#ThrowbackThursday | Special Eurovision events throughout the years
Besides the Eurovision Song Contest event itself and the annual pre-parties, the Eurovision Song contest has had various other anniversary celebrations and events occur. Today we will look into a few of them.
'Het Grote Songfestivalfeest'- Amsterdam (The Netherlands), December 2019
On December 15th 2019, a whole host of former Eurovision winners and fan-favourites gathered in Amsterdam for special concert in the Ziggo Dome. The line-up consisted of winners such as Ruslana (Ukraine 2004), Loreen (Sweden 2012), Eimear Quinn (Ireland 1996) and many more along with Eurovision fan-favourites such as Keiino (Norway 2019), Mahmood (Italy 2019) and Verka Serduchka (Ukraine 2007). The show was hosted by Cornald Maas and former Dutch Eurovision participant and Eurovision 2020 co-host, Edsilia Rombley. It was one of the biggest Eurovision events ever!
It was Televised on January 1st 2020. You can watch the televised version of the contest, (which unfortunately didn't include all of the performances) here!
'Best of Eurovision'- Hamburg (Germany), May 2006
In this one time only contest, a number of Eurovision winners and German entries from 1960-2005 competed to be named Eurovision's Best Song. The voting included a jury, televote and an online poll, which were for German residents only. Eurovision 2004 winner Ruslana with her song "Wild Dances" won the contest ahead of songs like ABBA's "Waterloo" and Anne-Marie David's "Tu Te Reconnaîtras". A number of approximately 6 million Germans watched the show.
'Songs Of Europe'- Mysen (Norway), August 1981
The Show Songs Of Europe was held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. The show included nearly all the winners of the contest from 1956 to 1981, which were either performed live or shown in video. The show was televised to an audience of about 100 million all over Europe.
'Congratulations: 50 years of the Eurovision Song Contest'- Copenhagen (Denmark), October 2005
This show has a similar concept to the show 'Best Of Eurovision', which was mentioned before. Although in this show only winners of the contest were allowed to participate. In an selection prior to the contest, fourteen songs were selected to participate in the show. During the show, televoting and juries decided the winner, using the current Eurovision point system (1-8,10,12). After the first televised round, five songs proceeded to the next round, which led to ABBA eventually winning the contest with their song 'Waterloo'.
'Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits'- London (The UK), March 2015
The show, hosted by the United Kingdom's commentator, Graham Norton and two times Eurovision host Petra Mede, included 15 acts from 13 different countries. A number of countries later broadcast the show, some of which included commentary, just like the regular contest. Furthermore, the show featured an interval act with Riverdance, which originated from the 1994 contest in Dublin. Finally, a reprise medley of several Eurovision songs was performed by the majority of the participants.
You can watch the show here!
What do you think was the best song in Eurovision? Did you watch any of these shows?
Let us know in the comments down below!
