Thousands of Eurovision fans are currently in Basel, Switzerland, ahead of tonight’s Grand Final of the song contest.
Remember Monday, who will be representing the United Kingdom, will be hoping to capture the nation’s first title since 1997.
However, this year’s favourite is certainly proving to be Sweden’s Kaj, who sailed through the semi-finals with the coordinated dance number Bara Bada Bastu (Just Sauna).
Behind Kaj, JJ, of Austria, wowed audiences with his song Wasted Love in the second semi-final.
Graham Norton will be hosting this evening’s UK coverage of the competition live from Basel, with Scott Mills and Rylan Clark hosting on BBC Radio 2.
But, if Sweden were to win tonight, would that make them the country who has won Eurovision the most times? Here’s what you need to know…
Which country has won Eurovision the most times?
Sweden’s 2023 entry Loreen was the hot favourite going in, and she proved all the bookies right.
With her win, she became the second act (and first woman) to win Eurovision more than once, but what does her success mean for Sweden’s tally as a whole?
After Sweden’s 2023 victory, they are now tied as the country with the most Eurovision wins.
Both Sweden and Ireland have won the competition seven times.
Sweden’s wins started with ABBA in 1974, and include 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015 and now 2023.
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Although their fortunes on the Eurovision stage may have been more mixed of late, Ireland dominated the left hand side of the scoreboard from the 70s through to the 90s.
Their first win came in 1970 with Dana’s All Kinds Of Everything, then Johnny Logan snatched victory at the 1980 contest in The Hague with What’s Another Year.
Logan won again for Ireland in 1987 with Hold Me Now and is the only other person except Loreen to win the competition twice.
The Emerald Isle then scored no less than four victories in the 1990s.
They notched up three successive wins in 1992, 1993 and 1994, with Linda Martin’s ballad Why Me (which was written by Johnny Logan), In Your Eyes by Niamh Kavanagh and Paul Harris and Charlie McGettigan’s Rock n’Roll Kids.
They had a year’s respite from hosting after Norway’s Nocturne won in 1995, but promptly won it yet again the following year in Oslo, with Eimear Quinn’s The Voice surging to victory ahead of such competitors as the UK’s Gina G.
Their streak of wins even inspired the Father Ted episode A Song For Europe, in which the song My Lovely Horse is chosen to represent Ireland in the contest – which aired in April 1996, right before Ireland scored their seventh victory.
The following year’s contest, which took place in Dublin, saw the UK take top honours with Love Shine A Light, although Ireland came close to a fifth victory in the space of a decade, ending the contest in second place.
The 2023 hopefuls who aimed to bring glory back to Ireland were Wild Youth, who performed their track We Are One in the first semi-final on May 9, in their bid to return the Irish to the final for the first time since 2018.
Which other countries have won more than once?
Luxembourg – who have not taken part since 1993 – are next in the league table with five wins, while Netherlands and France have also taken the trophy five times.
And in spite of some recent Euro-flops the UK also has an impressive track record with five victories – winning the contest in 1967, 1969, 1976, 1981 and most recently in 1997 with Katrina and The Waves.
Israel is next in the league table with four wins, while Norway, Denmark, Italy and Ukraine have notched up three victories each, and Spain, Austria, Germany and Austria have each won twice.
The list of countries with a single win to their name is even longer: it includes Monaco, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Serbia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Portugal and Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile spare a thought for such long-term participants as Cyprus, Iceland, Slovenia, Malta, Lithuania, and Romania (among others) – who despite being a part of proceedings for a number of decades have yet to notch up their first victory.
Nobody ever said winning Eurovision was easy…
This article was first published on May 5, 2024.
The Grand Final of Eurovision 2025 will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 8p[m tonight.
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