Eurovision Bingo

Eurovision Bingo

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most eagerly anticipated cultural events on the calendar and easily the most popular of our bingo card generators.  It turns out that thousands of you like to include a game of bingo in your Eurovision watch party whether it’s in person or online.

There are still many people in the UK that treat Eurovision as a bit of a joke.  But over the last 20-30 years the contest has acquired huge cultural, social and even political significance and breaks down borders by showcasing the music, languages and cultures of many nations and by being a paradigm of diversity and inclusion.  This is reflected in the choice of United By Music as the slogan for Eurovision 2023; it’s now been adopted for Eurovision 2024 and all subsequent contests as a permanent slogan.  Here’s what Martin Österdahl, the Executive Supervisor of Eurovision, said about that:

The Eurovision Song Contest is more than just a song competition; it’s a celebration of the power of music to bring people together. After over 20 years of using different slogans, and as we approach our 70th anniversary, we feel we have found one that truly encapsulates our brand.

By establishing a permanent slogan, we will have consistency in our message that music unites us all. It’s the perfect slogan to underline our values of inclusivity, equality, universality and celebrating diversity through music.

As the popularity of the Eurovision Song Contest continues to grow around the world, we believe using the same slogan annually will help our brand become even stronger.

If all that sounds a bit serious, never fear.  The BBC – who will be broadcasting both semi finals (7th and 9th May) and the Grand Final (11th May) live – have started their 2024 coverage in style with The Big Eurovision Party (available on iPlayer for 5 months from 1st March) and a preview of this year’s contest by regular commentator Graham Norton and UK entry Olly Alexander.  You can find links to these on the BBC’s Eurovision info page, and the 2024 trailer is now available on their Eurovision hub page.

New for 2024 is a change in the way the running order for the final is determined.  Up until 2013, it was a random draw.  After that, the draw was changed so that acts could draw a first half or second half performance, with the actual order to be determined by the show’s producers to make it as entertaining as possble for viewers (e.g. by not having too many songs of the same type clumped together) and also to make changes in lighting and staging easier to enact.

This year, the procedure has been spiced up again.  Sweden, the hosts, go first in the Grand Final.  The other 5 countries who have a pass to the final will draw First Half, Second Half or Producer’s Choice live on Reddit after their second rehearsal on 4th May.  The 10 qualifiers from the first semi final will draw live on TikTok on 7th May, and the 10 qualifiers from the second semi final will draw live on TikTok on 9th May.  The producers will then have a tough night’s work getting the running order ready to be announced on 10th May.

So what does the new option of Producer’s Choice mean?  It means just what it says – the show’s producer will place the entry anywhere they like in the running order to make the best television for the viewers!  The 25 options are split as follows: 6 x First Half, 6 x Second Half and 13 x Producer’s Choice.

How to Play Eurovision Bingo

First, generate your cards.

• Tap to start
• At this stage you can make any desired tweaks to your cards:
  • We’ve set the grid size to 4×4 giving each player 16 items to look out for, but you can use the dropdown to change it to 3×3 or 5×5 if you’d like
  • Don’t like our card design?  You can change the background to an image of your choice and the colours to whatever you like.
  • If you’re a true Eurovision fan you’re bound to have lots of ideas for things to go on the bingo card that we haven’t thought of, so go ahead and edit the list of items!  Remove any of our items you don’t like and add your own great ideas.  Just be sure to keep enough items on the list for everyone to get a different bingo card.
• Press Generate Bingo Cards
• If you want printed bingo cards, enter the number of cards you want and press Generate Printable Cards.
  • You’ll be taken to a page of cards, all different from each other and unique to you.
  • They can be printed from your browser (adjusting the scaling via the printer settings if necessary) or you can copy or bookmark the URL for printing later.
• Alternatively you can Invite through email.
  • Each person you invite will receive a link to their very own unique bingo card, and you’ll get your own card too. (We don’t keep their email addresses).
  • These cards can be played on your phone or other device – when you daub an item, it changes colour (and will stay changed, if you start playing at one of the semi finals and return later for the main event).

Once you’ve all got your cards, it’s time to watch Eurovision and mark off all the items as they happen, are shown on screen or are mentioned in the commentary.  The winner is the first to complete a line, but if you’re watching both semi finals as well as the Grand Final you will probably want to play on to see who completes the most lines or gets full house.

PRO TIP – Print out more cards than you need so your guests can choose one they like the look of.

Eurovision Song Contest – List of Contestants

The 2023 contest was held in Liverpool. Traditionally it would be held in the Ukraine given that last year’s winner was from that country. But with world events as they are, the UK’s 2008 Capital of Culture was chosen.  The 2024 contest will take place at the Malmö Arena, Sweden.  The semi finals will be on 7th and 9th May 2024 and the grand final on 11th May.

