What makes for a Eurovision presenter? Is it star quality? Acting ability? Are they simply chosen for their charm, or how they bounce off one another?
Well, in an effort to find out, we took a look back at the careers of every Eurovision presenter prior to their hosting of the contest and have the results.
Here are the top five professions in the backgrounds of Eurovision presenters.
5. Radio presenters (9.3%)
In total, ten Eurovision presenters have held careers as radio presenters prior to their delivery of the contest, making it the fifth-most popular career pathway of Eurovision presenters prior to them hosting the contest.
The first Eurovision host to have the title of ‘radio presenter’ on their resume was Helga Guitton, who hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 in Luxembourg. Helga also worked as a television presenter as well.
The most recent presenter of the contest to work in this career was Lucy Ayoub, one of the four co-hosts of the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv. Lucy also has television presenter and poet on her list of corporate achievements.
4. Journalists (16.67%)
The fourth-most popular career for Eurovision presenters has been journalists. Over the years, seventeen journalists have presented the contest.
The first Eurovision presenter to be credited as a journalist was Angela Rippon, who presented the 1977 contest in London. Angela Rippon was also a successful newsreader and television presenter at the time.
The likelihood of journalists presenting the contest has fallen slightly over the years, with the most recent journalists to present the show being Lise Ronne and Nikolaj Koppel at the 2014 contest in Denmark. Lise is also a television presenter, while Nikolaj is also a radio presenter and musician).
3. Singers (22.2%)
A great many Eurovision presenters have been singers prior to hosting the competition, with 24 of them being listed as such.
The first Eurovision presenter who had a career as a singer was Renata Mauro, who presented the 1965 contest in Naples, Italy. Renata was also known as an excellent actress and television presenter.
The most recent Eurovision presenters to hail from a singing career are, in fact, three-quarters of the hosting team from this year’s competition. Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley, and Jan Smit are all credited as being singers, with all three of them also working as television presenters. Edsilia represented the Netherlands at Eurovision on two occasions, while Chantal and Jan are actresses and actors.
2. Actors and actresses (28.7%)
More than thirty Eurovision presenters have worked in careers as actors and actresses. Their names have shown up throughout the years and in every decade.
The second Eurovision presenter, Anaid Iplicjian, who hosted the 1957 contest in Germany, was an actress who studied at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. She was a member of theatre companies in Graz, Vienna, and Hanover.
Prior to this year, the most recent Eurovision presenters to have actresses were all four of the 2018 hosting team (Silvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah, Catarina Furtado, and Filomena Cautela), while the most recent Eurovision presenter to have been an actor was Ukraine’s Oleksandr Skichko in 2017.
Honourable mentions for the least-likely professions to appear
Ballet dancer – Moira Shearer (Edinburgh 1972)
Entertainment reporter – Maria Menounos (Athens 2006)
Lawyer – Nargiz Birk-Petersen (Baku 2012)
Teacher – Cynthia Ni Mhurchu (Dublin 1994)
YouTuber – Nikkie de Jager (Rotterdam 2021)
1. Television presenters (67.6%)
This really doesn’t come as a surprise – the vast majority of Eurovision hosts have been television presenters. In fact, it’s one of the prime reasons why they’re chosen. More than half of all Eurovision hosts have been television presenters, and appear in almost every single year the contest has been held.
Eurovision’s first host, Lohengrin Filipello, was a Swiss television presenter. His involvement with the Eurovision Song Contest didn’t end with his hosting of the first show – he also acted as the host of the 1961 and 1967 Swiss national finals.
And television presenters have appeared as hosts of the contest every year in the last sixteen contests. The last contest not to include a television presenter as a host was in 2004, which was presented by actor Meltem Cumbul and actress Korhan Abay (television presenters had notably not been involved in hosting duties for the two prior contests either).
So will the hosts of 2022 include television presenters again? We will find out in the coming months.