List of Eurovision Song Contest winners


67 songs written by 124 songwriters have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. The contest's winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history; centre to these have been the awarding of points to countries by juries or televoters. The country awarded the most points is declared the winner. The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes, and only the winner was announced.
There have been 64 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four. Twenty-seven countries have won the contest. Switzerland won the first contest in 1956. The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven. The only person to have won more than once as performer is Ireland's Johnny Logan, who performed "What's Another Year" in 1980 and "Hold Me Now" in 1987. Logan is also one of only five songwriters to have written more than one winning entry. This unique distinction makes Logan the only person to have three Eurovision victories to his/her credit, as either singer, songwriter or both. The other four songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are, Willy van Hemert, Yves Dessca, Rolf Løvland and Brendan Graham.
Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a unique opportunity for the winning artist to capitalise on their success and surrounding publicity by launching or furthering their international career during their singing years. However, throughout the history of the contest, relatively few of these artists have gone on to be huge international stars. The most notable winning Eurovision artists whose career was directly launched into the spotlight following their win were the members of ABBA, who won the 1974 contest for Sweden with their song "Waterloo". ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of its time. Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was Céline Dion, who won the 1988 contest for Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi".
Since 2008, the winner has been awarded an official winner's trophy of the Eurovision Song Contest. The trophy is a handmade piece of sandblasted glass in the shape of a 1950s microphone. The song writers and composers of the winning entry receive smaller versions of the trophy. The original design was created by Kjell Engman of Kosta Boda, who specialises in glass art.

Winners

By year

Performers and songwriters with multiple wins

The following individuals have won the Eurovision Song Contest as a performer or songwriter more than once. Bold indicates a win as a performer. Italics indicates a win as a songwriter.
WinsNameYears
3Johnny Logan', '', '
2Willy van Hemert', '
2Yves Dessca', '
2Rolf Løvland', '
2Brendan Graham', '

Observations

Eleven Eurovision winners featured at the Congratulations concert in 2005, in which ABBA's "Waterloo" was voted the most popular song of the contest's first fifty years.
Ireland has finished first seven times, more than any other country, Ireland also won the contest for three consecutive years, more consecutive years than any other country. Three countries have won twice in a row, Spain, Luxembourg and Israel. Serbia is the only country to win with its debut entry, though Serbia had competed previously as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. The country achieving the highest position on its first appearance in any form in the Contest is Poland, which came second in 1994. Under the voting system used between 1975 and 2015, the winner of the contest was decided by the final voting nation on eleven occasions.
Changes to the voting system, including a steady growth in the number of countries participating and voting, means that the points earned are not comparable across the decades. Portugal's Salvador Sobral holds the record of the highest number of points in the contest's history, earning 758 with the song "Amar pelos dois". Norway's Alexander Rybak holds the largest margin of victory in absolute points, a 169-point cushion over second place in 2009. Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti holds the record for largest victory by percentage, scoring almost three times as many as second place in the 1964 contest. Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, the lowest winning score was Norway's Bobbysocks! 123 points earned when winning Eurovision 1985, while the lowest winning total ever is the 18 points scored by each of the four winning countries in 1969.
Under the voting system used from 1975 until 2015, in which each country gives maximum points to its first place choice, Sweden's Loreen won Eurovision 2012 with the most ever first place votes earned, receiving first place votes from 18 of 41 countries. The 1976 United Kingdom entrant, Brotherhood of Man with the song "Save Your Kisses For Me" holds the record of the highest average score per participating country, with an average of 9.65 points received per country. 2011 winner Azerbaijan Ell & Nikki, hold the lowest average score for a winning song under that system, receiving 5.14 points per country.
In 2016, Jamala's "1944" became the first winning entry since the jury vote was added alongside the televote starting in 2009 to place first in neither area, coming second in the jury vote behind Australia and second in the televote behind Russia. Duncan Laurence's "Arcade," became the second such winner in the 2019 contest, having placed third behind North Macedonia and Sweden in the jury vote, and second behind Norway in the televote.
The United Kingdom has finished second fifteen times at Eurovision, more than any other country. The most successful country never to have won the Contest is Malta, having finished second in 2002 and 2005 and third in 1992 and 1998. Another island nation Iceland has also finished second twice, in 1999 and 2009.
There is no official runner-up for two of the contests – 1956 and 1969. In 1956 only the winner, Switzerland, was announced, whilst there were speculative reports that Germany ended up in second place with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" by Walter Andreas Schwarz, given that Germany was chosen to host the 1957 contest. In 1969 four songs shared first place by achieving the same number of points; fifth place was achieved by Switzerland, which is not considered an official runner-up, because of the draw for first place.

Winners by country

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WinsCountryYears
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The year 1969 is in italics to indicate a joint win

Ranking

;Table key
RankCountryWinnerRunner-upThird placeNext best placement
17414th
26164th
351534th
45474th
55114th
65024th
74214th
83134th
93114th
102454th
112414th
122354th
132334th
142214th
152014th
161445th
171204th
181134th
191114th
201114th
211035th
221014th
231015th
241016th
251004th
261006th
271006th
280225th
290204th
300104th
310105th
320105th
330107th
340107th
350024th
360016th
370016th
380004th
390004th
400004th
410005th
420006th
430006th
440006th
450007th
460007th
470009th
4800013th
4900018th
5000018th
5100019th
5200012th

By language

Between 1966 and 1973, and again between 1977 and 1998, countries were only permitted to perform in their own language; see the main Eurovision Song Contest article.
WinsLanguageYearsCountries
33English1967, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Russia, Norway, Germany, Azerbaijan, Austria, Israel
14French1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1986, 1988Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Belgium
4Hebrew1978, 1979, 1998, 2018Israel
3Dutch1957, 1959, 1969Netherlands
2Italian1964, 1990Italy
2German1966, 1982Austria, Germany
2Spanish1968, 1969Spain
2Swedish1984, 1991Sweden
2Norwegian1985, 1995Norway
1Danish1963Denmark
1Croatian1989Yugoslavia
1Ukrainian2004Ukraine
1Serbian2007Serbia
1Crimean Tatar2016Ukraine
1Portuguese2017Portugal

Gallery

Performers

Songwriters

Deceased winning performers