A review of past Eurovision winners’ career paths shows that victory does not guarantee success on the international charts. Which stars survived the day after, and who disappeared from public attention?
The victory in Eurovision — a blessing or a curse? On the one hand, there is no other stage in the world that delivers such massive exposure in a single night. On the other hand, the list of one-hit singers who won and disappeared is endless. Can a singer who takes first place really succeed in the tough international market, or are they doomed to remain forever inside the Eurovision archive? So we set out to examine why most winners are forgotten moments after the confetti falls, and how it is that those who arrived at the contest already as established stars are almost the only ones who managed to turn the trophy into a long-lasting career.
The aura surrounding Eurovision creates the illusion that the winner instantly becomes the king or queen of global music. In practice, reality shows that winning does not provide real added value in the tough international market. Most winners discover that victory is the peak of their career rather than its beginning, and those who remain in public memory are almost exclusively the artists who came to the contest already established stars in their own right.
A current example of the problematic path faced by winners can be seen with Johannes Pietsch, known by his stage name JJ, who won last year with the song “Wasted Love“. Despite his unique voice, in recent months he has made headlines mainly because of harsh statements against Israel, and less because of new music that conquered the charts. Walking the same path is Nemo Mettler, last year’s winner with the song “The Code“. Instead of leading the charts, Nemo’s name has been connected mainly to provocative behavior surrounding Israel’s participation, and as a result, also to revelations about his family’s problematic Nazi-era past.
It seems that for many winners, producing political headlines is the only way to remain relevant in the media, without these provocations, they would have disappeared completely from public consciousness, simply because they have not delivered a single meaningful musical headline since the moment of victory.
History teaches that only those who were already a “finished product” before the contest truly broke through. Céline Dion, who won for Switzerland in 1988 with the song “Ne Partez Pas Sans oi” (in English: “Don’t Leave Without Me”), was already a huge star in Canada before that. For her, Eurovision was only a stop along the way to a carefully planned global career. The same was true of ABBA, who won in 1974 with the song “Waterloo“. The band had already recorded local successes in Europe before its victory and used the stage to launch a finely tuned hit machine.
By contrast, artists who arrived as anonymous “promises” discovered that the fall was very fast. Loreen, who won twice, is a sharp example of this: despite the success of “Euphoria” in 2012 and “Tattoo” in 2023, she did not manage to create a sequence of international hits in the decade between them. Most of the songs she released during that period only stagnated on the Swedish local charts and failed to break into the global market. For the rest of the world, Loreen simply ceased to exist musically until she returned once again to the contest stage to relaunch her career.
On our local front, the story of Dana International is the most fascinating. The 1998 win with the song “Diva” opened doors for her to interviews on the world’s biggest talk shows and turned her into an international cultural icon because of her unique story. However, in the musical sense, Dana did not manage to replicate that success with a sequence of new international hits that conquered Europe, and her career remained focused mainly on the Israeli market and nostalgia performances. The same was true of Conchita Wurst, who won in 2014 with the song “Rise Like a Phoenix“, and his case is considered even sadder. Conchita also became a well-known figure because of his unique story, but only in the context of Eurovision, and he did not manage to create a single significant hit outside the contest framework. The fact is that since announcing his wish to part ways with the character and the Eurovision context, he has almost completely disappeared from the global music scene.
Ultimately, the data show that winning Eurovision has no real added value in building a long-term international career. The contest creates a powerful television moment, but the international market demands much more than a glass trophy. Those who manage to survive the test of time are the artists who were stars before they ever stepped onto the stage, while the rest of the winners are left to settle for an honorable place in the archive, or for desperate attempts to generate political headlines so their names will not be forgotten.
Finally, one cannot ignore the heavy psychological price paid by the winners. For young artists who are not established stars, victory quickly becomes a mental burden. Our star, Netta Barzilai, who conquered the world in 2018 with the song “Toy“, has shared more than once the feelings of depression and emptiness that followed her on the day after, when the adrenaline of 200 million viewers gave way to atomic pressure to live up to expectations.
Netta’s case is not unusual. Artists like Conchita Wurst or Salvador Sobral, who won in 2017, discovered that the trophy binds them to one specific persona, and instead of opening doors, it sometimes locks them inside a “golden cage”. Anyone who does not come with mental resilience and years of professional grounding in the field finds themselves collapsing under criticism and expectations. At the end of the day, for rookies, winning Eurovision is not the beginning of the road to happiness — it is the fastest road to burnout, depression, and forgetting.
Which leads to the question: is it even worth fighting for first place, or in today’s music industry, is it sometimes better to settle for a lower spot and give up the “trophy curse”?
Eurovision 2026: the 70th edition of the contest will take place in Vienna, Austria, on May 12th, 14th, and 16th, 2026. The Wiener Stadthalle arena, which will host the event, is expected to accommodate around 16,000 spectators per show. The contest returns to Austria following the nation’s third historic win with the song “Wasted Love”, performed by JJ. It will be Austria’s third time hosting Eurovision, after previous editions held in the country in 1967 and 2015.
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Ilay Gaist is a leading Israeli content creator and writer specializing in the Eurovision Song Contest. He is a well-known commentator with extensive expertise in the contest’s history, rules, and dynamics. His passion for Eurovision drives him to deliver rich, professional, and innovative content to his audience.
Ilay holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic and has a multilingual background. He also engages in cultural research, with a particular focus on global culinary traditions and the evolution of local cuisines around the world.
