Eurovision Rants

Did You Know... [2] (DEN - ICE)

(Woo, a continuation! Let's see how much we can cover from this one, shall we?)

Denmark:
Denmark is basically that country which seems to be getting the hang of it. They go either full silly to plain great, but don't let them play with fire yet again, alright?

They debuted in 1958, and debuted with the first ever duo in the contest. They came 3rd overall.
While they won with the majestic Dansevise in 1963 (sorry, it's like among my favorite entries from them if not my favorite overall), the edition of 1964 is one of the two editions of which video recordings got lost or is known to survive, aside the winning performance.
Apparently a fire burnt the tapes - however the audio recordings were intact and could be furthermore listened.
Last time this happened was in 1956. But it wasn't the fire fault.

Also, surprisingly, Denmark only got last place once. In 2002.
(also pretty much underrated, you can listen to it above)

Estonia:
When it comes to Estonia, there's not much to say for them.
They're the first former USSR country to have won Eurovision back in 2001 and second Eastern European country to achieve such thing - Yugoslavia being the first one.
Their worst achievement quite came as a surprise for many europals - last place in the semi-final in 2016.
Why? He was loved and stanned by many of them. So yeah.

Finland:
Oh, Finland, Finland, Finland...
Finland is often considered "the ugly ducking" of the Nordics because of the songs they usually send. They came last 10 times, the recent one being last in semi-final in 2015.
However, they did win in 2006.... with a metal band. Just Finnish things, ain't it? Also they seem to have won with something way different from the atypical Eurovision winning song.
So, yay Finland!
....And then returned to the streaks of weird placements, or very very low placements overall. (Aside maybe 2014.)
Hey, at least they tasted the victory once, unlike another Nordic country. We'll cover it soon too, don't worry.

France:
France is among one of the successful countries in the contest, winning 5 times to date, their last being in... 1977.
Okay, France, 1977? That went a long while.
Oh, and they were the first country to lose before of a tie.

On the page of "Eurovision Winners" I mentioned that the tie-breaker was introduced after the incident with the 4 winners in 1969. And it happened that in 1991 was a tie between the first and second place.
And, despite the 12's they both gained (which were the same), the 10's were the ones which counted the winner after all.
Sweden gained five 10's, while France gained only 2 10's, so they crowned Sweden as winner.
(Poor France, they really sent a gem that year...)

Georgia:
Georgia is basically that country which can't find a proper musical genre to fit them well. They're like that person which has a lot of clothes but can't find with what to dress in the end.
They basically tried almost everything: from ballad, to pop, from alternative, to rock and even jazz this year.
Their best achievements were 9th - achieved in 2010 & 2011.
Also they were disqualified in 2009 for not changing the lyrics of the song. According to EBU, it contained political messages.

Germany:
Since 1956 untill now, Germany had only failed to participate in 1 edition, when it had to participate in the pre-selection round in 1996. Basically making this country have the longest running streak in Eurovision to date.
It won 2 times, 1982 & 2010. It also finished last in seven occasions, among them having 3 nul points - 2015 being the recent nul point for Germany.

Greece:
Greece participated a lot of times since their debut in 1974, however they only won once, in 2005.
It used to have a long final streak untill they failed in 2015 in the semi-final - currently there's only 5 countries with 100% final presence since the introduction of the semi-finals.

Hungary:
Hungary debuted in 1993 (technically 1994, but pre-selection happened and yeah) and never managed to achieve the top 3 up to date. Their best placement is 4th right in the "debut" year, 1994.
Hungary is among the two countries to have unsuccesfully attempted to participate in the 1993 & 1996 editions - the other being Romania.
(I need to make something about the pre-selections thingy, I feel like this will be a bit confusing for some people, but maybe after this ESC)

Iceland:
Well, I did say at Finland that there's a Nordic nation which never had the taste of victory up to date and often gets pretty underestimated - and that's Iceland.
Iceland participated in 30 editions to date but their best achievement is 2nd in 1999 & 2009. And were defeated by 2 Nordic nations as well (Sweden, respectively Norway).
(Poor Iceland, give them the Eurovision trophy for once, they're the only Nordic country which never won, and that makes me sad)

AND A LITTLE BONUS
(since I forgot about it unfortunately, rip)

Bosnia & Herzegovina:
Do you know that moment when you're at school and you meet that child which really really wants to engage into a certain activity but doesn't have the necessary funds to help contribute to it?
Despite the fact that he really wants to join this project, he can't because he doesn't have what to put there and can't do anything about it aside being sad.
That's basically the issue with Bosnia & Herzegovina and Eurovision Song Contest.
Their broadcaster were open at the idea of joining the contest and were generally open about it - but there's a thing which acts like a major barrier between these two: financial issues.
Unfortunately, Bosnia & Herzegovina's attempts at returning were blocked by the financial issues they have, and their last return in the contest was in 2016.
And they failed in that year. Quite sad.

Their best placement is 3rd in 2006.