History Series / EurovisionSongContest

* BilingualDialogue: Even if you start singing in your native language, switching into English for the final chorus (or for every chorus) will guarantee international appeal. Compare InternationalPopSongEnglish.
** Averted for most of Eurovision's history (from 1958 to 1972 and from 1977 to 1998) because each song had to be sung in the country's language. The winners would often, however, reprise their songs with a Switch Into English. This trope was played most spectacularly by Nicole's ''Ein bißchen Frieden'' for Germany in 1982 when she sang in German, French, English, and Dutch, eliciting an applause at each switch.
** Israel's entries have a weird on-off kind of thing for this. Boaz Mauda's entry, "[=HaEsh=] B'Einaiyich" was half-Hebrew, half-English and placed 9th. Shiri Maimon's "Hasheket Shenish'ar" did that, too and it nearly won. David D'Or's "Leha'amin", though, didn't even make the finals. Izabo's "Time" also has a language switch, switching from English to Hebrew in the chorus rather than the verse.
** The "native-language-only" policy was cancelled in 1998 because of a massive streak of winners that were either in English (Ireland winning in 1992, '93, '94 and '96, plus a United Kingdom victory in 1997, with Ireland finishing second) or had as little text as remotely possible (Norway in 1995). Since then, only four winners were not sung in English at all: 2007's "Molitva" from Serbia, 2017's "Amar Pelos Dois" from Portugal, 2021's "Zitti e buoni" from Italy and 2022's "Stefania" from Ukraine (their first solely in Ukrainian -- their other two winners were bilingual).
** Played disappointingly straight in 2011, where the grand majority of songs were partially or completely in English. 2011 was also notable for being the first time that nobody sang in French (save for one sentence in the chorus of Evelina Sašenko's entry for Lithuania, "C'est ma vie", the rest of which was in English). This is even stranger considering not only was it the Lithuanian entry that used bits of French, but to top it off she's actually ethnically Polish. Even the French entry, Amaury Vassili's "Sognu," was in Corsican rather than French.
** A similar incident occurred in the 2015 contest as well. Of 40 participating countries, only 7 entries (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Montenegro, Finland, and Romania) include lyrics in a language other than English. Serbia's "Beauty Never Lies" was their first English-language entry since debuting as an independent entity. Most notably, Israel, whose broadcaster used to require at least half of the lyrics of their entries be in Hebrew, sent an entirely English song in light of their poor qualification record in recent years (and not too surprisingly made it to the final). When Romanian representatives Voltaj toyed with the idea of sending their song "De la capăt" in English (they performed entirely in Romanian in the national final), the backlash was so great they instead opted for a bilingual version and the song was renamed "De la capăt (All Over Again)".
** And again in 2016: out of 43 acts, only 8 entries (France, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Austria, Greece, and Ukraine) feature non-English lyrics. Most notably, Austria's song is entirely in French. Spain sent their first ever entry entirely in English, which was very out of character for the country.
** For 2017: France (with English parts in the chorus), Spain (with an English chorus), Hungary, Portugal, and, in a break with tradition, Belarus (leaving Azerbaijan the sole nation to have never used a national language, briefly touched upon in a multilingual Bulgarian entry when ESC was in Baku in 2012). Croatia sang in English and Italian in a duet for one. All 7 songs were in the final. Indeed, Portugal won in style, an ace achievement for a nation whose loyalty to its language and styles had hitherto been its undoing, but now made it a winner.
** In 2018, more nations sang in own languages, including Georgia and Armenia singing entirely in their languages for the first time ever (previously only used very little, if at all, in English language songs), Serbia, Albania, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia and Montenegro, as well as the usual French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian suspects. In the semi-finals, Armenia, Greece, Georgia and Montenegro crashed but Albania, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia (and the well liked Italian language Estonian song) did not.
** 2019 saw Iceland, Georgia, Albania, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy sing own language entries, while Arabic, Turkish, Danish (alongside German, the first serious entry to use it since 2007, and French) and even Northern Sami and Abkhaz were used in the songs of Italy, San Marino, Denmark, Norway and Georgia respectively. Of these, Albania, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia and Serbia made it to the final (as well as automatic qualifiers France, Italy and Spain).
** In 2020, as well as the usual suspects of France[[note]]although partially in English[[/note]], Italy, Spain and Portugal, Belarus, Croatia, Slovenia and Ukraine would have performed in their own language, whilst Spanish appeared in Georgia's, Russia's, and Serbia's entries (Georgia's entry would also use French, German and Italian, and Serbia's would use English, but was mostly in Serbian). Israel's entry appeared in Amharic, Arabic, English and Hebrew. The oddest one, though, would be Azerbaijan's entry, which would have had ''Japanese'' alongside English.
** 2021: Songs sang exclusively in the native language were from France, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Albania, and in a break with the norm, Denmark (in another break with tradition, this did NOT include Portugal, whose song "Love Is On My Side" did not feature any Portuguese), predominately own-language material from Russia and Serbia, and songs from Azerbaijan (for the first time ever), Czech Republic, Germany (both for the first time since 2007) and Israel featuring a line or 2 in the native language, whilst the host nation's singer, who was born in Suriname, sings the chorus of his song in the Sranan Tongo language spoken there.
** 2022: Lithuania have their first own-language song since 1999 (save for 2 lines at the end of 2018's), Netherlands their second since 1998 in the main contest, and Iceland their third since 1997. In a surprise repeat of 2011, and in spite of 2 French language songs in the top 3 the previous year, there is no song in French in Torino -- France's selection was won by a song in a regional language (Breton, a Celtic language, for the first time since 1996). Ukraine's sending of an own-language entry for the 2nd successive act (both of whom shared a flautist) was key to their mandate for victory, whilst Italy and Slovenia were the only other songs put forward that were exclusively in a non-English native language, but Albania, Cyprus, Moldova, Portugal, San Marino and Spain have songs with lyrics in the native language and in English (and some in Spanish too for Albania), and Serbia uses Latin alongside their native language.
** 2023: Other than the usual suspects of France, Italy and Spain, Portugal return to singing in their own language, and are joined by Albania, Croatia, Finland, Moldova and Slovenia. Armenia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine have bilingual songs (their own language and English), while Norway's entry was trilingual (the intro to the song is mostly Italian which ends with a Latin phrase, and the rest of the song is entirely in English). In an impressive show, Czechia[[note]]the new name for the Czech Republic[[/note]] are singing in Bulgarian, Czech, English and Ukrainian. Among the songs predominantly in English, some lyrics feature trace amounts of other languages (Israel, Latvia, Lithuania in their native languages and Austria in Italian).
** 2024: Armenia, France, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, and Spain all sing in their national language. Greece and Ukraine do the same while sprinkling some English lines here and there, while Luxembourg returns to the contest with a song in French (one of the country's three administrative languages) with a chorus partially in English. While Israel and Azerbaijan sing mainly in English, they feature respectively a coda in Hebrew and an Azerbaijani chorus (marking the first proper use of Azerbaijani in an Eurovision song barring some throwaway lines in 2010 and 2021). And, in the debut of an Aboriginal Australian language on the Eurovision stage, Australia includes some Yankunytjatjara in its lyrics. Overall, the ratio of songs entirely in English (19 out of 37) is the lowest since the language rule removal in 1999. Also for the first time since that year, the competition final contains more songs completely or mainly in native tounge than entirely in English or with a token native line (14 out of 26).

* BribingYourWayToVictory:
** Reports indicate that for 2013, [[http://12points.tv/esc/item/1950-proof-of-vote-rigging-by-azerbaijan Azerbaijan did just that]], literally. It appears to have backfired, since they only managed to get 2nd place.
** Downplayed with the "Big 5" countries [[note]](France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom)[[/note]] who are the highest financial contributors to the EBU: them and the host country (the one spending a boatload of money to make the contest possible) get to automatically qualify for the final, regardless of previous results. These countries haven't really used this to their advantage in the final however, with Germany in 2010 and Italy in 2021 being the only times someone from the "Big 5" has won, with these countries being known for having a tendency for not taking the contest seriously, and in the case of the host, fear of having to pay to host the contest again. Not to mention, even when these nations do send credible songs, some argue that the bye is more of a disadvantage, as said artists have to wait until the final for their songs to be performed, thus having less exposure compared to the semi-finalists as a result. It is for this reason, as well as the reintroduction of juries, that led Turkey to withdraw from the contest in 2013.
** San Marino attempted to do this by hiring a ringer for the 2021 contest, specifically Music/FloRida who featured on their entry. It didn't work; they came 22nd out of 26 (and Flo Rida looked downright ''miserable'' in the green room as the results were read, to boot.)

* HandicappedBadass:
** Blind singer and pianist Serafín Zubiri represented Spain twice (1992 and 2000).
** 2015 gave us both Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, a Finnish punk rock band made up of men with intellectual disabilities[[note]]Sadly, they ended up last place in their semi-final[[/note]] and Monika Kuszyńska from Poland, who performed a wonderfully moving and heartwarming song, in a wheelchair.
** Julia Samoylova from Russia, finally allowed to compete in 2018.
** In the 2019 selection process, the host nation had an act called Shalva consisting of 8 members from a Jewish disability charity, who were expected to win and represent Israel, but dropped out before the final, due to their religious devotion (whilst the Shabbat finishes in Israel before the ESC starts, rehearsals take place on the Friday night and Saturday morning, when the holy day occurs), and the fact they are larger than the limit for people on stage (6 members). However, they decided to perform as an interval act in the heats instead, which are in a midweek and don't limit the number of people on stage at any time.

* SpringtimeForHitler: Since the nation whose entrant wins has to host it the next year at its own expense, an undertaking that might oblige less prosperous countries to sell their national monuments on eBay, it's probable that many of the participants aren't playing to win. In fact the winner doesn't ''have'' to host it the next year, though turning it down would involve a certain loss of face. Apparently for some nations, looking like complete fools is the lesser of two evils.
** In 1972 Monaco was unable to host due to lack of resources, so the contest was held in the UK instead.
** This also happened in 1974. Luxembourg, having won both the 1972 and 1973 contests, declined to go to the expense of hosting it two years in a row, resulting in that year's Eurovision taking place in Brighton, England.
** Since Sweden withdrew from the 1976 competition in fear of winning and having to host the Contest again, the rules changed so all participants have to pay an entry fee which goes to the hosting country.
** Norwegian state broadcaster NRK had to sell its broadcast rights to UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup in order to finance the 2010 edition of the event in Oslo.
** Parodied in an episode of the defining Irish comedy show, ''Series/FatherTed'', where Ireland deliberately had Ted and Dougal represent Ireland in "[[BlandNameProduct Eurosong]]" with their terrible song "My Lovely Horse", in order to save on the costs of having to host it again (the episode itself having been aired in 1996, just after Ireland had won three consecutive contests).
** [[HilariousInHindsight In real life]], Ireland's entry for 2008 was the infamous "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfuJaf6IBpk Dustin the Turkey]]", a hideous turkey puppet singing in a deliberately off-key voice about how much Eurovision sucks and generally taking a lot of shots at the other entries, their nations of origin, Eurovision's perceived decay in quality over the years, and [[SelfDeprecation the nation of Ireland]]. Naturally, he didn't make it past the semi-finals.
** Sweden and Portugal have won in recent years after choosing to prioritise their selection show for domestic music rather than ESC.

