<P> Sixty - five songs have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union . The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in 1956, is one of the longest - running television programmes in the world . The contest's winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history; centre to these have been the awarding of points to countries by juries or televoters . The country awarded the most points is declared the winner . The first Eurovision Song Contest was not won on points, but by votes (two per country), and only the winner was announced . </P> <P> There have been 62 contests, with one winner each year except the tied 1969 contest, which had four . Twenty - seven different countries have won the contest . Switzerland won the first contest in 1956 . The country with the highest number of wins is Ireland, with seven . The only person to have won more than once as performer is Ireland's Johnny Logan, who performed "What's Another Year" in 1980 and "Hold Me Now" in 1987 . Logan is also one of only five songwriters to have written more than one winning entry ("Hold Me Now" 1987 and "Why Me?" 1992, performed by Linda Martin). This unique distinction makes Logan the only person to have three Eurovision victories to his / her credit, as either singer, songwriter or both . The other four songwriters with more than one winning entry to their credit are, Willy van Hemert (Netherlands, 1957 and 1959), Yves Dessca (Monaco, 1971 and Luxembourg, 1972), Rolf Løvland (Norway, 1985 and 1995) and Brendan Graham (Ireland, 1994 and 1996). </P> <P> Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a unique opportunity for the winning artist (s) to capitalise on their success and surrounding publicity by launching or furthering their international career . However, throughout the history of the contest, relatively few of these artists have gone on to be huge international stars . The most notable winning Eurovision artists whose career was directly launched into the spotlight following their win were the members of ABBA, who won the 1974 contest for Sweden with their song "Waterloo". ABBA went on to be one of the most successful bands of its time . Another notable winner who subsequently achieved international fame and success was Céline Dion, who won the 1988 contest for Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi". </P>

Who has won the most eurovision song contests