40
Cooperation with the European
Broadcasting Union
The Eurovision Song Contest is an EBU project. The EBU was established on February 12, 1950 by the national TV
companies of 23 countries of the European and Mediterranean region. Five years later, Marcel Bezençon, Director
General of Swiss TV, came up with an idea of an international song contest involving leading TV channels of the
member states. According to the concept, the EBU was supposed to stand behind a fascinating show to be broadcast
at all member-states. Proposal by Marcel Bezençon was adopted by the EBU General Assembly in Rome on October
19, 1955.
The new contest based on the Sanremo Music Festival, Italy, was aiming at exposing and promoting young
variety performers and songwriters thus supporting the development of television in the 1950’s.
This was the way the Eurovision Song Contest came into being in 1955, then styled Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson
Europeenne.
Next year, the first Eurovision Song Contest show was arranged. Continuously broadcast every year as of 1956, it is
nowadays recognized as one of the most sustainable TV projects. In the meantime, it nurtured a number of spin-offs,
such as the Eurovision Young Musicians classical music contest as of 1982, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest since
2003,
and the Eurovision Dance Contest as of 2007.
51
countries have taken part at the Eurovision Song Contest so far. Some countries left the project for a while to re-join
it several years later. E.g. Italy, one of the Eurovision founders, left the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997 and acceded to
it again in 2011. Montenegro appeared back at Eurovision in 2012 after a break of 2 years.
The record number of participants was achieved in 2008. With Azerbaijan’s debut at the Eurovision Song Contest
show in Belgrade, Serbia, the list of countries involved reached 43. The Contest is broadcast far beyond Europe with
the coverage area encompassing the states not involved in the project, such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong,
India, Japan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand and the United States.
The Reference Group was established in 1998 with a view to monitoring adherence to the EBU regulations in the
course of preparation to the Eurovision Song Contests and drafting due recommendations.
In the course of preparation to the ESC 2012, six meetings of the Reference Group were held, two out of them in
Geneva, Switzerland, and four in Baku, Azerbaijan. Experts from the Reference Group provided valuable comments
on all issues related to the contest’s preparation.
During the Reference Group meetings, the arena for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was selected and the final
partners approved together with the issues pertaining to EuroVillage, EuroClub, city dressing, hotels, transportation,
etc. The Eurovision Song Contest’s logo and motto were also adopted.