Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits
Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits was a live television concert programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union and produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's 60th anniversary. The concert took place on 31 March 2015 at the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith, London. Guy Freeman was the executive producer and Geoff Posner the director, both of whom held the same positions as the last time the BBC hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998. Simon Proctor was the senior producer and David Arch was the musical director for the concert. Tickets for the event went on sale at 10am on 6 February 2015.
Graham Norton and Petra Mede hosted the event, which saw fifteen acts from thirteen countries performing their Eurovision entries from yesteryear. During the televised show, video montages for some of the Eurovision Song Contest archives were shown in-between each live performance. The United Kingdom entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was performed at the concert, as the opening act, but never broadcast on the televised show. Riverdance performed a reprise of their 1994 Eurovision Song Contest interval act as part of the anniversary celebrations.
Several countries confirmed that they would air the delayed broadcast of the concert on various dates that suited the broadcasters scheduling, including, who first competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as a wildcard entry. The host broadcaster, BBC, and Raidió Teilifís Éireann, simulcast the show on Good Friday, 3 April 2015 across BBC One and RTÉ 2. The Dutch broadcaster, AVROTROS, were the first to announce their decision to not broadcast the event. Other countries also announced their decision to decline broadcasting the event, including, who had an act taking part in the event.
Location
Confirmation was revealed on 3 February 2015 that the concert event was to take place in the Eventim Apollo, in Hammersmith, London. The last time the United Kingdom capital held any Eurovision events was the Eurovision Dance Contest 2007.Organisation
It was announced on 22 October 2014, that the EBU had appointed the United Kingdom's broadcaster, BBC, to co-produce a special anniversary show to celebrate sixty-years of the Eurovision Song Contest, similar to the show which took place in 2005. The details regarding the title of the show were unknown at the time the announcement was made.The EBU later issued the following statement regarding the 60th anniversary: "There are various exciting proposals from member broadcasters on the table to celebrate the 60th anniversary beyond the contest in May, which are currently in the final stages of being evaluated. A decision is expected shortly, so stay tuned!". Edgar Böhm, executive producer of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest said in an interview that the BBC had been chosen to host a special anniversary show. Guy Freeman was appointed as executive producer for the event, assisted by Senior Producer Simon Proctor, the script was co-written by Edward af Sillén, Daniel Réhn and Christine Rose whilst the director was Geoff Posner, who had previously directed the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham.
Presenters
On 3 February 2015, it was announced that Graham Norton and Petra Mede would co-host the concert show. Norton, who co-hosted the Eurovision Dance Contest with Claudia Winkleman in and, is also the current Eurovision TV commentator for the United Kingdom. Mede was the host for Melodifestivalen 2009, host for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 and co-host of Eurovision Song Contest 2016 held in Stockholm.Tickets
Tickets for the anniversary concert went on sale from 10:15am on Friday 6 February 2015 via the BBC's Eurovision website and the official Eurovision Song Contest's website.Programme
The concert was recorded live on 31 March 2015 at the Eventim Apollo, London; allowing [|participating broadcasters] the freedom to air the programme on a date and channel that was convenient for their broadcasting schedules. Fifteen artists, representing thirteen countries, consisting of some of Eurovision's Greatest Hits, took part in the sixtieth anniversary gala event. The first-ever winner of the contest, Lys Assia, appeared in the audience as a guest of honour. During the broadcast, video montages were shown prior to each entry, showing footage for that particular year's contest, ending with Eurovision Song Contest footage for the entry that was about to perform on stage. Recap montages of Eurovision entries over the last sixty years, were also broadcast in-between performances. These were as follows:- Teach-In – "Ding-a-dong":,
- Olivia Newton-John – "Long Live Love":,
- Céline Dion – "Ne partez pas sans moi":,
- Jedward – "Lipstick":,
- ABBA – "Waterloo":,
- Serebro – "Song#1":,
- Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta – "A-Ba-Ni-Bi":,
- Kathy Kirby – "I Belong": United Kingdom,
- Bucks Fizz – "Making Your Mind Up": United Kingdom,
- Sonia – "Better the Devil You Know": United Kingdom,
- Imaani – "Where Are You?": United Kingdom,
