It all began in 1956, when Europe was still recovering from World War 2. One day, some guy decided: "Hey, why not unite Europe through music? Everyone loves music, right?"
And Eurovision Song Contest was born. On the course of over 60 years, this mu...
(In the meanwhile, have this one as the media, it's not as spooky as Salvador seems to give it but it's a cute gif to use in random times.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may say that we've seen it all in the past 64 years of Eurovision, but in the end you wake up with some good old stuff that happened, but we've forgotten.
So, it's time to uncover the hidden gems which happened for a short period of time in the history of the contest, shall we?
And for most of you, possibly newbies in what's Eurovision's hidden under a curtain for several years, you may learn a new thing about your beloved contest that didn't seem to happen.
Let's go then.
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We'll have to go back in time, to be precise in 1990, where Eurovision was hosted for the very first time in Yugoslavia. In Zagreb, to be precise.
In its very last years, Yugoslavia tried to make a well-done edition, sharing lovely touristic images from its territory during intervals and introducing the age rule for the very first time since the controversy in 1989. (Long story short: Two contestants participated in Eurovision at the ages of 11 and 12 respectively. From different countries.)
However, leaving these aside, there was another little addition to the contest which remained pretty much forgotten even up to this day, especially for the new fans. Unfortunately because it only held one edition.
And allow me to introduce you to
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this
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boi.
This lovely purple striped lad over here is the Eurocat. And I'm certain not many of you heard of it before.
The 1990 contest was the very first edition introducing an official mascot, which usually popped out all of a sudden during postcards. (In the first image it tried to find little Luxembourg on the map.)
Created by a Croatian illustrator, the Eurocat was quite an innovation of its time, which unfortunately wouldn't hold for very long. It was only used during the 1990 contest and then the little kitten was never heard from since.
Even after Eurocat's mysterious disappearance from the spotlight, the edition of 1992 also adopted its own official mascot, the Eurobird, which I couldn't find pictures of it sadly. Like the predecessor, it emerged during the postcards, usually offering informations regarding the places and the act in itself.
It also vanished from existence after the edition was over.
Last time we've heard of mascots in Eurovision were somewhere in the 21st century, specifically 2006 which had a butterfly. (I'm not sure where I'd put the 2013 butterfly though, because it also acts like a design in itself. Be free to show your opinions on that though.)
Now, wouldn't it be nice to see one of them make an appearance? Well, it would in my personal opinion, but I guess we would see them only if their countries won again. (Croatia, if you win again, revive the Eurocat please, okay and thanks)
But could Eurovision be defined by a mascot? Well, that's harder to answer. But would've been cool to have a permanent mascot which can be easily distinguishable for both the older and the newer fans. Or the ones which literally never heard of it.
We're coming close to Eurovision 2019 lads. Did time passed this fast though, like for a brief second I thought we already knew our first act of 2019 and here we are today.
What a time to be alive for a few months and dead inside for the rest of the year.
