Monegasque broadcaster TMC has confirmed to esctoday.com that Monaco will not return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 in Israel. This will be the principality’s thirteenth consecutive year of non-participation.

One key reason is possibly that the Monegasque broadcaster is no longer a public broadcaster. Indeed, whilst TMC remains a European Broadcasting Union member, the channel is part of the TF1 group. The TF1 group is the largest private French broadcaster and owns 80 percent of the channel, with the remaining 20 percent belonging to the Principality. Now, TMC focuses on broadcasting French programmes to the French public.

Monaco won the Eurovision Song Contest once, in 1971. Parisian-born singer Séverine represented the Principality with the song Un banc, un arbre, une rue. Scoring 128 points, Séverine took victory by 12 points ahead of second-placed Karina from Spain.

Monaco made its debut in the contest in 1959, finishing 11th and last. However, Monaco was largely successful at the contest, only placing outside the top ten on five occasions between 1959 and 1979. In 1980, TMC withdrew from the contest, not returning until 2004.