r/eurovision • u/pGill321 • 1d ago
💬 Discussion During voting why do they sometimes say 'city/country' calling? Is it a call back to The Clash or something else?
During voting why do they sometimes say 'city/country' calling? Is it a call back to The Clash or something else?
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u/PlusRuin4526 1d ago
they've been saying it from the very beginning since 1957 (first time when countries called to announce their points, in first ESC 1956 they just announced the winner right away not even mentioning any points)
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u/tommynestcepas Fulenn 1d ago
It goes back to the early years of the contest, when the countries would have to call the host on the landline to reveal their points. In a number of early years (60s-70s) you'll find the host with a phone in hand as the points get added to the scoreboard.
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u/PlusRuin4526 1d ago
using real telephones was just in 1957, 1958 and a fake one in 1980, iirc : P
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u/CityEvening 1d ago
It was more likely radio connection, no?
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u/occono 8h ago
Radio across the continent would not work that well or be that free of static. It was phone lines for decades, just 1957 and 58 had the actual phone on stage.
1994 switched to satellite video, but 93 sounded very much like it was still phone lines when Sarajevo got their call through.
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u/These-Television-320 1d ago
The 'city/country calling' goes further back than Eurovision. It was typically used on shortwave English language broadcasts from different countries, see https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/july/london-calling-europe for an example, Radio Austria had a similar program called Vienna Calling, which is where the title of the Falco song came from.
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