The Eurovision Song Contest may be over for 2021 but the number-crunching is only beginning.
With the names of the 195 jurors now published (five each from the 39 participating countries) and loaded into Six on Stage, I’ve cross-referenced the data to see what previous involvement in Eurovision they’ve had.
There’s always a caveat and in this case it’s that the published data is a bit messy. For example, Finland’s jurors are largely missing surnames, so I’ve had to track down a separate source to fill them. I’ve also made the reasonable assumption that people with very close names are in fact the same person (e.g. Jonas Schroeder from Denmark is clearly Jonas Schrøder).
Of the 195 jurors, 31 have been on their national jury at least once before, and 2 have sat on the jury twice before.
35 have performed on stage at Eurovision, 32 of whom have been lead artists. 3 have been backing performers only.
17 jurors have writing credits on Eurovision songs from previous years. 1 of those wrote a winning song (Lise Cabble and Only Teardrops).
8 have been their country’s voting spokesperson, only 1 of whom has not also been a performer (Monika Lelas Halambek from Croatia).
41 have taken part in national selections – 16 of those without performing at Eurovision, although 1 of them should’ve done in 2020: Tan from off of Denmark’s Ben & Tan.
2 have written Junior Eurovision songs, 1 has performed at Junior Eurovision (Nika Turković in 2004) and 1 has hosted Junior Eurovision (Helen Kalandadze in 2017).
1 has been a conductor at Eurovision (Slobodan Marković, Yugoslavia’s final native conductor in 1991).
And, er, 1 member of the San Marino jury (Marilia Reffi) was listed as a member of the Sammarinese jury in 2019 – which isn’t supposed to be allowed…
Every year at Eurovision the acts are a mix of brand new artists who have never graced the stage before and returning performers ready to have another stab at the trophy.
We’re used to San Marino’s admirable commitment to recycling, which has seen Senhit and Serhat return and Valentina Monetta represent the country no less than four times (three solo, once with a duet).
But have any countries never sent a returning lead artist? Let’s take a look. (Note: I am still counting individuals as returning artists if they have also been solo and part of a group or if they have appeared in more than one group, e.g. Cheryl Baker. I’m not counting backing performers.)
Morocco
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Morocco have never sent a returning act. They only took part in the Contest once so by definition…
Serbia & Montenegro
Their two participations could have featured a returning artist, but no – although 2004’s Željko Joksimović did return for Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2006 and Serbia in 2012, so arguably represented Serbia twice if not under the same flag.
Australia
The country with the next fewest participations is Australia and they too are yet to repeat a performer – with the caveat that Montaigne was of course their nominal entrant in 2020 as well as 2021. Dami Im has expressed a desire to return, though, so they may not be on this list for much longer.
Andorra
Andorra have taken part in Eurovision six times without a returning act – although backing singer Belinda Sánchez Leal has been on stage with them four of those times.
Slovakia
Seven acts; no repeat artists. Like Morocco, Serbia & Montenegro and Andorra before them, Slovakia don’t currently take part in Eurovision so this isn’t about to change.
Czech Republic
Like Australia, their 2020 act (Benny Cristo) has returned for 2021, but other than that they have sent different artists every time they’ve taken part.
Montenegro
They have taken part in Eurovision 11 times but have been sitting it out since their poor result in 2019.
Georgia
Georgia wouldn’t be on this list if they hadn’t withdrawn their 2009 entry, the subtly political We Don’t Wanna Put In, as the group Stephane & 3G included Tamara Milanova, who went on to represent them in 2017. Although if they hadn’t withdrawn maybe she wouldn’t have come back. That’s the problem with counterfactuals.
Ukraine
Across 15 entries, Ukraine have sent new artists every year. Their 2020 act Go_A also return for 2021.
Albania and Belarus
With 16 entries, Albania and Belarus are the two countries that have jointly entered the most times without a single lead artist returning.
No repeat performers at all
If we do include backing performers, there are six countries that appear never to have had the same person on stage twice: Morocco (obvs), Serbia & Montenegro, Australia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Ukraine – although this comes with the caveat that I’m missing the names of quite a few backing artists for Slovakia and Ukraine so if you can help there, please get in touch!
I’ve added the names of voting spokespeople from their first year, 1957, to the present day – so now we can pull out some stats and facts.
