In this week’s episode, we are celebrating two years of ESC101! Join us as we look back at the past year. Discover our favourite moments, delve into some listener questions, and join the party!

This week, we are featuring the Grand Dame of the Eurovision Song Contest Lys Assia, the first person to win the contest. Join us as we explore the life story of one of the few people to compete in three contests in a row! From old carousels to spicy Italian waiters, Lys brought the diverse sounds of Switzerland to the Eurovision stage, becoming an eternal icon of the contest.

Show Notes: Click Here

To celebrate our 100th episode, we’ve put together a three-part mini series exploring the origins of the Eurovision Song Contest. This week, we are concluding with Part III, covering the origins of the contest itself. If you have no idea what the Eurovision Song Contest is or if you’re curious about how it started, then you’ve come to the right place!

Join us as we delve into the story of the world’s largest international music competition, the show that launched the careers of ABBA and Celine Dion, debuting Riverdance to the world, and managing to set a Grammy Award record that still hasn’t been broken to this day!

To celebrate our 100th episode, we’ve put together a three-part mini series exploring the origins of the Eurovision Song Contest. This week, we are continuing with Part II, covering the show which inspired the contest, the Festival della Canzone Italiana, also known as the Sanremo Music Festival. We are joined by fellow Eurovision historian Andreas Grassl who has kindly shared his archival research skills with us, bringing fascinating insights into the story of Italy’s most popular music festival!

To celebrate our 100th episode, we’ve put together a three-part mini series exploring the origins of the Eurovision Song Contest. This week, we are starting with the story of the institution responsible for the contest, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Join us as we reveal the mystery behind this mighty organization. Who belongs to the EBU, how did it start, and what does it do apart from organizing the Eurovision Song Contest? Join us as we open the Beginner’s Guide to the Eurovision Song Contest!

Show Notes: Link

This week’s episode shines a spotlight on the least noticed person on the Eurovision stage…the conductor! Join us as we explore the story of Mimis Plessas, the conductor of the Greek entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1983. Discover the harrowing adventures of a man determined to share Greek culture with the rest of Europe, fighting unexpected obstacles along the way, and find out whether Mimis was victorious in his mission to help represent Greece at the contest!

This week, we are featuring one of the hosts of the only Eurovision Song Contest hosted in a country which no longer exists! Join us as we travel to Zagreb, home of the 1990 contest hosted by two incredible people, one of whom is our featured host Helga Vlahović. Discover the story of a talented and professional host who almost walked away from the role of a lifetime, and learn how Helga earned the admiration of Croatians everywhere!

This week, we are exploring the life of Karel Gott, a Czech artist who ended up representing Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest. Discover the story of a man whose career managed to outweigh the world’s largest international televised music competition, rising to massive heights of fame across both Eastern and Western Europe. Prepare yourself as we take on the enormous record of a music star who broke records all over Europe, capturing the hearts and imaginations of Czechoslovakia and beyond!

In this week’s episode, we are hosting a special edition of the Eurovision Travel Guide. This is usually a monthly series where we explore a country that has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, this week in honour of the Fourth of July, we decided to celebrate Eurovision artists and songs with connections to the United States of America. To help celebrate, we are joined by Dimitry Pompée, an Emmy-nominated TV comedy writer and one of the hosts of the Eurovangelists Podcast!

The Eurovangelists Podcast is hosted by Dimitry Pompée, Jeremy Bent, and Oscar Montoya on the Maximum Fun Network. Eurovangelists is a podcast celebrating the Eurovision Song Contest bringing you the dramatic, bizarre, and inspiring stories from every decade of the contest. Hosted by a diverse group of superfans from the United States of America, Eurovangelists is the perfect guide to understanding and discovering Europe’s best live musical showdown!

Check out the Eurovangelists Podcast: https://linktr.ee/eurovangelists

Eurovangelists on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/eurovangelists.com

Eurovangelists on Instagram: https://instagram.com/eurovangelists

Check out Maximum Fun: https://maximumfun.org

This week’s episode shines a spotlight on the least noticed person on the Eurovision stage…the conductor! Join us as we learn about Szymon Kuran, a Polish composer who served as the conductor of Iceland’s 1997 entry. Discover the story of a father’s dream of music coming to life through his son, rising through the ranks to lead multiple orchestras, and find out how a Polish musician ended up in Iceland!