Eurovision first broadcast

Image: George Campey OBE in 1963 when he was Head of Publicity

Eurovision celebrated its 60th birthday in 2016. Drawing inspiration from the famous Sanremo Festival in Italy, the vision of a pan-European music competition was born at a meeting of the newly formed European Broadcasting Union in Monaco in early 1955. A year and half of planning led to the first contest the following Spring, which came live from Switzerland to tiny audiences watching in black and white.

The BBC had a massive technical input into the project, but missed the deadline to enter a song in year one.

Over the years the Corporation has laid claim a number of Eurovision 'firsts', and not just with the number of times the UK has won the contest (5 times). The BBC was first to produce the contest in colour in 1968 from The Albert Hall, it was the only broadcaster to stage the contest in a TV studio (BBC Television Centre, 1963), and was the only broadcaster to date to televise the contest whilst being in the grip of a strike (1977).

In this previously unseen interview with the aptly named George Campey, a former BBC publicist, he explains how the word 'Eurovision' came into existence – another BBC 'first' it seems.

In 2023, the Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by the BBC on behalf of Ukraine which could not host the event because of Russia's invasion.

On the night of the Grand Final 2023, 9.9 million viewers saw the show, the highest audience in the UK on current records.

The show saw a 5 minute peak of 11 million viewers for Mae Muller’s performance, the highest peak in over a decade for a UK showing of the contest since 2011.

BBC History commissioned Eurovision expert Gordon Roxburgh to share his unique insights into the contest.

Our archive image gallery includes pictures of the contest rarely seen before.