Anticipation is building for the hugely-popular Eurovision Song Contest ahead of the annual event later this month.

This year's contest takes place in Liverpool on 13th May with the UK stepping in as the host nation after last year's winners, Ukraine, were unable to stage the event.

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 the Liverpool Arena - 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.

The 1970s

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

The 1980s

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 1990s

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

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

The 2010s

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

The 2020s

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 prize 12 months ago when they sung 'Stefania' in Turin.

Year	Winning Country	Song	Artist
2020	No contest
2021	Italy	Zitti e buoni	Maneskin
2022	Ukraine	Stefania	Kalush Orchestra