Barbara Dex Award | |
---|---|
Awarded for | "Most striking look" in the Eurovision Song Contest |
Country | Various participating countries |
Presented by | The House of Eurovision (1997–2016) Songfestival.be (2017–2021) |
First awarded | 1997 |
Last awarded | 2021 |
Website | Official website |
Related | You're a Vision Award |
The Barbara Dex Award was a fan-voted accolade awarded annually to the worst-dressed contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest. The award was created by the fansite The House of Eurovision in 1997, which hosted it until the site's closure in 2016. Songfestival.be presented the award from 2017 onwards, changing its criterion to the "most striking look" in 2019. Ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, the award was succeeded by the You're a Vision Award, which was intended to carry a more positive connotation.
The Barbara Dex Award created by Edwin van Thillo and Rob Paardekam, the founders of the Dutch Eurovision fansite The House of Eurovision, in 1997. [1] [2] It was named after Belgian singer Barbara Dex, who represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 wearing a self-made, semi-transparent dress, which William Lee Adams of Wiwibloggs described her "looking like a lampshade". [2] The Barbara Dex Award was initially awarded to the worst-dressed contestants. [3] Malta's Eurovision Song Contest 1997 entrant, Debbie Scerri, was the first recipient. [4] After two years of deciding the recipient internally, The House of Eurovision opened the award to public voting in 1999. [5]
The House of Eurovision shut down after the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and handed the Barbara Dex Award to the Belgian website Songfestival.be and its founder, Jasper van Biesen. Van Biesen hoped that this transition would broaden the award's reach. [2] Starting with the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, the award criterion was changed to the "most notable outfit", refined to "most striking look" for the 2021 contest. [3] [6] Songfestival.be noted that "this prize for the most striking outfit does not intend to say what is ugly and what is not and does not want to place the Song Contest in a bad light". [3]
On 13 March 2022, Songfestival.be announced that it would be ending the Barbara Dex Award, citing the negative connotation associated with it. Instead, the website would organise a new, replacement award for the "most notable outfit". [7] Following an online vote, Songfestival.be announced on 29 April that the new award would be named the "You're a Vision Award", adding that the new name would serve the purpose of promoting creativity, diversity and positivity in Eurovision onstage fashion. [8] Australia's Eurovision Song Contest 2022 entrant, Sheldon Riley, was the first recipient of the new award. [9]
In a January 2006 interview with ESCToday, Dex stated that there was "nothing wrong" with the Barbara Dex Award. [10] A 2015 poll by Wiwibloggs found Guildo Horn, Germany's 1998 Eurovision act, to be considered the worst-dressed of the previous award recipients. [11]
2 | Second place |
3 | Third place |
House of Eurovision
Songfestival.be
Year | Country | Artist | Song | Place | Runner-up | Third place | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Montenegro | Slavko Kalezić | "Space" | 16 SF | Latvia | Czech Republic | [25] |
2018 | Macedonia | Eye Cue | "Lost and Found" | 18 SF | Australia | Belgium | [26] |
2019 | Portugal | Conan Osíris | "Telemóveis" | 15 SF | Cyprus | Belarus | [6] |
2021 | Norway | Tix | "Fallen Angel" | 18 | Romania | Croatia | [3] |
Wins | Country | Years |
---|---|---|
2 | North Macedonia |
|
Portugal |
| |
Serbia |
| |
1 | Albania | 2012 |
Andorra | 2008 | |
Belgium | 2000 | |
Croatia | 2016 | |
Georgia | 2011 | |
Germany | 1998 | |
Greece | 2002 | |
Hungary | 2009 | |
Lithuania | 2014 | |
Malta | 1997 | |
Montenegro | 2017 | |
Netherlands | 2015 | |
Norway | 2021 | |
Poland | 2001 | |
Romania | 2004 | |
Russia | 2003 | |
Spain | 1999 | |
Ukraine | 2007 |
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The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 1999 contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), the contest was held at the Globe Arena on 13 May 2000. The contest was presented by Swedish television presenters Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin.
Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 35 times since its debut in 1971. The contest is broadcast in Malta on the PBS channel, TVM. Malta has yet to win the contest, but is the only non-winning country to have achieved four top three results.
The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 63 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The country has missed only four contests, twice because the dates coincided with Remembrance of the Dead and twice because of being relegated due to poor results the previous year. The Netherlands hosted the contest in Hilversum (1958), Amsterdam (1970), twice in The Hague and Rotterdam (2021).
Hungary has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since making its debut in 1994. Hungary attempted to participate in 1993 but failed to qualify from Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, a special qualifying competition set up for seven former Eastern Bloc countries.
Ukraine has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 18 times since making its debut in 2003. Ukraine has won the contest three times: in 2004 with "Wild Dances" by Ruslana, in 2016 with "1944" by Jamala, and in 2022 with "Stefania" by Kalush Orchestra, thus becoming the first country in the 21st century and the first Eastern European country to win the contest three times. Ukraine hosted the 2005 and 2017 contests in Kyiv.
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Spain has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in every edition since 1961, in total 62 times. Since 1999, Spain has been one of the "Big Five" countries, along with France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, that are automatically prequalified for the final each year as they are the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 28 times since making its debut at the 1993 contest. Their entry has since 1993, excluding from 2012 to 2018, been selected at the Dora pop festival, an event organised by the national public broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). Croatia's best result in the contest is a fourth-place finish in 1996 and 1999.
Portugal has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 54 times since its debut at the 1964 contest. Since then it has missed five contests. The contest is broadcast in Portugal by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). Portugal won the contest for the first time in 2017 and hosted the 2018 contest in Lisbon.
Montenegro has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 12 times since its debut in 2007. Previously it had participated as part of Yugoslavia and as part of Serbia and Montenegro.
Barbara Maria Karel Deckx, better known by her stage name Barbara Dex, is a Belgian singer who represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 with the song "Iemand als jij".
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The You’re a Vision Award is a fan-voted accolade awarded annually to the "most remarkable outfit" in the Eurovision Song Contest. The award was created by the fansite Songfestival.be before the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, after it announced the discontinuation of the Barbara Dex Award created by The House of Eurovision in 1997. This was due to the negative connotation of the award because of its origins of deciding "the worst dressed look" in the contest and a desire to replace it with a more positively connotated accolade.