* {{Curse}}: While nations performing later in the contest tends to have a better chance of winning, as most viewers remember the song more when it's time to vote, a nation having to perform 2nd in the final running order is known to be a kiss of death to one's chances of winning the contest. Not only that nobody has won performing there, it has produced the most last place finishes and many pre-contest favorites have found themselves bombing in the scorecard from having to perform 2nd. Notable victims to the curse include Vicky Leandros (1967), Ronnie Tober (1968) [[note]]He finished joint ''last'' [[/note]], Olivia Newton-John (1974), Matia Bazaar (1979), Gili & Galit (1989) and Gina G (1996). The producers, who have decided the running order since 2013, usually put a song with little chance of winning -- usually a simple ballad which fares poorly -- in this slot, after opening with an upbeat song.

[[folder:Eurovision tropes]]

* ForeignLanguageTitle: Some entries, while not really bilingual songs, include a repeated word or two in a foreign language which becomes the title (like Cyprus 2018 "Fuego", or Serbia 2020 "Hasta la vista", Spanish-language titles in an English and Serbian song respectively). Others, like Belarus 2017 "Story of My Life", have the original title translated into English but the song remaining otherwise untouched.
* Interval Act: While the panels were deliberating or the phone votes are coming in, an interval act is arranged. Audiences used not to pay much heed to these musicians, dancers, comedians, or prerecorded videos -- that is, until in 1994 the Irish hosts gave the world "Riverdance" and launched Michael Flatley's career.
** 2010 had a performance by Madcon, accompanied by live and pre-taped flash mobs across several locations.
** 2011 had a performance by Jan Delay.
** 2012 featured local artist Emin Agalarov. The second semi-final featured an all-star performance with 5 recent winners.
** 2013 had Sweden [[SelfDeprecation taking the]] ''[[SelfDeprecation utter]]'' [[SelfDeprecation piss out of itself]].
** 2014 had a bizarre performance featuring old men on giant ladders sing a rendition of "Ode to Joy," followed by the 3 hosts singing a song about Douze Points. It was actually the remnants of a longer interval act titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdFI3gZuQ9c "Trip to the Future,"]] in which the audience takes a peak at Eurovision TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Instead, it was cut down and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNdrYzZ55gI additionally featured last year's winner singing her winning song and a new anthem that included all of the finalists on stage.]]
** 2016 straight up plopped ''Music/JustinTimberlake'' onto the stage as the interval act. As an American, he looked slightly perplexed by the whole atmosphere, but gave it his best nonetheless. An American performer was chosen to commemorate the contest being broadcast in the United States for the first time, even if his performance couldn't actually be shown on TV there due to some licensing problems. This was lampshaded by one of the US commentators, who told American viewers to just watch it on Website/YouTube.
** 2016's second interval was a completely meta-song that arguably became the most popular perfomance of the night if social media is to be believed. It was called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tgnx6jTQ Love Love, Peace Peace]]" and mocked the StrictlyFormula tradition of Eurovision acts that consisted of, oh, just about all of the points below. It was performed by the hosts and featured gratuitous SelfDeprecatingHumour, skimpy costumes, and cameo from just about all the memorable artists or references to those artists from the past 10 years, including Lordi, Alexander Rybak, Loreen, the Russian Grannies and the Polish milkmaids.
** 2017 saw a left field electronic folk act, a bizarre song from Ruslana, and a Jamala performance (accidentally featuring a notorious local streaker brandishing an Aussie flag and mooning her).
** Music/{{Madonna}} performed in 2019, in spite of the controversies that have abounded since she was first rumored for the gig (aside from the flak acts can receive from performing in Israel in general, also controversies about the content of her songs, and that the broadcaster was not paying for it, as well as the size of her entourage, and the claims it would be unfair on the competing acts, though the most famous of them, Finland's Darude (who ended up placing last in his heat), defended her expected performance, saying it boosts the brand). Also, it had a magician, a TV spot with Gal Gadot, and Conchita, Foureira, Måns, and, despite Ukraine's controversial withdrawal, Verka Serduchka, swapping each other's songs.
*** Madonna's actual performance in the interval act, though ... let's just say, even the national commentators struggled to mince their words. Her performance of her classic song "Like a Prayer" was widely seen as (although YMMV) kinda cringeworthy.
** 2021's involved performances from 7 ex winners (not all of whom were scheduled for the one that would have been done in 2020's, which also would have had 7 past victors), though Duncan Laurence contracted COVID and had his performance prerecorded.
** 2022 saw performances from Music/{{Maneskin}}, 1964's winner Gigliola Cinquetti and cohost Music/{{Mika}}.
** 2023's interval started with Sam Ryder performing his new single "Mountain" with Roger Taylor of Music/{{Queen}}, and was followed by "The Liverpool Songbook", six former Eurovision entrants performing their own versions of songs from Liverpudlian acts: Music/{{Mahmood}} singing Music/JohnLennon's "Imagine", Music/{{Netta}} singing Music/DeadOrAlive's "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)", Music/DadiFreyr singing Music/AtomicKitten's "Whole Again", Cornelia Jacobs singing Music/MelanieC's "I Turn To You", Sonia reprising her Eurovision entry from 1993 "Better The Devil You Know" and finished with all of the previously listed acts, the hosts, Ruslana via satellite in Kyiv and Duncan Laurence singing Liverpool FC's anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone".
* Predictable Voting: Especially since the 90's, there has been a tendency for nations to give their highest points to their neighboring countries. It is a matter of debate whether it is primarily explained by conscious political alliances or by a tendency for culturally close countries to have similar musical tastes. Here are a few such examples:
** A common Eurovision joke is that [[TheThreeCertaintiesInLife There are only three things certain in life: Death, Taxes, and Greece and Cyprus exchanging maximum votes at Eurovision -- provided they are able to vote for each other.]][[note]]This was averted in 2016's semifinal -- Cyprus' jury only gave Greece ''3'' points. In 2023, Greece (who hadn't qualified for the Final) only awarded four points to Cyprus, causing the arena audience to gasp in shock.[[/note]]
*** Became a Crowning Moment of Funny in 2019 -- both when Greece as well as when Cyprus were about to announce which country would get their maximum points, the audience in Tel Aviv already audibly yelled "Cyprus!" and "Greece!" respectively in the background. And they were right both times.
** The Scandinavian and Eastern European blocs all vote for their fellow bloc countries. The Eastern European phenomenon has given rise to a popular joke: "The West may have won the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, but the East won Eurovision."
*** The Nordic countries have a tendency to either play this very straight or go in the complete opposite direction. At least a handful of Nordic winners received top scores from all the other Nordic countries (both of Sweden's most recent winners before 2023 and Finland's Lordi received top scores from every other Nordic country), but 2019 saw them mostly avert it. Jury-wise, while Sweden, as ever, was the grand overlap (Finland, Denmark, and Iceland all gave it 12 points, while Norway gave it 10), the other three qualified Nordics received mixed scores. Sweden and Denmark voted for Norway while the other two ignored it, Denmark only received points from Norway, and Iceland didn't get any points at all from the other Nordic nations. Non-Nordic countries were actually kinder to the latter three, with Italy going so far as to give Denmark 12 points!
** While folks can't vote for the country they presently live in, that doesn't stop emigrants from voting for the countries they originated from, especially in regards to Eastern Europeans that moved to Western European nations whose natives have seemed to have stopped taking the contest seriously. For instance, because of the large diaspora of Turkish immigrants, Germany and the Netherlands have had a tendency to be giving their 12 points to Turkey, while Ireland has been giving high marks to the Baltics and Poland, due to the high dispora of immigrants from those regions. The United Kingdom tends to give high points to Ireland[[note]]it is unknown how much of this is due to Northern Ireland[[/note]], Poland and Australia for similar reasons, whilst France voted for Turkey, and votes for Armenia, Israel, Portugal and sometimes Serbia, for the same reason.
** Sure, there's issues between most countries in the Balkan region and amongst the former Soviet countries since their respective breakups, but the one time they can count on one another is when they need Eurovision votes.
** Ireland usually gets a high vote from the UK, helped by the many Irish in Britain and the fact that Northern Ireland is part of the UK. In return Irish almost always give a few points to the UK, though generally fewer than the other way around. In spite of this, there have only been two instances in which Ireland has awarded the UK maximum points: in 1966 (they finished ninth; the fact that the UK representative was Scottish and wearing a kilt probably helped) and in 1997 (which helped the UK win; in turn, they awarded Ireland their only 12 points of the evening, allowing them to finish second). Nations with large diasporas in Ireland (Scandinavians or Baltic states) receive the 12 instead.
*** The 2013 Eurovision averted this trope. Ireland gave the UK 7 points, while they gave Ireland 1 point. The Irish were not even slightly happy.
*** Another notable exception: in 1996, Ireland earned their seventh victory. They awarded the UK three points, but in an unusual move (especially considering how well-received the Irish entry was), the UK gave Ireland no points at all. It's especially odd when you see that they awarded Ireland 12 points in the pre-qualifying round. (Odder still, the actual recipient of the UK's 12 points in the final, Cyprus, only received two points from them in the pre-qualifying round. However, this can be explained by the jurors for the qualifying round not being allowed to vote in the final.)
** Malta normally gives twelve to the UK, and in 2007 admitted they fixed their results as a protest against bloc voting.
*** Yes and no: Malta can sometimes be very generous, but they can also be very fickle. A failure to award the UK any points in 1993 cost them victory, and in the victorious year of 1997 they only gave the UK one point (their lowest mark of the evening). On the other hand, their twelve jury points in 2016 was the first time any country had given the UK top marks since 2011 and their public's 12 in 2022 was one of the few that didn't go to Ukraine.
** Spain and Portugal usually interchange high votes and, since Andorra's first appearance, both countries receive the highest votes from this little principate. France also got high points from Andorra, but didn't give any in return.
** This problem seems to have finally been ended with the 50/50 split of votes (a professional jury counts for 50% and the popular vote counts for 50%) in 2010. In 2016, the voting formula was changed to explicitly count televotes separately from the jury votes in point totals, rather than use an aggregate to determine the points awarded (similarly to the Swedish final, the televote results were revealed song-by-song following the jury votes, which were presented in the traditional country-by-country fashion).
*** You still can check if you know the border countries of the one giving the votes by saying who gets the maximum votes.
*** In fact the late Spanish long-time commentator José Luís Uribarri became famous for announcing the votes from each country before the jury actually told the results (and he got them right most of the time). People enjoyed it especially when he failed. This is one of the main reasons Spaniards don't take the contest seriously anymore.
** Another pair of countries that exchange maximum votes predictably has arisen in recent years: Turkey and Azerbaijan. Similar to Greece and Cyprus, this is in large part due to the cultural connection between the two.
** Israel, when they do vote, give the UK and Turkey points. Moldova and Ukraine are your next bets; in fact, you could say everywhere ''but'' [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Germany]] (though they have actually voted for Germany a few times, though not a lot, and received their first 12 in 11 years from the German jury in 2016. They also gave 12 to Austria with Conchita.)
*** German winner Nicole was actually quite moved that one of the 12 points that led her to victory came from Israel, given their history (Germany, in turn, rewarded their representative Avi Toledano with 12 points as well).
** On the flip side of this, there are also countries who won't give each other the time of day, much less points at Eurovision. The classical example is Greece/Turkey; another that has arisen in recent years is Armenia/Azerbaijan[[note]]those two countries hate each other so much that Armenia pulled out of 2012's Contest -- held in Azerbaijan -- on security grounds[[/note]] (although, rather surprisingly given the history of the two countries, Turkey and Armenia are not averse to giving each other a few points).
*** Considering their reputation as not voting for each other, Greece and Turkey have given surprisingly many points to each other over the years. Turkey and Cyprus on the other hand, have only given points to each other in 2 occasions, in 2003 and in 2004.
*** Since the '90s this has been the case for the UK with nearly everywhere else, rarely getting many points from most other countries, usually put down to both the physical and cultural distance (votes for Ireland are presumably given because it's explicitly ''not'' the UK). It's a good game to see how long the UK can spend on the left side of the board (if it even gets there). After 2016... well, it's not like the UK hasn't suffered getting ''nil points'' before -- Brits are satisfied as long as they place higher than Germany. (A country that also, notably, gets very few votes. Likely for [[UsefulNotes/{{WW2}} that]][[note]]especially when the year ends in 5 -- they finished bottom in 1965 (with 0 points), 1995, 2005 and 2015 (again with 0 points), and finished third-bottom in 1975; they finished second in 1985[[/note]] as well as being perceived as the greatest power in Europe somewhat alienating the rest of the continent.)
** Averted quite a bit in 2017, with many countries giving their twelve points to Portugal when they would otherwise have given them to Russia or their neighbours.
* Over-enthusiastic {{Sidekick}}s: Finland's "Eurovision's biggest fan" took the proverbial biscuit. Serbia had some ridiculous woman in a square in Belgrade (this was during an ad break as filler for countries where it is shown on commercial-free channels, like the BBC) and some woman who looked like Avril Lavigne in "The Green Room".
** For the record, the said "biggest fan" was a comedy actress whose thing is to play a hyper naïve, simple-minded blonde with pieces of sharp sarcasm.
** During the voting in 2006, the Netherlands' spokesperson Paul de Leeuw seemed to ignore the live element of the show, [[CampGay unsubtly hitting on the male host]] and giving out his mobile number on live TV before proceeding to name the country awarded 12 points. Terry Wogan called him an "eejit" in his commentary. [[invoked]]
* Radio/TerryWogan: For viewers in the UK (and many in Ireland and some other European countries, where British TV channels are commonly available), an integral part of the experience was the [[DeadPanSnarker dry, acerbic commentary]] by veteran radio presenter Sir Terry Wogan who openly mocked the hosts, the costumes, the songs, the Tourist Office Inserts, the Interval Act. He generally seemed to spend the contest getting progressively more squiffy on Bailey's, [[BoozeBasedBuff so tends to become more and more entertaining as the evening draws on.]] The worse the contest, the quicker it happens. He was once banned from Denmark for referring to their hosts as "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy". Commentated the show in 1978 and from 1980 to 2008, where he left due to being unhappy with the political voting and the UK's lack of effort. He has since been replaced by Graham Norton, another sardonic Irishman.
** Notable for UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism -- he blamed the failure of the United Kingdom's HollywoodToneDeaf entry in the 2003 contest on backlash from the Iraq War, in spite of the fact many nations that were seen as being on its side in the intervention fared better, including winner Turkey.
* TruckDriversGearChange: The ''definitive'' recurring element in entries, the last chorus of a song often cranks up a key or two. Why? Because they can. A noteable aversion occurred in 2023 where none of the entries featured such a key change. This is often combined with any of the following:
* [[BilingualDialogue Bilingual Lyrics]]: Even if you start singing in your native Bulgarian or Hebrew, switching into English for the final chorus (or for every chorus) will guarantee international appeal. Also known as GratuitousEnglish. Compare InternationalPopSongEnglish.