Caveats: some of the sources for earlier spokespeople have conflicting information, so I’ve done my best to untangle it, and there are 30 occasions for which I have no data (spokespeople for Denmark 1963; Germany 1980-82; Luxembourg 1960-61, 1963-65, 1967-75 and 1992-93; Malta 1975; and Monaco 1959-1970). If you can fill in any gaps or have any corrections, please let me know.
Spokespeople who became hosts
Eleven people who gave their countries’ votes have gone on to host a subsequent Contest – 10% of all hosts.
Helga Vlahović, who co-presented Yugoslavia’s only time hosting the Contest, in 1990, was the country’s jury spokesperson in 1969, 1974 and 1981.
Israel’s 1999 host Yigal Ravid announced their votes in the year before.
Renārs Kaupers of Brainstorm gave Latvia’s votes in 2001 before hosting the Contest in 2003.
Korhan Abay, who hosted the 2004 Contest, read Turkey’s scores in 1990 and 1992.
Pavlo Shylko – who also wrote the lyrics to Tina Karol’s Show Me Your Love – hosted 2005 in Ukraine having been their spokesperson in 2004.
Jovana Janković hosted in Belgrade in 2008 having given Serbia & Montenegro’s unique non-participant votes in 2006.
Leyla Aliyeva revealed Azerbaijan’s votes in 2008 and presented from Baku in 2012.
Copenhagen 2014’s Lise Rønne previously announced the Danish votes in 2011.
Filomena Cautela, one of the four hosts of the 2018 Contest, was the Portuguese spokesperson the previous year.
Similarly, Lucy Ayoub from Tel Aviv 2019 gave Israel’s votes in 2018.
And 2020/21 host and two-time entrant Edsilia Rombley has given the scores for the Netherlands on three occasions: in 1999, in 2015, and – following her failure to qualify for the final that year, in 2007!
The first performer to become a spokesperson
Edsilia nearly leads us on the next question. Spokespeople initially tended to be TV station employees, radio presenters, commentators, newsreaders and the like, calling in their votes unseen. So who was the first entrant to go on to announce a country’s votes? And what about the first winner?
The answer is Luxembourgish singer Camillo Felgen. He represented his country in 1960 and 1962 and went on to call in their jury’s scores in 1966.
It was nearly 30 years before another entrant gave their country’s votes, when Switzerland’s 1994 scores were announced by their 1991 singer Sandra Simó.
But since 1996, every Contest has featured at least one former entrant calling with the votes. In 2019, no fewer than 11 of the jury spokespeople were prior entrants, the earliest being Izhar Cohen from 1978 and 1985.
The first winner to present her country’s votes was Corry Brokken, who did so for the Netherlands in 1997 – and only a few minutes later, Marie Myriam did the same for France. Corry Brokken also hosted the 1976 Contest, making her the first entrant and first winner to present in a subsequent year.
Who were the most frequent spokespeople?
Over the years we’ve come to recognise familiar faces like Alexis Kostalas of Greece. So who’s given their country’s votes most often?
It may not be a surprise that the answer by some margin is Colin Berry, who announced the United Kingdom’s votes on 24 occasions.
Michel Stocker of Switzerland is the runner-up with 20 occasions, followed by Sverre Christophersen of Norway with 18.
The highest woman on the list is Anna Partelidou of Cyprus, who is sixth with 13 occasions.
Alexis Kostalas, in case you’re wondering, presented the Greek votes 11 times – which is a lot of occasions to have to say “12 points to Cyprus” with a straight face.
Which countries have been the most consistent?
In other words, which countries have had the fewest number of spokespeople per year participating?
Albania has had only three spokespeople across 16 Contests so is the clear leader with 5.3 years per spokesperson.
Next is Turkey with 10 spokespeople over 34 Contests (3.4 y/s), Luxembourg and Austria with 3.3 y/s, and Greece with 3.1 y/s.
The most fickle countries are Andorra and Serbia & Montenegro, who switched up the spokesperson every time they took part, followed by Latvia with 19 spokespeople for 20 Contests.
And finally… what’s the most simultaneous spokespeople a country has had?
Three! On two occasions, a country’s votes have been given by three people at once – when Alcazar, in a trio phase, announced Sweden’s scores in 2014 and when O’G3NE did so for the Netherlands in 2018.
Eurovision Song Contest winners have achieved a feat shared by few others. But even within that hallowed group, some try to return to Eurovision, whether just to relive the experience or to attempt to match Johnny Logan’s unique two wins as an artist.
