The Saturday briefing

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER by CAROLINE FORD

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How and why did the Eurovision Song Contest begin and which country has been in it the most times but never won?

Patricia Howard, York

The blueprint for today’s Eurovision Song Contest was the Venice International Song Festival, which was broadcast on radio. In 1955 it included Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Monaco and the Netherlands. There were national juries, with the winner awarded the Golden Gondola.

Inspired by this, and Italy’s Sanremo Music Festival, the Eurovision Song Contest was set up by the European Broadcasting Union and Marcel Bezencon, the director general of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.

Its aim was to bring the nations of Europe together after the Second World War, promoting unity and diversity through music. The contest was also one of the first shows to be televised to an international audience.

The first contest was held on May 24, 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland. Seven nations entered: the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy. Austria and Denmark missed the deadline and the UK said they were too busy with their own contest that year.