Very few people around Europe and the middle East have never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest, or ESC for short. ESC is an annual television event, where 39 countries participate, with a song representing each country. The Event is transmitted live all over Europe and the Middle East, while also in several other countries, like Australia. People from the participating countries vote for their favourite songs (you cannot vote for your own country though) and at the end of the evening we have the winning song and country. The winnners get to organize the next ESC. ESC has an average of 500 million TV-viewers all over the world.