In less than a month’s time the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest will grace screens across the world. If you are not familiar with Eurovision, it is a song contest (duh) in which countries from across Europe, and Australia (don’t ask), send musicians to represent them in a battle to win the coveted Eurovision trophy. It’s a pretty simple concept.
This year, there are 37 countries participating and within these 37 entrants there are a few familiar faces. Pasha Parfeni, representing Moldova, previously represented his country in 2012 and provided backing vocals for the 2013 entrant. Marco Mengoni, representing Italy, first performed in the contest back in 2013. Monika Linkytė, representing Lithuania, previously competed in 2015, although back then she performed with Vaidas Baumila and this time she is going solo. Gustaph, representing Belgium, has never performed as the main act but he provided backing vocals in both 2018 and 2021. Although all these performers have been on the Eurovision stage, in one form or another, none of them have previously won and that is where our final returning artist stands out.
In 2012, Loreen won the contest representing Sweden with her song ‘Euphoria’. After the contest, her song became incredibly successful, reaching number one on several music charts worldwide. This year, she hope to recreate her previous success with her new song ‘Tattoo’ and she looks set to do just that. The odds seem to be in Loreen’s favour, as she is given around a 40% chance of winning by Eurovision world and Paddy Power have their betting odds at five-to-six. So, although there is still a month, two semi-finals, and a final to go, Loreen seems to have this in the bag.
If Loreen does win the contest, as has been predicted, she will join the most exclusive club in Eurovision history. That is to say she will become one of the lucky few to have won the contest multiple times as a performer. How exclusive is this club? Well, currently it is a club of just one and that one is Mr Eurovision himself, Johnny Logan.
Johnny Logan first attempted to represent Ireland in 1979 with his song ‘Angie’ but unfortunately, he only managed to get 3rd in Ireland’s national final vote meaning he missed out on the spot in the Eurovision line up. However, he came back the next year, 1980, and won. He not only won the national selection, but he won the contest with the song ‘What’s Another Year’ which was written by Shay Healy.
He replicated this Eurovision success in 1987 with the song ‘Hold Me Now’ which he wrote himself. This win wrote him into the Eurovision history books. But he didn’t stop there. In 1984 he wrote the song ‘Terminal 3’ which was performed by Linda Martin, but sadly this entry missed out on first place by just eight points. It was eight years later in 1992 when he yet again wrote a song for Linda Martin, this one was called ‘Why Me’. This song won. It made Logan the most successful artist in the whole history of the contest with three wins tied to his name. He is a living legend.
Currently Logan is the only performer to have won Eurovision multiple times and he is one of five songwriters to have written multiple winning songs.
Not only do his wins cement him as the most successful artist in the history of Eurovision, but Ireland has won the contest seven times, his song accounting for nearly half of their wins, making Ireland the most successful country in the history of Eurovision. However, Sweden is hot on their tail with six wins. So if Loreen wins the contest this year, not only will Sweden equal the record, but we will have our second-ever performer to have won multiple times. Loreen could make history this May in Liverpool.
Did I mention I like Eurovision?
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