It's the biggest song competition in the world. The Eurovision Song Contest, often simply called Eurovision, is an annual international song competition, with participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner. Eurovision has been broadcasting every year since its inauguration in 1956 (except for 2020 when it was cancelled due to the pandemic), making it the longest-running annual international television contest and one of the world's longest-running television programs. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events, with audience figures of between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Have you ever watched this singing competition?

This year the competition is being held in Basel, Switzerland (the winner of last year's contest) held over three days -- May 13 and 15 for the two qualifying rounds, and the grand final on May 17. You may not have heard about Eurovision before, but you certainly have heard of some of the famous faces that either appeared or even won this contest. The rules for performing are a little odd -- you don't have to be from the country to perform their song, which explains why Canadian Celine Dion represented Switzerland in 1968. Did you know any of these people or bands appeared on Eurovision?

You don't have to be part of Europe to be eligible to participate in Eurovision, just be part of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). This is why Israel, Australia and Armenia are part of the competition. Israel's presence at Eurovision was already a contentious issue last year considering the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Now, an open letter addressed to the EBU has been co-signed by 72 past musicians and performers associated with the contest. They appeal to organizers to ban Israel and its national broadcaster from the contest over the country's "genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people." Russia has been banned since 2022 for their war activity. This year's Israel contestant, Yuval Raphael is a survivor of Hamas' October 7 attack at the Nova music festival and will sing an emotional song, "New Day Will Rise", written by Israeli Keren Peles, a song about healing after those attacks. Do you think Israel should be banned from this competition?

Malta's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, Miriana Conte, had to rework her song 'Kant', after the EBU ruled that the title and lyrics needed to be changed. The decision was prompted by the song's title, which was deemed a little too close to a slang expression (which I will leave to your imagination) for the EBU's comfort. While "kant", derived from the Latin "cantus", technically means "song" or "chant" in Maltese, the nod to the more spicy English version was clearly intentional. The song is now called "Serving" and there is a tiny pause where the original word used to be. Do you think song lyrics need to be be changed because of an association with an English word?