Where people already in the Six on Stage database appeared in national finals, I’ve now added this information too. As a result, it’s now possible for me to cross-reference appearances at Eurovision with participation in national selections.
While no-one else has done the double, a number of winners have indeed made it back to the Eurovision stage – so let’s look at 27 winning performers who didn’t make it through a national final despite their gilded status.
The early winners
The first two winners of the Contest tried to represent their countries again in later years.
Lys Assia won the Swiss selection the next two years after her victory in 1956, but she was unsuccessful when she tried again – for the 2012 Contest, more than 50 years after her last go.
Corry Brokken too represented her country in the first three years of the Contest. She tried again much sooner, unsuccessfully entering the Dutch national selection in 1959. She would instead return as host, in 1976.
Melodifestivalen
No fewer than six previous Eurovision winners have tried and failed to win Melfest – and only half of them won the Contest for Sweden!
Elisabeth Andreassen of Bobbysocks took part in 1990, in 2002 (with Kikki and Lotta) and in 2011. She has also entered Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix five times since La Det Swinge, representing Norway again in 1994 and 1996 but not winning the selection in 1998, 2003 or 2015.
Katrina Leskanich of “and the Waves” fame competed as Katrina & The Nameless in 2005.
Carola took part with Andreas Johnson in 2008 (she did, of course, win two years previously).
Charlotte Perrelli returned in 2012 and 2017 (after winning for the second time in 2008). And she is back this year to try again.
Helena Paparizou, 2005’s Eurovision winner for Greece, took part in 2014 with Survivor.
Loreen in 2017 notoriously failed to make it out of Andra Chansen with Statements.
The 1991 hosts (allora)
Gigliola Cinquetti took part in the Sanremo Music Festival the year after her 1964 win, reaching the final. She actually won again in 1966 but, as each song was performed by two artists, it ended up being Domenico Modugno who made the ill-fated trip to Luxembourg with Dio Come Ti Amo.
Toto Cutugno took part in 1997’s edition of Sanremo, finishing 17th.
Chanteuses of 60s and 70s
1962 winner Isabelle Aubret, who also represented France in 1968, took part in their national selection again in 1970, 1976 and 1983.
Grethe Ingmann, who won for Denmark with her then-husband in 1963, tried again in 1978, 1979 and 1980.
Having represented Luxembourg twice, Vicky Leandros entered the German selection in 2006.
The French contribution to 1969’s four-way tie, Frida Boccara appeared in their national finals in 1980 and 1981.
Séverine won for Monaco in 1971 but went on take part in Germany’s national finals in 1975 and 1982.
Returning men
Izhar Cohen won alongside the Alphabeta in 1978 and represented Israel again in 1985. He was, however, unsuccessful in Israel’s national selections of 1982, 1987 and 1996.
Dima Bilan won Eurovision for Russia at his second appearance. He tried to represent the country again in 2012, competing in the national finals with Julia Volkova from t.A.T.u.
Band members
Our last set of returnees may be less well known as they all won Eurovision as members of groups.
Reuven Gvirtz, Shmulik Bilu and Yehuda Tamir were victorious in 1979 as three-quarters of Milk & Honey. Those members of the band tried to represent Israel again in 1981 and 1989, and Yehuda Tamir also tried as a solo artist in 1986.
Emilija Kokić was the lead singer of 1989 winners Riva. She took part in the Croatian national finals three times, in 2001, 2003 and 2008.
Five years after their win in Sweden, Olsen Brothers Jørgen & Niels entered Danish Melodi Grand Prix again with Little Yellow Radio. Jørgen returned to the competition as a solo singer in 2007.
2XL won in 2001 with Dave Benton and Tanel Padar and three of the four members have since taken part in the Estonian national finals. Kaido Põldma, Lauri Pihlap and Sergei Morgun were all members of Soul Militia in 2007 and 2012. Additionally, Lauri Pihlap took part in 2009 and 2014, and Sergei Morgun in 2018 as one-third of Tiiu x Okym x Semy.
Sampsa Astala, aka Kita from Lordi, returned to Finland’s national selection in 2011 as Stala in Stala & So.
Last night I watched the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest and ended up solving a mystery that’s been bugging me for three months.
From a Six on Stage perspective, the 1978 Contest is particularly interesting because it features the same backing singers on four different songs – or that’s what I’d been led to believe.
