Number of Songs
Each country in the Eurovision Song Contest is entitled to enter just one song. The Contest final is limited to 26 songs. They consist of the following:
- The "Big 5" countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) as they are the 5 largest economic contributors to the contest, and are rewarded with automatic spots in the final.
- Winner of last year (the host country).
- 10 qualifiers from Semi-final 1 - held on the Tuesday before the contest.
- 10 qualifiers from Semi-final 2 - held on the Thursday before the contest.
At the first Contest, each country was allowed to submit two songs each with a maximum duration of three minutes. Nowadays, it is still required that each song not exceed three minutes in length, although many artists record the song in a longer version, simply performing a shorter version at the Contest. The number of participating countries has grown throughout the Contest's history, and since 1993 the rules have been changed several times to both limit the number of finalists and to allow for participation by former Soviet and Yugoslav republics, Warsaw Pact nations and others.
Read more about this topic: Rules Of The Eurovision Song Contest
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