Euro Vision Song Contest
That has gone wrong in recent years
ESC winner Loreen choked on an artificial snowflake in 2012.
© imago/ITAR-TASS
The Eurovision Song Contest is considered the largest live music competition. There are sometimes glitches. A look back at the last few years.
The countdown to the final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest at the PalaOlimpico in Turin is on. On Saturday evening (May 14), artists from 25 countries will compete in the major music competition. It is already the 66th edition of the event, which took place for the first time in 1956. And not always smoothly: In recent years there have been numerous breakdowns that are worth looking back on.
speedster alert
British singer SuRie (33) represented her country at ESC 2018 in Lisbon. During the performance in the finale, a man stormed onto the stage and snatched the microphone from her, among other things to warn against “Nazis”. While the singer was waiting for a new microphone, security forces were able to arrest the man and SuRie continued to sing. In the end it was only enough for 24th place.
The Spaniard Daniel Diges (41), on the other hand, had a very prominent visitor on stage when he appeared in Oslo in 2010: Speedster King Jimmy Jump (46). He has been making major events unsafe for years, for example as a speedster at the 2008 European Football Championship. At the ESC in Oslo, he mingled with the dance group at Diges’ performance. He was subsequently arrested and temporarily detained.
Also no stranger is the speedster Vitalii Sediuk (33), who came on stage in Kyiv in 2017 during the performance of last year’s winner Jamala (38) and dropped his pants. Sediuk has made a name for himself as a celebrity fright in the past. His victims included Leonardo DiCaprio (47), Brad Pitt (58), Kim Kardashian (41) and Gigi Hadid (27).
Technical breakdowns and dangerous artificial snowflakes
Technical glitches are also not uncommon at the Eurovision Song Contest – although many things follow the same pattern year after year. For example, the presentation of the participants: first the national flag is displayed, then a spot runs with the performer and sights of the host country. The details of the post follow. The ESC editorial team made an embarrassing mistake in 2018: the Greek singer Yianna Terzi (42) made the singer “Yianni”.
At the start of the 2009 competition, last year’s winner Dima Bilan (40) from Russia performed his song “Believe” again. He floated onto the stage on steel cables above the heads of the audience. Once there, he took off his jacket and threw it away. Only this landed in the ropes on which he was still hanging. Every attempt to remove the jacket failed. It was only with the help of his background dancers that Bilan was finally able to get rid of the jacket.
Koit Toome & Laura from Estonia also had problems with the technology in the 2017 semifinals: the singer’s microphone was not switched on for the first few seconds. The Swedish singer Loreen (38) showed five years earlier in Baku that breakdowns do not necessarily mean a bad placement: she choked on an artificial snowflake during the jury performance, which forced her to cough briefly. Nevertheless, she won the contest at the 2012 final with her song “Euphoria”.
Even before this year’s Eurovision Song Contest 2022 could take place, this caused problems. Depending on how it was rotated, the elaborately assembled arc construct should have thrown bright light into the audience or formed an LED screen. However, due to the lack of powerful engines, nothing came of it. Numerous performers are forced to reschedule at the last second.
Problems with scoring
There were also occasional mistakes during the voting. At the ESC 2019 in Tel Aviv, the German contribution by the S!Sters duo initially came in third from last. A little later it became known: There was a glitch in the counting, the points of the Belarusian jury were accidentally counted after they had actually been disqualified. The duo from Germany had to be satisfied with the penultimate place.
Germany’s ESC star Lena Meyer-Landrut (30) confused Norway and Denmark when the points were announced in 2013 – which of course was embarrassing for her: “I’m so sorry, oh my God,” she apologized. She was “so nervous”.
The Lithuanian points presenter was much more problematic the following year: he got carried away, when announcing his ten points for “Rise Like A Phoenix” with a razor, he let the winner Conchita Wurst (33) point out that it was “time to shave”.
When the Swedish points were awarded in 2021, it was not Carola Häggkvist (55) who caused amusement, but a hand that suddenly jutted into the picture. Apparently, the 1991 winner wasn’t wired correctly, which is why a team member rushed to help her in front of the camera. The incident elicited a hearty laugh from the moderator duo.
Text blunders live on stage
There was also a small curiosity in 2012, when various ESC winners sang a medley of ESC hits. In addition to Lena Meyer-Landrut, Alexander Rybak (35), Dima Bilan and Marija Šerifovic (37), last year’s winners Ell & Nikki were also on stage. During the ABBA hit “Waterloo” Nikki (41) suddenly forgot the lyrics. But Ell (32) noticed the faux pas immediately, looked for eye contact and helped Nikki back on track.