Eurovision Song Contest’s Greatest Hits (also known asEurovision’s Greatest Hits) is a pre-recorded concert programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU-UER) and produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest’s 60th anniversary. Several countries confirmed that they would air the delayed broadcast of the concert on various dates that suited the broadcasters scheduling, including Australia, who competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as a wildcard entry. The host broadcaster, BBC, and Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), aired the show on Good Friday, 3 April 2015. The Dutch broadcaster,AVROTROS, were the first to announce their decision to not broadcast the event. Other countries also announced their decision to decline broadcasting the event, including Luxembourg, who had an act taking part in the event.

The anniversary concert took place on 31 March 2015 at the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith, London. Graham Norton andPetra Mede hosted the event, which saw fifteen acts from thirteen countries performing their Eurovision entries from yesteryear. Guy Freeman was the Executive Producer and Simon Proctor was the Senior Producer. Geoff Posner was the director and David Archwas the musical director for the concert. Tickets for the event went on sale on 6 February 2015.

Partecipanti

Format: 

Organisation: It was announced on 22 October 2014, that the EBU had agreed with the United Kingdom’s broadcaster, BBC, to produce a special anniversary show to celebrate sixty-years of the Eurovision Song Contest; similar to the show Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place in 2005. At that time, the details regarding the title of the show were unknown. The EBU later issued the following statement regarding the 60th anniversary: “There are various exciting proposals from Member Broadcasters on the table to celebrate the 60th anniversary beyond the contest in May, which are currently in the final stages of being evaluated. A decision is expected shortly, so stay tuned!”. Executive Producer of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, Edgar Böhm, said in an interview that the BBC had been chosen to host a special anniversary show. Guy Freeman was appointed as Executive Producer for the event, assisted by Senior Producer Simon Proctor and Producer Helen Riddell, whilst the director will be Geoff Posner.

Presenters: Graham Norton and Petra Mede, hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest’s Greatest Hits. On 3 February 2015 it was announced that Graham Norton and Petra Mede would co-host the concert show. Norton, co-hosted theEurovision Dance Contest with Claudia Winkleman in 2007 and 2008, and is also the current Eurovision commentator for the United Kingdom. Mede was the host for Melodifestivalen 2009 (Swedish national selection show), as well as host for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

Tickets: Tickets for the anniversary concert went on sale from 10:15am (GMT) on Friday 6 February 2015 via the BBC’s Eurovision website and the official Eurovision Song Contest’s website.

The show: The concert was recorded live on 31 March 2015, at the Eventim Apollo, London; allowing participating broadcastersthe freedom to air the programme on a date and channel that was convenient for their broadcasting schedules. Fifteen artists, representing thirteen countries, consisting of some of Eurovision’s greatest hits, took part in the sixtieth anniversary gala event. The first-ever winner of the Contest (in 1956), Lys Assia, appeared in the audience as a guest of honour. During the broadcast, video montages were shown prior to each entry, showing footage for that particular year’s contest, ending with Eurovision Song Contest footage for the entry that was about to perform on stage. Recap montages of Eurovision entries over the last sixty years, were also broadcast in-between performances. These were as follows:

1. Teach-In – “Ding-a-dong”: Netherlands, 1975
2. Olivia Newton-John – “Long Live Love”: United Kingdom, 1974
3. Céline Dion – “Ne partez pas sans moi”:Switzerland, 1988
4. Jedward – “Lipstick”: Ireland, 2011
5. ABBA – “Waterloo”: Sweden, 1974
6. Serebro – “Song #1”: Russia, 2007
7. Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta – “A-Ba-Ni-Bi”: Israel,1978
8. Kathy Kirby – “I Belong”: United Kingdom, 1965
9. Bucks Fizz – “Making Your Mind Up”: United Kingdom, 1981
10. Sonia – “Better the Devil You Know”: United Kingdom, 1993
11. Imaani – “Where Are You?”: United Kingdom, 1998
12. Lynsey de Paul & Mike Moran – “Rock Bottom”: United Kingdom, 1977
13. Michael Ball – “One Step Out of Time”: United Kingdom, 1992
14. Cliff Richard – “Congratulations”: United Kingdom,1968
15. Sandie Shaw – “Puppet on a String”: United Kingdom, 1967
16. Dana – “All Kinds of Everything”: Ireland, 1970

In the concert, the United Kingdom’s entrant for 2015, Electro Velvet, performed a live version of their entry for the main contest in the same year, “Still in Love with You”.

Interval act: It was confirmed on 22 March 2015 that the interval act for Eurovision Song Contest’s Greatest Hits would beRiverdance. The theatrical show consisting mainly of traditional Irish music and dance, and featured Irish dancing champions Jean Butler and Michael Flatley, with a score composed by Limerick native Bill Whelan, originated as an interval performance during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994.

Participating countries: Fifteen Eurovision acts from thirteen countries participated in the anniversary concert. Although there were originally fourteen acts confirmed by the BBC, it was later announced on 5 March 2015 that Norway’s Bobbysockswould join the line-up increasing the total to fifteen. Video montages were shown prior to each entry, showing footage for that particular year’s contest, ending with Eurovision Song Contest footage for the entry that was about to perform on stage.

