Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 "Awakening"
Semi-final date	19 May 2005
Final date	21 May 2005
Presenter(s)	Maria Efrosinina Pavlo Shylko
Director	Sven Stojanovic
Host broadcaster	NTU
Venue	Palace of Sports Kiev, Ukraine
Winning song	Greece "My Number One"
Voting system
Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Number of entries	39
Debuting countries	Bulgaria  Moldova
Returning countries	Hungary
Withdrawing countries	None
Nul points	None
Opening act
Ruslana performing a medley of "Wild Dances" and "Heart on Fire"
Interval act
Ruslana performing "The Same Star" Kiev Percussion Ensemble ARS NOVA Anatolly Zalevskiy
Participation Map      Participating participants     Countries who did not qualify for the final     Non-participants that have entered in the past
Eurovision Song Contest
◄2004        2006►

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th Eurovision Song Contest, which was held at the Palace of Sports, Kiev, Ukraine. The winner was Greece's My Number One, performed by singer Helena Paparizou, who scored 230 points, while Malta's Angel written and performed by Chiara was the runner up with 192 points and the 3rd place went to Romania's "Let Me Try". The contest took place on 19 May for the semifinal and 21 May 2005 for the final. Organizers hoped that this event would boost Ukraine's image abroad and increase tourism, while the country's new government hoped that it would also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring European Union membership.

Overview

Maria "Masha" Efrosinina and DJ Pavlo "Pasha" Shylko, the presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005.

The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the country's flag in the heart being changed. Following Istanbul's 'Under The Same Sky', the slogan for the 2005 show was 'Awakening', which symbolised the awakening of the country and city ready to present itself to Europe. The postcards (short clips shown between performances) for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine’s culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country.

The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev were television presenter Maria "Masha" Efrosinina and DJ Pavlo "Pasha" Shylko. Previous winner Ruslana returned to the stage in Kiev to perform in the interval act and to interview the contestants backstage in the 'green room'. The famous Ukrainian boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko opened the televoting, while a special trophy was presented to the winner by Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko.

Publicity

An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, which contains heart-shaped pins with the flags of all thirty-nine participating countries. The EBU also commissioned a book "The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History" by British/American author John Kennedy O'Connor to celebrate the contest's fiftieth anniversary.^[1] The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13 (Serbia and Montenegro, Denmark). The book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish.

During the semi final, there were a few volume falls in the sound, most notably during the Norwegian song, shortly after the intro. These were not fixed for the DVD release.

Contestants

Helena Paparizou, the winner of the Contest for Greece, performing "My Number One".

The newcomers to the Contest were Bulgaria and Moldova, while Hungary returned after a hiatus since their last entry in the 1998 contest. Lebanon was also expected to make a début with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit", performed by Aline Lahoud, but was forced to withdraw after announcing they would show commercials over the Israeli entry.^[2] Many of the favourites with bookmakers; notably Iceland, Belarus, and the Netherlands; failed to qualify from the semifinal in perhaps the biggest shock of the year's contest. It is also notable that Ireland, the only seven-time Eurovision winner, failed to qualify for the final. In the final itself, the host Ukraine along with the so-called 'Big 4' (Spain, United Kingdom, France, and Germany - the biggest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union, who automatically qualify) occupied the bottom five places of the scoreboard.

Problems

GreenJolly's "Razom nas bahato", the host country's entry, was used as an unofficial political anthem during the Ukrainian Orange Revolution.

