With only a few hours to find out who will be the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, we will in most cases also know where we will be heading next. This is unless Australia ends up winning, but there have been other occasions where the winning country didn’t host the following year.
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1957: Frankfurt
The Eurovision Song Contest was established in 1956. During the first year, held in Lugano, Switzerland, the winner of the first ever contest ended up being the host country, Switzerland with the song Refrain by Lys Assia.
Back then, it wasn’t necessarily a rule that the winning country had to host the contest the following year, it was however suggested that different cities should take the hosting duties. Since Switzerland hosted and won the first contest, Germany stepped in to host the second edition in Frankfurt-am-Main.
1960: London
In 1959, The Netherlands had just won their second victory at the Eurovision Song Contest. The song was Een beetje by Teddy Scholten.
Since The Netherlands had previously won the contest very recently in 1957, the Dutch broadcaster declined to host twice in such a short period. The duties of hosting was then passed on to the country who placed 2nd, which was the United Kingdom.
1963: London
In 1962, France had already won the Eurovision Song Contest 3 times. Not in a row mind you, but in 1958, 1960 and 1962. In 1963, France declined to host the contest after hosting twice in a short period.
The United Kingdom stepped up to hosting duties and hosted the contest for the second time in London, which meant they had hosted the contest twice before ever winning.
1970: Amsterdam
Although technically, The Netherlands did win in 1969, the previous year also set a record in terms of winning entries as 4 countries split the winning title of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. Therefore, France, United Kingdom and Spain, despite winning in 1969 did not end up hosting the following year.
1972: Edinburgh
In 1971, Monaco won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Un banc, un arbre, une rue by Séverine. Monaco however did not have at the time the proper facilities that the EBU required to host the contest. The United Kingdom then stepped in and hosted on Monaco’s behalf.
1974: Brighton
In 1972 and 1973, Luxembourg won back to back the Eurovision Song Contest. They hosted the contest in 1973, however after winning that exact contest with Tu te reconnaÎtras by Anne-Marie David, the small country declined to host it in 1974.
The United Kingdom always willing to help out, stepped in once more to host the 1974 contest, this time in the southern English city of Brighton.
1980: The Hague
The last time a country other than the previous winner hosted the Eurovision Song Contest was in 1980, when The Netherlands ended up hosting the contest after Israel won twice in a row in 1978 and 1979.
2017: ?
This brings us to 2017. With a few countries really trying to hit gold this year, it’s still all up in the air where the contest will be held next year. In addition, if Australia is to win the contest, it’s been announced that a European city would be hosting next year’s contest as some sort of co-funded project. Last year, when Australia first took part in the contest, it was rumoured that Germany were back up for hosting if Guy Sebastian had won.
This year, rumours speculates that it could be Germany again, or possibly the Netherlands or one of the Big 5 countries, or maybe whoever finishes in 2nd place will just take the hosting duties…
We don’t know yet where Eurovision will take us next year, but in the meantime, let’s enjoy Dami Im’s beautiful rehearsal of Sound of Silence.
