decision EBU to start talks with British BBC After rejecting Ukraine as the venue for Eurovision 2023, it created a lot of controversy between eurofans and many other people. The reference group, the highest decision-making body of the festival, thinks that Ukrainian television does not comply with the rules.necessary operational and security guarantees” have opened a familiar door that the European event had to pass through in the past, albeit under different circumstances.
As we all know, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest has some kind of unwritten “privilege” to host the next contest, but over its 66-year history this has not been fulfilled several times. To be more precise, a total of six times, but it is true that this has not been repeated in more than 42 years.
This first happened in 1957. After hosting and winning the first edition of Lys Asia with ‘Refrain’, Switzerland refused to organize the second Eurovision Song Contest in history. The EBU chose Frankfurt am Main (West Germany) to celebrate at the Großer Sendesaal des hessischen Rundfunks, a music hall and former television studio.
Just three years later, the EBU had to face the same situation. After Teddy Scholten won Cannes in 1959 with ‘Een beetje’, Dutch television refused to edit the 1960 edition because it did so in 1958 in Hilversum.London will host the first British BBC Eurovision Song Contest.
In 1963, London returned as the wildcard venue for the music competition after a fresh resignation. In this case, France refused to host the Eurovision Song Contest for the same reasons as West Germany and the Netherlands.Since it was held in Cannes in 1959 and 1961.
This situation was not repeated until 1972. British BBC takes over Eurovision Song Contest again after Monaco, who won in Dublin in 1971 with Séverine and her ‘Un banc, un arbre, une rue’, was forced to abandon his organization because he could not find a suitable place on the principality’s territory. Ultimately, Edinburgh hosted the competition.
It took just two years for Luxembourg to withdraw from the 1974 Eurovision event. After winning the Théâtre Municipal for the second year in a row with Anne-Marie David and ‘Tu te reconnaîtras’, Luxembourg television again refused because of the cost of hosting the music competition. Months later, Brighton saw ABBA victory with ‘Waterloo’ in an edition hosted by the British BBC once again.
Not counting the current situation with Ukraine, a non-winning country last took over the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980. Like Luxembourg in 1974, after hosting and winning for the second time in a row with ‘Hallelujah’ in 1979. Gali Atari and Milk & Honey, Israel resigned from the organization because it coincided with the day of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.
This resignation case was the most complicated, as the EBU offered the organization of the event to the BBC, but the British network rejected it. After offering to other European television channels, including Spain, who came to receive an offer from the Costa del Sol Tourism Board to celebrate in Torremolinos (Malaga), Dutch television NOS hosted the competition in The Hague with very little preparation time.