Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Location

The venue that was chosen as the host venue, was the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, the capital city of Greece.

Visual design

The official logo of the contest remained the same from 2004 and 2005 with the country's flag in the heart being changed. The 2006 sub-logo created by the design company Karamela for Greek television was apparently based on the Phaistos Disc which is a popular symbol of ancient Greece. According to ERT, it was "inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden sunlight and the glow of the sand". Following Istanbul's "Under The Same Sky" and Kiev's "Awakening", the slogan for the 2006 show was "Feel The Rhythm". This theme was also the basis for the postcards for the 2006 show, which emphasized Greece's historical significance as well as being a major modern tourist destination.

Voting

To save time in the final, the voting time lasted ten minutes and the voting process was changed: points 1-7 were shown immediately on-screen. The spokespersons only announced the countries scoring 8, 10 and 12 points. Despite this being intended to speed proceedings up, there were still problems during voting – EBU imaging over-rode Maria Menounos during a segment in the voting interval and some scoreboards were slow to load. The Dutch spokesperson Paul de Leeuw also caused problems, giving his mobile number to presenter Rouvas during the Dutch results, and slowing down proceedings, also by announcing the first seven points. Constantinos Christoforou (who also represented Cyprus in 1996, 2002 and 2005) saluted from "Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe"; during Cyprus' reading, the telecast displayed Switzerland by mistake. This voting process has been criticized because suspense was lost by only reading three votes instead of ten. And for the first time, the display for the Macedonian entry had the title spelled out in its entirety (as "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia") instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years (as "FYR Macedonia").

Participating countries

Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU.

Semi-final

The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET). 23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia & Montenegro voted.

Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final

Notes

1.^ The song also contained phrases in Spanish.2.^ The song also contained phrases in French.

Final

The finalists were:

the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;

the top 10 countries from the 2005 final (other than the automatic qualifiers);

the top 10 countries from the 2006 semi-final.

The final was held on 20 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Finland.

Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Final.

Notes

3.^ The song also contained words in Spanish.

Voting during the final and spokespersons

The following people were the spokespersons for their countries. A spokesperson delivers the results of national televoting during the final night, awarding points to the entries on behalf of his or her country. A draw was held to determine each country's voting order. Countries revealed their votes in the following order:

Although Serbia & Montenegro did not compete in the contest, they still regained voting rights due to a scandal that was caused during their National Selection.

Score sheet

Televoting was used in all nations except Monaco and Albania. Monaco used a jury as the chances of getting enough votes needed to validate the votes were low. Albania used a jury since there were problems with their televote. In the semi final, Monaco and Albania used the jury voting due to insufficient televoting numbers. Coincidentally, Albania and Monaco were two of the three countries that didn't vote for the winning entry, the third one was Armenia.

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:

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.

Withdrawals

Austria - On 18 June 2005, Austrian newspaper Kurier reported that the Austrian broadcaster ORF would not be taking part in the 2006 contest.

Czech Republic - On 6 October 2005 Česká televize announced that the Czech Republic would not participate, however also made its debut Next Year.

Georgia - On 5 October 2005 the managing director of Georgia Television & Radio Broadcasting stated that Georgia would not enter the 2006 contest, however made its debut next year.

Hungary - On 9 December 2005 Hungarian broadcaster Magyar TV announced that Hungary would not participate for financial reasons.

Italy - Italy did not take part in the Contest between 1997 and 2011.

Serbia and Montenegro - Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from the contest due to a scandal in the selection process, which has caused tensions between the Serbian broadcaster, RTS, and the Montenegrin broadcaster, RTCG. Serbia and Montenegro did retain voting rights for the contest. Serbia and Montenegro's withdrawal left a vacancy in the final. In the delegations meeting on 20 March, it was decided that Croatia, who finished 11th in the 2005 Contest, would fill the empty spot.

Ratings

After the Contest, EBU officials that the overall ratings for the Semi-Final were 35% higher than in 2005, and for the Final had risen by 28%.

In France, average market shares reached 30.3%, up by 8% over the 2005 figure. Other countries that showed a rise in average market shares included Germany with 38% (up from 29%), United Kingdom with 37.5% (up from 36%), Spain with 36% (up from 35%), Ireland with 58% (up from 35%) and Sweden, which reached over 80% compared to 57% the year previously.

