The questions
1 Which Italian competition inspired Eurovision?
2 Who borrowed her book titles from Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard?
3 Q1 is the tallest building on which continent?
4 Whose GOM nickname was reversed to MOG?
5 What distinguishes a halophyte plant?
6 Aristarchus of Samos was the first to propose which theory?
7 In which river was a 300kg stingray found in June?
8 Which two Michael Caine films are named after African peoples?
What links:
9 Drill; mumble; road; snap; trap?
10 Smith; Norman (2); Baker-Finch; Nagle; Thomson (5)?
11 Sports bras; pet collars; meat-free sausages; anti-bacterial wipes?
12 Had; inland; man; pain; ran?
13 Sleeping Beauty; signalled October Revolution; northern lights?
14 Sam Ryan; Grayling Russell; Eve Lockhart; Kay Scarpetta?
15 Retinol; thiamine; ascorbic acid; calciferol?
The answers
1 Sanremo music festival.
2 Elif Batuman: The Possessed and The Idiot; Either/Or.
3 Oceania.
4 William Gladstone (Grand Old Man to Murderer of Gordon).
5 They grow in salty conditions.
6 Heliocentric model of known universe.
7 Mekong (largest freshwater fish ever found).
8 Zulu and Ashanti.
9 Modern rap subgenres.
10 Australian winners of golf’s Open championship.
11 Added to the consumer prices index “basket” in 2022.
12 Add a letter to make a country: Chad; Finland; Oman; Spain; Iran.
13 Aurora: in ballet and Disney film; Cruiser in Petrograd, 1917; aurora borealis.
14 Fictional pathologists: Silent Witness; Inspector Morse; Waking the Dead; Patricia Cornwell books.
15 Alternative names for vitamins: A; B1; C; D.