* StockRhymes: It comes with the GratuitousEnglish. Many lyricists who speak English as a second language (or not even at all) choose stock rhyming words (or don't even bother with rhyming at all!). The worst offending couplet comes from Sweden's entry in 2011, which rhymed "impossible" with "possible". Not to be outdone, Serbia's entry in 2017 contained three lines, which [[RhymingWithItself rhymed "deep" with itself. Twice]].[[note]]You may be unaware of this song; they failed to qualify that year.[[/note]]
* [[InvokedTrope Intentional]] Costume [[WardrobeMalfunction Malfunction]]: Ever since Bucks Fizz won the contest in 1981 with a dance routine involving the boys ripping off the girls' skirts to reveal that their blouses were in fact really short dresses, the on-stage striptease has become a standard ingredient (4 out of 25 finalists in 2008, plus Serbia's show opener).
** Music/{{tATu}} threatened to go all the way in 2003. They didn't ultimately, sang badly and Turkey won. This was the (first) year where the UK ended up with no points whatsoever.
** While not a striptease ''per se'', Germany tried to get the male vote in 2009 by including burlesque model Creator/DitaVonTeese. The baffling part of all this was that two-thirds of the way into the performance, they stop to announce her ("Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Creator/DitaVonTeese!"), even though she was already on the stage and had been stripping throughout the song. And after that she just poses a bit. Ultimately, it didn't work, and they finished twentieth out of twenty-five.
** In 1985, the Swedish host Lill Lindfors lost her skirt when it snagged on some scenery. This was quickly revealed as intentional when she [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tmk23i4giE unfastened part of her top to make a dress]]. This routine had been kept secret and was a surprise even to most of the crew (a man was placed in the mixing room to make sure the camera stayed on Lill). It led to the addition of a rule that the aired show cannot contain elements that haven't been a part of rehearsals beforehand.[[note]]The big joke for Swedes is that Lill Lindfors, while an acclaimed singer, was for many years considered far too cautious and reserved, decorous to the point of being dull. In the 1960s, revue producer Hagge Geigert actually told her that she needed to lose her skirt, i.e. loosen up. Today, no one questions her ability to misbehave ''should she want to'' (which is still rarely the case).[[/note]]
* [[DistractedByTheSexy Questionable Choreography]]
* [[DramaticWind Wind Machines]]. Lots of them.
* [[EpilepticFlashingLights Flashing Strobe Lights]]. It is common for the television broadcasters' commentators to give a verbal and a written warning before the act. Special mention to Georgia 2016, which took this trope up to eleven.

