From where to watch to how to cast your vote, here's what Canadians need to know about this year's Eurovision competition.Martin Meissner/The Associated Press
The Eurovision Song Contest is not your average singing competition. It’s campy, extravagant and can be an eyebrow-raising experience for first-time viewers.
Since last year, Canadians have been able to cast a vote in the contest and join in on the phenomenon Europe has been obsessed with for decades. Even though our voting privileges are new, Canada is no stranger to the competition – beloved Quebec singer Celine Dion won Eurovision in 1988 while representing Switzerland, and Montreal native La Zarra competed for France last year.
If this year will be your first time tuning in, here’s what you need to know.
What is the Eurovision Song Contest?
Windows95man of Finland performs the song No Rules! during the first semi-final at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, on May 7.Martin Meissner/The Associated Press
The Eurovision Song Contest is exactly what it sounds like: a song contest, not to be mistaken for a mere singing competition.
Singing is mandatory under the current entry rules, but countries win on far more than vocal prowess alone: theatrics, catchiness and even the language in which artists choose to sing all come into play. The countries must enter with an original song (no covers) that was released within a few months of the competition.
Entries range across musical genres, including ones you may not expect, from folktronica (2021′s Shum), to folk-rap (2022’s Stefania) and more humorous entries (this year’s No Rules, by Windows95man, which features visual artist and DJ Teemu Keisteri prancing around stage pretending to be naked).
This year, 37 countries from all over Europe (as well as Australia and Israel) are competing. Russia is still banned from participating because of its war in Ukraine, Romania announced it wasn’t participating this year, and Montenegro and North Macedonia are sitting out for the second year in a row because of increased participation fees. Luxembourg is returning to the competition after a 31-year absence.
How does voting work in Eurovision?
A large part of what makes Eurovision so enthralling is its suspenseful voting segment. Two components go into crowning a winner: points from national juries in each competing country and points from the public.
The points from each national jury are announced live on-air, one by one, as the artists watch their overall ranking go up and down.
With these jury scores, an initial ranking is revealed, but everything can change as the hosts go through each act, starting from the bottom, to announce their public scores. Acts receive anywhere from zero to nearly 500 points from the public.
Geographic proximity and cultural similarities come into play during the votes, says Paul David Flood, a PhD candidate at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, where he studies Eurovision. Countries can’t vote for themselves, but some are accused of favouring each other. For instance, Scandinavian countries tend to support each other, as do Cyprus and Greece (despite getting booed for it repeatedly).
If you want to vote at home, you rank your top 10. The bottom eight will receive one to eight points each, and the top two will receive 10 and 12 points respectively. Canadians can use the Eurovision mobile app to cast their vote, which will all be tallied in a “Rest of The World” group.
Where and when can Canadians watch Eurovision?
What was born as an experiment in 1956 has maintained and expanded its appeal through generations. Last year, 162 million viewers around the world tuned into the broadcast, reaching beyond Europe to the United States and Canada.
The final will be broadcast on Saturday, May 11 at 3 p.m. ET on the official Eurovision YouTube.
Who are the favourites to win Eurovision 2024?
This year’s selection doesn’t disappoint. Croatian singer-songwriter Baby Lasagna is one of the favourites to win with his infectious electro-rock song Rim Tim Tagi Dim, alongside Swiss nonbinary rapper and singer Nemo’s The Code, and Ukraine’s Teresa & Maria by Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil. Italian TikTok star Angelina Mango will be performing La Noia in the grand finals, which has big numbers on streaming, and is expected to be a frontrunner.
The Netherlands’ Joost Klein was considered a frontrunner with the extremely catchy Europapa, but hours before the contest started on Saturday, he was expelled from the competition. Competition organizer the European Broadcasting Union said Swedish police were investigating “a complaint made by a female member of the production crew.” The organizer said it wouldn’t be appropriate for Klein to participate at the event in Malmo while the legal process was under way.
Is Eurovision political?
Eurovision was created in the 1950s after the Second World War. “Eurovision came out of a necessity to reunify a sort of war-torn Europe,” Flood says.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Eurovision continued to play a political and cultural role for newly independent nations in the nineties, Flood adds. “Eurovision became a tool for them to craft their national identity as modern and as being able to keep up culturally with Western Europe.”
In 2022, Ukraine broke the record for most points received from the public, widely received as a show of support not only for their song but for the war-ravaged country at large.
People attend a demonstration against Israel's participation in Eurovision in Malmo, Sweden, on May 9.Ida Marie Odgaard/Reuters
Israel – which has both won and played host to the competition – is facing backlash for its participation this year from thousands of artists in Sweden, Finland and Iceland, who signed petitions calling for the country to be banned because of the Israel-Hamas war. The boycott, divest and sanction movement also asked supporters not to watch Eurovision this year and called for competitors to withdraw. Israel’s government warned its citizens they could be targeted in Malmo during the contest.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned in Malmo on Saturday. Flags and signs are banned during the competition, apart from participants’ national flags and the rainbow Pride flag, meaning Palestinian flags will be barred from inside the concert venue.
Israel also faced controversy over the lyrics to its song entry. Organizers told the country to change the lyrics, originally titled October Rain in apparent reference to Hamas’s cross-border Oct. 7 attack. The song was renamed Hurricane and Israeli singer Eden Golan was allowed to remain in the contest.
What does the winner of Eurovision get?
Maneskin from Italy receive the trophy after winning Eurovision 2021.Peter Dejong/The Associated Press
The winner of the Eurovision contest gets bragging rights and no cash prize. The act gets to perform a second time on-air and takes home a glass microphone trophy, while the winning country gets to play host to the following year’s contest. Sweden’s Loreen won Eurovision 2023 with her song Tattoo, and the country is playing host to this year’s edition.
Who are some of the historic winners of Eurovision?
Nothing will sell you on Eurovision better than the performances themselves. Here are a few winners from the show’s seven decades.
Maneskin - Zitti e buoni, 2021
The Italian rock band became a TikTok sensation and quickly saw their songs soar on the charts. They even played at the Coachella festival less than a year after their win.
Conchita Wurst - Rise Like a Phoenix, 2014
Eurovision has a long history of LGBTQ representation, with several members of the community competing and winning over the years. Austria’s Conchita Wurst, a drag performer, won in 2014 with Rise Like a Phoenix.
Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah, 2006
Each year, a handful of acts perform hard rock, metal and industrial punk songs. One of the most prolific hard rock bands to win the contest is Lordi, a Finnish band known for its monster cosplays and horror aesthetics.
Celine Dion - Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi, 1988
At just 20 years old, Celine Dion gained international acclaim after winning Eurovision for Switzerland. She won against the British competitor by just one point in a nail-biting final.
ABBA - Waterloo, 1974
Before they went on the become one of the most acclaimed bands of their generation, ABBA had their big break on the Eurovision stage. Their entry song, Waterloo, rapidly topped charts around the world after their win, propelling them into international stardom.
With reports from Mathilde Augustin.