take part in Eurovision, with the biggest economies—Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain, also known as the Big Five—paying the most. That unequal entry fee is not entirely for charity's sake: The Big Five countries are guaranteed spots in Eurovision's finals.
Eurovision includes the non-European competitors Australia and Israel, who were invited to participate in the 2015 and 1973, respectively, due to the countries' affinity for the song contest. Previously, Morocco competed in Eurovision (once, in 1980), though it no longer does.
Competing acts are judged by a combination of music industry professionals, peers, and viewers, creating a suspenseful on-air tally to reveal the contest's ultimate winner.
In 2025, France's AFP analyzed the voting data from every Eurovision Song Contest and found that how countries vote often reflects long-standing cultural associations, with Nordic countries, Baltic states, and former Soviet nations tending to vote in solidarity.
Eurovision is intended to be a celebration of diverse cultures from around Europe—and, in the case of Israel and Australia, beyond Europe. But since 1999, most of its participants have sung in English. This episode of "The Allusionist" features Historian Dean Vuletic, who breaks down why so many countries' competitors avoid their native languages.
Italy's Sanremo Festival began in 1951 as a way to boost tourism in the Italian Riviera during the offseason, with three acts performing original songs on a national radio broadcast. The format would be replicated five years later by Eurovision, though Sanremo is still around.
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