Digital techniques like projection mapping, holograms and interactive performance now define the Eurovision contest’s production values. But this year’s UK act Look Mum No Computer has a more retro approach to technology.
A musician and YouTuber, Look Mum No Computer builds experimental synths from vintage equipment, sometimes even parts from toys and games consoles. His past projects include synths built into Sega Megadrives and Gibson Les Paul guitars, an orchestra of Star Wars robots, and his most popular YouTube video, a Furby orchestra.
Working for the past two years on our book Designing Eurovision: Performance Scenography on an International Stage, we have had the opportunity to track the history of Eurovision design and its current innovations.
Eurovision’s rules on musical performance and on-stage instruments would not always have accommodated an act like Look Mum No Computer, who tours with his own modular synth. In its early days in the late 1950s and 60s, all entries had to be performed by a live concert orchestra – limiting how far composers could follow transatlantic rock’n’roll trends.
The contest’s rules are determined by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which has overseen the annual contest for its member broadcasters since 1956. In 1973, the EBU began allowing prerecorded backing tracks, but insisted all instruments had to appear on stage. This rule allowed bands, like Yugoslavia’s Korni Grupa in 1974, to perform with their guitars and drums or to combine these with orchestral accompaniment like ABBA’s winning 1974 performance.
Electronic dance music was not such an easy fit when it started appearing in the 1990s. In 1996, the requirement for all instruments to be on camera meant Gina G’s UK entry Ooh Aah, Just A Little Bit had to bring PCs on stage.
Phasing out live orchestras altogether after 1998 upset some fans but modernised Eurovision’s sound. This move gave contest producers more space to employ new digital stage technologies, including video walls and LED floors. These made the broadcast more spectacular but dramatically increased its costs and environmental impact. It also caused issues of competitiveness since better-funded nations could invest in high-end digital staging with international creative teams, while those with lower budgets must be much more resourceful to be competitive.
Well before this transformation into a mega-event, however, musical instruments that were likely new to many Eurovision audiences were made focal points in how performances were staged. Switzerland’s 1976 entry by acoustic folk band Peter, Sue and Marc featured a clown playing a barrel organ. The Guadeloupian steel drums on Joëlle Ursull’s 1990 French entry White And Black Blues anticipated the staging of many percussion-driven pop acts that used traditional ethnic instruments in the 2000s.
Since on-stage instruments are played to prerecorded tracks and not wired for sound, Eurovision performances can feel different for instrumentalists than vocalists, who must always sing live – one rule that has endured throughout Eurovision’s history. All backing vocals also had to be live until 2021, when the EBU first allowed recorded backing during COVID.
Instruments on stage today are part of a much more complex scenography, harnessing the latest in lighting and digital design. The Norwegian folk metal band Gåte in 2024 presented a full digital spectacle, including video wall effects of crashing waves, dramatic lighting, and camera angle switches synced to their drum blasts. It also included the physical feat of guitarist Magnus Børmark throwing his instrument two metres into the air.
Eurovision’s “liveness” as a broadcast depends on complex technical programming and weeks of rehearsal to ensure every version of a contest performance is consistent, and meets competition rules. Asking how Look Mum No Computer’s work might translate to the Eurovision stage underlines how the contest’s relationships between musical instruments and digital design can make us reflect on what makes performances live and how technology has helped to visualise sound.