!!And now, some examples of tropes as seen in the Eurovision Song Contest / Et maintenant, quelques exemples des tropes vus dans le concours Eurovision de la chanson:
[[folder:A-C]]
* AffectionateParody:
** Swedish Eurodance performer Markoolio wrote a parody of typical Eurovision music, "Värsta Schlagern".[[note]]"The Worst Hit"; "schlager" is a type of light pop music that frequently appeared in Eurovision for quite a while, especially among central, Nordic, and southeast European countries)[[/note]]. And of course, it [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] all the clichés. The third verse? Translated into English it goes: "Now it gets difficult to figure out/ something new to say, but so what?/ This is just padding/ which people will soon forget about." He actually tried to enter it with a different singer into Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national final, but was turned down.
** In 2009, Markoolio got into Melodifestivalen as a wild card with "Kärlekssång från mig", a follow-up in the form of a power ballad. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXW2ztxqFCk live performance]] featured a stage show parodying Dima Bilan's performances, with a FunnyBackgroundEvent involving a man emerging from the piano, who tries to ice skate, almost gets hit in the face by a violinist, and then gets set on fire by the pyrotechnics.
** Sweden seem to be making a habit of this-- one of the interval acts from 2016 was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMgW54HBOS0 "Love Love Peace Peace"]], a {{Troperrific}} exploration of the most common themes from past Eurovision hits. And then there was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gl-wsH5YXc "The Nerd Nation"]], a {{Mockumentary}} poking fun at ''Sweden itself'' for its obsession with Eurovision. There's also Melodifestivalen 2013's "En Riktig Jävla Schlager", once again playing on the Schlager trope, featuring amongst others Tommy Körberg of Chess fame.
* AlwaysSecondBest: The United Kingdom, ending up in second place ''sixteen times'' between 1959 and 2022.
** During their stay in the contest, Russia gained a reputation as "the contestant most likely to finish second". Their only win came in 2008, while they came in second four times between 2000 and 2015 -- twice losing out only to contest juggernauts Sweden.
* AnonymousBand: Two of these entered the 2022 contest:
** Norwegian duo Subwoolfer, whose members perform in yellow wolf masks, go by the aliases "Keith" and "Jim", and who finished 10th in the Grand Final. The duo would eventually confirm that they were Ben Adams and Gaute Ormåsen (which was the most popular theory about their identitites) while performing at Melodi Grand Prix 2023 (Norway's national final).
** Georgian band Circus Mircus, who didn't make it out of their semi final. While it's widely speculated that Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz, who already competed for Georgia back in 2016, could be the driving force behind Circus Mircus, their manifesto emphasises repeatedly that the band members' individual identities are not relevant to its work:
--->''2. Your identity does not matter as long as you are a part of Circus Mircus, for no one person can take credit for the movement's work.''\\
''5. Ask 'WHY', not 'WHO'.''\\
''6. Honor the golden rule of anonymity.''
* ArcNumber: Russia has had several entries which have a variation of "one" in its name: "Solo" in 2000, "Nobody Hurt No '''One'''" in 2005, "Song #'''1'''" in 2007, "You Are The Only '''One'''" in 2016 and "Uno" in ultimately cancelled 2020.[[note]]1997's "Primadonna" might also count considering "prima donna" literally means "'''first''' lady".[[/note]] And for their 2003 performance, both members of Music/{{tATu}} had a big 1 on their tops (although this could be a reference to performing 11th).
* AscendedFanboy: Australia have been known to be dedicated fans of the contest and have broadcast it since 1983. So, in celebration of the contest's 60th anniversary in 2015, they were given a slot at the Grand Final and came in at a respectable 5th place. Because of that, Australia got to compete for real in the 2016 contest and came in ''second'' at the Grand Final, leading to speculation on whether or not they get to be a permanent participant. The EBU and SBS (the Australian broadcaster) eventually made a deal for the country to return each year until 2023. Should Australia win the contest would not take place in the country, but SBS would be allowed to co-host with a European city (similar to the arrangement between Ukraine and the UK in 2023).
* AudienceParticipation: Since 1997, the winner has been chosen by a mix of judges and audience votes, with each accounting for 50% of the points awarded. As of 2024, viewers can vote by phone, text or the official Eurovision app, but (like the judges) cannot vote for their own country's entry. Audience votes are revealed at the very end of the show, after the last judges' votes, and can radically change the scoreboard.
* AwardBaitSong: Occasionally you get a power ballad that sounds like it could easily play over the intro of a ''Film/JamesBond'' movie.
* BalkanizeMe: Perhaps due to the voting blocs spawned by the breakups of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, as well as the lack of effort of the United Kingdom in the 21st century as a united nation, there have been calls for the UK to split themselves up into separate nations [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Nations much like they do in most sports]], and make their own voting block with Ireland, which could happen if Scotland declares independence. Wales in particular even have gone as far as creating [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cân_i_Gymru a national contest show]] long in advance dating back to 1969 in preparation if the split up were to happen. Of course if it did happen, it would pose several problems:
** Since much of the UK's economic power comes from England, they would be the only nation that could possibly keep their "Big 5" status, meaning that Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland would most likely have to compete in the semifinals much like Ireland does. Then of course, there's the financial issues that would come with hosting if one of these nations were to win, especially since they wouldn't have the full financial support of the UK anymore.
** There's UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion of whether Northern Ireland should join up with Ireland like in Rugby Football or compete separately as they do in association football.
** Finally the voting bloc these nations would have could easily backfire as not only would they have to compete against one another, there could be vendettas between these nations as along with the issue of nationality, the fact they had to resort to doing this because of the lack of effort back when they participated as a united nation. That said, the spawned rivalries could lead to these nations sending a better quality of entrants as a result, pending they start taking the contest seriously again.
*** Wales took part in the ESC for choirs on its own with the [=S4C=] Welsh broadcaster -- the bizarre EBU event taking place in Latvia in the summer was advertised in the ESC 2017 -- and finished second. The Welsh later partook in the junior contest in 2018, but placed last, having got no points from jurors, although with a passable public score, placing 2nd last the following year after being last with online votes, and withdrawing from the next 2 editions due to COVID. The EBU says they partake alone or the UK partakes, but both cannot occur at once. The U.K. returned as a United entity to this level in 2022, and placed 5th, winning the online vote, heavily damaging the possibility of Wales ever making a solo return to it. Wales would later return to choir contest in 2019, with Scotland joining them.
* BanOnPolitics: Political content is forbidden as the contest is officially supposed to be non-political. Many entries have been ordered to change lyrics, costume or staging elements that violate this rule. Failure to comply is grounds for removal from the contest, as seen with Belarus' disqualification in 2021 when both of their submitted songs were deemed unacceptable.
* {{Bookends}}:
** The Contest begins and ends with a brief blast of the prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's ''Te Deum''.
** In 1958, a transmission fault caused the first song - "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" by Domenico Modugno (better known as "Volare") - to not be heard in all countries. To compensate for that, it was performed again after all the other entries.
** The contests of 1975, 1976 and 1984 were won by the first song to be performed, meaning that they were the first and last song performed.
** The 2023 final begins and ends with lyrics about songwriting. Austria starts the competition with "Oh my God, you're ''such'' a good writer", while the UK closes it with "Instead I wrote a song".
* {{Bowdlerize}}: The EBU's rules do not allow profanity during competitive performances. This ruling applies to both lyrical content and the staging. Entrants are required to alter their lyrics to remove cursing and change their choreography to avoid rude gestures.
* BoyBand: Several acts, but the noteworthy one is Herreys, winner of the 1984 contest.
* BribingYourWayToVictory:
** Reports indicate that for 2013, [[http://12points.tv/esc/item/1950-proof-of-vote-rigging-by-azerbaijan Azerbaijan did just that]], literally. It appears to have backfired, since they only managed to get 2nd place.
** Downplayed with the "Big 5" countries [[note]](France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom)[[/note]] who are the highest financial contributors to the EBU: them and the host country (the one spending a boatload of money to make the contest possible) get to automatically qualify for the final, regardless of previous results. These countries haven't really used this to their advantage in the final however, with Germany in 2010 and Italy in 2021 being the only times someone from the "Big 5" has won, with these countries being known for having a tendency for not taking the contest seriously, and in the case of the host, fear of having to pay to host the contest again. Not to mention, even when these nations do send credible songs, some argue that the bye is more of a disadvantage, as said artists have to wait until the final for their songs to be performed, thus having less exposure compared to the semi-finalists as a result. It is for this reason, as well as the reintroduction of juries, that led Turkey to withdraw from the contest in 2013.
** San Marino attempted to do this by hiring a ringer for the 2021 contest, specifically Music/FloRida who featured on their entry. It didn't work; they came 22nd out of 26 (and Flo Rida looked downright ''miserable'' in the green room as the results were read, to boot.)
* TheBusCameBack: Many countries temporarily withdrew and then came back after one or a few years. However, there are some notable examples of countries that returned after more than one decade of absence:
** Malta had its first three participations in 1971, 1972 (ending up in the last place both times) and once more in 1975. After a 16-year absence, they returned in 1991 and have participated every year since.
** Monaco participated for two decades from 1959 to 1979. After a 25-year absence, they returned in 2004 only to fail to qualify to the final for three years in a row and withdraw again in 2006.
** Slovakia debuted in 1994 but withdrew in 1999 due to poor results. After a 10-year absence, they returned in 2009 only to fail to qualify to the final for four years in a row and withdraw again in 2012.
** Italy participated in the contest since the beginning in 1956, until they started to miss sporadic editions in the 80s and 90s, and then withdrew entirely after 1997 (which they only entered because the broadcaster forgot to withdraw that year). After a 14-year absence, they returned in 2011 and have participated every year following.
** Luxembourg participated in the contest for 37 years since the 1956 debut. After being relegated from the 1994 contest for scoring poorly in 1993, Luxembourg withdrew from the contest entirely. In 2023 it was announced that they would finally return in 2024, after a 31-year absence.
* CatchPhrase: ''Douze points!'' ''Twelve points goes to...'' (SIC) ''Royaume Uni dix points!''
* CheatersNeverProsper: During the second semifinal in 2022, the juries for Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and San Marino were all disqualified and had a substitute jury vote created for them, based on the (legitimate) jury votes from the other countries in their pot in the allocation draw. According to one of Belgium's broadcasters, they had made agreements to vote for one another.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The individual members of Iceland's 2014 entry, Pollapönk. Whether in [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iQGYUpYvh5g/U1-b74XHneI/AAAAAAAABIk/iaFXeynqnqM/s1600/IMG_0207.JPG tracksuits]], [[http://www.viisukuppila.fi/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Pollap%C3%B6nk-2.jpg suit and tie]], [[http://grapevine.is/wp-content/uploads/897435e130d62fae.jpg dresses]], or [[http://eurovisiontimes.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/pollaponk-iceland-dressing-gowns.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1 bathrobes]], they would wear the same colors. [[https://www.facebook.com/pollaponk/photos/pb.262970481525.-2207520000.1410492028./10152034284126526/?type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-xfp1%2Ft31.0-8%2F10257482_10152034284126526_8596604979807553691_o.jpg&smallsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-xap1%2Fv%2Ft1.0-9%2F1017753_10152034284126526_8596604979807553691_n.jpg%3Foh%3D712946de10b71da51dc999d6f7ebd958%26oe%3D54887E7F&size=2048%2C1362&fbid=10152034284126526 They even painted their [finger]nails for you]]!
* ConfettiDrop: A massive confetti drop usually happens during the winner's TriumphantReprise. Confetti isn't allowed during the main show as there isn't enough time to clear it up between performances.
* CurbStompBattle:
** Music/{{Lordi}}, a silly curiosity act, positively annihilated the competition as the votes came in in 2006, getting top-level votes (usually 8-12 points) from almost every country. At the time, their points total of 292 was a Eurovision record. It has since been broken thrice over, by Norway in 2009 with 387 points (''169'' more than second-placed Iceland), Sweden in 2012 with 372 points (113 more than second-placed Russia) and again Sweden in 2015 with 365 points (''62'' more than second-placed Russia), score that was reached again by Switzerland in 2024 (153 points more than second-placed France).
** In 1994, the winner Ireland was the first country to break the 200-point barrier with 226 points and a healthy lead of 60 points over the runner-up Poland. Three years later in 1997, Katrina and the Waves, representing the United Kingdom, beat their record with 227 points, a 70 point lead over the Irish runner-ups, and racked up 10 sets of douze points. To date, five winners have had larger winning margins: the aforementioned Norway in 2009 with a 169 point lead; Germany in 2010 with a 76 point lead; Sweden in 2012 with a 113 point lead; Portugal in 2017 with a 143 point lead; and Ukraine in 2022 with a 165 point lead.
** Subverted by Australia in 2016, due to the jury voting being presented first, followed by the televotes. Oz dominated the jury votes by a 200-point margin, to the point that it seemed like they would be the clear winner, but the televotes closed that gap, leading to a dramatic last-minute victory by Ukraine.
** Portugal in 2017, with a gap of almost 300 points between it and third, and a massive 143 point difference between them and second (Bulgaria).
** Ukraine in 2022, who won by 165 points over the second placed UK. The UK actually won the jury vote, but a huge televote of 439 points (the largest ever given in the Eurovision, with '''28''' of the 39 other countries giving them 12 points), saw Ukraine jump into the lead from 4th place, where they then stayed.
* {{Curse}}: While nations performing later in the contest tends to have a better chance of winning, as most viewers remember the song more when it's time to vote, a nation having to perform 2nd in the final running order is known to be a kiss of death to one's chances of winning the contest. Not only that nobody has won performing there, it has produced the most last place finishes and many pre-contest favorites have found themselves bombing in the scorecard from having to perform 2nd. Notable victims to the curse include Vicky Leandros (1967), Ronnie Tober (1968) [[note]]He finished joint ''last'' [[/note]], Olivia Newton-John (1974), Matia Bazaar (1979), Gili & Galit (1989) and Gina G (1996). The producers, who have decided the running order since 2013, usually put a song with little chance of winning -- usually a simple ballad which fares poorly -- in this slot, after opening with an upbeat song.
[[/folder]]

* DueToTheDead: In January 2016, BBC's previous ESC commentator Radio/TerryWogan passed away. Graham Norton toasted to him that year at the start of the 9th song, saying that Sir Terry (who was famous for getting progressively more drunk during his commentary) "would never start drinking before song no. 9.", which a draw in March that year revealed would be hosts Sweden. He did the same in 2017 (for seeming favourites Italy), 2018 (for the UK's entry -- before it was ruined), 2019 (Sweden again), 2021 (the United Kingdom again), 2022 (Italy again) and 2023 (eventual winners Sweden).

** 2016's second interval was a completely meta-song that arguably became the most popular perfomance of the night if social media is to be believed. It was called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tgnx6jTQ Love Love, Peace Peace]]" and mocked the StrictlyFormula tradition of Eurovision acts that consisted of, oh, just about all of the points below. It was performed by the hosts and featured gratuitous SelfDeprecatingHumour, {{Stripperiffic}} costumes, and cameo from just about all the memorable artists or references to those artists from the past 10 years, including Lordi, Alexander Rybak, Loreen, the Russian Grannies and the Polish milkmaids.

** While not a striptease ''per se'', Germany tried to get the male vote in 2009 by including [[MsFanservice burlesque model Dita Von Teese]]. The baffling part of all this was that two-thirds of the way into the performance, they stop to announce her ("Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Creator/DitaVonTeese!"), even though she was already on the stage and had been stripping throughout the song. And after that she just poses a bit. Ultimately, it didn't work, and they finished twentieth out of twenty-five.

%%* Copying Successful Formulas: expect to see acts establish trends (which could be short-term or long-term depending on the audience's evolving tastes) by co-opting elements from the previous years' successful acts, usually to diminishing returns:
%%** A fire curtain effect was pivotal for the Azerbaijan's 2011 win, numerous other acts in the following years incorporated the pyrotechnic effect into their acts including at least one other winner (Denmark 2013).
%%** The 2015 contest had eventual winner Måns Zelmerlöw of Sewden interacting with a cartoon character projected onto the screen background. This interactive element proved to be popular enough to be incorporatef into other acts like Armenia 2016 and Cyprus 2018.

* CostumePorn: Eye-catching and elaborate costumes are a popular choice for performers who want something to make them stand out in the crowd. Others go the SimpleYetOpulent route with tasteful eveningwear.

* {{Fanservice}}: Even in the least successful songs, performances with strip teasing and wardrobe malfunctions tend to be quite well remembered.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Many acts, gender notwithstanding.

* WaistcoatOfStyle: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME Alexander Rybak]], the winner of 2009, so much that sometimes it seems [[LimitedWardrobe he doesn't own any other clothes]]. He returned with a similar fashion and style 9 years later.

* BanOnPolitics: Political content on the songs' lyrics is forbidden. In 2009, when the contest was set to be held in Moscow, Georgia was caught attempting to enter a song titled "We Don't Wanna [[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin Put In]]" in the wake of the Russo-Georgian armed conflict, and was promptly disqualified.
* BlatantLies: In 1978, several Middle Eastern countries broadcast the Contest live. When it became clear Israel were going to win, the broadcast was ended early, with Jordanian television stating that Belgium (which finished 32 points behind Israel) had won.