The entry list for 2024 is as follows:

Albania: Besa – “Titan” – 2nd semi-final

Armenia: Ladaniva -“Jako” – 2nd semi-final

Australia: Electric Fields – “One Milkali (One Blood) – 1st semi-final

Austria: Kaleen – “We Will Rave” – 2nd semi-final

Azerbaijan: Fahree – “Özünlə apar” – 1st semi-final

Belgium: Mustii – “Before the Party’s Over” – 2nd semi-final

Croatia: Baby Lasagna – “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” – 1st semi-final

Cyprus: Silia Kapsis – “Liar” – 1st semi-final

Czechia: Aiko – “Pedestal” – 2nd semi-final

Denmark: Saba – “Sand” – 2nd semi-final

Estonia: 5miinust & Puuluup – “(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi” – 2nd semi-final

Finland: Windows95man – “No Rules!” – 1st semi-final

France: Slimane – “Mon amour” – in final, will vote and perform in 2nd semi-final

Georgia: Nutsa Buzaladze – “Fire Fighter” – 2nd semi-final

Germany: Isaak – “Always on the Run” – in final, will vote and perform in 1st semi-final

Greece: Marian Satti – “Zari”- 2nd semi-final

Iceland: Hera Björk – “Scared of Heights” – 1st semi-final

Ireland: Bambie Thug – “Doomsday Blue” – 1st semi-final

Israel: Eden Golan – “Hurricane” – 2nd semi-final

Italy: Angelina Mango – “La Noia” – in final, will vote and perform in 2nd semi-final

Latvia: Dons – “Hollow” – 2nd semi-final

Lithuania: Silvester Belt – “Luktelk” – 1st semi-final

Luxembourg: Tali – “Fighter” – 1st semi-final

Malta: Sarah Bonnici – “Loop” – 2nd semi-final

Moldova: Natalia Barbu – “In the Middle” – 1st semi-final

The Netherlands: Joost Klein – “Europapa” – 2nd semi-final

Norway: Gåte – “Ulveham” – 2nd semi-final

Poland: Luna – “The Tower” – 1st semi-final

Portugal: Iolanda – “Grito” – 1st semi-final

San Marino: Megara – “11:11” – 2nd semi-final

Serbia: Teya Dora – “Ramonda” – 1st semi-final

Slovenia: Raiven – “Veronika” – 1st semi-final

Spain: Nebulossa – “Zorra” – in final, will vote and perform in 2nd semi-final

Sweden: Marcus & Martinus – “Unforgettable” – in final, will vote and perform in 1st semi-final

Switzerland: Nemo – “The Code” – 2nd semi-final

Ukraine: Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil– “Teresa & Maria” – 1st semi-final

United Kingdom: Olly Alexander – “Dizzy” – in final, will vote and perform in 1st semi-final

Not participating in 2024: Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Romania and Slovakia.

Currently (March 2024) Croatia are the favourites at the bookies, with Ukraine second.  The UK entry is priced at around 30/1 so is by no means a rank outsider.

Top 5 Most Notorious Eurovision Moments of All Time

Where to begin? The competition has been careening from one year to the next since 1956. In amongst the numerous gems (Abba, Loreen, uh, Bucks Fizz, Dana International, Conchita Wurst) have been an awful lot of wardrobe malfunctions and some utterly cringeworthy performances. Here are five of the worst/best.

Ireland’s Turkey – 2008

Marking a low point in Irish musical history is Dustin’s Turkey puppet. Yes, that’s correct. Ireland happened upon the idea of using a puppet to represent the country at the 2008 event. ‘Where oh where did it all go wrong’ asked Dustin before his warbling intro morphed into a bizarre electro number. Where indeed. It’s a mystery.

Flying the Flag – 2007

The UK has had its fair share of ‘bad luck’ at Eurovision, despite entering some decent songs from the likes of Gina G and Cliff Richard. Rest assured, that ‘Flying the Flag’ isn’t one of them. The song’s flight attendant theme was sprinkled with some appalling innuendos which we won’t go into here. To top it all off, the song just wasn’t very good.

Cry Baby – 2003

Another embarassing fail from the UK. Jemini’s alright-ish ditty was ruined on the night by a performance that was about as off-key as you can get. In fairness, the monitors weren’t working but yeesh – what a shocker. By the time the song was over, most of Europe was in tears. The act also failed to score a single point.

Remedios Amaya – 1983

This rock-flamenco hybrid was inflicted upon continental Europe by some Spanish woman called Remedios Amaya. Backed by a plodding bass guitar and not a whole lot else besides, the meandering verse was frantically delivered by a feverish Remedios who sounded a lot like Yoko Ono singing on a good day. Nuff said.

Tune about a Treaty – 1990

Toto Cutugno (us neither) sang about the Maastricht Treaty back in 1990. Oh the excitement. Naturally, Eurovision voters loved it and awarded the drab number first place. Bedecked in a white suit and sporting an alarming mullet, Cutugno’s clench-fisted ode to the EU’s foundation treaty has aged very, very badly.