There aren’t a lot of primary sources you can go to when it comes to identifying backing singers from 40+ years ago, so there are some excellent secondary sources I fall back on: in particular the no longer updated Diggiloo Thrush and the comprehensive Dutch Eurovision Artists site.
Both sites agree that Georges and Michel Costa, Martine Latorre and Francine Chantereau provided backing vocals in 1978 for France, Germany, Belgium and – sans Michel – for Monaco. (It’s Michel’s absence there that means his brother has performed the most songs at Eurovision with 17, while Michel has sung on 16.)
But then I watched the French entry, illustrated here via a screengrab from one of the low-res copies of the Contest floating illicitly on YouTube:
Voici Joël Prévost, accompanied by not four but five backing singers. We know that two of the female singers are Francine Chantereau and Martine Latorre, but who is the third?
Let’s take a diversion to the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest in Norway. There, Georges and Michel Costa made their final appearance as Eurovision backing vocalists on a song they wrote themselves, Européennes by Cocktail Chic. Cocktail Chic comprised sisters Dominique Poulain and Catherine Bonnevay and their cousins… Francine Chantereau and Martine Latorre.
I’m not sure if you can tell but this was the 1980s.
A bit more research reveals that these four formed a group at the end of the 1960s first called Les OP’4 and then, as Les Fléchettes, primarily providing backing vocals for singer Claude François. They also performed as Dominique et les Fléchettes, with Dominique (third in the image above) taking lead vocals. And in the 1970s they performed with the Costa brothers under the name Chance.
Francine and Dominique also sang backing vocals for Marie Myriam on the winning song in 1977 that brought the Contest to Paris.
So it stands to reason that the third female singer supporting France in 1978 is either Dominique or Catherine. Better check the other performances to see if they have the extra singer too!
Here’s Belgium:
Aha! Yes indeed. It’s a blurry picture but once again there are three female backing singers. Except… even in this low-quality copy it looks like those are not the same three.
Michel: There was a year when we sang for five countries, in Paris: France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium and Germany. We changed jackets between songs. Interviewer: Under what circumstances did you accompany Germany? Michel: We went to rehearsals, and Germany was in the room, they did not have any singers and said to themselves “These singers must be very good because they represent everyone!” (laughs) Interviewer: Wasn’t it too hard to sing in German? Georges: No, it was just “Feuer” to sing, and the rest was the “Ah”, sounds like that.
NB: Baccara representing Luxembourg did not appear to have any backing vocals.
Germany was represented in 1978 by the glorious Ireen Sheer, who had sung in French representing Luxembourg four years earlier. Here she is in Paris:
Right. The gang is back but they’re different again. And Monaco is the very next song. Will they have time to change?
No, no they won’t.
Although the picture quality is grainy, one helpful aspect of the ’78 Contest is that instead of postcards there is backstage footage of each act making their way to the stage. In most cases the previous act is waiting to wish them good luck (well, waiting for them to vacate the lift so they can go back to their dressing rooms).
When Monaco and Germany cross, we see the Costa brothers backstage with four women in purple dresses. Four!
As you’ve probably worked out, the whole Fléchette family was there and rotated the backing vocal honours amongst them. So the next challenge was to identify who was who in order to list them correctly on Six on Stage.
I crudely classified them based on height and hair, because that’s pretty much all there is to go on in this video. So we have:
France: ginger, short with dark hair, tall with dark hair
Belgium: ginger, blonde, tall with dark hair
Germany: blonde, short with dark hair, tall with dark hair
Monaco: ginger, short with dark hair
I told you it was crude. The next step was to name them. Helpfully, the Diggiloo Thrush’s page for Cocktail Chic identifies them in their 1980s personas. Francine is the taller of the dark-haired women and Dominique the shorter. Catherine is blonde and Martine is not really ginger.
This video from 1970 endorses the identification of Dominique.
All that was left to do was to update Six on Stage with the correct backing singers:
But that wasn’t the mystery that had been bugging me. I said this involved five countries, not four, and we haven’t even touched on Eurovision Again.
It’s Ireen Sheer’s fault.
She cropped up representing Luxembourg in 1985 during the most recent Eurovision Again. But she also represented them back in 1974.
