Two of this year’s jury spokespeople have risen from joint 8th to joint 7th in the list of those who have presented their country’s scores most often. Loukas Hamatsos gave Cyprus’s scores for the 12th time, having first done so way back in 2000, while Andri Xhahu made it the 12th Content in a row where he has given the scores for Albania. They tie with Solveig Herlin who gave Finland’s scores almost every year from 1982 to 1996. They still have some way to go to reach the top of the leaderboard: Colin Berry (UK 24 times) Michel Stocker (Switzerland 20 times) Sverre Christopherson (Norway 18 t ..read more

Last time we explored which of this year’s lead artists have been involved before in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, one of the drivers of Six on Stage is to highlight the contributions of backing performers, so it’s time to look at which of the class of 2024’s other performers – dancers, backing vocalists and people dressed in bird costumes – have been involved before. Once… Seven backing performers have each had one previous appearance at Eurovision. Three of Sweden’s dancers – this year’s Melodifestivalen house dancers, in fact – have taken part previously: Daniel Koivunen for Russia ..read more

There are lots of roles at the Eurovision Song Contest and plenty of people have taken on more than one – not least every songwriter who’s delivered their own song on stage. But who has performed the most roles at Eurovision? First, some caveats. We’re talking about people representing their country. There are lots of roles at Eurovision beyond this – in TV production, website and social content, stage management, etc. But when it comes to countries’ participation, Six on Stage identifies the following specific roles: Lead artist – the credited singer or group for an entry Backing performer ..read more

With her victory in Liverpool, Loreen became only the second person – and the first woman – to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice as a lead artist. The other person to have achieved the feat is, of course, Johnny Logan, who has the distinction of also having one twice as a writer: for Hold Me Now and Linda Martin’s Why Me. Like Logan, Loreen was a credited writer only on her second winning song. But Loreen wasn’t the only person to achieve a second win this year. Two of the other writers of Tattoo were also writers of Euphoria: the prolific Thomas G:son, who has had 15 songs at Eurovision f ..read more

Much of the discussion following the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 has been focused on the differing choices of the national juries compared with the public vote. But who were this year’s jurors, and which of them had been involved with the Contest before? Let’s take a look at the jury members who’ve been involved in the Eurovision Song Contest before, and stick around to the end for some controversial notes… Artists Sixteen previous Eurovision entrants leant their experience on stage to a dozen national juries this year. They were: Katja Ebstein (Germany 1970, 1971, 1980) Moira Stafrace (Malt ..read more

Six on Stage has reached a big milestone with 10,000 people connected to the Eurovision Song Contest now listed on the site! That includes 5,632 people who have performed on the Constest stage at in some capacity as part of a country’s entry, 2,880 songwriters (some of whom performed as well), 833 national spokespeople and 1,765 jurors. There are also 339 conductors – the only number that’s not going to increase any time soon. With national final season for 2023 now underway, more people will be added to the site in the coming weeks. The 9,999th person I added was Sidorela Kelmendi, one of the ..read more

There was good news for lovers of both railways and the Eurovision Song Contest this year as Moldova’s Zdob și Zdub returned to the competition to celebrate a train journey between Chișinău and Bucharest. But trains, stations and railway are nothing new to the lyrics of Eurovision, with over 25 songs featuring them in some way. So here is a rundown of the 10 most railwayish entries from 66 years of the Eurovision Song Contest. I try to avoid subjective comments on songs on this blog so these are ranked entirely by how much they embrace the theme. Hey ho! Let’s go! 10. Where Are You? – Imaani ..read more

The Eurovision Song Contest may be over for 2021 but the number-crunching is only beginning. With the names of the 195 jurors now published (five each from the 39 participating countries) and loaded into Six on Stage, I’ve cross-referenced the data to see what previous involvement in Eurovision they’ve had. There’s always a caveat and in this case it’s that the published data is a bit messy. For example, Finland’s jurors are largely missing surnames, so I’ve had to track down a separate source to fill them. I’ve also made the reasonable assumption that people with very close names are in fact ..read more

Every year at Eurovision the acts are a mix of brand new artists who have never graced the stage before and returning performers ready to have another stab at the trophy. We’re used to San Marino’s admirable commitment to recycling, which has seen Senhit and Serhat return and Valentina Monetta represent the country no less than four times (three solo, once with a duet). But have any countries never sent a returning lead artist? Let’s take a look. (Note: I am still counting individuals as returning artists if they have also been solo and part of a group or if they have appeared in more than one ..read more

I’ve added the names of voting spokespeople from their first year, 1957, to the present day – so now we can pull out some stats and facts. Caveats: some of the sources for earlier spokespeople have conflicting information, so I’ve done my best to untangle it, and there are 30 occasions for which I have no data (spokespeople for Denmark 1963; Germany 1980-82; Luxembourg 1960-61, 1963-65, 1967-75 and 1992-93; Malta 1975; and Monaco 1959-1970). If you can fill in any gaps or have any corrections, please let me know. Spokespeople who became hosts Eleven people who gave their countries’ votes have ..read more