INFE Tribute : EuroStars as hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest

Many acts have became host of the Eurovision Song Contest in its 63 years of history. Celebrities, dancers, producers and singers delivered hosting the worlds biggest music contest in front of the audience leaving various impressions.  Experienced presenters, communicative artists, faces that shine on screen are some of the hosts’ outstanding features.

Apart from these factors characterizing the hosts in Eurovision history, another significant trivia detail is that many of them had participated in the past as Eurovision representatives of their countries before hosting or even after the event. Most of those hosts were winners or had achieved a high placing in the competition.

In the first years of the contest the hosting was assingned to already known presenters who might had some kind of relation with the music scene but were not singers themselves.

–1976: The first female host of the contest that was a singer and a Eurostar  was Corry Brokken, from The Netherlands. The Dutch artist came 2nd in Eurovision 1957 with her entry Net als toen and had participated in the first edition of the contest with her song Voorgoed voorbij.

–1979: This year the hosting of the event in Israel was assigned to Daniel Pe’er and Yardena Arazi. The second host was member of the female group  Chocolate, Menta, Mastik  who had represented Israel in 1976 with the song Emor Shalom achieving a 6th placing.

(Trivia: In 1978 it was the first time that the contest was presented by a duo , Denise Fabre και Leon Zitrone).

–1985: Hostess was the popular in her country Swedish artist Lill Lindfors. In 1966 she flew the flag for Sweden alongside with  Svante Thuresson and their song Nygammal Vals conquering the 2nd place in the competition.

–1986: Next year another eurostar returns on the Eurovision stage this time to host the event. Namely we’re talking about Ase Kleveland who has represented in 1966 Norway with her song Intet er nytt under solen achieving a honorable 3rd placing.

–1991: In this edition we meet for the first time two past Eurovision particpants appear as hosts on the stage , both of them past winners. Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno presented the show in Rome. The first one brought Italy’s first vicotry back in  1964 with her song Non ho l’eta but also participated in 1974, when her entry Si came 2nd behind the legendary group of ABBA. Τoto was the winner of the year before topping the scoreboard with his song Insieme: 1992.

–1999: For the first time in Eurovision hostory the contest has three hosts , all famous in their country. Dafna Dekel, Yigal Ravid and Shigal Shachmon. From these three hosts,  Dafna was the Israeli Eurovison 1992 representative with her entry Zeh raq sport which finished 6th on the fina scoreboard.

–2003: Two more past eurostars take over to host the Eurovision event as we fly over to Riga, Latvia. The first one is Marie N who was crowned winner just the previous year with her song  I Wanna , while the second Renars Kaupers has represented Latvia in  2000 as member of the group Brainstorm and their song My Star. The Latvian group had achieved a honorable 3rd placing.

–2006: Hosts of this year’s event were the Greek origin journalist Maria Menounos and shinning star singer Sakis Rouvas. Sakis and Zeliko that we meet in a following year are the only ones that became host between their two ESC  participations. Sakis came 3rd in 2004 with his entry  Shake it and 7th with his song This Is Our Night in 2009.

–2008:  Zeliko Joksimovic alongside with well known Serbian female presenter Jovana Janković were the Eurovision hsot in Belgrade. The popular Serbian artist achieved two high scores the two times he participated, as he came 2nd in 2004 with his Balkan ballad Lane Moje representing Serbia and Montenegro and 3rd in 2012 with Nije Ljubav Stvar representing Serbia.

–2009: In Moscow something totally different took place, as the hosts of the two semi finals were others than the ones of the Grand Final. The Final was presented by  Ivan Urgant and Alsou Abramova. The last one represented Russia in 2000 succeeding a 2nd placing with her song Solo.

–2012: We fly to the Land of Fire we saw a trio of hosts in Baku. Leyla Aliyeva, Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen presented to the audience the contest. Of course Eldar who we know as Ell, was the country’s representative the previous year winning the contest alongside with  Nikki and their song Running Scared.

-2016: Last but not least is the last Swedish winner in Eurovision , Mans Zelmerlow. The Swedish acts brought the 6th vicotry to Sweden the previous year in Vienna with his song Heroes . Follwing this success he was honored to host the contest in soil ground alongsinde popular female presenter  ans actress Petra Mende. The chemistry between them on stage was more than obvious and the theatrical acts were outstanding and hilarious.

Which of the these hosts was your favorite one? Which year’s hosting did you find outstanding? Stay tuned on the INFE Network for more special tributes on our favorite song contest.