Eurovision Again and the BBC treated us to that Contest as welcome lockdown relief in the middle of May. At the time, a number of eagle-eyed viewers tweeted that Ireen’s backing singers stayed on stage in exactly the same outfits to provide vocals for the immediately following act, Romuald from Monaco. Frustratingly, I’d been unable to identify these four singers, none of whom was recorded in my go-to sources.
This made me sad.
But then I started thinking: Ireen Sheer. Francophone countries. Four female singers. 1970s. Maybe there was more to Germany’s choice of backing singers in 1978 than the Costas remembered. You can hear the cogs turning.
Sometimes the only evidence is the Contest itself.
Short with dark hair. Tall with dark hair. Blonde. Possibly ginger.
I’ve looked at contemporary photos and videos. I’ve squinted at the 1978 footage. I’ve pored over Cocktail Chic.
We all know that Ireland is the all-time Eurovision champion with their seven wins, but I’d been wondering who was in the lead before them? Sweden are in second place now, but three of those wins came after Ireland’s last. What about in, say, the 1970s?
Thanks to a bit of data animation I’ve thrown together, you can now answer that question while being entertained by flying bars. Watch the leaderboard change over time:
This shows that the countries in joint lead before Ireland’s mid-90s dominance were France and Luxembourg. And it also highlights that from 2001 to 2008 eight countries consecutively got their first ever wins – soon after the rule that they had to sing in their own languages was abolished…
It’s a cliché itself to suggest that Eurovision songs overuse the clichéd rhyme fire/desire. But how well-founded is that gripe?
I’ve run an analysis of all the lyrics I could get my hands on and identified just (or, depending on your view, a whopping) 18 songs that feature this word pair as a rhyme. The most tenuous is Tina Karol‘s Show Me Your Love, where the words are in separate verses but still clearly intended to rhyme; the most blatant is the only song to pull this off and take away the win, Helena Paparizou‘s My Number One. There are, unsurprisingly, many examples that didn’t make it to Eurovision hiding away in national finals (to take a random one, Survivor by, er, Helena Paparizou…).
One reason there aren’t more cases is the national language rule that was imposed for much of the Eurovision Song Contest’s history. For those periods, only the UK, Ireland and Malta were eligible to sing in English. There is a single song that I’ve identified before the rule changed in 1999 – also the earliest of this trope – and that’s Vikki‘s 1985 UK entry Love Is… The desire (ahem) was there though. One year earlier, Waiting in the Rain, the English version of Hot Eyes’ Danish entry Det’ lige det, gives us:
I never used to play with the fire I always used to follow the stream But now I’m burnin’ up with desire ‘Cause it’s for real, not a dream
While 18 songs of more than 1,600 isn’t a lot, they are bunched up, and nearly all from the 21st century. The 2004 Contest saw no fewer than three songs sneak that rhyme onto the stage: the Netherlands’ Without You, Denmark’s Shame On You, and Greece’s Shake It.
Red bars indicate fire/desire rhymes. Blue bars indicate the even more notorious fire/desire/higher triple, exemplified by The Roop in 2020.
Now that I’ve mentioned both examples, it will be apparent that Greece is also one of the four countries to use this lyrical pearl more than once.
The triples include Romania’s Playing With Fire and Poland’s Flashlight.
While it’s tempting to blame Vikki for introducing the trope to Eurovision, so much time passed between the first and second occurrences that I’m inclined to look beyond the Contest. Lyricists have used the same pairing plenty of times in the pop charts. For instance, it was in 1999, the year of the next incident, that the Backstreet Boys released their hit I Want It That Way: a much higher profile culprit, and at the very time the rest of Europe began to sing in English.
Should you desire to set your heart on fire and make your pulse get higher, you can enjoy all 18 songs on my Fire/Desire YouTube playlist or the 14 of them that are available on Spotify.
One of the challenges when it comes to tracking down missing people for Six on Stage is knowing who’s missing. Are there four people listed against a song because two are unidentified for were there really just four people on stage?
Today I’ve added a new feature to highlight where I know there are people whose names are as yet uncovered. Thanks to recent Eurovision Again re-watches of the 1997 Contest and the 2007 Grand Final, the first pages to benefit are 1997 and 2007. I’ve also added this feature to the 1957 Contest but you wouldn’t be able to tell as there is no-one missing!
This data relies on literally counting the number of people on stage, so it will be tricky to produce for the more recent Eurovisions now that backing singers can be in the wings. But for most years, I’ll gradually be able to signpost who still needs tracking down – and if you know who one of these mysterious people is, please let me know!
