Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 2000


final = 13 May 2000
presenters = Kattis Ahlström,
Anders Lundin
conductor =
director = Marius Bratten
host = flagicon|Sweden SVT
venue = Stockholm Globe Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
winner = flag|Denmark
"nowrap|Fly on the Wings of Love"
vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 24
debut = flag|Latvia
return = flag|Finland flag|Macedonia|name=FYR Macedonia flag|Romania flag|Russia flag|Switzerland
withdraw = flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina flag|Lithuania|1989 flag|Poland flag|Portugal flag|Slovenia
null = None
interval = "Street Musicians from Stockholm" film
opening =
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄1999
nex = 2001►The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on May 13, 2000 in the Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, following Charlotte Nilsson's victory in Jerusalem the previous year. It was the first time since 1996 that the contest was held on mainland Europe. The contest was the second to be held in Stockholm, and the fourth held in Sweden. Presenters were Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin. The contest was won by the Olsen Brothers who represented Denmark with the song “Fly on the Wings of Love” (originally: "Smuk som et stjerneskud"). Before the contest, the song was ranked low in most predictions, so the victory was a surprise for many. This year the contest entered a new era in which the production of the show was more exuberant and extravagant. The Globen Arena was, at the time, the largest venue chosen to host the contest with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The popularity of the contest also excelled throughout Europe because of the televoting procedure, introduced in 1998, that was becoming more common in participating nations. The postcards used to introduce each country participating involved Swedish themes that incorporated each nation in some respect.

For the first time, an official CD compilation was released; it contained all of the songs of the participating nations and was available throughout Europe. The fans would no longer have to search for their favourite singles containing the individual song. Such a disc was attempted in the previous year, however it lacked four of the entries which basically defeated the whole idea. The disc was also only released in Israel and therefore only available on import in many other countries. The favourite in this year’s contest was Estonia, who was also a fan favourite and praised by the press. Russia and Latvia also anticipated good results. However, as the voting results came in, Denmark immediately took control of the scoreboard, with only a minor challenge from eventual second-place finisher Russia. As expected, Ireland reached a respectable result of 6th place with their traditional ballad. Latvia was very successful in their debut, reaching 3rd place.

There were some controversies concerning some participating countries. Israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the group also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. Another striking contribution came from Germany’s Stefan Raab who pursued Europe’s comedic vote. Sweden's unusual song and performance dealt with indigenous people's struggle for their rights. The Russian delegation petitioned for the Olsen Brothers to be disqualified, after they had used a vocoder to give Jorgen Olsen an electronic sound to his voice during one of the verses of their performance. This issue was turned down by the EBU.

In the Netherlands, the Eurovision Song Contest programme was taken off air halfway through because of the Enschede fireworks disaster that happened earlier that day. As a result, televoting had to be suspended and the Dutch votes were given by a stand-by professional jury instead, who had been able to keep watching the programme.

The contest was not broadcast in the Italy, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, however it was broadcast in Australia, Japan, the United States and via the internet for the first time.

Slovakia, Greece and Hungary decided not to compete for financial reasons. The countries with the five lowest average scores over the previous five contests who had participated in 1999, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia were excluded. Italy continued to decline to participate.

Individual Entries

Results

pokespersons

* Israel - Yoav Ginai
* The Netherlands - Marlayne
* United Kingdom - Colin Berry
* Estonia - Evelin Samuel
* France - Marie Myriam
* Romania - Andreea Marin
* Malta - Valerie Vella
* Norway - Marit Åslein
* Russia - Zhanna Agalakova
* Belgium - Thomas Van Hamme
* Cyprus - Loukas Hamatsos
* Iceland - Ragnheiður Elín Clausen
* Spain - Hugo de Campos
* Denmark - Michael Teschl
* Germany - Axel Bulthaupt
* Switzerland - Astrid Von Stockar
* Croatia - Marko Rašica
* Sweden - Malin Ekander
* FYR Macedonia - Sandra Todorovska
* Finland - Pia Mäkinen
* Latvia - Lauris Reiniks
* Turkey - Osman Erkan
* Ireland - Derek Mooney
* Austria - Dodo Roscic

Map