2005 was no exception for scandals regarding the representatives from the countries participating. Germany's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest rejected calls to quit after her producer admitted manipulating the country's pop charts with mass purchases of her single. Gracia Baur, defended her producer David Brandes, also behind Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja, and said she would go to the finals in Kiev despite complaints from other German singers. Bulgaria's debut was overshadowed by a scandal. The song "Lorraine" by Kaffe was accused of plagiarism. The song sounded too similar to another one released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001. There were also problems in Malta with the electricity supply during the contest, so TV viewers were unable to watch their national selection from the very beginning. There was a controversy regarding the Turkish entry: TRT got a false jury which led to the victory of the song Gülseren, which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice. There were similar controversies in Macedonia which led to an eventual victory for Martin Vučić. The Ukrainian song had to be changed because it would bring a political message to the people, and EBU stated that no politics could be involved in the contest. The entry for Serbia and Montenegro was also overshadowed by a scandal and an accusation of plagiarism. Portugal's entry, "Amar", had had very poor sound quality, with the female singer's microphone failing many times on stage.

It is also notable that the programme lasted just short of 3.5 hours. This was mainly due to the extremely long voting procedure, where 39 countries voted, reading out every single score. Many people, including United Kingdom commentator Terry Wogan, noticed this and commented about the marathon-like voting procedure. Because the show overran so badly, the EBU changed the way the votes were announced in 2006 into a much shorter method, where only the top 3 scores were read out (the rest appeared on the scoreboard automatically).

Ruslana was also intended to be a presenter for the show, but was pulled out before the contest for numerous reasons, including her poor English skills. She did do a few brief interviews in the green room at a few different stages in the event.

Individual Entries

Luminiţa Anghel & Sistem performing "Let Me Try" for Romania.

Participating countries

Semi-final

The semi-final was held on 19 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET). 25 countries performed and all 39 participants voted.

Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	English translation	Place	Points
01	Austria	English, Spanish	Global.Kryner	"Y así"	Like that	21	30
02	Lithuania	English	Laura and The Lovers	"Little by Little"	—	25	17
03	Portugal	English, Portuguese	2B	"Amar"	To love	17	51
04	Moldova	English, Romanian	Zdob şi Zdub	"Boonika bate doba"	Grandmamma beats the drum	2	207
05	Latvia	English	Walters and Kazha	"The War is not Over"	—	10	85
06	Monaco	French	Lise Darly	"Tout de moi"	All of me	24	22
07	Israel	English, Hebrew	Shiri Maimon	"Hasheket Shenish'ar" (השקט שנשאר)	The silence that remains	7	158
08	Belarus	English	Angelica Agurbash	"Love me Tonight"	—	13	67
09	Netherlands	English	Glennis Grace	"My Impossible Dream"	—	14	53
10	Iceland	English	Selma	"If I Had Your Love"	—	16	52
11	Belgium	French	Nuno Resende	"Le grand soir"	The big night	22	29
12	Estonia	English	Suntribe	"Let's Get Loud"	—	20	31
13	Norway	English	Wig Wam	"In My Dreams"	—	6	164
14	Romania	English	Luminiţa Anghel and Sistem	"Let Me Try"	—	1	235
15	Hungary	Hungarian	NOX	"Forogj, világ!"	Spin, world	5	167
16	Finland	English	Geir Rönning	"Why?"	—	18	50
17	Macedonia	English	Martin Vučić	"Make My Day"	—	9	97
18	Andorra	Catalan	Marian van de Wal	"La mirada interior"	The inner glance	23	27
19	Switzerland	English	Vanilla Ninja	"Cool Vibes"	—	8	114
20	Croatia	Croatian	Boris Novković feat Lado Members	"Vukovi umiru sami"	Wolves die alone	4	169
21	Bulgaria	English	Kaffe	"Lorraine"	—	19	49
22	Ireland	English	Donna and Joe	"Love?"	—	14	53
23	Slovenia	Slovene	Omar Naber	"Stop"	—	12	69
24	Denmark	English	Jakob Sveistrup	"Talking to You"	—	3	185
25	Poland	Polish, Russian	Ivan and Delfin	"Czarna dziewczyna"	Black-Haired Girl	11	81

Malta's Chiara Siracusa performing "Angel".

Final

The finalists were:

• the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
• the top 10 countries from the 2004 final (other than the automatic qualifiers);
• the top 10 countries from the 2005 semi-final.

The final was held on 21 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Greece.

Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 Final.

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	English translation	Place	Points
01	Hungary	Hungarian	NOX	"Forogj, világ!"	Spin, World	12	97
02	United Kingdom	English	Javine	"Touch My Fire"	-	22	18
03	Malta	English	Chiara	"Angel"	-	2	192
04	Romania	English	Luminiţa Anghel and Sistem	"Let Me Try"	-	3	158
05	Norway	English	Wig Wam	"In My Dreams"	-	9	125
06	Turkey	Turkish	Gülseren	"Rimi Rimi Ley"	-	13	92
07	Moldova	English, Romanian	Zdob şi Zdub	"Boonika bate doba"	Grandmamma Beats The Drum	6	148
08	Albania	English	Ledina Çelo	"Tomorrow I Go"	-	16	53
09	Cyprus	English	Constantinos Christoforou	"Ela Ela (Come Baby)"	-	18	46
10	Spain	Spanish	Son de Sol	"Brujería"	Witchcraft	21	28
11	Israel	English, Hebrew	Shiri Maimon	"Hasheket Shenish'ar" (השקט שנשאר)	The Silence That Remains	4	154
12	Serbia and Montenegro	Montenegrin [3]	No Name	"Zauvijek moja"	Forever Mine	7	137
13	Denmark	English	Jakob Sveistrup	"Talking to You"	-	9	125
14	Sweden	English	Martin Stenmarck	"Las Vegas"	-	19	30
15	Macedonia	English	Martin Vučić	"Make My Day"	-	17	52
16	Ukraine	English, Ukrainian	GreenJolly	"Razom nas bahato" (Разом нас багато)	Together We Are Many	19	30
17	Germany	English	Gracia Baur	"Run and Hide"	-	24	4
18	Croatia	Croatian	Boris Novković	"Vukovi umiru sami"	Wolves Die Alone	11	115
19	Greece	English	Elena Paparizou	"My Number One"	-	1	230
20	Russia	English	Natalia Podolskaya	"Nobody Hurt No One"	-	15	57
21	Bosnia and Herzegovina	English	Feminnem	"Call Me"	-	14	79
22	Switzerland	English	Vanilla Ninja	"Cool Vibes"	-	8	128
23	Latvia	English	Walters and Kazha	"The War Is Not Over"	-	5	153
24	France	French	Ortal	"Chacun pense à soi"	Everyone Thinks of Themselves	23	11

Note that Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from the 2006 contest and so their automatic spot in the final was given to Croatia.

Score sheet

The EBU introduced an undisclosed threshold number of televotes that would have to be registered in each voting country in order to make that country's votes valid. If that number was not reached, the country's backup jury would vote instead. In the final this affected Monaco, Andorra and Moldova but in the semi final, Andorra, Monaco and Albania all used the backup jury for this reason.

