Helena Paparizou
Final date: May 21th, 2005
Venue: Palace of Sports,Kiev, Ukraine
Presenters: Maria Efrosinina, Pavlo Shylko
Director: Sven Stojanovic
Scruteneer: Svante Stockselius
Host broadcaster: NTU
Opening act Semi-final: Ukranian artists
Opening act final: Ruslana
Interval act Semi-final: Irina Mazur
Interval act Final: Ruslana
Duration Semi-final: 2 hours, 18 minutes
Duration Final: 3 hours, 26 minutes
Number of entries: 39
Debuting countries: Bulgaria, Moldova
Returning countries: Hungary
Withdrawing countries: -
Winning Song: My number one - Helena Paparizou, Greece
Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
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, written by Greek singer-songwriters Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou and performed by Swedish-born Greek singer Elena 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.
Overwiew
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 for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine’s culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country.
Constantinos Christoforou
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 50th anniversary. 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.
Participating countries
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. 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, the first (and only) time in Eurovision history such a thing happened to those countries.
Glennis Grace
Problems
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, when Russia voted he stated How more countries we got? What time is it?. 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 opened the contest, and did do a few brief interviews in the green room at a few different stages in the event.
Donna and Joe
Voting
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.
Returning countries
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.
Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (member of the Herreys, Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Composer Award.
Artists Award: Greece, Helena Paparizou - My number one
Composer Award: Serbia & Montenegro, Sauvek tvoja - Slaven Knezovic & Milan Peric
Press Award: Malta: Chiara - Angel
Omar Naber
Semi-final
Semi-finalThe semi-final was held on 19 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET). 25 countries performed and all 39 participants voted.
01. Austria: Global Kryner - Y asi (21st place, 30 points)
02. Lithuania: Laura & the Lovers - Little by little (25th place, 17 points)
03. Portugal: 2B - amar (17th place, 51 points)
04. Moldova: Zdob şi Zdub - Boonika bate toba (2nd place, 207 points)
05. Latvia: Walters and Kazha - The war is not over (10th place, 85 points)
06. Monaco: Lise Darly - Tout de moi (24th place, 22 points)
07. Israel: Shiri Maimon - Hasheket shenish'ar (7th place, 158 points)
08. Belarus: Angelica Agurbash - Love me tonight (13th place, 67 points)
09. The Netherlands: Glennis Grace - My impossible dream (14th place, 53 points)
10. Iceland: Selma - If I had your love (16th place, 52 points)
11. Belgium: Nuno Resende - Le grand soir (22nd place, 29 points)
12. Estonia: Suntribe - Let's get loud (20th place, 31 points)
13. Norway: Wig Wam - In my dreams (6th place, 164 points)
14. Romania: Luminita Anghel and Sistem - Let me try (1st place, 235 points)
15. Hungary: NOX - Forogj, világ! (5th place, 167 points)
16. Finland: Geir Rönning - Why (18th place, 50 points)
17. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Martin Vučić - Make my day (9th place, 97 points)
18. Andorra: Marian van de Wal - La mirada interior (23rd place, 27 points)
19. Switzerland: Vanilla Ninja - Cool vibes (8th place, 114 points)
20. Croatia: Boris Novković feat Lado Members - Vukovi umiru sami (4th place, 169 points)
21. Bulgaria: Kaffe - Lorraine (19th place, 49 points)
22. Ireland: Donna and Joe - Love? (14th, 53 points)
23. Slovenia: Omar Naber - Stop (12th place, 69 points)
24. Denmark: Jakob Sveistrup - Talking to you (3rd place, 185 points)
25. Poland: Ivan & Delfin - Czarna dziewczyna (11th place, 81 points)
Shiri Maimon
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.
01. Hungary: NOX - Forogj, világ! (12th place, 97 points)
02. UK: Javine - Touch my fire (22nd place, 18 points)
03. Malta: Chiara - Angel (2nd place, 192 points)
04. Romania: Luminiţa Anghel and Sistem - Let me try (3rd place, 158 points)
05. Norway: Wig Wam - In my dreams (9th place, 125 points)
06. Turkey: Gülseren - Rimi rimi ley (13th place, 92 points)
07. Moldova: Zdob şi Zdub - Boonika bate doba (6th place, 148 points)
08. Albania: Ledina Çelo - Tomorrow I go (16th place, 53 points)
09. Cyprus: Constantinos Christoforou - Ela ela (18th place, 46 points)
10. Spain: Son de Sol - Brujería (21st place, 28 points)
11. Israel: Shiri Maimon - Hasheket Shenish'ar (4th place, 154 points)
12. Serbia and Montenegro: No Name - Zauvijek moja (7th place, 137 points)
13. Denmark: Jakob Sveistrup - Talking to you (9th place, 125 points)
14. Sweden: Martin Stenmarck- Las Vegas (19th place, 30 points)
15. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Martin Vučić - Make my day (17th place, 52 points)
16. Ukraine: GreenJolly - Razom nas bahato (19th place, 30 points)
17. Germany: Gracia - Run & hide (24th place, 4 points)
18. Croatia: Boris Novković & Lado Members - Vukovi umiru sami (11th place, 115 points)
19. Greece: Helena Paparizou - My number one (1st place, 230 points)
20. Russia: Natalia Podolskaya - Nobody hurt no one (15th place, 57 points)
21. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Feminnem - Call me (14th place, 79 points)
22. Switzerland: Vanilla Ninja - Cool vibes (8th place, 128 points)
23. Latvia: Walters and Kazha - The war is not over (5th place, 152 points)
24. France: Ortal - Chacun pense à soi (23rd place, 11 points)
The final was held on 21 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Greece.
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