Portal:Eurovision
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Arts · Biography · Geography · History · Mathematics · Philosophy · Science · Society · Technology The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held between active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in which participating countries each submit a song to be performed on live television; then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs, in order to find the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to go forward to represent the country in the international competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also the world's biggest song contest in terms of audience figures, which in recent years have been quoted as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. It has been broadcast around the globe — beyond Europe — to such countries as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand and the USA; even though these countries do not participate. Since the year 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet; with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online. The Contest is historically known for being mainly a bastion of formulaic, orchestrated pop music. However it has produced a vast, diverse array of songs, including such musical genres as Arabic, Balkan, Dance, Folk, Greek, Latin, Metal, Nordic, Pop-rap and Rock. Over the years, the Song Contest has grown from a mere televisual experiment into an international institution of mammoth proportions. Most countries in Europe have taken part at least once during the Contest's history, and the word "Eurovision" is a household name which is recognised across an entire continent. The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the fifty-first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens. The scheduled dates for the contests were 18 May 2006 for the semi-final and 20 May 2006 for the final. ERT, the host broadcaster of the contest, have already started preparations and are ahead of schedule. The venue for the contest has already been chosen and the stage designs have been finalised. The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens are popular Greek singer Sakis Rouvas and the Greek-American television presenter and actress, Maria Menounos. Helena Paparizou, who performed the winning song in Kyiv, will return to the Eurovision stage in Athens. The 2006 contest has seen the 1,000th eurovision song entry performed - "Every Song Is A Cry For Love" by Ireland's representative Brian Kennedy in the semi-final. Zdob şi Zdub are a Moldovan musical group, based in Chişinău, whose work for the last several years combines elements of hip-hop (especially sampling) and hardcore punk with traditional Romanian music and Roma music. The name is onomatopoeic for the sound of a drum beat. The band represented Moldova in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 6th, and was most notable for the appearance of a grandmother who merrily beat a drum as the band members danced wildly. WikiProjects connected with Eurovision: Vanilla Ninja is a four-piece Estonian girl band that has enjoyed chart success in Germany, Estonia and Austria. The group was formed in 2002 and released their self-titled album Vanilla Ninja the following year. They have entered national selections for the Eurovision Song Contest twice, failing the first time but proving successful in Switzerland with the song "Cool Vibes". They then finished eighth in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest final, despite topping the leader board at the half-way stage. The group have so far released three albums in various countries across Europe; Vanilla Ninja was released in 2003, Traces Of Sadness in 2004, and Blue Tattoo in 2005. ... The 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal began when their entry E depois do adeus was broadcast on Portuguese radio? The song was the signal to the rebels to start the revolution.
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