Four non-profit competitions are organised by the OGAE every year to promote national popular music to Eurovision fans around the world.

The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956, and in 1984 the OGAE International Network was founded by Jaripekka Koikkalainen in Savonlinna, Finland.

[1] 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 (EBU).

The network is open to countries that take part in the Eurovision Song Contest or have participated in the past.

[3] 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.

[5] In 2011, OGAE International Network became a registered organisation in France, and Maiken Mäemets was elected president.

[1][8] These are: Countries that do not have an OGAE Network in their own right, but are active or associate members of the EBU are unified under the name "Rest of the World".

[citation needed] Four OGAE branches competed in the first contest, coming from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

[13] 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.

After 1999, a new rule was introduced allowing only songs from televised national finals to compete in the Second Chance 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.

All OGAE national clubs can enter with an original song and video released in the previous 12 months in their countries.