A short history of OGAE and all the contests

Hello, if you’re new, hi and welcome. If you’re not new and came across this page looking for answers about all things OGAE and the contests, hello to you too!!

After our last Member Survey, we found that some members are a little confused about who and what OGAE is and why we have these four OGAE branded contests during the year. 

So what is OGAE exactly?

In short, OGAE stands for Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision in French, or General Organisation of Eurovision Fans in English, and it was founded in 1984 in Finland as a way to bring fan clubs from all over the world under one big international umbrella. 

OGAE International is the non-governmental and nonprofit organisation that looks after over 40 Clubs from all over the world, from Albania to the United Kingdom, and the Rest of the World (who primarily look after countries without their own Clubs or countries that do not take part in Eurovision, but anyone can be a part of ROW or any other Club for that matter). 

OGAE International also has a strong working relationship with the European Broadcasting Union, as well as national broadcasting networks and puts on four contests each year, but more about that in a sec. The OGAEI Board has an AGM with all Club Presidents at least once a year, usually around the time of Eurovision. They also work on projects within the network, and yes, that includes the very sought after Eurovision ticket allocation. 

So what about us and how do we fit in?

In December 2015, ESCFAN Incorporated (Eurovision Song Contest Fans of Australia Network) was born and in 2017, 18 months after we officially joined the Eurovision Song Contest, ESCFAN was allowed into the OGAE network so we adopted another name: OGAE Australia. We’re known as both, don’t let that confuse you too much. 

What about those Contests?

As part of the OGAE Network, we as OGAE Australia have four main contests that we take part in: OGAE Song Poll, OGAE Second Chance, OGAE Song Contest, and OGAE Video Contest. 

These contests run the same way every year:

• The previous winning country hosts the next year

• All Clubs have a nomination and voting phase 

-  Nominations usually take place for all contests, except for Song Poll

-  Voting phase is when all members of their OGAE Clubs are able to vote for their choices

• The voting results are then tallied and sent to the host Club with a results video

• The results are then tallied up by the host Club and a winner is announced and the cycle begins again 

Note that all results are weighted equally so smaller Clubs are not disadvantaged for being small and larger Clubs don’t have more say. 

OGAE Song Poll takes place prior to Eurovision (usually April)

OGAE Second Chance takes place after Eurovision (usually August)

OGAE Song Contest (not to be confused with the Song Poll) takes place in November

OGAE Video Contest takes place in December

OGAE Song Poll is a way for OGAE Club to play like a guest jury and together we try to predict who will win Eurovision and it has been running in its current format since 2007. We as Clubs have  sometimes got it right (2007, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2018) but also there are times we have gotten it wrong. For example in 2021, all the OGAE Clubs picked Malta as a winner prior to the contest. 

OGAE Second Chance has been running since 1987 and is a way for Clubs to send songs from their countries national finals to give the songs a “second chance” at glory. For example we sent Electric Fields in 2019 and Jaguar Jonze in 2020 to this contest. As we did not have a national final in 2021, we are playing the role as guest jury, as we did in 2017 and 2018 as we didn’t have Australia Decides. The 2021 Contest is being hosted by OGAE Sweden. 

OGAE Song Contest has been running since 1986 and is a way to showcase music from your country to other OGAE Clubs. The artist doesn’t have to be a Eurovision artist, but they need to be a citizen to their country, sing in their native language and the song must have been released from the 1st January the previous year. OGAE Australia won the contest in 2017 with Dami Im’s Fighting for Love and we hosted in 2018. The 2021 Contest is being run by OGAE UK. 

OGAE Video Contest has been running since 2003 and as the title suggests, it’s for the best video by any artist who is a citizen of their country and in their native language. You can’t send the same song from Song Contest and the video must not exceed a certain time limit. The 2021 Contest is hosted by OGAE Sweden. 

Have we made that any clearer? Do you want to know more? Want to help out with any of these contests? Please email us at info at escfan.com.au