* ButNotTooGay: North Macedonia's entrant for the 2020 cancelled contest (later reconfirmed for 2021) was the out-and-proud gay man Vasil Garvanliev, but in the video for his song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZumQQExQc You]]" he's shown in a bar dancing seductively with a woman. Viewers joked that he's doing that to make the male bartender jealous.
* ButtMonkey: While Eurovision is treated as simply a campy fun fest for some, it can often be seen as a yearly frustration fest in regards to nations that are considered to be perennial losers on the final points table or for those suffering a massive AudienceAlienatingEra in regards to the quality of entries.
%%* '''{{Camp}}:''' Several dozens of acts. Likely at least a dozen of them every year.

* AllIssuesArePoliticalIssues: Usually averted. On paper, Eurovision was meant to be an apolitical, borderless celebration of diversity and harmony; in fact, explicitly political entries are banned. In practice, there have been times when the contest becomes politically charged, reflecting current events.
** To list all the barely-implicitly political songs would be nearly impossible -- they go from the extreme: in 2016 the ''winning song'' was written by a Crimean from Ukraine, called ''"1944"'' (the year the Soviets deported the Crimean Tatars), being overtly political in itself, before adding the context that the 2016 contest was held around the time of the Russian-Ukrainian Crimean conflict and both countries perceived voting as politically motivated. In the future everything became worse, as Ukraine openly interpreted its victory as "recognition of its rightness in a political dispute with Russia," and their dispute over a Russian participant next year turned into a major diplomatic scandal. Worse still, in 2019, during the Ukrainian selection, Jamala openly asked national final favourite MARUV, who regularly performs in Russia, "Crimea is Ukraine?" (Sic). The broadcaster then presented MARUV with a contract that included a clause barring her from performing in Russia for several months, which she after some deliberation chose not to sign, and the other participants followed suit in order not be dragged into the whole mess, resulting in no Ukrainian ESC entry in 2019.
** The UK's 2017 entry was "Never Give Up On You", which is definitely not implying that, even in the wake of Brexit and reaffirming the Special Relationship with Trump's America, the UK populace wants to maintain a relationship with Europe. Furthermore, the song is written, not just by an EU writer, but by Denmark's 2013 winner Emmelie De Forrest.
*** Songs in the UK Selection that January, coincidentally held on the same day as the White House meeting of the UK PM Theresa May and US President Donald Trump, included a song called "I Wish I Loved You More" written by a Swede, and a song by a singer with Italian lineage called "I don't wanna fight". There was also the somewhat apologetic "we're on the same side, we're 'freedom hearts'", written by the Swede who wrote "A Million Voices" two years earlier.
*** The UK hosted 20 acts partaking in ESC 2017 (including some from non-EU countries, but a majority from the union), the weekend after A50 was triggered (again this was a coincidence). Lucie duetted with Spain's singer in that gig -- earlier that day, a former U.K. Opposition leader made a controversial remark about the Gibraltar dispute. Spain however was the only non-anglophonic nation to give UK televote points, although EU duo Malta and Ireland also gave Lucie a consistent level of televoting points little changed from recent contests (though not jury points -- she made a lighthearted and apolitical joke attack about it on Twitter, saying "ooh Ireland -- it burns!", and was mocked by Irish fans for it, but she still got 99 jury points, throughout the EU (including Germany, France, and Poland) and beyond, and placed 15th). The televoting points for UK still cleared those of six other nations, including Germany, Spain, Israel and Austria, as well as Australia and Denmark.
*** One government councillor didn't take the lack of Irish jury vote as well as Lucie did,and [[http://www.newstalk.com/British-councillor-tweets-antiIrish-slur-over-Eurovision-vote tweeted something much more offensive]] and was [[EvenEvilHasStandards suspended by the Tory party]].
*** The UK's 2016 submission, when the Brexit referendum was on the horizon, had the hook "As long as I'm with you" and started the chorus with "we're all in this together" (a catchphrase of then Prime Minister David Cameron).
*** The next year, they were more of an outsider, but told us "Storms don't last forever" in a period where the referendum was underpinned by an indecisive election and unprecedented political paralysis.
*** The next U.K. Song was called "Bigger than Us" and selected ahead of one called "Sweet Lies". "Bigger than Us" made history as the first ever entry whose writer represented another country as a singer in the same year, Swedish entry John Lundvik (UK born). Furthermore, 2015 winner Måns Zelmerlöw has made several jokes mocking the political crisis when presenting UK's selections in 2018 and 2019. However, only Ireland gave the song any televotes in the final despite the fact that, whilst no one (or very few) was expecting him to prevent the UK from ending the decade without a top 10 entry, he was given praise by former winner Måns Zelmerlöw, who presented his selection, and his fellow contestants (many of which he befriended on Insta Q&As) including champion elect Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands, though he later gave the song constructive criticism after it placed last, based on the manner of its selection (pairs of acts singing different versions of a song, which was scrapped ''the following year'') which likely meant it lacked the authenticity of Arcade, part of a top 10 of mostly self-written songs. (The hypothesis of the Brexit debacle and impasse causing the last place was undermined by the fact that Ireland had almost the exact same fortunes in their heat, with no televoting points outside UK, and, in the final, Germany got none at all, when surely those who mock the political debacle sympathise with Ireland and Germany [[note]]The chief risk, and what caused the impasse, was over the sensitivity of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland -- indeed there had been rumours of Ireland sending a Northern Irish ex-XF contestant the day before they chose their insipid choice.[[/note]])
*** In spite of sending a song which had got a relatively reasonable reception, and was constructively treated for being upbeat, contemporary and self written, and faring reasonably with juries on some preview events and fan sites (though few called it an outright favourite, a fatal flaw given you vote for your faves, not against your least favourite, and a very clunky stage show which had unnecessary prop trumpets, with very poor rehearsals with constant changes as it went along, and vocal performances which took too long to convince, put off jurors and voters that could have voted for it), UK suffered an even worse version of this fate in 2021, failing to score in either medium, though Germany, Spain and even the Dutch hosts also got NO Televoting points at all, and the quartet got just 20 combined jury votes (and Belgium, who fared much better with the jury, got only 3 televotes, all from Eastern European nations nowhere near them). Ireland had earlier bottomed out 16-song heat 1 (with points).
** Verka Serduchka's "Dancing Lasha Tumbai". Verka claimed ''lasha tumbai'' is a Mongolian phrase meaning 'churned butter' or 'whipped cream', but it's actually gibberish. Gibberish that may just sound suspiciously similar to "Russia, goodbye!"...
** Interpreting "Next Year in Jerusalem" as said by Netta when celebrating her win, and on instas of singers and celebs congratulating her win, as a claim on Jerusalem (host in 1979 and 1999) as the capital, which risked causing outrage and made it all-but-untenable as a host venue, though Netta herself didn't care about this, and had no qualms about Tel Aviv hosting instead, which was seen as a more appropriate venue by fans, for harnessing ESC's LGBT aspect rather than being febrile, and preventing a diplomatic boycott that had been risked in some northern countries such as Iceland (1999's runners up) and Ireland.
*** The divisions regarding the Icelandic act for this iteration Hatari's anti capitalist message and wrestling match jokes. On the live broadcast, during the awarding of the public votes, they went so far as to hold up the Palestinian flag.
** Although distracting a bit from the fact that Ukraine's 2022 act was genuinely great, there was ''absolutely no way'' that they could ''not'' have won in 2022 following its invasion by Russia, and the enormous outpouring of international sympathy that resulted.
** Israel's entry in 2024 was a major point of controversy due to the war against Palestine. The song that Israel proposed was changed twice due to political messages in the lyrics, until Eden Golan's "Hurricane" was accepted (while still referring the events that lead the Hamas war). In spite of that, Israel's entry was able to reach the finals and was the second country with the most points in the televote (only behind Croatia), reaching the fifth position.

* DeadpanSnarker:
** Creator/TheBBC seems to be developing a tradition of having a snarky presenter from the Republic of Ireland do its Eurovision commentary. BBC commentary was provided until 2008 by Radio/TerryWogan, who spent the entire broadcasts drinking Bailey's and snarking about how terrible the acts were, how terrible the hosts were, and how shamelessly political the voting became. Wogan has since been replaced by Graham Norton, who proudly continued the tradition of snark in 2009 and 2010 (including snarking over his own interview during half-time).
--->'''Graham:''' ''(about Greece receiving a lot of points in 2012)'' The Greek finance minister has just died a little inside.
** Kristian Luuk, Swedish commentator from 2007 to 2008, would throw sarcastic remarks at pretty much everything, some of which were pretty irrelevant to the entries and the voting, doubled with a hoot he often used, even during Andorra's performance. Predictably, he got warnings from the broadcast channel [[SeriousBusiness to stop his behavior immediately]], but he ignored them.
--->'''Luuk:''' ''(about one of the spokesmen)'' Look at that guy's fat chin!
** The current Swedish, Edward af Sillén, is also known for his snark. In 2015 he made the following comment which went viral:
--->'''af Sillén:''' As you might have noticed, Ukraine isn't part of ESC this year. [[CrossesTheLineTwice Anyway, here's Russia with a song about peace.]]

* DownToTheLastPlay: The voting has seen some tight battles at the top. The most notable examples are:
** 1968 - Spain beat the United Kingdom by ''one'' point, despite Music/CliffRichard being the overwhelming favourite to win.
** 1988 - Switzerland beat the United Kingdom by ''one'' point[[note]]This is especially nerve-wracking as, due to the way the show sequentially announced scores that time (as in, Country A announced which countries got their scores, then Country B did the same and so on), when the last country Yugoslavia gave Switzerland six points, everyone was left thinking just how wide United Kingdom's winning margin would be; instead, Yugoslavia gave the UK '''no''' points[[/note]]. In a spooky coincidence, Yugoslavia were the last jury to award their points in 1968. Which would be the narrowest margin of victory until...
** 1991 - Wherein France and Sweden finished level on points, with Sweden winning by getting more sets of 10 points (they had tied on the first tie-breaker, as both got the same number of 12pts).[[note]]Had the current rules been used then -- the first tie-breaker is how many countries voted for it -- France would have won.[[/note]]
** 1998 - With just Macedonia left to vote, Israel and Malta were tied on points. Macedonia would give Israel 8 points and Malta 0.
** 2003 - With just Slovenia left to vote, Turkey, Belgium and Russia could still all win. As a result, the televoting announcer [[https://youtu.be/gHizQRUp5cM?t=5m0s jokingly walked away]] before giving the votes (and Turkey the win).
** The Melodifestivalen-inspired voting system in place from 2016 – each jury announces in turn, then total televote points are added in reverse order of the standings after the jury voting – is deliberately designed to prevent runaway winners and heighten the drama of the results portion of the show (working incredibly well each time). In 2019, it was adjusted to be done in ascending jury vote order, ie, Spain and the Israeli hosts, the jury's bottom 2, would get televotes first, and Netherlands, North Macedonia (a nation who had never before made the top 10) and Sweden, would be the last to be read out. It was even more effective, and the title was won by just 26 points -- in fact, the top 3 had less than 20 televotes between them.

