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• The Eurovision Song Contest is more than half a century old. The first ever competition staged was held on the 24th May 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland, although the UK didn’t participate until 1957.

• An estimated 100 million people across the world watch the contest every year. Last year over 9 million British viewers watched the culmination of the voting on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One.

• The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s Eurovision production team have worked out three separate routes to get to Oslo should planes be cancelled again!

• Pop sensation Eliza Doolittle is the daughter of Frances Ruffelle, who represented the United Kingdom in 1994 with Lonely Symphony.

• Ireland have won more often with seven victories compared to the UK's five. The UK have finished in second place an incredible 15 times…

After Alexander Rybak took the title for Norway last year, the contest travels to Oslo. Here are a few facts about this year’s host nation:

• Norway made their debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 and has since only missed it twice, in 1970 and 2002.

• They hold the unfortunate accolade of having scored "nul points" more times than anyone in Eurovision history (four times) and also coming last the most number of times (ten) including the following:

1963: Anita Thallaug, Solvherv - nul points

1969: Kristi Sparboe, Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli - last place

1974: Anne-Karine Strom, The First Day Of Love - last place

1976: Anne-Karine Strom, Mata Hari - last place

1978: Jahn Teigen, Mil etter mil - nul points

1981: Finn Kalvik, Aldri I livet - nul points

1990: Ketil Stokkan, Brandenburger Tor - last place

1997: Tor Endresen, San Francisco - nul points

2001: Haldor Laegreid, On My Own - last place

2004: Knut Anders Sorum, High - did not qualify from semi-final

• After many years of trying, exactly a quarter of a century ago the Norwegians broke their unlucky streak by sending Bobbysocks to compete in the 1985 Eurovision.

They romped to victory with the memorably catchy tune Let It Swing. Ten years later, Norway won again with the mostly instrumental song Nocturne, performed by Secret Garden.

This folk-style melody had a distinctly Irish flavour, which is perhaps understandable as it won the Eurovision slap-bang in the middle of Ireland's record-breaking run of victories in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996.

• Of course, last year's winning song was the fantastic Fairytale, performed by violin-wielding Alexander Rybak. The song was a runaway success, being a firm favourite with both Eurovision fans and the bookies months before the contest.

In terms of number of points, Fairytale became the most successful Eurovision song of all time, clocking up a massive 387 votes. It also had the most amount of "douze points" ever awarded, and also left the runner-up trailing by more points than has ever been seen before.

[However, the UK's very own Brotherhood of Man can still justifiably claim to have the biggest percentage of possible votes, winning 164 votes out of a possible 204 (80.3% of the possible maximum vote), as opposed to Alexander Rybak's still massively impressive 387 points out of a possible 492 (78.65% of the total)].

For more fun facts, go to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Eurovision website at bbc.co.uk/eurovision.