The Eurovision Song Contest is a celebration of weird and wonderful musical acts which attracts over 200 million viewers worldwide, 100 million more than the Super Bowl. Starting in 1956 with just seven nations taking part, it was the only contest with two songs per country and was won by Lys Assia for Switzerland with 'Refrain'.
Ireland is the most successful country in the history of the competition with seven wins, while Sweden have won the contest six times and Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands and the UK have triumphed on five occasions. Contrary to what many may think, the UK is not the entrant with the most bottom place finishes.
That title belongs to Norway, with the Nordic nation finishing last place 11 times. However, Britain is catching up after James Newman's points total of zero last year in Rotterdam.
Read more: Eurovision 2022: Will Ukraine and Russia be in this year's Eurovision?
When is Eurovision 2022?
This year's Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final will be held on Saturday 14 May , 21:00 CEST, which is 20:00pm in the UK .
Semi-finals will be held on the 10th and 12th to determine the final line-up of the main event, but Britain is assured a place. This is because a rule change in 1999 saw the European Broadcasting Union's biggest funders automatically qualify. These nations are the UK, France, Germany and Spain.
Where is Eurovision 2022 being held?
As is convention, the nation which won the previous year's song contest gets to host it the following year. This is no different in 2022. This year's Eurovision will be held in the Italian city of Turin , this is because Rome-formed rock band Måneskin won 2021's edition of the competition with the song Zitti E Buoni.
Now globally famous, the band narrowly beat France's Barbara Pravi, who earnt 499 points to Italy's 524.
How to watch Eurovision 2022
The live Grand Final will be broadcast on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds . Both semi-finals will also be aired on the 10th and 12th of May, moving from BBC Four to its new home of BBC Three.
Graham Norton will bring his trademark hilarity and behind the scenes insight to voiceover duties on the BBC's television broadcast. Meanwhile, Scott Mills will present coverage on the radio.
Who is presenting Eurovision 2022?
The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 will be hosted by three presenters: Laura Pausini, Alessandro Cattelan and Mika .
Laura Pausini is perhaps the most highly regarded Italian recording artist in the world. In 2021 alone she won four Latin Grammys, a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe and received a historic Oscars nomination for the song Io sì (Seen), which featured in the film The Life Ahead.
Alessandro Cattelan is a major figure on Italian TV and one of the most recognisable faces on the small screen. Celebrating his 20th year as a presenter, he is best known for hosting Total Request Live, Le Iene and The X Factor (Italy).
There is also a familiar face for UK viewers, Mika. Shooting to fame in 2007 with the song 'Grace Kelly', the Lebanese-British singer-songwriter is described by Eurovision's website as a performer "without artistic barriers set by genre, geography or societal expectations".
After Eurovision, Mika is set to tour across North America, before continuing to gig across Europe and Italy.
Who is representing the UK?
The UK will be represented by Tik Tok star Sam Ryder with his song Space Man. The 32-year-old Essex musician rapidly rose to prominence during the UK's first lockdown, when he began posting music covers on TikTok. By the end of the year he was the most followed UK artist on the platform.
In 2021, Ryder released his debut EP, The Sun's Gonna Rise, which has so far earnt over a 100 million global streams. Sam has the grand total of zero points to beat to surpass the UK's total from last year.