* DreadfulMusician: Though thorougly averted with the vast majority of victors, some musicians still stand out. Jemini, legendary for their nul points in 2003, fit this, as does Piero and the Music Stars of 2004, where they were unceremoniously kicked out of the semi finals with a whopping no points.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Lugano 1956 was mostly broadcast for TV ''and'' radio, though mostly for radio [[TechnologyMarchesOn as television was an expensive luxury back in the mid-50's]] and had 7 countries ([[WhatCouldHaveBeen there were more planned]], but they didn't get the paperwork done in time) providing two songs each, [[LeaveTheCameraRunning presumably to pad it out]]. There was one winner -- Switzerland, who didn't win again until Music/CelineDion gave them a hand -- and everyone else came "second", with the point allocation being secret. Also, one song was just some guy whistling to a band. [[invoked]]
** The first ever semi-final in 2004 showed the scores of the non-qualifying countries immediately after the qualifiers were all announced (brutally unveiling Switzerland's nul points in the process). Every contest since, the semi-final results are announced in the hours after the final has concluded.

* EpicFail: Nul Points, an event where a nation ends with 0 points in the scoreboard (in modern terms, failing to reach the top 10 ranking from both the juries ''and'' public of every voting country) is seen as this by the Eurovision community. The United Kingdom's 2021 entry, "Embers" by James Newman, was a particularly special case, as it became the first song since the introduction of the split voting system to not score a single point from any jury ''or'' televote. People thought that wasn't even possible under the new system.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In 2006, despite withdrawing from the contest because of a scandal in their National Final[[note]]to cut a long story short: the Montenegrin jurors awarded higher points to Montenegrin acts than Serbian acts to ensure one of their acts would represent the country[[/note]], Serbia and Montenegro were still allowed to vote. When announcing their votes, their spokesperson said that they would return the following year with the best song. In 2007, they returned as just Serbia and won the Contest.

* GirlNextDoor: Lena Meyer-Landrut, the winner of Eurovision 2010, may or may not be trying to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this with her style of dress (if not her songs).

* GorgeousGreek: Greece and Cyprus have sent so many MsFanservice contestants, particularly since the turn of the millennium.
** Greece has had Mando (seventeenth, Riga 2003), Music/HelenaPaparizou (winner, Kyiv 2005), Kalomira Sarantis (third, Belgrade 2008), Eleftheria Eleftheriou (seventeenth, Baku 2012), Dimitra "Demy" Papadea (nineteenth, Kyiv 2017), Gianna Terzi (semifinalist, Lisbon 2018), Katerina Duska (twenty-first, Tel Aviv 2019), Stefania Liberakakis (entrant, Rotterdam 2020 and 10th, Rotterdam 2021), and Athena Manoukian (who attempted to represent Greece at Junior level in 2008, to no avail), representing her ethnic homeland of Armenia, became the would-be sex symbol of the cancelled 2020 edition in Rotterdam.
** Cyprus has had British-born Lisa Andreas (fifth, Istanbul 2004), Greek-born Ivi Adamou (sixteenth, Baku 2012), Albanian-born Music/EleniFoureira (runner-up, Lisbon 2018) and Georgian-born Tamta Goduadze (thirteenth, Tel Aviv 2019).
** MrFanservice contestants also abound, including Greece's Sakis Rouvas (third, Istanbul 2004; seventh, Moscow 2009), Loukas Yiorkas (seventh, Dusseldorf 2011), Cyprus's would-be 2020 entrant Sandro Nicholas, a German-American of Greek descent (who was not given the right to represent Cyprus in 2021), and Andrew Lambrou, an Australian of Greek-Cypriot parentage (twelfth, Liverpool 2023).
** Representing these countries on either side of the millennium line are: Anna Vissi (Greece 1980 and 2006; Cyprus 1982); Evridki (Cyprus 1992, 1994, and 2007); and Constantinos Christoforou (Cyprus 1996, 2001, and 2005).

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Slovenia's entry in 2002 was performed by a trio of men in drag, with two male and one female backing singer dressed as airline pilots in a full white suit, trousers and cap.

* MoodWhiplash:
** In Stockholm 2000, the Dutch live broadcast was stopped halfway through. A fireworks storage had gone up in flames, so those watching the dopey-happy show were treated to a special bulletin of an entire city block having been incinerated. The rest of the European watching public learned about this from the Dutch spokeswoman -- that fireworks explosion was the reason that the Dutch had to give the points by jury that year.
** In Baku 2012, Albania was allowed to delay their broadcast of the first semifinal (in which they were performing) and only use jury votes due to a serious bus accident which had occurred the day before and led the government to declare a day of mourning on the date of the semifinal.
** A round of the selection for Hungary's ESC song in 2017 was rearranged because of a bus crash in Italy which claimed the life of Hungarian students.
** At the finals in 2019, when Iceland's act got the results of the televote and the camera showed them ...the band members swung pro-Palestinian banners. At the final in Tel Aviv in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Israel.]] The mood in the live audience quickly changed from excitement for the voting to loud booing.

* RealMenWearPink: France's 2007 entry, ''Amour à la Francaise'' by Les Fatal Picards. Iceland's Pollapönk, from 2014, is a group made of middle-aged men [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience who always dress in bright-coloured suits]]: blue, yellow, red and pink[[note]]Originally he wore green, but switched to pink when he had troubles with green screen footage[[/note]].

* SeriousBusiness: Ever since ABBA soared to international success, Sweden has been taking the contest very seriously, so much so that Melodifestivalen, the national selection contest, is the highest-rated television series in Sweden, and in some years it garners even greater viewership than Eurovision itself.

** [[HilariousInHindsight In real life]], Ireland's entry for 2008 was the infamous "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfuJaf6IBpk Dustin the Turkey]]", a hideous turkey puppet singing in a deliberately off-key voice about how much Eurovision sucks and generally [[TakeThat taking a lot of shots]] at the other entries, their nations of origin, Eurovision's perceived decay in quality over the years, and [[SelfDeprecation the nation of Ireland]]. Naturally, he didn't make it past the semi-finals.

* TakeThat: Not one but two during the 2018 voting sequence: Latvia's spokesperson initially announced that their twelve points went to Music/KanyeWest (possibly a reference to his tendency to take the stage in indignation at awards shows if his preferred artist gets snubbed, most notably at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards), while Greece's awarded twelve points to ''Film/LaLaLand'' before saying that "...we aren't at the Oscars!"[[note]]Warren Beatty had infamously misread the envelope announcing the Best Picture winner the year before, mistakenly saying the winner was ''La La Land'' before it was revealed that the actual winner was ''Film/Moonlight2016''.[[/note]]
* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Two of the Netherlands's hosts in 2021, Jan Smit and Nikkie de Jager (aka nikkietutorials).

* {{Troll}}: No, we aren't talking about entries with entertaingly bad quality, we mean entries performed by artists who outright '''insults''' [[BitingTheHandHumor the show itself]] for its voting system and clichés with heavy satire, usually going by the "vote for us!" message. So far there have been a few notable examples:
** In 2006, there was Lithuania's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbNfxTtJp0M "We are The Winners (of Eurovision)"]], which consist of 30-something men doing baby-like chanting of the title. Really. Given how hilariously bad it is, it was most certainly intentional. Notably, this act got Lithuania its best Eurovision placing ever, finishing sixth in the final, the first of the country's only three Top 10 finishes -- the other ones were Donny Montell's ninth place in 2016 and The Roop's eighth place in 2021.
** The same year, 2006, has Iceland's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEos9VLtgFU "Congratulations"]], performed by fictional character Silvia Night. While baring slightly better in melody, it doubles in offense, as the lyrics contains "I'm no eurotrash freak", and making fun of "golden showers" and other clichés in Eurovision. The over the top acting is what gives the satire away; however, back then it wasn't recognized as such, and was only booed.
** In 2008, there's Ireland's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfuJaf6IBpk Dustin the Turkey, "Irelande Douze Pointe" (sic).]] Do we even need to say anything here? Just look at it!
** The UrExample has to be the 1980 entry from Belgium by Telex, called [[https://youtu.be/6USa0zUMmqI "Eurovision",]] which contained a lot of Eurovision cliches set to the most bored sounding synth-pop ever. They wanted to finish last but Portugal gave them dix points in spite. Interestingly, Telex are actually considered one of the best examples of early synth-pop, so they might also be the UrExample of jokey slumming in the contest.
** In 2012, there's Montenegro's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHnqF5PLP2w Euro Neuro]]. No melody at all, just a nonsensical "rap" based on silly rhymes but it's actually a huge TakeThat to the Eurozone, and the lyrics also contains "I got no ambition for high position in competition", as a clear reference to this contest.
* UglySlavicWomen: During the 2012 Contest, the Russian entry included a group of older GenreSavvy women dressed up as grandmothers, pushing the stereotype up to eleven (although the adorable demanor of the ladies, who were beloved by both public and their fellow contestants, made them fall squarely in UglyCute territory).
* VictoriousLoser: UK's 2021 representant James Newman, who despite getting 0 points (the first one with the new pointing system) left the contest with a smile in his face (and even celebrated being part of it).

* DisproportionateRetribution:
** Conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia took centre-stage at Moscow 2009 due to continuing conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh: during the semifinals, "We Are Our Mountains", a pro-Armenian statue near the capital Stepanakert, appeared in the Armenian postcard. After Azerbaijan promptly complained, since it recognizes the region as its property, the statue was edited out for the final... to which Armenian presenter (and 2008 fourth-placer) Music/{{Sirusho}} responded by having the aforementioned statue be her backdrop, and taped a picture of it to her clipboard. Following the finals, Azerbaijan's Ministry of National Security proceeded to interrogate the 43 people who voted for Armenia, considering them to be a "a potential security threat". The EBU ultimately fined Azerbaijan over its misconduct, alongside allegations that they tried to censor the Armenian entry during the final.
*** Ironically, this is the only time ever that Armenia voted for Azerbaijan, gifting them a single point in the final. As far as people know, no interrogations were made.
** Predictably, when Azerbaijan won Düsseldorf 2011, Armenia pulled out for 2012.
** It is also interesting that for such an LGBT-friendly event, the 2012 contest was held in a country with draconian anti-homosexual laws inherited from the old Soviet Union, where being gay earned a stay in TheGulag (those were repealed in 2000 but violent homophobia has remained in society). British TV commentator Graham Norton, an openly gay man, defended his role against criticism from gay rights groups by saying he was "unaware" of Azerbaijan's institutional homophobia and draconian laws.
*** Their 2020 entry opened with the lyrics "Cleopatra was a queen like me... straight or gay or in between", and was a major fan favourite. Samira Efendi, who represented them anew in 2021, indeed has said it is an LGBT celebrating anthem.
** The conflicts between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea (which Russia annexed in 2014) brought political heat to the 2017 contest, especially given that Ukraine had won the 2016 contest with a song alluding to an event in Crimean history. Right after Russia unveiled their performer Yulia Samoilova, the Ukrainian government declared her PersonaNonGrata for having travelled directly from Russia to Crimea to perform. The EBU [[TakeAThirdOption offered to allow her to perform remotely from a venue in Russia instead]], but the Russian broadcaster has insisted that Samoilova be able to perform in Kiev like everyone else. Prior to this conflict, Ukraine also affirmed that it would not exempt Eurovision from its recent policy of banning artists who supported the annexation of Crimea from the country. Much like Armenia before, Russia ultimately dropped out.

* ActionGirl: Every now and then, but the clearest example is Ukraine's Ruslana, winner of Istanbul 2004.

* AmbiguousGender:
** Serbia's entries in 2007 and 2010, Ukraine's Verka Serduchka for Helsinki 2007, Austria's Music/ConchitaWurst for Copenhagen 2014, France's Bilal Hassani in 2019.
** Montenegro's Slavko Kalezic in 2017 with the homoerotic Space. Kalezic wears a skirt and a see through mesh top.