- Lynsey de Paul & Mike Moran – "Rock Bottom": United Kingdom,
- Michael Ball – "One Step Out of Time": United Kingdom,
- Cliff Richard – "Congratulations": United Kingdom,
- Sandie Shaw – "Puppet on a String": United Kingdom,
- Dana – "All Kinds of Everything": Ireland,
Opening act
Interval act
It was confirmed on 22 March 2015 that the interval act for Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits would be Riverdance. The theatrical show consisting mainly of traditional Irish music and dance, and featured Irish dancing champions Jean Butler and Michael Flatley, with a score composed by Limerick native Bill Whelan, originated as an interval performance during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994.Performances
Fifteen Eurovision acts from thirteen countries participated in the anniversary concert. Although there were originally fourteen acts confirmed by the BBC, it was later announced on 5 March 2015 that 's Bobbysocks would join the line-up increasing the total to fifteen. Video montages were shown prior to each entry, showing footage for that particular year's contest, ending with Eurovision Song Contest footage for the entry that was about to perform on stage.| Order | Year | Country | Artist | Song | Language |
| 01 | Emmelie de Forest | "Only Teardrops" | English | ||
| 02 | Anne-Marie David | "Tu te reconnaîtras" | French, English | ||
| 03 | Herreys | "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" | English, Swedish | ||
| 04 | Dana International | "Diva" | Hebrew | ||
| 05 | Olsen Brothers | "Fly on the Wings of Love" | English | ||
| 06 | Brotherhood of Man | "Save Your Kisses For Me" | English | ||
| 07 | Rosa López | "La, la, la" | Spanish | ||
| 07 | Rosa López | "Vivo cantando" | Spanish | ||
| 07 | Rosa López | "Eres tú" | Spanish | ||
| 07 | Rosa López | "Europe's Living a Celebration" | Spanish, English | ||
| 08 | Nicole | "Ein bißchen Frieden" | English, Italian, German | ||
| 09 | Lordi | "Hard Rock Hallelujah" | English | ||
| 10 | Natasha St-Pier | "Je n'ai que mon âme" | French, English | ||
| 11 | Dima Bilan | "Believe" | English | ||
| 11 | Dima Bilan | "Never Let You Go" | English | ||
| 12 | Bobbysocks! | "La det swinge" | Norwegian, English | ||
| 13 | Loreen | "Euphoria" | English | ||
| 14 | Johnny Logan | "What's Another Year" | English | ||
| 14 | Johnny Logan | "Why Me?" | English | ||
| 14 | Johnny Logan | "Hold Me Now" | English | ||
| 15 | Conchita Wurst | "Rise Like a Phoenix" | English |
;Notes
Reprise performance
A medley of some of the Eurovision Song Contest's greatest hits were performed in English by all of the participating artists, as a reprise act at the close of the show, including: Anne-Marie David singing 's winning entry of the Eurovision Song Contest 1979, "Hallelujah". Swedish trio, Herreys, sang "Nel blu dipinto di blu", which finished in third place at the for 's Domenico Modugno. Bucks Fizz's "Making Your Mind Up", the winning entry for in, was performed by Bobbysocks. The reprise concluded with Concita Wurst and Dana International leading all of the remaining performers back on stage to sing ABBA's Eurovision Song Contest 1974 winning entry, "Waterloo".International broadcasting
As the anniversary concert show was not broadcast live, the participating national broadcasters were able to broadcast the show on a date and channel that was convenient for their broadcasting schedules. Some broadcasters – such as Austria and Sweden – recorded additional links and interviews in London for their viewers and these were used as previews for the main show.Commentators
The following countries, listed in order of broadcasting dates, had confirmed that they would broadcast the anniversary show.| Date of broadcast | Country | Station | Commentators |
| 3 April 2015 | RTÉ2 | rowspan="2" | |
| 3 April 2015 | BBC One | - | |
| 4 April 2015 |  Dutch-speaking region | Eén | Peter Van de Veire |
| 4 April 2015 | RÚV | rowspan="2" | |
| 4 April 2015 | NRK1 | - | |
| 4 April 2015 | Swedish-speaking region | Yle Fem | Sarah Dawn Finer and Christer Björkman |
| 4 April 2015 | SVT1 and SVT World | Sarah Dawn Finer and Christer Björkman | |
| 5 April 2015 | RTSH | ||
| 5 April 2015 | C1R | Yury Aksyuta and Svetlana Zeynalova | |
| 5 April 2015 | SMRTV | ||
| 11 April 2015 | Yle TV2 | ||
| 11 April 2015 | Channel 1 | rowspan="3" | |
| 13 April 2015 | BNT1 | - | |
| 19 April 2015 | BNT2 | - | |
| 25 April 2015 | LTV1 | Aigars Rozenbergs | |
| 26 April 2015 | RTP1 | Júlio Isidro | |
| 2 May 2015 | TV SLO 1 | ||
| 4 May 2015 | BBC Radio 2 | Graham Norton | |
| 12 May 2015 |  French-speaking region | La Une | Jean-Louis Lahaye and Maureen Louys |
| 16 May 2015 | - | - | - |
| 16 May 2015 | DR1 | Ole Tøpholm | |
| 16 May 2015 | NDR and MDR | Peter Urban | |
| 16 May 2015 | NERIT1 and N HD | ||
| 16 May 2015 | TVR1 and TVR HD | ||
| 17 May 2015 | ORF eins | Andi Knoll | |
| 19 May 2015 | SRF zwei | Sven Epiney | |
| 20 May 2015 | France 2 | Virginie Guilhaume | |
| 21 May 2015 | SRF zwei | Sven Epiney | |
| 21 May 2015 | SBS One | rowspan=2 | |
| 22 May 2015 | ETV | - | |
| 22 May 2015 | EinsFestival | Peter Urban | |
| 23 May 2015 | RTS | ||
| 23 May 2015 | La 1 | José María Íñigo and Julia Varela |