The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la chanson; German: Liederwettbewerb der Eurovision), often simply called Eurovision, is an annual international song competition, with participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner. At least 50 countries are eligible to compete as of 2018, and since 2015, Australia has been allowed as a guest entrant.Based on the Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951, Eurovision has been broadcasting every year since its inauguration in 1956, making it the longest-running annual international television contest and one of the world's longest-running television programmes. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events, with audience figures of between 100 million and 600 million internationally. It has been broadcast in several countries that do not compete, such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and China. Since 2000, it has been broadcast online via the Eurovision website.Ireland holds the record for most victories, with seven wins, including four times in five years in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1996. Under the current voting system, in place since 2016, the highest-scoring winner is Salvador Sobral of Portugal who won the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine, with 758 points; under the previous system, the highest-scoring winner was Alexander Rybak of Norway with 387 points in 2009. Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides artists with a local career boost and sometimes long-lasting international success. Some of them include ABBA (winners for Sweden), Bucks Fizz & Lulu (winners for the UK), Celine Dion (winner for Switzerland), Johnny Logan (who won the contest twice for Ireland), Dana International (for Israel) and Lena (who won for Germany).