%%** 2010 Eurovision's Flash Mob.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead:
** MeKaDo, German representative in 1994, consists of brunette Melanie Bender, blonde Kati Karney and "redhead" (more lighter brown) Dorkas Kiefer.
** Three of the backing singers for Denmark in 2000 were made up of this combination.
** The members of Hurricane for Serbia in 2020 and 2021 were also made up of this combination.
** The sisters representing Iceland in 2022 were also made up of this combination.

* BreakawayPopHit: Music/{{ABBA}}'s 1974's winning entry for Sweden "Waterloo", the UK's 1996 entry "Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit" by Gina G, and Italy's winning 2021 entry "Zitti e buoni" by Music/{{Maneskin}} are probably the best known examples of this from the Eurovision. If you include the Interval acts then "Riverdance", from Ireland 1994 probably also counts since the music was a worldwide hit, and it spawned off a musical as well.

* ButtMonkey: While Eurovision is treated as simply a campy fun fest for some, it can often be seen as a yearly frustration fest in regards to nations that are considered to be perennial losers on the final points table or for those suffering a massive AudienceAlienatingEra in regards to the quality of entries. Such examples include:
** Since around 2003 the UK has held this status, regularly finishing in the bottom five and more often than not coming dead last. Initially this was largely due to other countries protesting against their involvement in the invasion of Iraq, but this led to a vicious cycle in which talented singers refused to participate due to the likelihood of a bad Eurovision performance destroying their career [[note]](As happened to Andy Abraham in 2008; previously a relatively successful singer, he never released another studio album again after coming in last place)[[/note]], leading to the country being forced to send underwhelming, little known or long-forgotten and sometimes legitimately terrible acts to the contest, with a predictable lack of success each time.
*** Lampshaded in the 2014 semi-finals when in a tongue-in-cheek interval act, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Australia]] were told to move to Europe to participate in the contest, prompting them to lift the country out with helicopters and dumping themselves ''on top'' of the UK.\\
\\
This became HilariousInHindsight when it was announced that Australia would [[http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/10/eurovision-song-contest-invites-australia-to-join-worlds-biggest-party participate as a special guest]] for 2015. Doubly so when the UK gave Australia 10 points, while Australia gave the UK nul points. On top of that, Australia earned more points in one Eurovision (196, finishing 5th) than the UK had combined since 2010 (190).
*** However, the 2022 final did prove that when the UK actually take the contest seriously, they do very well indeed; Sam Ryder finished 2nd behind Ukraine, and actually topped the jury vote.
*** Also applies to their neighbours Ireland. Whether or not the Brexit debacle has driven them apart politically, the pair, who have had just 6 of their 47 entries between them since the Free Languages make the top 10 (Eamon Toal, Jessica Garlick, Brian Kennedy, Jade Ewen, Jedward's first appearance and Sam Ryder) have had an almost intertwined form. The last places of Sarah [=McTernan=] (Ireland) in heat 2 and Michael Rice (UK) in the final in 2019 seemed like evidence of this as well, but the disaster endings for Lesley Roy for the Irish and James Newman for the British, with songs that had been promising in the eyes of fandoms and predictor juries before the rehearsals underscored their bereft presences, doubled down on this -- neither act even contributed to the Live on tape post-contest special!
*** In Ireland, the "My Lovely Horse" joke, and the real life participation of one of its biggest comedic characters, Dustin The Turkey, who has since often joked about the broadcaster being saved a fortune for Ireland not winning, underscore that they are seen as such.
** Could also apply to The Netherlands, who holds the record for failing to qualify for the final in 8 consecutive years. This was even {{exploited|Trope}} in 2013, when the Dutch had high hopes for their act performed by A-list star Anouk to break this string. Their announcement of reaching the final was saved to the last. The Netherlands did recover well from this negative streak by reaching 9th place in 2013 and even 2nd in 2014, their best placing since their last win in 1975. A few hiccups would happen in the years afterwards -- they failed to qualify in 2015 and could only make 18th in 2018 - before winning the Contest in 2019.
** The Polish audience was so accustomed to failing yet another contest[[note]]since the introduction of the semifinals, Poland had only qualified for the final in two attempts out of nine. One was already pre-qualified due to different rules at the time, one qualified only due to a jury save and finished joint last in 2008 with Germany and the UK[[/note]], it was a massive surprise for everyone (even for Donatan and Cleo, the year's Polish representatives, themselves!) that in 2014 they actually scored enough points to get to the finals. And "We are Slavic" didn't even come dead last in the finals -- actually, the 14th place was one of the best places in the whole history of Polish performances on Eurovision. Poland made four finals on the trot afterwards, despite none of their entries in that period being amongst the jury top 10 in their heat, likely due to their large expatriate communities in the EU and common Market after they joined (most egregiously in 2016 when, after being 2nd last with the jury, they were 3rd with the public, placing in the top 3 in many countries with large Polish communities, and getting only a 3rd ever top 10 place in the final), but a failure to qualify in both 2018 and 2019 proved that it only had so much effect (although they finished 10th in the public vote in 2018 and were two points short of qualifying in 2019).
** Countries like Finland were accustomed to finishing last[[note]]9 times! Only Norway has placed last more than Finland.[[/note]] or on the right side of the scoreboard, that when Music/{{Lordi}} won Eurovision, it came as a cause of celebration. Even today, no Finnish entry has come close to matching their success (in fact, they've only finished on the left-hand side on the scoreboard there times since, in 2014, 2021 and 2023).
** Andorra has only participated 6 times, and never gathered enough points to qualify for the final. They last took part in 2009, citing financial difficulties for their non-participation.
** The Czech Republic followed a similar pattern to Andorra, with four appearances that all failed to qualify for the final between 2007 to 2009[[note]]earning just 10 points -- none of which were awarded in 2009 -- during that period[[/note]] and 2015 onward. After a five-year hiatus, they returned to the competition in 2015, and yet again failed to make it past the semifinals. In 2016, the Czech Republic finally made its way into the final... [[YankTheDogsChain only to be put in the death slot second running-order position, taking next-to-last place once there, and getting no televoting points]]! 2018 got them into the final, although they had nearly had to withdraw as the singer was taken to hospital after doing a backflip in the rehearsal, although he recovered in time for the next set of rehearsals, went on to progress and finished sixth. They eased into the final with two of their next three acts but both were given very early slots and earned single figure televote scores (just about costing them a top 10 place in 2019, but leading to them being bottom 5 in 2022). In 2021, they failed to get a tele voting point in their heat due to an abysmal live performance putting paid to what was a decent chance of qualifying.
** Portugal is one of the countries that have competed the longest (since 1964) and has never finished in the top 5 before 2017. Between 2010 and 2015, they had never qualified to the grand final. With those marginals, it's one of the biggest [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] in the contest. In 2017, however, Portugal qualified for the first time in seven years with a minimalistic own language ballad that ended up winning, with both the jury vote and televote putting them first. When they hosted in 2018, they did a skit mocking how long it took them to win.
** San Marino have entered thirteen times. They finished rock-bottom in the semifinal in 2008 (with the fewest points of any song in any show that year), didn't enter the next two years and failed to qualify the next three years. They finally qualified for the final in 2014, when they finished third-last, and didn't qualify again until 2019. Their 2021 entry was initially a fan favourite and widely expected to be their best result, but it ended up 22nd, with only 13 televote points.
** Germany looks like they might be after this status -- they finished last with 0 points in 2015[[note]]along with Austria -- Germany was placed bottom due to tie-breaking rules preferring the song performed earlier[[/note]], last (but with points) in 2016 and second-last in 2017. They did manage to turn it around in 2018: a new selection process led to a strong pick in Michael Schulte's TearJerker "You Let Me Walk Alone," bringing them to a proud fourth place (and, beyond that, it was the first time Germany got ''douze points'' from anyone -- four times, in fact -- since their 2010 win). This lasted precisely one year: in 2019, they finished second-bottom and got nil points from the public vote, which occurred AGAIN in 2021 despite their song going all-out (in 2020, they would've sent a very promising song, but it didn't convince live and they looked elsewhere for the next contest). They finished bottom yet AGAIN in 2022, with 6 points -- however, unlike the last two occasions, it would be the juries, not the public, that blanked them. They finished bottom once again in 2023, although they got points from both sets of points this time, for the first time since 2018.
** The Former Yugoslav countries (with the exception of Serbia and maybe Bosnia) are all this to varying levels:
*** Croatia is a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] case, while they have a rather decent qualification record (7 out of 16 times), finished in the top half every year except once between 1993 and 2003 and never came last in the contest, they didn't qualify to the final between 2017 and 2022 with 2021 a shining example of this trope for them as they were in the Top 10 with both juries and televoters ''and still'' didn't qualify to the final (the only time that had ever happened).
*** Slovenia has a spotty qualification record (6 out of 18 times), never finished above 7th in the contest and even came last twice in 2013 and 2022.
*** North Macedonia is a similar case as Slovenia, they only qualified 6 out of 18 times to the final and never finished above 7th place in the contest. In 2008 and 2009, there was a jury save system in the heats, where the 10th place of the televote could be nullified for one pick of the jury[[note]]This was replaced by full jury voting in 2010[[/note]]. They got the incredibly short end of the deal, when they finished 10th in their heat for both years, but were ditched for Sweden and Finland respectively.
*** The biggest one out of those countries however is easily Montenegro, ever since joining the contest in 2007 they only managed to qualify for the final ''twice'' out of 12 occasions (to make a comparision, '''San Marino''' managed to qualify more times to the final with the same number of participations) and they are also the only Former Yugoslav country to never even reach the Top 10 (their best result to date was a 13th place in 2015).

* CircassianBeauty: Azerbaijan seems to have favored of attractive female contestants, particularly since its debut, Azerbaijan has had Aysel Teymurzadeh (third, Moscow 2009), Safura Alizadeh (fifth, Oslo 2010), Nigar Jamal (winner, Düsseldorf 2011), Sabina Babayeva (fourth, Baku 2012), Dilara Kazimova (twenty-second, Copenhagen 2014), Samra Rahimli (seventeenth, Stockholm 2016), Diana Hajiyeva (fourteenth, Kyiv 2017), Aysel Mammadova (semifinalist, Lisbon 2018) and Samira Efendi (twentieth, Rotterdam 2020/2021). Georgian Sopho (twelfth, Helsinki 2007), Sofia Nizharadze (ninth, Oslo 2010), Nina Sublatti (eleventh, Vienna 2015), Tamara Gachechiladze (semifinalist, Kyiv 2017) and Armenian Sirusho (fourth, Belgrade 2008), Eva Rivas (seventh, Oslo 2010), Emmy (semifinalist, Düsseldorf 2011), Iveta Mukuchyan (seventh, Stockholm 2016), Artsvik (eighteenth, Kyiv 2017), Rosa Linn (twentieth, but future [=TikTok=] sensation, Turin 2022), and Brunette (fourteenth, Liverpool 2023) also count as well.

* DressedLikeADominatrix: Iceland's entry in 1997 featured four dancers in latex leotards. 22 years later, the same country sent a techno-industrial band Hatari in BDSM attires. In 2023, their drummer Einar Stefánsson announced Iceland's jury votes dressed in the same way.

* GentleGiant: Denmark's 2018 contestants may have looked big and tough... only their entry song was about viking pacifism and during the green room segment with one of the hosts, they angrily yelled in Danish... which she translated as "We love cuddling little kittens".

* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Maxine and Franklin Brown for the Netherlands in 1996.