Draw	Year	Country	Language	Artist	Song	English translation
01	2013	Denmark	English	Emmelie de Forest	“Only Teardrops”	—
02	1973	Luxembourg	French, English	Anne-Marie David	“Tu te reconnaîtras”	You will recognise yourself
03	1984	Sweden	English, Swedish	Herreys	“Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley”	—
04	1998	Israel	Hebrew	Dana International	“Diva”	—
05	2000	Denmark	English	Olsen Brothers	“Fly on the Wings of Love”	—
06	1976	United Kingdom	English	Brotherhood of Man	“Save Your Kisses For Me”	—
07	1968	Spain1	Spanish	Rosa López	“La, la, la” 2	—
	1969				“Vivo cantando” 3	I live singing
	1973				“Eres tú” 4	It’s you
	2002		Spanish, English		“Europe’s Living a Celebration”	—
08	1982	Germany	English, Italian,German	Nicole	“Ein bißchen Frieden”	A little peace
09	2006	Finland	English	Lordi	“Hard Rock Hallelujah”	—
10	2001	France	French, English	Natasha St-Pier	“Je n’ai que mon âme”	All I have is my soul
11	2008	Russia1	English	Dima Bilan	“Believe”	—
	2006				“Never Let You Go	—
12	1985	Norway	Norwegian, English	Bobbysocks!	“La det swinge”	Let it swing
13	2012	Sweden	English	Loreen	“Euphoria”	—
14	1980	Ireland1	English	Johnny Logan	“What’s Another Year”	—
	1992				“Why Me?” 5	—
	1987				“Hold Me Now”	—
15	2014	Austria	English	Conchita Wurst	“Rise Like a Phoenix”	—
—	2015	United Kingdom	English	Electro Velvet	“Still in Love with You”6	—

• 1.^ Entries performed as a medley.
• 2.^ Winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1968, originally performed by Massiel.
• 3.^ One of the winning songs of the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 (along with France, Netherlands, and United Kingdom), and originally performed by Salomé.
• 4.^ Originally performed by Mocedades, finishing in 2nd place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973.
• 5.^ Johnny Logan wrote the song “Why Me?”, which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1992, originally performed by Linda Martin.
• 6.^ As a part of the concert, it did not appear in the television broadcast, but appeared at the end of BBC Radio 2’s radio live edition also presented by Graham Norton.

Reprise performance: A medley of some of the Eurovision Song Contest’s greatest hits were performed in English by all of the participating artists, as a reprise act at the close of the show, including: Anne-Marie David singing Israel’s winning entry of theEurovision Song Contest 1979, “Hallelujah”. Swedish trio, Herreys, sang “Nel blu dipinto di blu”, which finished in third place at the 1958 Eurovision for Italy’s Domenico Modugno. Bucks Fizz’s “Making Your Mind Up”, the winning entry forUnited Kingdom in 1981, was performed by Bobbysocks. The reprise concluded with all of the remaining performers (except Loreen) joining on stage to sing ABBA’s Eurovision Song Contest 1974 winning entry, “Waterloo”.

International broadcasting: As the anniversary concert show was not broadcast live, the participating national broadcasters were able to broadcast the show on a date and channel that was convenient for their broadcasting schedules.

Commentators: The following countries, listed in order of broadcasting dates, have confirmed that they will broadcast the anniversary show.

Date of broadcast	Country	Station	Commentators
3 April 2015	Ireland	RTÉ2	No commentary
	United Kingdom	BBC One
4 April 2015	Belgium Dutch-speaking region	Eén	Peter Van de Veire[22]
	Iceland	RÚV	No commentary
	Norway	NRK1
	Finland	Yle Fem	Sarah Dawn Finer and Christer Björkman
	Sweden	SVT1 and SVT World
5 April 2015	Albania	RTSH	No commentary
	Russia	C1R
	San Marino	SMRTV
11 April 2015	Finland	Yle TV2
	Israel	Channel 1
13 April 2015	Bulgaria	BNT1
19 April 2015		BNT2
25 April 2015	Latvia	LTV1	Aigars Rozenbergs
26 April 2015	Portugal	RTP1	Júlio Isidro
2 May 2015	Slovenia	TV SLO 1	No commentary
4 May 2015	United Kingdom	BBC Radio 2	Graham Norton
12 May 2015	Belgium French-speaking region	La Une	Jean-Louis Lahaye and Maureen Louys
16 May 2015
	Denmark	DR1	Ole Tøpholm
	Germany	NDR and MDR	Peter Urban
	Greece	NERIT1 and N HD	Greeksubtitles
	Romania	TVR1 and TVR HD	No commentary
17 May 2015	Austria	ORF eins	Andi Knoll
19 May 2015	Switzerland	SRF zwei (part 1)	No commentary
20 May 2015	France	France 2	Natasha St-Pier
21 May 2015	Switzerland	SRF zwei (part 2)	No commentary
21 May 2015	Australia	SBS One
22 May 2015	Estonia	ETV
	Germany	EinsFestival	Peter Urban
23 May 2015	Spain	La 1	José María Íñigo and Julia Varela
TBA	Serbia	RTS	–
Declined broadcasting	Armenia	ARMTV	Declined broadcasting
	Czech Republic	ČT
	Luxembourg	RTL
	Macedonia	MKRTV
	Netherlands	AVROTROS
	Ukraine	NTU

Broadcasting unknown: The following list of countries, who are members of the EBU-UER have not announced their plans on whether to broadcast the show: Algeria, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Jordan,  Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Poland, Slovakia,  Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City.