Eurovision continues to unite states
11 May 2017 at 17:40 CESTWhilst the United States has never participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, the competition has seen a fair share of American singers take to the stage. Let's start in 2017 as this year Detroit-born singer Jimmie Wilson represents San Marino alongside Valentina Monetta with the song Spirit Of The Night.
Italy's duo in 1975: Wess (Wesley Johnson) was born in North Carolina and moved to Italy in the 1960s. For a while he teamed up with Dori Ghezzi with whom he competed at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, placing 3rd with the song Era.
An American winner
To date there has only been one American winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. Katrina Leskanich was born in Kansas but moved to the United Kingdom in 1976. She won the contest on behalf of the UK in 1997 in Dublin with her band Katrina & The Waves and the song Love Shine A Light.
New York, New York
At the turn of the new millenium, Austria was represented by the Rounder Girls in the Eurvision Song Contest in the year 2000. One of the singers in the trio was Kim Cooper from Long Island, New York.
Also hailing from New York is Kalomira who represented Greece in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest with Secret Combination placing third in Belgrade.
Sue Schell was the main vocalist in the Swiss group Peter, Sue & Marc which represented the alpine nation on four occasions: 1971, 1976, 1979 and 1981. She was also born in New York.
Annet Artani is a Greek-American singer and songwriter born in New York. She co-wrote the Britney Spears' hit Everytime and went on to represent Cyprus in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens with the song Why Angels Cry.
More recently Ándras Kallay-Saunders represented Hungary, his mum's birthplace, even though he was born in New York. he placed 5th with Running.
American models in Eurovision
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Jeane Manson represented Luxembourg in the 1979 Eurovision in Jerusalem with J'ai Déjà Vu Ça Dans Tes Yeux. She moved to France after she appeared in Playboy magazine in 1974.
Germany made an internal selection for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Alex Swings Oscar Sings was the moniker used by Alex Christensen and California-born Oscar Loya. On stage in Moscow they were accompanied by the American burlesque artist Dita Von Teese.
Natalia Kelly represented Austria in 2013 but she was born in Connecticut. She kicked off the shows in Malmö with her song Shine.
The trio that represented Germany in 1977, Silver Convention, included American-born vocalist Rhonda Heath who was also a backing singer for Austria in 1985 and, again for Germany, in 1994.
If we mention the name Tamara Wimer maybe it won't ring a bell, but as Isis Gee, Tamara represented Poland in Belgrade in 2008 reaching the Final with the song For Life.
Let's go back to 1980s and mention Debbie Cameron, who was born in Miami, Florida. She moved to the nordic country in 1978 and represented them in 1981 as part of a duo with Tommy Seebach in the song Krøller Eller Ej. Hannah Mancini was another American in Malmö and she performed Straight Into Love.
In 1989, the band Park Café represented Luxembourg with the song Monsieur. The main vocalist of the band was Maggie Park, who was also born in the US. The most recent American singer we found in the past editions of the Eurovision Song Contest represented Armeniain the band Genealogy in 2015 in Vienna, Tamar Kaprelian.
Tonight the second Semi-Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest takes place where Jimmie Wilson will be the latest American artist step onto the Eurovision stage.