* MrFanservice: Much to the joy of many fans
** 2016 host Måns Zelmerlöw stripped down to nothing but a stuffed animal to cover himself in the semifinals as a part of a gag. During the final, he ripped his shirt open to show off his very nice torso during a parody song about the perfect Eurovision song. In 2019, he was regularly implored by Scott Mills and Assi Azar to take his shirt off prior to a slowed down cover of "Fuego", which is a very raunchy tune. He kept it on, however.
** Estonia and France in the lost 2020 contest, and also Croatia and Cyprus in the eyes of many fans in that year. Estonia's Uku Suviste was confirmed for the 2021 after defending his honour in the national selection. Croatia, Cyprus and France, however, sent entirely new acts to the 2021 contest -- all of them ladies.
** 2008 winner Dima Bilan ripped his shirt off to reveal his abs in the end of his performance.
** Sakis Rouvas represented Greece twice in 2004 and 2009, both of his entries see him wearing a white shirt that highlights his pecs, and performing highly energetic and athletic choreography.
* MsFanservice: Multiple.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL066Rp7J7k Armenia's 2016 contestant, Iveta Mukuchyan seems to be playing this trope in one of her performances, with a really revealing get up.]]
** Jana Burčeska who represented North Macedonia in 2017 could count as well. She was several months pregnant at the time, and her partner proposed on-air while they were waiting for the results.
** It was nothing on what would have been their 2020 entry, Greek born Athena Manoukian. She was known for having auditioned for Series/{{The X Factor}} once by doing the "50 Shades of Grey" version of Crazy in Love and led to this hip-hop and R&B inspired, distincively produced song "Chains on You", where diamonds and chains are talked about as a symbol of empowerment and sexual self determination. Their rivals Azerbaijan, and Serbia, also went heavily for fanservice women in this lost year, and, like Armenia, had a strong feminist message of self determination in their songs.
** Moldova representative Natalia Gordienko wore a flashy bikini during her 2006 performance. Her 2021 comeback is [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] from her previous entry.
** The Cuban-Spanish actress and singer Chanel Terrero, who represented Spain in 2022, has put up a spectacular load of fanservicery during the performance of her entry "[=SloMo=]", as well with her backing dancers of male and female gender all showing off their own. The perfectly-choreographed dance break with some booty highlighting and the lyrics ("''booty hypnotic, make you want more''") help boost the image.

* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Belgium in 1986 sent Sandra Kim, at the tender age of 13.5 years old. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnQ9424lxlo She pretended to be 14]]. And, of course, won it![[note]]Starting from 1990 a rule was implemented stating that contestants have to be at least 16 on the day of their first live performance, ensuring that Kim remains the youngest ever winner as long as the rule remains in place -- which is very likely, since nowadays performers in Kim's then-age range participate in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.[[/note]]

*** 2024 saw Switzerland entry "The Code" dominating the jury votes taking a 155 point margin over Croatia's "Rim tim tagi dim". However this song, an upbeat but nostalgic tune by Baby Lasagna, took third place in the televote getting 337 points against 226 from the winners. Considering that second place, Israel, got 323 points, the destiny of Eurovision would had changed if either Israel had received less from the audience, or the juries would have favored Croatia a little more, as long as only 44 points separated Croatia from the triumph.

%% RummageSaleReject

* SensualSlavs: In 2014, Poland's Donatan & Cleo presented a somewhat {{fanservice}}y staging of a song extolling the charming beauty of Slavic girls.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Russia's Alexey Vorobyov accused Sweden's Eric Saade of being a cheap rip-off of him. Despite not being famous in Sweden (he wouldn't have heard about him), having Swedish dancers, an Swedish choreographer, and a Swedish songwriter..

* StealingTheCredit: If the COVID-19 outbreak hadn't put the kibosh on it, and providing it had made it through the semi final, and then probably finished higher than the U.K. in the Grand Final, then Creator/TheBBC was all ready to claim that the 2020 Norway entry would have been a success for the Brits, despite the fact that the song had no U.K input whatsoever, because one of the Norwegian co-writers of the song, Christian Ingebrigtsen, is a member of British boyband A1.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent:
** Lena is the most Cockney-sounding German ever. This could be [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as her English teacher had a hard Cockney accent that stuck.
** [[https://youtu.be/gho5OD4ESqE?t=1m53s A spokesperson from ''Serbia'' of all places had an almost flawless American valley girl accent.]]
** This Trope comes up a lot in the contest when non-native English speakers try ''very'' hard to mask their accents.
** Dami Im, whose accent is a lovely but strange cross between Korean and Australian.

* ArchEnemy: Despite the EBU's best efforts to keep politics out of Eurovision, conflicts between participating countries end up bleeding into the contest more often than not.
** Armenia failed to make the finals in 2011 while rivals Azerbaijan won the contest. The next year, Armenia pulled out of the contest in Baku, partly in protest of ceasefire violations in the UsefulNotes/NagornoKarabakh conflict, partly because of the strong possibility that whatever performer it sent to Azerbaijan would be in great danger.
** After making their Eurovision debut in 1974, Greece sat out the 1975 contest, in which Turkey competed for the first time, in protest over the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on July 1974. Cyprus started competing in Eurovision in 1981, and Turkey and them would never give each other a single point until 2004.
** A country that doesn't make it to the finals will usually feel better about it if their rival doesn't make it either.
** Many nations of the Arab World are indeed eligible to participate in Eurovision, but are unable to or will not participate due to UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict. In fact, UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} had attempted to participate in 2005, but were disqualified when they intended not to broadcast the Israeli entry. UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} did however participate once in 1980, when Israel took a year off.
** The UK and Germany, who from the mid-2000s rarely saw the left side of the board, are usually happy with their position as long as they beat the other nation. Most commonly, the UK does beat Germany (not always, though). In 2019, 2021 and 2023, both were bottom 2 with abysmal scores, particularly in televoting, with only a single point from Romanian juries and 2 from Austrian juries for Jendrik the only points occurred between the pair in 2021, out of 760 possible top 10 places that would give them points.

* AudienceParticipation: 2010 Eurovision's Flash Mob.

*** 2024 had Switzerland entry The Code dominating the jury votes taking a 155 point margin over Croatia´s "Rim tim tagi dim". However this song, a upbeat but nostalgic tune by Baby Lasagna took third place in the televote getting 337 points against 226 from the winners. Provided that second place, Israel, got 323 points, the destiny of Eurovision would had changed if either Israel has get less attention of the audience, or the juries would had favored Croatia a little more, as long as only 44 points separated Croatia from the triumph.

* TheScapegoat:
** People from the UK tend to blame the poor scores their songs generally receive on politics. This can at times take on an edge of HypocriticalHumour, since the UK is also notable for not taking the contest particularly seriously, as can often be reflected in the entries they submit. Claims of neighborly voting among Eastern European countries are also rendered null when they give and receive points from Ireland.
*** The UK actually finished 2nd in 2022, and topped the jury vote, meaning that a wide range of different European countries gave them points (Including getting top marks from European political powerhouses Germany and France, who traditionally hate them), making any arguments about it being political null and void, especially considering that in the run up to the contest, the British government were threatening to tear up part of their Brexit deal with The EU. It helps that the entry was actually decent, and all it did was to prove that when the UK actually takes the contest seriously, then other countries are willing to vote for them in huge numbers.
** The Swedes are even [[SeriousBusiness worse]]. Every year has sparked an outcry against political or bugged voting and since they started to slip from getting to the top five every year to finally being eliminated in the semi-finals, a demand to boycott or shut down the entire competition has become something of a tradition. We're talking about the biggest newspapers here, not just individual grumbling. Beats the UK in HypocriticalHumor as well, since they have a tendency to make points rain on their fellow Scandinavian countries. Fortunately for the Swedes, they would clinch a victory in 2012, and again in 2015... and again in 2023.
--->"[[Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld This is the worst year ever! How could I not get into the final? I'm Sweden!]] [[http://satwcomic.com/eurovision-2010 This is what I do! This is what I live for!]]"
** Same thing in Poland. Every single year their reason for not getting to the finals was that "Nobody likes us in Europe". After which, hundreds of declarations that "we won't send a contestant next year" can be heard. But they do send them anyway. Averted somehow in 2014 -- this time they blamed their score on the judges who gave them a lot less points that the viewers (if only the viewers' points counted, Poland would have a 5th place instead of 14th!) and on Conchita Wurst who stole their spotlight with the help of her beard, PimpedOutDress and way better song than "We are Slavic". One political party even announced that (if they were to be elected, of course) they would have a plan to change the Eurovision voting system so Poland won't be cheated out by the judges ever again (although the following 3 entries also got bad jury scores once in the final, notably 2016). They said exactly the same words before 2009, when only viewers' votes were taken into account and Polish songs were always getting low (or very low) scores. And again, it was because of "politics".
** Noticeably [[AvertedTrope averted]] by [[FailureHero Portugal]], whose lacklustre entries were the reason for their absence in 2016, so that they could see if they could come up with a new format for their national contest (Festival RTP da Canção) that didn't produce absolute garbage. It was not marketed as a selection show for ESC when it was held as such when Portugal returned for 2017. This strategy clearly paid off as Portugal ended up winning that year's ESC, the first time the country had ever done so.
* SceneryPorn: There are ''a lot'' of gratuitous tourism adverts for the host country.

* SelfDeprecation:
** The style of humor that the Swedes use when they hosted the contest in 2013, 2016 and 2024.
*** 2013 had host Petra Mede sing "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29tZAqJKtxs Swedish Smörgåsbord]]", featuring jokes about SelfDemonstrating/SwedishChef, Film/TheSeventhSeal, recycling, [=IKEA=], SexyScandinavian women and Literature/PippiLongstocking dancing together, HouseHusband, and dancing Swedish meatballs.
*** 2016 brought us the ultra-meta "Love Love Peace Peace" with jokes about how the gimmicks make the show. There was also a mockumentary series throughout the competition poking fun at Sweden's own Eurovision obsession.
*** 2024's 2nd semifinal had Petra Mede, Charlotte Perrelli and Lynda Woodruff perform "[[https://youtu.be/DVAOiFZakPQ?si=a5zP8G07A0dj-zDC We Just Love Eurovision Too Much]]", which not only makes fun of Sweden's Eurovision obsession (again), but also [[TakeThat takes the mickey out of]] those who complained about Sweden winning so many times in recent years and had some playful joking around with some other countries such as Ireland, Denmark and especially Finland.

* BigBeautifulWoman:
** Serbia's 2015 entry, Bojana Stamenov, who sang "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGo70i94S8 Beauty Never Lies]]", an anthem of self-acceptance.
** Netta Barzilai, Israel's 2018 representative and that year's winner.

** Israel´s entry in 2024 was the point of the controversy due to the war they have against Palestina. The song that Israel proposed was exchanged twice due to the political message given, until Eden Golan´s "Hurricane" was accepted (while still referring the events that lead the Hamas war). In spite of that, Israel´s entry was able to reach the finals and was the second country with the most points in the televote (only behind Croatia), reaching the fifth position.

** Music/{{Lordi}}, a silly curiosity act, positively annihilated the competition as the votes came in in 2006, getting top-level votes (usually 8-12 points) from almost every country. At the time, their points total of 292 was a Eurovision record. It has since been broken thrice over, by Norway in 2009 with 387 points (''169'' more than second-placed Iceland), Sweden in 2012 with 372 points (113 more than second-placed Russia) and again Sweden in 2015 with 365 points (''62'' more than second-placed Russia).

** How the contest has changed over time. In the early years, especially those filmed in black and white, it was presented as more classy and serious. Gradually throughout the rest of the 20th century, more humorous, satirical, or otherwise unusual entries and performances would crop up, but in the early 2000s the norm became campy, over-the-top, and often entertainingly trashy, reaching its peak in 2008.