Speaking of gradual work, I’m continuing to manually check all of the data on the site. I’m mostly working alphabetically and am currently on the letter M, with around 1,500 people still to go…
For understandable reasons, the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest has been cancelled. That’s sad and disappointing for fans but all the more so for the artists, writers and delegations who’ve been working hard towards it.
With the acts and songs all announced, I’d loaded all the artist information into Six on Stage already. So how to handle the unprecedented situation of a Eurovision Song Contest that’s no longer happening?
There are two changes to the site to reflect this. The first is that all the 2020 data will stay but it will be marked out on the relevant pages to clarify that the Contest didn’t happen. That’s only fair on the people who got this far and remains a useful reference source.
The second is that all the statistics shown on the site now only go up to 2019 and in future will only reflect the Contest once it’s broadcast. This also allows for last-minute changes to announced personnel (backing dancers have been known to retire injured!) while still enabling information for the upcoming year to be included and displayed.
Six on Stage has been updated with information on conductors from the start of the Eurovision Song Contest up to the final appearance of the live orchestra in 1998. To mark the occasion, here’s a look at some of the conductors who were also performers.
Mike Sergeant
Portugal-based British conductor Mike Sergeant made his first appearance at the Contest in 1978, representing Portugal in the group Gemini. He returned in 1983 to conduct their entry and, a whole 15 years later, was Portugal’s final conductor.
Among his other contributions, he arranged José Cid‘s 1980 entry Um Grande, Grande Amor.
Peter Reber
Peter Reber is one of the few artists to hold the joint record, alongside the likes of Lys Assia and Valentina Monetta, for the most songs performed in total. On top of those four participations for Switzerland as one-third of Peter, Sue and Marc, he also conducted Switzerland’s nostalgic 1980 entry Cinéma.
Rutger Gunnarsson
Bassist Ruger Gunnarsson was a regular collaborator with ABBA, playing on their albums and touring with them. His first appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest was in 1974 on stage for Waterloo – what a start! – and he returned for Sweden six years later to support Tomas Ledin.
It was apparently Benny Andersson who suggested Gunnarsson put himself forward to conduct for Alla Pugacheva in 1997. He took the advice and ended up waving the baton for Russia in Dublin.
Arne Bendiksen
Arne Bendikson represented Norway in 1964 with the song Spiral. In 1971, he returned to conduct the orchestra for Hanne Krogh, 14 years before she would return for her victory with Bobbysocks.
He also founded and gave his name to the Bendik Singers, who sang his composition for Norway in 1973.
Tarmo Leinatamm
Conducting in both 1996 and 1997 for Estonia, Tarmo Leinatamm returned 10 years after conductors disappeared as part of the trio Kreisiraadio, who sang Leto Svet in 2008.
A few years later, Leinatamm was elected to the Estonian Parliament.
Rolf Løvland
Rolf Løvland has won Eurovision not once but twice: as writer and backing performer for Bobbysocks in 1985 and a decade later as a member of Secret Garden and writer of Nocturne.
In between the two, he conducted the orchestra twice, for Merethe Trøan in 1992 and Silje Vige in 1993.
Stefan Raab
Comedian, composer and TV presenter Stefan Raab has managed to tick every box at Eurovision: lead artist, backing performer, songwriter, conductor and, following Lena’s victory for Germany, host.
Despite there being nothing to conduct, he took the conductor’s role in 1998 during the song he’d written for Guildo Horn. In 2000, he sang his far more serious composition Wadde Hadde Dudde Da? and returned in 2004 to provide backing on Can’t Wait Until Tonight, having hosted the talent show that chose singer Max – and having once again written the song.
Martyn Ford
Our final two on this list are in a special category: peripatetic conductors who appeared on stage during the same song.
Four years after he had conducted for Cyprus and Anna Vissi, Briton Martyn Ford travelled to Oslo to conduct for Elpida. He notably left his spot during the song to join the performers in encouraging the audience to clap along – before returning to the orchestra finish the job.
Henrik Krogsgård
Seven-time Danish conductor Henrik Krogsgård went one better in 1989. He joined the performers on stage mid-song and never went back, his role taken over by the show’s musical director Benoît Kaufman. In this respect Krogsgård was arguably more of a semi-conductor!
