Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Infobox Eurovision
name = Eurovision Song Contest 2005
theme = "Awakening"


final = 21 May 2005
semi = 19 May 2005
presenters = Maria Efrosinina, Pavlo Shylko
director = Sven Stojanovic
host = flagicon|Ukraine NTU
venue = Palace of Sports, Kiev, Ukraine
winner = flag|Greece
"nowrap|My Number One"
vote = Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
entries = 24 in final, another 15 DNQ from semifinal
debut = flag|Bulgaria
flag|Moldova
return = flag|Hungary
withdraw = flag|Lebanon
null = None
interval = Ruslana
Kiev Percussion Ensemble ARS NOVA
Anatolly Zalevskiy
opening = Ruslana - "Heart on Fire"
con = Eurovision Song Contest
pre = ◄2004
nex = 2006►

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the 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" performed by Chiara was the runner up with 192 points. The contest took place on 19 May 2005 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.

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. 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. [O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK ISBN 978-1844429943] The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13 (Denmark and Serbia and Montenegro). The book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish.

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. [cite web|url=http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/4060|title=BREAKING NEWS: LEBANON WITHDRAWS|last=Bakker|first=Sietse|date=2005-03-18|publisher="ESCToday"|accessdate=2008-08-09] 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.

This year was no exception for scandals regarding the representatives from the countries participating. Germany's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest has 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 has been accused of plagiarism. The song would sound too similar to another one released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001. There were also a problem in Malta electricity supply during the contest, so the 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 a victory of Gülseren song, which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice. There were similar controversies in FYR Macedonia which led to an eventual victory for Martin Vucic. The Ukrainian song had to be changed because it bring a political message to the people, and therefore EBU stated no politics to be involved in the contest. The entry for Serbia and Montenegro was also overshadowed by a scandal and with an accusation of plagiarisms. Also, 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 little 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 over-ran 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.

Individual Entries

Participating countries

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).

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

pokespersons

From [http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/4409]
*flag|Albania: Zhani Ciko (Director of the National Opera House), spoke French
*flag|Andorra: [http://www.ruthgumbau.com/ Ruth Gumbau] (Journalist, ATV presenter)
*flag|Austria: Dodo Roscic (ORF host, Austrian spokesperson since 1999)
*flag|Belarus: Elena Ponomareva - (TVR presenter)
*flag|Belgium: Armelle (Journalist and La Une host)
*flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ana Mirjana Račanović (Miss Bosnia and Herzegovina 2001)
*flag|Bulgaria: Evgenia Atanasova (Co-worker BNT)
*flag|Croatia: Barbara Kolar (HRT host)
*flag|Cyprus: Melani Steliou (CyBC host)
*flag|Denmark: Gry Johansen-Meilstrup (Danish representative in 1983)
*flag|Estonia: Maarja-Liis Ilus (Estonian representative in 1996 and 1997)
*flag|Finland: Jari Sillanpää (Finnish representative in 2004)
*flag|France: Marie Myriam (French representative in 1977)
*flag|FYR Macedonia: Karolina Gočeva (Representative of FYR Macedonia in 2002)
*flag|Germany: Thomas Hermanns (Comedian)
*flag|Greece: Alexis Kostalas (ERT Board member, spokesperson in 1998-2004)
*flag|Hungary: Zsuzsa Demcsák (Model and MTV host)
*flag|Iceland: Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir (RUV host, Miss Iceland 2003)
*flag|Ireland: Dana (Irish representative, who also won the Eurovision in 1970)
*flag|Israel: Dana Herman (Journalist)
*flag|Latvia: Marie N (Latvian representative in 2002 and ESC 2003 host)
*flag|Lithuania: Rolandas Vilkončius (LRT host)
*flag|Malta: Valerie Vella (TVM and Malta Song for Europe 2002 host)
*flag|Moldova: Elena Camerzan (TVM host)
*flag|Monaco: Anne Allegrini (TMC host)
*flag|The Netherlands: Nance (Nationaal Songfestival host)
*flag|Norway: Ingvild Helljesen (NRK host)
*flag|Poland: Maciej Orłoś (TVP host)
*flag|Portugal: Isabel Angelino (RTP host)
*flag|Romania: Berti Barbera (Singer and TVR host)
*flag|Russia: Yana Churikova (Channel One host)
*flag|Serbia and Montenegro: Nina Radulovic (RTCG journalist and presenter)
*flag|Slovenia: Katarina Čas (TV SLO host)
*flag|Spain: Ainhoa Arbizu (TVE and Spanish national final host)
*flag|Sweden: Annika Jankell (SVT and radio host)
*flag|Switzerland: Cécile Bähler (VIVA VJ)
*flag|Turkey: Meltem Ersan Yazgan (TRT and Turkish national final host)
*flag|Ukraine: Maria Orlova (NTU and Ukrainian national final host)
*flag|United Kingdom: Cheryl Baker (Singer of Bucks Fizz, UK representative in 1981)

Map

* Green = Participating countries
* Yellow = Countries who have participated in the past but did not this year
* Red = Countries who did not qualify for the final

ee 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

* [http://www.eurovision.tv/english/ Official Eurovision site]
* [http://www.diggiloo.net/?scoreboard.2005.semi Semifinal scoreboard]
* [http://www.boheme-magazine.net/php/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=630 Eurovision 2005 Song Contest]
* [http://www.eurovision-contest.com/2005/ Information About Eurovision 2005 Song Contest in Kiev]