Drop the Mic! – Mishaps in the Eurovision Song Contest

25/05/21

The beauty of a live television show is however scripted and rehearsed it may be, you never quite know what to expect. Eurovision of course is no exception! Whilst we all want the contest to go without issue, I feel like one would simply be lying to state that we don’t all enjoy a little buzz from the unexpected at Eurovision. Eurovision has a long history of mistakes and its fair share of controversies and whether we are young or old, I thought it would be nice to explore some of the more notable controversies.

Where to begin? Where to begin? Well, there’s no better place to start than the start! 1956 saw the first Eurovision in Lugano, where seven countries would battle it out to crown Europe’s favourite song! Being the days before even landlines were commonplace, voting would simply not have been possible in the form of a modern day televote. Instead jurors were sent from each participating country to rank the songs. This all sounds peachy, but when Luxembourg asked Switzerland to vote on its behalf and Switzerland won – questions were raised. All the voting had been done in secret so there remains no way of telling for sure if the Luxembourgish juries swung the results or not but considering each country could vote for itself… eh, I’ll leave you to work that one out for yourselves. Needless to say, incidents such as this shaped how the contest would go onto evolve by influencing the introduction of new rules (e.g. you cannot vote for your own country) and this adaption is ongoing to this day.

Surely controversy escaped the contest the following year though? I mean after all, the contest has survived to this day. Well… you may think that but controversy seems to follow Eurovision wherever it goes. In 1957, Denmark who had been poised as favourites to win the whole contest marked the end of their performance with a kiss. This all would have been innocent enough if they hadn’t missed their ending cue and accidentally remained snogging for eleven seconds on camera. This was the 1950’s jurors were not impressed with their ‘scandalous’ behaviour and in the end Denmark finished only third. Again this outcry of scandal did benefit the contest in the long run, obtaining an almost cult status among fans. To this day their record for ‘longest Eurovision kiss’ is unbroken and singer Birthe Wilke even celebrated her historic achievement by breaking up Katrina Leskanich and Renārs Kaupers recreation of the moment in the contest’s 50 year anniversary show. The show is well worth a watch on YouTube, especially if like me, you were too young to have seen it at the time. It’s still very enjoyable, although the show is very characteristic of its time.

The early days of the contest were also plagued by terrible scoreboards (more on that topic later) which often displayed incorrect scores. Before the invent of digital scoreboards, wind-up scoreboards were used that could only move in one direction, which were prone to human error and took time to correct. Phone lines have also been problematic over the years with spokespeople and hosts alike being unable to hear the points allocated. The technological upgrades in scoreboards alone at Eurovision is truly staggering and demonstrates how problems drive solutions.

Another classic example, which is simply too prevalent in Eurovision history to ignore is the infamous four way tie of 1969. France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and (hosts) Spain all finished with 18 points, putting them all in first place at the close of the voting. No tie-breaker rules had been put in place and this left a rather flustered Laurita Valenzuela having to announce all four countries as winners when executive supervisor Clifford Brown had no other solution to the problem. The chaotic winner’s reprise featuring a quarter of the participating nations is quite something to say the least! After this incident, many participating countries withdrew from the contest and the whole farcical scenario likely played into the reasoning behind the eventual introduction of the 1-12 point system. When another tie occurred in 1990 between Sweden and France, tie-breaker rules were in place and potential embarrassment was avoided.

These scandals may be historic by today’s standards (but scandal has never left the contest). More recently scandals have been more serious with stage invasions occurring in 2010, 2017 and 2018. These major security breaches are not the kind of scandal we can simply laugh at, they are much more serious and thankfully none ended in an attack on the arena or participants. Daniel Diges, Jamala and SuRie all continued on with their performances to their credit but the potential danger they were in is scary to think about even now. Thankfully, security seems to have been tighter in recent years and we haven’t had another security breach like that but it is important to ever strive to learn from past incidents and ensure they do not happen again.

Another topic which is inevitable with the words ‘scandal’ and ‘Eurovision’ is that of politics being inserted into the contest (a breach of Eurovision rules and values). This has taken many forms over the years be that in the waving of flags of disputed territories, politicised media coverage or embedding political narratives within songs. The use of banned flags even occurred during Madonna’s infamous interval act, alongside off-key singing we will chose to forget of course! Such political scandals continued into this year’s Eurovision.

The biggest scandal of course at this year’s Eurovision was the disqualification of Belarus, following their refusal to submit a non-political song. It is unfortunate that this had to occur but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) made the correct decision in not letting a blatantly political song go to the contest. This strength of character is needed in keeping Eurovision a safe event, not just for those physically attending but also for the wellbeing of those listening to and being represented by the songs (and what they symbolised). Eurovision has come a long way in its lifetime to become more tolerant and respectful. It has also come a long way musically and as a TV show. Scandals vary in severity and the required response but the important thing is that the contest keeps adapting and responding to create an ever more successful contest for future generations to enjoy.

We can’t just leave on too serious a note though can we? This is supposed to be a fairly light-hearted blog after all! Beyond the ongoing issues of Covid-19 and the fabricated drama from those bitter of Måneskin’s win, there are plenty of ‘scandals’ that occurred this year which we can both laugh at and learn from. Take the semi-finals’ scoreboards for example which contained country codes and flags instead of country names, just to confuse us all! What about Chantal Janzen’s stalling moment when the Irish set was not set up on time? When Moldova’s Natalia Gordienko dropped her microphone during her Grand Final performance, I’m sure many people gasped and thought it was the end of her song. But just like Eurovision, nothing in this world runs exactly as we want them to. The important thing is to pick up your microphone and keep on going.

As always readers, feel free to share, comment and discuss. There is always plenty to talk about with Eurovision!