Eurovision Best Song Winners 1956-2009

NOTE - I got to thinking it might make a fun project to make up a torrent of all the Eurovision winners, but someone beat me to it. I found this sitting alone and barely seeded elsewhere, so I thought I'd give it greater exposure. No idea who the OP is, but much thanks to them.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_winners



Fifty-seven songs 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, 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 54 Contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 Contest, which had four. Twenty-five different countries have won the contest. Switzerland won the Contest on their debut—the first Contest, in 1956. The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven. Portugal is the country with the longest history in the Contest without a win; it made its forty-second appearance at the 2009 Contest. 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.



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. However, throughout the history of the Contest relatively few names 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 ABBA, who won the Contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song "Waterloo". ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of their time.[4] Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was Céline Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi", though her international singing career came some years later and is not generally directly associated to her winning the contest.[5]



1956 - Switzerland - Refrain

1957 - Netherlands - Net Als Toen

1958 - France - Dors Mon Amour

1959 - Netherlands - Een Beetje

1960 - France - Tom Pillibi

1961 - Luxembourg - Nous Les Amoureux

1962 - France - Un Premier Amour

1963 - Denmark - Dansevise

1964 - Italy - Non Ho LEta

1965 - Luxembourg - Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son

1966 - Austria - Merci, Cherie

1967 - United Kingdom - Puppet On A String

1968 - Spain - La, La, La

1969 - France - Un Jour, Un Enfant

1969 - Netherlands - De Troubadour

1969 - Spain - Vivo Cantando

1969 - United Kingdom - Boom Bang-a-bang

1970 - Ireland - All Kinds Of Everything

1971 - Monaco - Un Banc Un Arbre Une Rue

1972 - Luxembourg - Apres Toi

1973 - Luxembourg - Tu Te Reconnaitras

1974 - Sweden - Waterloo

1975 - Netherlands - Ding-a-dong

1976 - United Kingdom - Save Your Kisses For Me

1977 - France - L oiseau Et L enfant

1978 - Israel - A-Ba-Ni-Bi

1979 - Israel - Hallelujah

1980 - Ireland - What's Another Year

1981 - United Kingdom - Making Your Mind Up

1982 - Germany - Ein Bisschen Frieden

1983 - Luxembourg - Si La Vie Est Cadeau

1984 - Sweden - Diggi-loo Diggi-ley

1985 - Norway - La Det Swinge

1986 - Belgium - J aime La Vie

1987 - Ireland - Hold Me Now

1988 - Switzerland - Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi

1989 - Yugoslavia - Rock Me

1990 - Italy - Insieme 1992

1991 - Sweden - Fangad Av En Stormvind

1992 - Ireland - Why Me

1993 - Ireland - In Your Eyes

1994 - Ireland - Rock n Roll Kids

1995 - Norway - Nocturne

1996 - Ireland - The Voice

1997 - United Kingdom - Love Shine A Light

1998 - Israel - Diva

1999 - Sweden - Take Me To Your Heaven

2000 - Denmark - Fly On The Wings Of Love

2001 - Estonia - Everybody

2002 - Latvia - I Wanna

2003 - Turkey - Every Way That I Can

2004 - Ukraine - Wild Dances

2005 - Greece - My Number One

2006 - Finland - Hard Rock Hallelujah

2007 - Serbia - Molitva

2008 - Russia - Believe

2009 - Norway - Fairytale 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] The most successful country never to have won the Contest is Malta, having finished second and third twice. The lowest total is the eighteen points scored by the four winning countries in 1969. The largest margin of victory was that of Alexander Rybak in 2009, who won by 169 points. Rybak won 387 points, a record score, winning twelve points from sixteen out of 41 countries (excluding themselves).



The United Kingdom has finished second fifteen times at Eurovision, more than any other country. 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. Since the introduction of the current voting system in 1975, the winner of the Contest has been decided by the final voting nation on ten occasions.[N 6]