Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 2004
theme = "Under The Same Sky"


final = 15 May 2004
semi = 12 May 2004
presenters = Korhan Abay, Meltem Cumbul
conductor =
director = Sven Stojanovic
host = flagicon|Turkey TRT
venue = Abdi İpekçi Arena, Istanbul, Turkey
winner = flag|Ukraine
"nowrap|Wild Dances"
vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 24 in final, another 12 DNQ from the semi-final
debut = flag|Albania
flag|Andorra
flag|Belarus
flag|Serbia and Montenegro
return = flag|Denmark
flag|Finland
flag|Macedonia|name=FYR Macedonia
flag|Lithuania
flag|Monaco
flag|Switzerland
withdraw =
null = flag|Switzerland (in the Semi-final)
interval =
opening = Sertab Erener,
Fire of Anatolia
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄2003
nex = 2005►The Eurovision Song Contest 2004, the 49th in the series, was held in the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, with the final on 15 May 2004 and the new semi-final three days earlier on 12 May 2004.

The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was TRT. The Ukrainian singer Ruslana Lyzhichko won the contest with the song "Wild Dances", and a score of 280 points. It is notable that this was only Ukraine's second participation in the contest.

The contest's new official generic logo was used for the first time this year, with the heart-shaped flag in the centre due to be changed for future contests. The slogan for Istanbul's contest was "Under The Same Sky", which communicated the importance of a united Europe and Turkish integration.

The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul were Korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul. In the semi-final and the final, Meltem Cumbul warmed up the audience with a sing-a-long of Eurovision classic "Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)", originally by Domenico Modugno. Sertab Erener returned to the stage in the final to perform "Everyway That I Can", the 2003 winning song, and one of her new songs called "Leave". Sertab also interviewed contestants in the green room. The Turkish dance ensemble "Fire of Anatolia" performed as the interval act. An official CD was released and, for the first time, the entire contest was released on DVD.

An hour after the semi-final had been aired, the European Broadcasting Union discovered that there had been problems with the vote counting in Monaco and Croatia. Digame, an affiliate of Deutsche Telekom, who had been responsible for processing all the votes, reported that they had encountered problems with their calculation software, and there was a problem with text message voting in Croatia. Consequently, some votes were not counted in the results announced at the end of the broadcast of the semi-final. When the results were corrected to include these additional votes, they were found not to have affected which countries had qualified for the Final.

It is also noted that Serbia and Montenegro finished 1st in the Semi-Final with 263 points and then finished 2nd in the Final with 263 points.

This year was also notable as it was the first year that Turkey voted for Cyprus and the second year in a row that Cyprus voted for Turkey.Nevertheless, in a move that angered some Cypriots, when the country presented its votes no map of the island was shown (all other presenters were preceded with their country being highlighted on a map). This was due to Turkey's recognition of the northern half of the island as an independent republic (not recognized by any other state). It is likely Turkey pulled out of showing the map because it would have only highlighted the southern portion of the island, and thus angered the international community.

This was also the first year that the scores were only re-read by the hosts in one language. Before 2004 every point was repeated in French and English, but due to 36 countries voting, and more in years to come, in 2004 to save time the hosts only re-read each score in 1 language.

There were technical problems when in a short hiatus halfway through the songs, (used for the advertising break), the hosts tried to contact various parties in Europe. They tried contacting Germany, Spain and Turkey, but in the end they only managed to get a response from Germany. Also during the Romanian postcard introduction, the information for the Romanian entry appeared on the screen, but was quickly taken away. A final hiccup was very minor, when on her way to present Ruslana the trophy, Sertab Erener got her shoe stuck in a speaker grill by the side of the stage and had to be freed by stagehands. This didn't delay proceedings in any way though, and other than the above the show ran smoothly.

Individual Entries

Participating countries

This year's Eurovision contest was the first to be a two-day event, with one qualifying round held on a Wednesday and the grand final held on the following Saturday. Under this new format, byes into the final were given to the 'Big 4'; the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain (as the largest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union) and the ten highest placed finishers in the 2003 contest. Andorra, Albania, Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro participated in the Contest for the first time, with Monaco returning after an 25-year absence. Luxembourg were due to return after an absence of 11 years, but later pulled out after money issues arose between RTL and the EBU. All participating countries had the right to vote in both the qualifying round and the grand final. This was the first year in which all 36 participating countries voted based on a public phone vote. However France, Poland and Russia did not broadcast the semi-final (as they were not participating in it) and therefore did not give votes for it like the other thirty-three countries.

Final

The finalists were:
*the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
*the top 10 countries from the 2003 contest (other than the automatic qualifiers);
*the top 10 countries from the 2004 semi-final.

The final was held on 15 May 2004 at 21:00 (CET).

"Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 Final."

12 points

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

pokespersons

:"In order of appearance on the final night"
* Andorra - Pati Molné
* Albania - Zhani Ciko
* Austria - Dodo Roscic
* Bosnia & Herzegovina - Mija Martina (Bosnian representative singer in 2003 contest)
* Belgium - Martine Prenen
* Belarus - Denis Kurian
* Switzerland - Emel Aykanat
* Serbia & Montenegro - Nataša Miljković
* Cyprus - Loukas Hamatsos
* Germany - Thomas Anders "(former member of Modern Talking)"
* Denmark - Camilla Ottesen
* Estonia - Maarja-Liis Ilus (Estonian representative singer in the 1996 and 1997 contests)
* Spain - Anne Igartiburu
* Finland - Anna Stenlund
* France - Alex Taylor
* FYR Macedonia - Karolina Petkovska
* United Kingdom - Lorraine Kelly
* Greece - Alexis Kostalas
* Croatia - Barbara Kolar
* Ireland - Johnny Logan "(the only double ESC winner at that time - in 1980 and 1987)"
* Israel - Merav Miller
* Iceland - Sigrún Ósk Kristjánsdóttir
* Lithuania - Rolandas Vilkoncius
* Latvia - Lauris Reiniks
* Malta - Claire Agius
* Monaco - Anne Allegrini
* The Netherlands - Esther Hart "(Dutch representative in the 2003 contest)"
* Norway - Ingvild Helljesen
* Poland - Maciej Orłoś
* Portugal - Isabel Angelino
* Romania - Andreea Marin
* Russia - Yana Churikova
* Sweden - Jovan Radomir
* Slovenia - Peter Poles
* Turkey - Meltem Ersan Yazgan
* Ukraine - Pavlo Shylko (DJ Pascha) (Would be the presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 held in Kiev following Ruslana's victory.)

Map

* Green = Countries in the final
* Yellow = Countries which had previously participated but did not do so in this year
* Red = Countries eliminated in the semi-final

References

External links

* [http://www.eurovision.tv/archive_2004/english/index.htm Official website]
* [http://www.ebu.ch/en/union/news/2004/tcm_6-12135.php EBU press notice regarding voting problems in the semi-final]
* [http://www.eurovision-contest.com/2004/ Details about the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/eurovision/2004/contestants/index.shtml Video Clips (BBC Eurovision 2004)] (Realplayer)