Semi-final

		Televoting Results
	Austria	30																		7	6				10						5						1	1
	Lithuania	17					8																	5				4
	Portugal	51											10								12												5				12				12
	Moldova	207	8	10	8		10		10	10		8	4	5	1	12	6	3	10			4	6	3	7		6	5		12	3	8	1	6		12		6	12	6	5
	Latvia	85		12	4				6	7		2		10	3							7		6	6	5			12			2				2			1
	Monaco	22				2														10																					10
	Israel	158		2	6	5		12		12	10		3			8	5	1	1	12	3		4	7		4	4	6	6	6	7	3	4	3		5	3		8		8
	Belarus	67		3			3	1	2										6				12				1		7	3		7				4		8	10
	Netherlands	53						8	5				12			1				5	2			4		6		2	8
	Iceland	52				10			4						8					6						10		3					2		7						2
	Belgium	29			12	3					6																				1										7
	Estonia	31		5		1	12										1	6						1	2	3
	Norway	164	2	6	1	8	6		7	5	2	12	2	6		7		12	2		5		2	10	3	12	7	7	3	2	2	4		4	8	6		4		7
	Romania	235	10		10	12		7	12	3	8	5	8	1	7		12	4	5	4	4	1	5	8	1	7	8	8	10	7		12	12	5	5	1	7	12	3	5	6
	Hungary	167	7		7		5		8	4		7	6	4	6	10		5	4	1	1	8	7		4	1	12	1	2	8		6	3	8	3	10		5	7	3	4
	Finland	50						6			1			8	10					3						8									10		4
	Macedonia	97	4					3			3					4					8	12	10		8					10	12			10	1		2			10
	Andorra	27				4					7																				6		10
	Switzerland	114	1	8	2		7	2	3	8		6		12	2	2	3	10	3			3	3	2	5	2	5		1			5		2	4		6	3	2	2
	Croatia	169	12	4	3	6	4	5		1	4	4	1	3	4	6	8	2	12		10		8		12		3				10			12	6	7	10			12
	Bulgaria	49				7													8											5	4	10	6	1				7		1
	Ireland	53												2		5	10			2		5	1				2	12	5	4		1								4
	Slovenia	69	3					4	1	2		1					2	7	7			10									8			7		3			6	8
	Denmark	185	6	7	5		2	10			12	10	7	7	12	3	7	8		8	7	6		12			10	10	4				8		12		5	2	4		1
	Poland	81	5	1			1			6	5	3	5		5		4					2								1			7		2	8	8	10	5		3

Final

		Televoting Results
	Hungary	97				8		6			7	5	8	6			1	2		6	2	3	1		3	3			2		2		6	2	3		6	5			10
	United Kingdom	18			4			1			5																												8
	Malta	192	5	10		2	10	8		4	6	7	10		10	6		10	8	4	8	12		3	5	7	5	2		5	5	5	4	8	4	8			10	1
	Romania	158	10		7		6	4	7	5	8	12	12	3	3	2	2				5		2			5	6		12	4	1	3	5	7			7	8	5		7
	Norway	125		5	5				3		3	3	1	2	12	8		6			4		3		6			5			4	1	12	3	8	12	2	1	4	4	8
	Turkey	92		1		3				8					8		4		10				8	6		12	7					12		10				3
	Moldova	148	4	2	2	12		7			2	4	4	5			5	12	1	1	7	10	4		8	2	2	10	10		7		8	1	6			6		3	3
	Albania	53						2						8			12			2	10		5	10		1	3
	Cyprus	46		3	12	1				7				1							12																	10
	Spain	28																						4		4			8								12
	Israel	154	8	7	8	7	5	3	6	3		6			5	1		7	5			8		1	2	10	1	3	5	12	8	7		6	1	5	8		6
	Serbia and Montenegro	137	2			6			1	6	10					4	10	3	3	12	6	6	10	12	1	6	12			6	3	4						4		10
	Denmark	125	6	8	3	4	12					10	3			10			6						4			4	1	10		8	10	4	5	2	3		7		5
	Sweden	30					1		5			2			7		6													3						6
	Macedonia	52						5		10				7						8			7	2						1								7		5
	Ukraine	30							8			1										2							7												12
	Germany	4							2																					2
	Croatia	115	7			5	2			2				10			8	8	2			1	12	8	7		8	6		7		2	1		2	1		2		12	2
	Greece	230	12	12	6	10	4	12	4	12	12	8	7	12	2	12	7		12	5		4	6	7		8	4	1	3			10	2	12		3	4	12	2	2	1
	Russia	57							10									4							10			7			12				7	7
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	79		4			7	10						4	4	7	3			10				5			10					6							1	8
	Switzerland	128	3		1		3				4		2		1	5		5	4	3	3	7			12			8	4	8	10		7		12	10	1		3	6	6
	Latvia	153	1	6	10		8		12		1		6		6	3		1	7	7	1	5						12	6		6		3	5	10	4	10		12	7	4
	France	11								1			5																								5

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

Commentators

•  Poland - Artur Orzech
•  Ireland - Marty Whelan^[4]
•  United Kingdom - Terry Wogan (Final TV), Paddy O'Connell (Semi Final TV), Ken Bruce (Final Radio)
•  Portugal - Eládio Climaco
•  Spain - Beatriz Pécker
•  Iceland - Gísli Marteinn Baldursson (Spokeperson for Iceland; Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir)
•  Germany - Peter Urban

Returning artists

The four returning artists for 2005: Constantinos Christoforou, Chiara, Selma and Elena Paparizou.

