EurovisionAgain explained

Creator:Rob Holley
Presenter:Various presenters
Country:List of countries
Language:English and French
Num Seasons:2
Num Episodes:28
List Episodes:
  1. Rebroadcast_contests
Location:Various host cities
Runtime:Variable
Company:European Broadcasting Union
Network:YouTube

EurovisionAgain, usually stylized as #EurovisionAgain, was an initiative that ran from 21 March 2020 to 20 November 2021 to re-broadcast previous finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on YouTube. Originally conceived by journalist Rob Holley, it eventually became a collaborative effort between Eurovision fans, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its member broadcasters.

History

Upon hearing about the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, journalist Rob Holley launched an initiative to watch a past contest on YouTube every week as a replacement, eventually giving it the title EurovisionAgain.[1] The initiative quickly became popular, so the EBU itself decided to partake. Every Saturday (which was shifted to the third Saturday of every month starting from 18 July 2020) at 21:00 CEST, the Eurovision YouTube channel would re-broadcast a final of a previous contest, revealed by the EurovisionAgain team 15 minutes before the start.[2] Contests prior to 2004 were available for a limited time.

The initiative was generally received as a welcome distraction for Eurovision fans during the COVID-19 lockdowns. On Twitter, #EurovisionAgain regularly became a trending topic and received positive reactions from past participants.[3] As part of the initiative, Holley collected over £24,700 for UK-based LGBTQ+ charities.[4] The 2020 season ended with a special edition, where the 26 most popular songs that did not qualify for the final, one from each country, as chosen via the official Eurovision social media handles, were streamed and put to a fan-vote. Iceland's 2016 entry, "Hear Them Calling" by Greta Salóme, won the fan-vote.[5]

On 19 June 2021, the second year of broadcasts commenced with a replay of the, the oldest edition to be featured as part of the initiative, and concluded on 20 November with a replay of the .[6] [7] Unlike the contents shown in 2020, the pre-2004 broadcasts were made available for a full month rather than one week. This season also included a special broadcast of the high-definition test tapes from the .[8]

In August 2021, the EBU stated that it was planning to broadcast "as many finals as we can over the next few years" through the initiative.[9] Despite this, there were no further updates on whether the initiative would return after 2021, and in August 2022, the EurovisionAgain Twitter account changed its biography line to "#EurovisionAgain - ran sync viewings of classic Eurovision Song Contests during the 2020/21 lockdowns", implying that the initiative had been concluded.[10]

Availability

The initiative was well received by fans as it had made it possible for viewers to experience older Eurovision finals, and also allowed fans access to higher quality copies of older finals than what was previously available.[11] Due to copyright agreements, the EBU only has ownership of contests aired since 2004, with individual host broadcasters owning the rights to those before that.[12] A large majority of the existing finals, especially those in the former half of the contest's history, had previously only been available as video tape recordings, often with generational loss, especially those from the 1950s and 60s.[13]

Format

Each replayed final is broadcast as a premiere on the Eurovision Song Contest's official YouTube channel, with fans encouraged to vote for their favorites during the interval. Once the broadcast ends, the final remains on YouTube for one month, and the fan vote results are announced via Twitter. The selection of each broadcast is kept secret until 15 minutes before the start of the broadcast, with various hints and clues being posted on the EurovisionAgain Twitter account in the days and hours prior. For most of the final replays, a previous winner, participant, presenter or producer of the chosen year pre-records an introduction to be uploaded along with the reveal of which year is being broadcast. For the 2021 season, the broadcasts also included fan-made modern re-imaginings of the 20th-century contests' scoreboards, using 3D animation in the graphical style of the original scoreboards.

Rebroadcast contests

Twenty-six of the previous contest finals were broadcast as part of EurovisionAgain, with two additional special broadcasts.

