The ESC is the flagship of Eurovision light-entertainment programming. Eurovision is the television network supervised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and was established in the early 1950s to serve two functions: to share the costs of programming with international interest among the broadcasting services of member nations and to promote cultural appreciation and identification throughout western Europe. At the time of the first Eurovision broadcast in 1954, there were fewer than 5 million television receivers on the whole continent (90 percent of these were in England). The network now stretches into northern Africa, the Middle East, and eastern Europe, with most transmissions conveyed via satellite to the receiving stations of member nations for terrestrial broadcast.

The overwhelming majority of Eurovision transmissions have fallen into the sports, news, and public affairs categories. In the 1950s, EBU officials, perceiving the need for the dissemination of popular cultural programming to offset the influence of the U.S. media, decided to extend Italy’s San Remo Song Festival into a pan-European occasion. This became the ESC, with the first competition being held in Lugano, Switzerland, and relayed to fewer than 20 nations. Since that time, the contest has developed into a spring ritual now viewed by around 600 million people in more than 30 countries, including several in Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas (some of these nations do not even send representatives to the competition).

The ESC, is a long, live Saturday-evening showcase of pop music talent that typically ranges from the indescribably bad, through the insufferably indifferent, to a few catchy little numbers. Contestants are chosen by their respective nations during preliminary stages. The duly nominated acts, as cultural ambassadors for their countries, then attend the big event and perform their tunes. 

Conventionally, the host nation is determined by the winner of the previous year's contest. For example, Gigliola Cinquetti’s triumph of 1964 “Non ho l'età,” resulted in Radiotelevisione Italiana playing host in 1965. When an Estonian duo, Tanel Padar and Dave Benton, won in 2001, there was some question as to whether Estonia’s economically troubled public television channel, ETV, had the funds to produce the program (or any other programming) in 2992. In the end, ETV secured a government loan and decided that the publicity for the nation was worth the expense. 

The ESC is designed to be a grand affair, with expensive sets, full orchestra accompaniment, and a “special night out” atmosphere. But behavior is expected from all concerned. Following the performances, panels of Judges from each nation submit their point allocations to the central auditorium where the contest is taking place, and a “high-tech” scoreboard tabulates the cumulative scores. As even the most ardent of critics will attest, this is a special moment for home viewers–one where elements particular to ESC (technological accomplishment, anticipation induced by the live event, and intercultural differences) combine for curious effect. Will your country’s representatives beat the competition and incur the envy of other Europeans? Will the juries throw objectivity to the wind and vote according to national prejudice? Or will, as occurred to Norway’s hapless Jahn Teigen on that unforgettable May night in 1978, a contestant endure the humiliating fate of receiving no points whatsoever?

Like its late-lamented Eurovision companion, Jeux Sans Frontières (JSF), the ESC plays homage to clean, amateur fun and the elevation of the unknown to the status of national hero. Unlike the excessively carnivalesque JSF, however, the ESC attempts to avoid the very absurdity and mockery it unwittingly generates. For its first decade, the ESC was a wholesome, formal affair: the amorous ballads it featured helped create a chasm between the competition’s cultural mission and that of rock music that has never been bridged. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, youth orientation became a primary factor in determining victory. The 1968 winner, “La la la…” from Spain’s Massiel, inspired a succession of entries incorporating childish lyrics that avoided identifiable linguistic origins in order to garner wide jury appeal. A similar delve into formulism was initiated by the British Sandy Shaw the following year: “Puppet on a String” evoked a generically pan-European musical heritage with its oompah brass and circus-grounded melodies. In their triumphant international debut on the ESC in 1974, ABBA opted to perform in English and sang about a continental recognizable historical event in a song titled “Waterloo. The Swedish quartet’s glam sensibilities and subsequent commercial success multiplied the contest’s kitsch quotient tenfold and launched a string of two-girl/two-boy combos in its wake. Indicating its own concern over the increasingly imitative nature of the competition, the EBU stipulated various edicts that generated a spate of regional, folk-influenced entries in the late 1970s, all of which scored poorly with the judges. The 1980s witnessed the ascension of overchoreographed performance and more explicit attempts to excite juries and viewers with soft, sanitized sex appeal. Efforts to resuscitate the ESC as a viable musical forum have resulted in more recent efforts to modernize the look and style of the contest and to encourage a more professional approach to promotion through the participation of the corporate music industry. 

In estimating the significance of the ESC, perhaps less attention should be given to its bloated festivity or the derivative nature of the contenders’ music. While its cultural merits are dubious, the event has become a television landmark. Its durability and notoriety have led the EBU to support the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians and the Eurovision Competition for Young Dancers in order to furthermore promote Eurocentric cultural understanding through televised stage performance.