Anticipation is building for the hugely-popular Eurovision Song Contest ahead of the annual event in May.
This year's contest takes place in Malmo on 17th May with Switzerland the host nation for the third time after Nemo's win in 2024.
Eurovision is the longest-running yearly international televised music competition, having first taken place in 1956. It has been staged annually ever since, apart from in 2020, and is organised by the European Broadcasting Union.
Each country taking part must enter an original song which is performed on the night in front of a live audience - which this year will be at St Jakobshalle - and then the competing countries cast votes for the other countries' songs to eventually work out a winner.
The rival nations award points for each song - ranging from one to 12 points - to their 10 favourite songs, using the views of expert music professionals alongside votes from each country's viewing public.
The competition is mostly made up of European countries but Australia were invited for the 60th anniversary in 2015 and have been part of the contest ever since.
There have been numerous memorable winners, with the UK triumphing on five occasions down the years. Ireland lead the way overall with seven victories and plenty of famous acts have taken part and won - including ABBA, Buck's Fizz and Celine Dion.
Here, broken down into decades, we run down the complete list of previous Eurovision winners from 1970 onwards.
Ireland won for the first time in 1970 in Amsterdam when Dana's 'All Kind's Of Everything' was voted best song.
The UK triumphed in 1976 for the third time with Brotherhood Of Man's 'Save Your Kisses For Me', while Monaco, Luxembourg and Israel (both twice) also enjoyed success in the 70s.
The 1974 contest was won by Swedish superstars ABBA, who performed 'Waterloo' in Brighton.
Year | Winning Country | Song | Artist |
1970 | Ireland | All Kinds of Everything | Dana |
1971 | Monaco | Un banc, un arbre, une rue | Severine |
1972 | Luxembourg | Apres Toi | Vicky Leandros |
1973 | Luxembourg | Tu te reconnaîtras | Anne-Marie David |
1974 | Sweden | Waterloo | ABBA |
1975 | Netherlands | Ding-a-dong | Teach-In |
1976 | UK | Save Your Kisses For Me | Brotherhood Of Man |
1977 | France | L'Oiseau et l'Enfant | Marie Myriam |
1978 | Israel | A-Ba-Ni-Bi | Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta |
1979 | Israel | Hallelujah | Milk And Honey |
Ireland again got the decade off to a winning start when 'What's Another Year' by Johnny Logan came out on top.
Bucks Fizz’s 'Making Your Mind Up' took first prize a year later in 1981, and Logan was back for more glory in 1987 when he sung 'Hold Me Now'.
Year | Winning Country | Song | Artist |
1980 | Ireland | What’s Another Year? | Johnny Logan |
1981 | UK | Making Your Mind Up | Bucks Fizz |
1982 | Germany | Ein bisschen Frieden | Nicole |
1983 | Luxembourg | Si la vie est cadeau | Corinne Hermes |
1984 | Sweden | Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley | Herreys |
1985 | Norway | La det swinge | Bobbysocks! |
1986 | Belgium | J'aime la vie | Sandra Kim |
1987 | Ireland | Hold Me Now | Johnny Logan |
1988 | Switzerland | Ne partez pas sans moi | Celine Dion |
1989 | Yugoslavia | Rock Me | Riva |
The 90s was the decade in which Ireland dominated the contest with no less than four victories. Linda Martin's 'Why Me' triumphed in 1992, before Niamh Kavanagh's 'In Your Eyes' won a year later and Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan made it an Irish hat-trick in 1994 with 'Rock 'n' Roll Kids'.
Ireland's fourth success came in 1996 when Eimear Quinn's 'The Voice' was voted the winner, and in 1997 Katrina and the Waves' 'Love Shine A Light' won the competition for the UK.
Year | Winning Country | Song | Artist |
1990 | Italy | Insieme: 1992 | Toto Cutugno |
1991 | Sweden | Fangad av en stormvind | Carola |
1992 | Ireland | Why Me? | Linda Martin |
1993 | Ireland | In Your Eyes | Niamh Kavanagh |
1994 | Ireland | Rock 'n' Roll Kids | Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan |
1995 | Norway | Nocturne | Secret Garden |
1996 | Ireland | The Voice | Eimear Quinn |
1997 | UK | Love Shine A Light | Katrina and the Waves |
1998 | Israel | Diva | Dana International |
1999 | Sweden | Take Me To Your Heaven | Charlotte Perrelli |
The 2000s saw 10 different countries winning across the first decade of the millennium, including Denmark, Latvia, Turkey, Greece and Ukraine.
The 2009 victor, 'Fairytale', performed by Alexander Rybak, who was representing Norway, won with what was at the time the highest recorded score since the contest began, picking up 387 points out of a possible maximum 492.
Year | Winning Country | Song | Artist |
2000 | Denmark | Fly On The Wings Of Love | Olsen Brothers |
2001 | Estonia | Everybody | Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL |
2002 | Latvia | I Wanna | Marie N |
2003 | Turkey | Every Way That I Can | Sertab Erener |
2004 | Ukraine | Wild Dances | Ruslana |
2005 | Greece | My Number One | Helena Paparizou |
2006 | Finland | Hard Rock Hallelujah | Lordi |
2007 | Serbia | Molitva | Marija Serifovic |
2008 | Russia | Believe | Dima Bilan |
2009 | Norway | Fairytale | Alexander Rybak |
Germany won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010 for the second time when Lena's effort 'Satellite' picked up the most votes, with Sweden winning twice during this decade, triumphing in 2012 and 2015.
Portugal's sole success in the competition came in 2017 when Salvador Sobral performed 'Amar pelos dois' in Kyiv.
Year | Winning Country | Song | Artist |
2010 | Germany | Satellite | Lena |
2011 | Azerbaijan | Running Scared | Ell and Nikki |
2012 | Sweden | Euphoria | Loreen |
2013 | Denmark | Only Teardrops | Emmelie de Forest |
2014 | Austria | Rise Like a Phoenix | Conchita Wurst |
2015 | Sweden | Heroes | Mans Zelmerlow |
2016 | Ukraine | 1944 | Jamala |
2017 | Portugal | Amar pelos dois | Salvador Sobral |
2018 | Israel | Toy | Netta |
2019 | Netherlands | Arcade | Duncan Laurence |
With no competition taking place in 2020, the 2021 version was won by Italy and Maneskin, who collected the most votes for their song 'Zitti e buoni'.
Ukrainian rap group Kalush Orchestra took the following prize when they sung 'Stefania' in Turin, with Loreen winning for a second time in 2023 with Tattoo, before Nemo took the 2024 crown with The Code.
Year | Winning Country | Song | Artist |
2020 | No contest |
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2021 | Italy | Zitti e buoni | Maneskin |
2022 | Ukraine | Stefania | Kalush Orchestra |
2023 | Sweden | Loreen | Tattoo |
2024 | Switzerland | The Code | Nemo |