The participants

Any member- state, leagued in the European Broadcasting Union , even if a country is geographically outside the boundaries of Europe, may participate in the Contest. As an example we could name Marocco,the North African country, took participation in the Contest in 1980, or Israel which so far annually forwards its representatives to the Contest.

In total at various times the following 51 countries participated in this Contest: Azerbaijan, Austria, Albania,Andorra,Armenia, Belarus, Belguim, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina,  United Kingdom, Hungary, Germany,Greece,Georgia, Denmark,Israel, Ireland, Iceland,Spain,Italy,Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Marocco, Moldavia, Monaco, Serbia,Serbia and x, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, San-Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia and Yugoslavia.

Yet 8 more countries ( Jordan, Lebanon, Vatican, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Liechtenstein and Tunisia) have rights to participate in Eurovision Song Contest, but never showed any willing to do so. In 2005 Lebanon applied for participation, but later called it back. In 2008 Azerbaijan and San-Marino made fisrt appearance at the Eurovision stage in Belgrad.

In 2011 the following 43 countries took participation in the Contest:

Moldova
Russia
Estonia
Slovakia
Finland
Latvia
Serbia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Poland
Belgium
Malta
Albania
Greece
Portugal
FYR Macedonia
Belarus
Iceland
Lithuania
Armenia
Israel
Denmark
Switzerland
Sweden
Azerbaijan
Ukraine
The Netherlands
Romania
Slovenia
Ireland
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Croatia
Georgia
Turkey
Spain
Norway
United Kingdom
France
Germany
Austria
San-Marino
Hungary
Italy

The countries, formely participated in the Contest, but for now do not take participation in it:
Luxembourg, Monaco, Marocco, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Andorra.