Euro-Vision
"Euro-Vision" was the Belgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980, performed in French by Telex.
The song was performed nineteenth on the night, following Spain's Trigo Limpio with "Quédate esta noche". At the close of voting, it had received 14 points, placing 17th in a field of 19. The band were moderately pleased with the outcome of the Contest, but for a somewhat unusual reason. At the time lead singer Michel Moers was quoted as saying: "We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise. We got ten points from them and finished on the 19th [sic] spot". In hindsight their participation in the Contest however seems to have served its marketing purposes; some thirty years on "Euro-Vision" still remains one of the band's best-known songs, both in Belgium and internationally.
The song was the first entry ever to mention the Contest by name as part of what is generally agreed to have been a send-up of the whole event (previous entries such as Schmetterlinge's "Boom Boom Boomerang" had parodied the Contest without actually naming it). Further, in contrast to the generally upbeat and lively entries submitted from other entrants, Telex performed from behind synthesisers and in a robotic - somewhat Kraftwerk-esque - manner.
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la chanson), often shortened to ESC or Eurovision, is the longest-running annual TV song competition, held, primarily, among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956. The competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy.
Each participating country submits an original 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 for sixty years, 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 several countries that do not compete, such as the USA and China. An exception was made in 2015, when Australia was allowed to compete as a guest entrant as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the event. In November 2015, the EBU announced that Australia would return in 2016. Since 2000, the contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, via the Eurovision website.