Voting revenues had also risen from the Kiev Contest, and the official Eurovision website, www.eurovision.tv, reported visits from over 200 countries and over 98 million page views, compared with 85 million in 2005.

Noteworthy occurrences and records

From the Final

Finland had to wait forty-four years since their debut in 1961 to achieve their first victory. They had only received three 12 points in the history of the contest up to the 2006 contest, and none since 1977.

Lordi's winning score of 292 points was a record, the highest number of points in the contest's history at the time. Since then, as of the 2016 contest, 8 artists over 4 years have beaten this record. However, for all 4 of these years, there were more countries and, in the 2016 contest, there was a change in the voting which made achieving the higher scores easier.

Bosnia & Herzegovina reached third place, its highest position ever. Prior to this, its highest placing had been 7th in the 1999 contest - a wait of 7 years.

Sweden's Carola obtained 170 points without receiving 12 points from any one country and reached 5th place.

Though Turkey was the fourth country with the most 12s (received from France, Germany and the Netherlands), the entry by Sibel Tüzün only reached 11th place with 91 points.

Lithuania waited 12 years to receive their first 12 points. This was finally realised by points from Ireland.

Runner-up Russia and 4th placed Romania were voted for by 35 countries, more than winner Finland, who received votes from 34 countries.

The United Kingdom placed 19th, receiving points from 10 countries, while Macedonia (12th), Croatia (13th) and Denmark (18th) were voted for by 9, 8 and only 5 countries respectively.

Both Turkey (91) and Finland (292) received the same number of points in the semifinal and the final.

Despite having withdrawn from the 2006 contest, Serbia and Montenegro retained their voting rights. During the announcement of their votes, spokesperson Jovana Janković said "So, as you know, we don't have a song for you this year, but we promise that next year we will give you the best one". Her promise was fulfilled when Marija Šerifović of Serbia won the contest the following year. Janković would also host the 2008 Contest.

Alexis Kostalas, the long-time Greek spokesman, jokingly described Finland's Lordi "beautiful, gorgeous, sweet-looking creatures" before giving them the maximum twelve points, which eventually cemented their victory.

The Norwegian entry "Alvedansen" performed by singer, songwriter Christine Guldbrandsen, is the first and until now, the latest entry performed in Norwegian Language since the end of the language-rule in 1999.

For the first time ever, "Spidercam" technology was used in Eurovision

Dima Bilan would come back in 2008, this time with a different song and a different television channel and he won that year.

This Contest is the only time, so far, that the same entry ("Without Your Love" by André, performing for Armenia) opened and closed the competing part.

International broadcasts

Australia 

Although Australia is not itself eligible to enter, the semi-final and final were broadcast on SBS. As is the case each year, they were not however broadcast live due to the difference in Australian time zones. Australia aired the United Kingdom's broadcast, including commentary from Paddy O'Connell and Terry Wogan. Before the broadcasts, viewers were told by an SBS host that the Eurovision Song Contest was one of their most popular programmes. The final rated an estimated 462,000, and was ranked 21st of the broadcasters top rating programs for the 2005/06 financial year. [4]

Azerbaijan 

Azerbaijan were willing to enter the contest but since AzTV applied for active EBU membership but was denied on June 18, 2007, they missed the contest and have to wait until they're accepted. Another Azerbaijan broadcaster, OTV, broadcast the contest. It is a passive EBU member, and has broadcast it for the last 2 years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest.[5]

Italy

Italian television did not enter because RAI, the national broadcaster, is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and they believe that the Eurovision Song Contest would not be a popular show in Italy. They have not broadcast the contest in recent years, although an independent Italian channel for the gay community has shown the show.

  Worldwide 

A live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast worldwide by satellite through Eurovision streams such as Channel One Russia, ERT World, TVE Internacional, TVP Polonia, RTP Internacional and TVR i. The official Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary using the peer-to-peer transport Octoshape.

Gibraltar

Gibraltar screened only the final.

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006 was the official compilation album of the 2006 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by CMC International on 28 April 2006. The album featured all 37 songs that entered in the 2006 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.