Eurovision The Official Visual History, Celebrating Seventy Years of Eurovision (BBC Books)

Producing a book that does justice to the 70-year history of the Eurovision Song Contest was always going to be a formidable challenge, but Paul Lang has succeeded admirably in doing so. Organised by decade, the book's well-written narrative progresses chronologically through the contest's history, a structure that generally works very effectively. One minor exception is the transition from 1972 to 1973, where there is little indication that the narrative has moved into a new year. In a work of this scope, a handful of factual inaccuracies are perhaps inevitable, but they are relatively few. For example, songwriters Phil Coulter and Bill Martin are credited in a photo caption with securing two Eurovision victories for the United Kingdom, despite their hugely successful "Congratulations" finishing as runner-up in 1968. Coulter is also incorrectly identified as the writer of the 1970 winning entry, "All Kinds of Everything". While his orchestral arrangement undoubtedly enhanced the song, its writers were Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, a fact Coulter himself has never disputed. The assertion that Vicky Leandros' 1972 winning song was rejected in the German national selection is similarly questionable. While it is widely believed that Leo Leandros initially offered the song to Germany on the condition that it bypass the national final process, he appears to have withdrawn it once Luxembourg agreed to those terms. Elsewhere, Germany's 1988 representatives are described as "returning artists", despite having competed only once. The Swedish group One More Time, who represented Sweden in 1996, are reduced from a trio to a duo, while Denmark's mixed-gender duo from 1999 are promoted to the status of a boy band. Attentive readers may also notice that the book incorrectly identifies Lys Assia in 1957 as the last artist to defend a Eurovision title before Lena in 2011. In fact, that distinction belongs to Corry Brokken, who returned in 1958. The most puzzling error appears near the end of the book, where Tommy Cash's 2025 entry "Espresso Macchiato" is mistakenly listed as "Living for Love". Rather than filling its pages with exhaustive lists of entries and results, the book wisely limits statistical content to a table of winners from 1956 to 2025. Instead, it focuses on a superb collection of photographs that capture many of the most memorable moments from the contest's seven-decade history. This visual approach is where the book truly excels and what makes it an essential addition to the collection of both dedicated Eurovision enthusiasts and more casual fans alike. Graham Norton's foreword sets the tone perfectly, providing an engaging introduction to a highly enjoyable retrospective of one of television's most enduring cultural institutions.