The Eurovision Song Contest is upon us and popstars from around the world have gathered to battle it out to see which nation produces the best performers.
The competition is a time of musical celebration, but it has also been marked by tragedy as various artists have lost their lives - some in tragic circumstances.
A choir that won the contest in 1969 sadly passed away after a plane crash, claiming 93 lives in total.
Many lives have been lost since the first event in Switzerland in 1955, and while others may have passed away more peacefully, they will always be remembered by their loving fans.
The Alexandrov Ensemble Choir
The Alexandrov Ensemble Choir, which was comprised of 64 members, was made up the official choir of the Russian armed forces and was one of just two choir groups that have had the title of Red Army Choir.
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The group had performed Not Gonna Get Us with t.A.T.u during the song contest's interval in 2009 when the event was hosted in Moscow.
Sadly, in the early hours of Christmas Day 2016, they lost their lives in plane crash, when a Russian Defence Ministry plane went down whilst flying to Syria.
The crash had no survivors and in the end, 93 people lost their lives off the coast of Sochi.
They had been travelling for a Christmas celebration with troops at a military base.
Örs Siklósi
The next tragedy struck Hungarian band AWS from the show's 2018 series
Their lead singer, Örs Siklósi, died at the age of 29 after a battle with leukaemia.
His fellow bandmates released a statement and said their loss was "indescribable'', adding: "In June, Örs was diagnosed with leukaemia.
"We now have to inform you with a broken heart that on February 5, our partner, friend and brother Örs Siklósi has passed away at the age of 29 after a long struggle."
AWS, which stands for Ants With Slippers, also said: "His creativity, the depth of his lyrics and his presence on stage will be greatly missed. Losing him is beyond our reach and he will leave a vast space not just in our lives but also in the music scene".
Rajko Dujmić
Croatian songwriter Rajko Dujmić, from pop band Novi Fosili, wrote Yugoslavia's winning 1989 entry Rock Me.
The track was performed with Stevo Cvikić, and later Rajko received a Porin award for Lifetime Achievement for his music.
But he sadly died in 2020, when the 65-year-old was unfortunately involved in a traffic accident and passed away six days after - leaving behind a wife and a son.
Timur Selçuk
Timur Selçuk, a Turkish singer, featured in Eurovision twice - once in 1975 with Turkey's first-ever entry and again 14 years later in 1989.
In his second appearance, Timur performed with his daughter and their son charted at number 21.
The composer, who had been playing the piano since the age of five, passed away in his sleep back in 2020.
Michael Julien
Michael made it to 93-years-old and during that time he co-wrote a number of hit songs, including 1969’s winning Eurovision song.
He worked with many big names throughout his career, including Norman Wisdom, Shirley Bassey and Cliff Richard.
Julien's song Boom Bang-a-Bang placed joint first in 1969 - with 18 points and reached number two in the UK charts, where it stayed for 13 weeks.
But he passed away in 2020, after catching Covic-19 while in hospital.
Liam Reilly
Liam Reilly was a member of Irish rock band Bagatelle, and he was so loyal to his band that he even turned down an offer from Elton John's producer to go solo.
Years later he became a finalist in 1988's Eurovision, while in 1990 he placed second and one of his songs also placed tenth in 1991.
Liam died "suddenly but peacefully" in his home in January 2021.
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