Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest

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The official rules of the Eurovision Song Contest are long, technical, and ever-changing. Many of the rules cover technical aspects of the television broadcast itself. However, a few of the more important rules affecting the conduct and outcome of the Contest follow.

Contents 1 Number of songs 2 Performers 3 Languages 3.1 Dialects and rare languages 3.2 The language issue

[edit] Number of songs

Each country is entitled to enter just one song. The Contest final is limited to 24 songs. For the 2006 Contest in Greece, the countries that took those places fell into three categories.

1. The countries with the ten highest scores in the final of the 2005 Contest. (Greece, Malta, Romania, Israel, Latvia, Moldova, Switzerland, Norway, and Denmark) (After Serbia & Montenegro's withdrawal on 20 March, 2006, Croatia (11^th in the 2005 final) goes through to the 2006 final)
2. The four largest contributors to the EBU general budget. (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom)
3. The countries with the ten highest scores in the semi-final of the 2006 Contest. (To be chosen from among Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, and Ukraine)

At the first Contest, each country was allowed to submit two three-minute (or less) songs. All songs must still be three-minutes or less in length, although many artists record the song in a longer version, simply performing a shorter version at the Contest. The number of participating countries has grown throughout the Contest's history, and since 1993 the rules have been changed several times to both limit the number of finalists and to allow for participation by former Soviet and Yugoslav republics, Warsaw Pact nations and others.

The entering song is also not allowed to be a cover version, and is not allowed to sample another artist's work. All songs must be completely original in terms of songwriting and instrumentation, and may not have been released publicly before 1 October of the year preceding.

[edit] Performers

Current rules state that countries are allowed to have up to six performers on stage. Performers must be aged 16 or more, on 31 December in the year of the Contest. This is generally perceived to be due to Sandra Kim's winning in 1986, despite being only 13 at the time. No restriction on the nationality of the performers exists, which has resulted in countries being represented by artists who are not nationals of that country. One of the most well-known winning artists, Canadian Céline Dion represented Switzerland in 1988 (It seems to be a Swiss tactic, as their 2005 performance was by Estonian group Vanilla Ninja and their 2006 performance is by the multinational group Six4one with performers coming from Israel, Bosnia Herzegovina, Sweden, Malta and Portugal as well as from Switzerland). To place a restriction would be difficult in that, in Northern Ireland for example, some may wish to enter, who would consider themselves Irish, and therefore prefer to enter for Ireland, rather than the UK. It should also be noted that the performer only needs to be 16 when the event takes place, and not when they are selected, as proven in 2005 when Triinu Kivilaan was selected to represent Switzerland, despite only being 15 at the time.

[edit] Languages

From the first Contest in 1956 until 1965, and again from 1973 until 1976 there was no restriction on language. From 1966 until 1972, and again from 1978 until 1998, songs were required to be performed in a national language. The national language rule was actually instituted shortly before the 1977 Contest, but some countries had already selected non-national language entries, and they were allowed to enter without any changes.

As of the 1999 Contest, the restriction was again lifted, and songs may be performed in any language. As a result, many of the songs are performed partially or completely in English. In 2003, Belgium made full use of the so-termed free language rule, and entered a song, Sanomi, in an artificial language created especially for the song. The same tactic was used in 2006 by the Dutch entry Amambanda which is partially sung in an Imaginary language.

[edit] Dialects and rare languages

On some occasions, dialects of a language or a very rare language have been used in a song entry:

• 1971, 1996 & 2003 - Austria sang in Viennese, Vorarlbergish and Steiermarkish, respectively, all dialects of German

• 1972 – Ireland sang in Irish (Gaelic), the cultural language of Ireland

• 1989 – Switzerland sang in Romansh, a language of Switzerland

• 1991 – Italy sang in Neapolitan, a dialect of Italian

• 1992, 1993 and 1996 – France sang in Creole, Corsican and Breton, respectively.

• 1999 – Lithuania sang in Samogitian, a dialect of Lithuanian

• 2004 – Estonia sang in Võro, which is considered by some to be a dialect of Estonian, and others, a separate language

• 2003 and 2006 – In 2003, Belgium's Urban Trad sang Sanomi in a completely made-up language, while the Dutch participants in 2006, Treble, sang half of their song Amambanda in a fictional language.

[edit] The language issue

Because many European states were founded on ideas of linguistic unity, and because of the sometimes unwelcome dominance of the English language in modern pop music, the language of a country's Eurovision entry can be a contentious issue. Some entries are performed in English to reach broader audiences, though this is sometimes looked upon as unpatriotic. In recent years the number of non-English language entrants has decreased, with mostly Eastern European and French language countries performing in their native language. In terms of recent Contest performance, most non-English songs have been far less successful than those in English, with the last wholly non-English language winner being Israel's Dana International, who performed Diva in Hebrew in 1998. More recently Ukraine's Ruslana won with Wild Dances, singing both in English and Ukrainian.

In some cases, the lyrics are written and recorded in two different versions (usually English and a national language) or a single multi-language version. Examples include:

• Denmark, where the national selection procedure allows freedom of language, but if the winning song from their national competition is in Danish, it must be re-written in English for the competition.
• FYR Macedonia, who held a vote to decide whether their 2005 song should be in English or Macedonian.
• France, whose entry in 2001 was performed partially in French and partially in English.