Last time we explored which of this year’s lead artists have been involved before in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, one of the drivers of Six on Stage is to highlight the contributions of backing performers, so it’s time to look at which of the class of 2024’s other performers – dancers, backing vocalists and people dressed in bird costumes – have been involved before.
Once…
Seven backing performers have each had one previous appearance at Eurovision.
Three of Sweden’s dancers – this year’s Melodifestivalen house dancers, in fact – have taken part previously: Daniel Koivunen for Russia in 2011 (he was on a treadmill with Robin Bengtsson in the national final but didn’t go to Eurovision), and both Pauline Eddeborn and Kim Pastor for Malta’s Destiny in 2021.
Aiko’s off-stage singer Nikol Držmíšková performed the same role for We Are Domi in 2022, while Saba’s backing vocalist and Sand co-writer Melanie Wehbe was on stage with Michael Rice in 2019. Íris Hólm Jónsdóttir, who you’ll be surprised to hear is part of Team Iceland, previously did backing vocals in 2015 alongside Hera Björk.
The other dancer to have appeared once before is Jesse Wijnans, returning for Finland one year after doing the Cha Cha Cha with Käärijä.
Twice…
Three people have had supporting roles on two previous occasions – one of them as a winner.
Erasmia Markidi is providing backing vocals for Greece, having done so in 2017 and 2019. The fourth Melfest house dancer, Kenny Lantz, is finally on stage for Sweden – he previously danced alongside other Swedes for Cyprus’s Tamta in 2019 and for Switzerland’s Remo Forrer in 2023.
And returning from 2016’s winning team is Oleksandra Makarovska, once again singing for Ukraine, as she also did last year.
Four times…
Pamela Bezzina, a singer and vocal coach who has taken part as a contestant in Malta’s national final numerous times, is this year providing backing vocals for them for a fifth time.
She was on stage (as then required) in 2010, 2011 and 2016, and also part of the team in 2016 and 2018. In 2014, instead of singing she took part as a member of Malta’s professional jury.
Seven times!
Victoria Chalkitis is making her eighth appearance at Eurovision with off-stage backing vocals for Cyprus. She’s also serving as Silia Kapsis‘s vocal coach.
Victoria is an incredibly experienced backing vocalist, with those seven appearances stretching right back to 1993, when she sang for the first time for Greece. She joined them again in 1994 (alongside her father, Harris Chalkitis), 2008, 2012 and 2018.
She was part of the onstage team for Belarus in 2005 and would have sung vocals for Moldova in 2020 if the contest hadn’t been cancelled – she ended up supporting Natalia Gordienko in 2021 instead. Like Pamela Bezzina, she has been a national juror too, for Greece in 2022.
With a gap of 31 years once she’s sung for Cyprus next week, Victoria is second only to Ralph Siegel (34 years) as the performer with the longest gap between their first and most recent appearance at Eurovision.
Twelve times!
An update to this blog post as another backing singer has come to light who immediately knocks Victoria off the top spot: the legendary Dea Norberg! Dea performed backing vocals for Austria, now the fifth country she has represented at Eurovision after her native Sweden, Malta, Azerbaijan and Australia (for Dami Im!).
It’s fitting she returned the year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Take Me To Your Heaven as that was her first, victorious, appearance on the Eurovision stage. Returning this year moves her up to 5th in the table of longest gaps between first and last appearance, and moves her to joint 4th in the list of most countries represented.
She remains 3rd behind only brothers Georges and Michel Costa for most songs performed at Eurovision with 13!