Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among many of the active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela despite the fact that that they do not compete. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online. Artists whose international careers were directly launched into the spotlight following their participation and victory at Eurovision include Domenico Modugno who won third place with song Nel blu dipinto di blu in 1958, ABBA, who won the contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song Waterloo, and Celine Dion, who won the contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song Ne partez pas sans moi.