Welcome to 1974, another year hosted in the UK - Brighton to be specific. This year is mainly known because ABBA competed, but I think that’s unfair because there were other songs too, yet everyone forgets about those. For example, Greece debuted this year, which would’ve brought the number of participants back to 18 if France didn’t withdraw at the last minute because of the death of their president.
And it’s back to Luxembourg for the second-to-last time. Malta decided to withdraw as they couldn’t afford to participate and Austria decided to skip out just cause. Luckily, we were joined by Israel, which left us with just 17 countries and a rather inelegant jury voting sequence. Countries were also allowed to sing in any language, which a lot of them put to use immediately.
Woooo, Edinburg. Since Monaco couldn’t host Eurovision (and they tried to), the BBC hosted it on their behalf (as they usually did back then). No changes in the makeup from the previous year, same 18 countries are taking part.
Welcome to Dublin for the first of many times. We’re rejoined by the countries who sat out 1970 (sans Denmark) and the tiny Malta, who are still yet to win. The voting system was also redone to please everyone (or at least displease the smallest number of people).
As Spain and the UK hosted in 1969 and 1968 respectively, a draw was held between France and the Netherlands to decide who’d host. In the end, the Netherlands won the draw, which is why we’re in Amsterdam this year, missing our nordic friends and Portugal.
Welcome to Madrid for the only time Spain actually hosted Eurovision (despite having taken part every years since their debut). Austria decided to skip out on this year as a protest against Franco’s regime, but everyone else stayed here.
Welcome to London. Again. For the third time. But now we’re here because the UK actually won! We’re joined by the same countries as before and hosted by Katie Boyle.
And we’re in Vienna this time, for the first out of (so far) two times. Denmark is out until the head of DR retires, but everyone else is still in (for now). This time, we’re in a palace that belonged to the Habsburg dynasty.
Welcome back to Luxembourg. We’ll be back several more times. No changes in the lineup this time, which is nice, there’s no need to introduce any newcomers.
There was a big change in the rules though - all countries were forbidden from singing in non-official languages, changing the direction of most of the 20th century forever.
We’re visiting Italy for the first out of (so far) three times. We’re joined by Sweden, who are back after skipping last year (and will do the same two more times) and Ireland (who will only sit out one contest in the future).