Four artists who had previously taken part in the contest returned in 2005, giving both success and failure: Greece's Elena Paparizou and Malta's Chiara both returned after coming third in previous contests (in 2001 and 1998 respectively), and made up the top two places in the final. The Cypriot entry Constantinos Christoforou returned after coming ninth in 1996 and sixth in 2002 (as a member of the group One), however he wasn't able to replicate his past success, placing 18th in the final. Selma returned for Iceland after being runner-up in 1999, however she too failed to replicate her past success, failing to qualify from the semi-final.

Artist	Country	Previous Year(s)
Constantinos Christoforou	Cyprus	1996, 2002 (part of One)
Elena Paparizou	Greece	2001 (part of Antique)
Selma	Iceland	1999
Chiara	Malta	1998

Gallery

Ledina Çelo performing "Tomorrow I Go" for Albania	Marian van de Wal performing "La mirada interior" for Andorra	Global Kryner performing "Y así" for Austria	Angelica Agurbash performing "Love Me Tonight" for Belarus	Nuno Resende performing "Le grand soir" for Belgium
Feminnem performing "Call Me" for Bosnia & Herzegovina	Kaffe performing "Lorraine" for Bulgaria	Boris Novković performing "Vukovi umiru sami" for Croatia	Constantinos Christoforou performing "Ela Ela (Come Baby)" for Cyprus	Jakob Sveistrup performing "Talking To You" for Denmark
Suntribe performing "Let's Get Loud" for Estonia	Geir Rönning performing "Why?" for Finland	Ortal performing "Chacun pense à soi" for France	Gracia Baur performing "Run and Hide" for Germany	Helena Paparizou performing "My Number One" for Greece
NOX performing "Forogj, világ!" for Hungary	Selma performing "If I Had Your Love" for Iceland	Donna and Joe performing "Love?" for Ireland	Shiri Maimon performing "Hasheket Shenish'ar" for Israel	Walters & Kazha performing "The War Is Not Over" for Latvia
Laura & The Lovers performing "Little by Little" for Lithuania	Martin Vučić performing "Make My Day" for Macedonia	Chiara performing "Angel" for Malta	Zdob şi Zdub performing "Boonika bate doba" for Moldova	Lise Darly performing "Tout de moi" for Monaco
Glennis Grace performing "My Impossible Dream" for the Netherlands	Wig Wam performing "In My Dreams" for Norway	Ivan & Delvin performing "Czarna dziewczyna" for Poland	2B performing "Amar" for Portugal	Luminiţa Anghel & Sistem performing "Let Me Try" for Romania
Natalia Podolskaya performing "Nobody Hurt No One" for Russia	No Name performing "Zauvijek moja" for Serbia & Montenegro	Omar Naber performing "Stop" for Slovenia	Son de Sol performing "Brujería" for Spain	Martin Stenmarck performing "Las Vegas" for Sweden
Vanilla Ninja performing "Cool Vibes" for Switzerland	Gülseren performing "Rimi Rimi Ley" for Turkey	GreenJolly performing "Razom nas bahato" for Ukraine	Javine performing "Touch My Fire" for the United Kingdom	Ruslana performing "The Same Star" during the interval act

See also

• Eurovision Song Contest 2005, Kiev - The album
• The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History by John Kennedy O'Connor. Carlton Books, UK ISBN 978-1844429943

References

External links

• Official Eurovision site
• Eurovision 2005 Song Contest
• Information About Eurovision 2005 Song Contest in Kiev