OGAE
The Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision, shortened to OGAE, is a non-governmental and non-profit international organisation, consisting of 42 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs from across Europe and worldwide. It was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jaripekka Koikkalainen.
Four non-profit competitions are organised by the OGAE every year to promote national popular music to Eurovision fans around the world. The organisation also works frequently in co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union and national broadcasters from the participating countries in order to help promote the Eurovision Song Contest.
The current president of the OGAE International Network is Simon Bennett from OGAE United Kingdom, who succeeded Maiken Mäemets of OGAE Finland in 2015.
History
The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956, and in 1984 the OGAE International Network was founded by Jaripekka Koikkalainen in Savonlinna, Finland. The organisation, which is an independent Eurovision fan club, operates as a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit body, and works frequently in cooperation with the European Broadcasting Union. The network is open to countries that take part in the Eurovision Song Contest or have participated in the past. Several other countries around Europe and beyond that do not have their own independent OGAE Network, including Monaco, San Marino, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and the United States of America, participate in the organization under the "Rest of the World" title.Every year, the organisation arranges two competitions, the OGAE Second Chance Contest, and the OGAE Song Contest. The cooperative exercise of the OGAE Network is to raise awareness of popular national music across the world, in collaboration with the fans of the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as establishing a strong relationship between national broadcasting companies and the marketing of the Eurovision Song Contest itself to a wider fan-base.
In 2007, Antonis Karatzikos was elected as new International Coordinator for the OGAE, until 2009. In July 2009 he was re-elected for the same post. In 2011, OGAE International Network became a registered organisation in France, and Maiken Mäemets was elected president. She was re-elected for a second term on 17 May 2013 at the Euro Fan Café in Malmö, Sweden. During the annual OGAE Presidents’ Meeting, which took place on 22 May 2015 at the Euro Fan Café in Vienna, the presidents of the OGAE Clubs elected a new board for the OGAE International Network, who would maintain their roles until the next election in 2017.
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| President | Simon Bennett |  United KingdomOGAE branchesOGAE currently has forty-four members, including two in Germany. These are:
OGAE contestsOGAE PollThe Marcel Bezençon Fan Award was handed out in 2002 and 2003, and voted on by members of the OGAE. It was discontinued and replaced by the Composer Award in 2004.
Every year since 2007, the OGAE has conducted a pre-Eurovision Song Contest poll in which every national club plus OGAE Rest of the World casts a vote from all entries participating in a particular contest, using the same scoring system as the one at Eurovision: the most voted songs on each club receive 1 to 8, and then 10 and 12 points, and countries cannot vote for themselves. The winners of this poll are:
OGAE Second Chance ContestThe OGAE Second Chance Contest is a visual event organised by branches of OGAE. It began in 1987, when it was then known as "Europe's Favourite". Four OGAE branches competed in the first contest, coming from the,, and the. The contest quickly expanded and now usually contains around 20 countries competing each year. Due to the countries' varying Eurovision selection methods over the years, it is a common occurrence for countries to sporadically compete in the contest. The competition was previously a non-televised event, but evolved over the years by the usage of videotape and later DVD, YouTube and streaming services.The contest takes place in the summer after the year's Eurovision Song Contest. A video entry from each branch of OGAE is handed to each competing OGAE club. The votes are then returned to the organising OGAE branch, normally the previous year's winning branch, who then organises the final. The method of voting has developed since the contests interception, from audio-tape in the contest's beginnings to the use of video tape and nowadays by DVD and YouTube. Previously it had been known for non-televised national final entries to compete in the Second Chance Contest. This occurred from 1989 to 1991 when entered songs known to have been entered into the country's internal selection process. In 1990, 1991, 1998 and 1999 competed in the Second Chance Contest, entering the winning songs of the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, known to be the basis for the creation of the Eurovision Song Contest. After 1999, a new rule was introduced allowing only songs from televised national finals to compete in the Second Chance Contest. This has led to some branches becoming ineligible to compete for many years due to no national final being held in the country. Since 1993, guest juries have been used in the voting of the contest. These juries are composed of branches that are ineligible to compete in the contest due to no national final being held in their country. In 2024, Annalisa joined Alcazar as the only artists to win the contest twice.
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Esc|Sweden|y=1987Esc|Netherlands|y=1987Esc|Norway|y=1987NA|No third place awarded