Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Overview

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. 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.

Incidents

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 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 many more [countries] have we got to go? 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.

Participating countries

Thirty-nine countries participated in the 2005 Contest. Hungary returned to the contest after a six-year absence, last competing in 1998. Bulgaria and Moldova competed in the contest for the first time.

Returning artists

Constantinos Christoforou represented Cyprus for the third time, having previously represented the nation at the 1996 contest as a solo artist and at the 2002 contest as part of the group One. Helena Paparizou previously represented Greece in 2001 as part of the duo Antique. Selma previously represented Iceland in 1999. Chiara previously represented Malta in 1998. Anabel Conde, who represented Spain in 1995, returned as a backing vocalist for Andorra.

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

Final

The finalists were:

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.

Notes

Scoreboard

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 semi-final this affected Monaco, Andorra and Albania, and Andorra, Monaco and Moldova in the final.

12 points

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

12 points

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

Other countries

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.

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award has been annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision since 1997, and is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed (awful) dress.

Voting and spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was compiled by placing the countries that failed to qualify from the semi-final first in the running order they performed in during the semi-final, followed by the finalists which voted in the order they performed in during the final. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005 was the official compilation album of the 2005 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by EMI Records and CMC International on 2 May 2005. The album featured all 39 songs that entered in the 2005 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final. The original cover designed for the album was changed after Lebanon's withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 after announcing they would show advertisements over the Israeli entry. Had they entered, they would have been on track 4, disc 2 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" by Aline Lahoud. It was reported that sales of the 2005 Eurovision merchandise reached record-breaking levels.