SeasonDateYear re-broadcastHost cityFan-vote winnerOriginal result

(weekly)
21 March 2020 Malmöcolspan="2"
28 March 2020 Athens "Invincible"5th out of 24
4 April 2020 Moscow "Fairytale"Winner (out of 25)
11 April 2020 Vienna "Heroes"Winner (out of 27)
18 April 2020 Dublin "Love Shine a Light"Winner (out of 25)
26 April 2020 Helsinki "Dancing Lasha Tumbai"Runner-up (out of 24)
2 May 2020 Stockholm "Sound of Silence"Runner-up (out of 26)
9 May 2020 Birmingham "Diva"Winner (out of 25)
17 May 2020 Brighton "Waterloo"Winner (out of 18)
23 May 2020 Riga "Everyway That I Can"Winner (out of 26)
30 May 2020 Rome "Fångad av en stormvind"Winner (out of 22)
6 June 2020 Lisbon "Fuego"Runner-up (out of 26)
13 June 2020 Dublin "Ne partez pas sans moi" Winner (out of 21)
20 June 2020 Belgrade "Shady Lady"Runner-up (out of 25)
27 June 2020 Copenhagen "Rise Like a Phoenix"Winner (out of 26)

(monthly)
18 July 2020 Jerusalem "Take Me to Your Heaven"Winner (out of 23)
15 August 2020 Gothenburg "La det swinge"Winner (out of 19)
19 September 2020 Kyiv "My Number One"Winner (out of 24)
17 October 2020 The Hague "Save Your Kisses for Me" Winner (out of 18)
21 November 2020 Zagreb "Hajde da ludujemo"7th out of 22
19 December 2020Semi-final (non-qualifiers) special "Hear Them Calling"14th
19 June 2021 Madrid "Vivo cantando"Winner (tied; out of 16)
17 July 2021 The Hague "What's Another Year"Winner (out of 19)
31 July 20212006 (HD re-broadcast) Athenscolspan="2"
21 August 2021 Malmö "Rapsodia"4th out of 23
18 September 2021 London "La, la, la"Winner (out of 17)
16 October 2021 Baku "Euphoria"Winner (out of 26)
20 November 2021 Istanbul "Wild Dances"Winner (out of 24)

Notes and References

  1. Web site:
    1. EurovisionAgain Could Be The Cure For Your Lockdown Boredom
    . Welsh. Daniel. 28 March 2020. Huffington Post. 17 April 2020. 8 February 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210208201054/https://consent.yahoo.com/v2/collectConsent?sessionId=2_cc-session_a181f5fb-a1ff-48d1-95aa-d9090904d794. live.
  2. Web site: Fans gather behind #EurovisionAgain. 2020-04-04. Eurovision.tv. EBU. 2020-04-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20200426135051/https://eurovision.tv/story/fans-gather-behind-eurovision-again. 26 April 2020. live.
  3. News: Rosney. Daniel. How Eurovision fans are still together every Saturday. 2020-04-25. BBC News. 2020-04-26. en-GB. https://web.archive.org/web/20200426092457/https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52381023. 26 April 2020. live.
  4. EurovisionAgain. 1277528730425069568. 2020-06-29. Our final #EurovisionAgain fundraiser total is... £24,700. This is INCREDIBLE. You are the BEST... what a wild 3 months it's been. The money is split between @Mermaids_Gender @THTorguk and @stonewalluk #Pride2020. 2020-10-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20200629091345/https://twitter.com/eurovisionagain/status/1277528730425069568. 2020-06-29. live.
  5. Web site: Hear Them Calling wins Eurovision Again Semi Final Special. Eurovision.tv. EBU. 18 December 2020. 20 December 2020.
  6. Web site: 2021-06-12 . #EurovisionAgain returns Saturday 19 June . 2022-08-20 . eurovision.tv . en.
  7. Web site: 2021-11-15 . Final #EurovisionAgain this Saturday 20 November . 2022-08-20 . eurovision.tv . en.
  8. Web site: 2021-07-28. Athens 2006 HD Cut: test tapes found and to be broadcast for first time. 2021-09-05. Eurovision.tv. EBU. en-gb.
  9. Web site: 2021-08-16.
    1. EurovisionAgain returns this Saturday 21 August
    . 2021-09-05. Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union (EBU). en-gb.
  10. Web site: #EurovisionAgain (@EurovisionAgain) / Twitter . 2022-08-20 . Twitter . en .
    1. EurovisionAgain - ran sync viewings of classic Eurovision Song Contests during the 2020/21 lockdowns
    .
  11. Web site: 27 June 2020. How Eurovision Again came to your screens. 3 July 2020. Eurovision.tv. EBU.
  12. Web site: 12 January 2017. Eurovision Song Contest: Broadcasting Rights. 5 July 2020. Eurovision.tv. EBU.
  13. Web site: 2021-08-16 . #EurovisionAgain returns this Saturday 21 August . 2021-09-05 . Eurovision.tv . European Broadcasting Union (EBU) . en-gb.