Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Location

On 2 September 2013, Danish public broadcaster DR announced that it had chosen Copenhagen as the host city for the 2014 contest. The contest was held at the former shipyard Refshaleøen, in the B&W Hallerne, with the social networking hashtag "#JoinUs" as the motto. The location had been refurbished to accommodate the event, with the surrounding area transformed into "Eurovision Island"—an Olympic Park-inspired complex housing the event venue, press centre, and other amenities.

The mayor of Copenhagen, Frank Jensen, declared in late August that the city would contribute to the budget with 40 million (Danish Kroner) (€5.36 million). He also announced that the aim was to make the Eurovision 2014 into the greenest contest to date since Copenhagen had been elected European Green Capital for 2014.

Bidding phase

Five cities had been considered as host city of the contest, including Herning and Copenhagen, both favourites to be the next host. The Parken Stadium, located in Copenhagen, which hosted the 2001 contest and Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, which hosted the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2013 final, were the first venues to join the bidding phase. Later, Fredericia and Aalborg entered the phase with the Messe C and Gigantium venues, respectively. The fifth city to join the phase was Horsens, with the venue being the courtyard of the former Horsens State Prison. In the event that Horsens had been chosen to host the contest, the courtyard would have been covered by a permanent glass roof. The contest was provisionally set to take place on 13, 15 and 17 May 2014, however, the dates were later brought forward a week in order to accommodate the candidate cities.

On 17 June 2013, the municipality executive of Aalborg decided not to bid for hosting the contest due to the city's lack of sufficient hotel capacity. While DR required the host city to have at least 3,000 hotel rooms, the city of Aalborg had only 1,600 hotel rooms, more than half of which had been booked for other events taking place at the same time as the Eurovision Song Contest. On 18 June 2013, DR announced that formal bids on hosting the contest had been received by the municipalities of Copenhagen, Herning and Horsens, and that the Municipality of Fredericia had confirmed its intention to place a formal bid, too.

On 19 June 2013, the deadline for placing bids on hosting the contest, it was reported that Wonderful Copenhagen, the official convention, event and visitors bureau of the Greater Copenhagen area, had proposed three different venues in its bid on hosting the contest: The Parken Stadium, a large tent on the grounds of DR Byen and the B&W Hallerne. On 25 June 2013, the Municipality of Fredericia announced that the Triangle Region had withdrawn its bid on hosting the contest, due to the lack of a suitable venue. DR required the hosting venue to have no pillars blocking any views and an interior height of at least 16 metres. However, no venues in the region met those requirements and, therefore, Fredericia was no longer in the running for becoming host city of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. On 28 June 2013, Anders Hørsholt, CEO of Parken Sport & Entertainment, stated that the Parken Stadium was no longer in the running for hosting the contest due to several football matches having already been scheduled to take place at the stadium in the weeks leading up to the contest.

Key     Host venue

Format

The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been in use since 2008. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final qualified to the final where they joined the host nation Denmark and the five main sponsoring nations (known as the Big Five): France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Each member of a respective nation's jury was required to rank every song, except that of their own country. The voting results from each member of a particular nation's jury were combined to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. Likewise, the televoting results were also interpreted as a full ranking, taking into account the full televoting result rather than just the top ten. The combination of the jury's full ranking and the televote's full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1-point. In the event of a televoting(insufficient amount of votes/technical issues) or jury failure(technical issue/breach of rules), only a jury/televoting was used by each country

On 20 September 2013, the EBU released the official rules for the 2014 contest, which introduced rule changes regarding the jury voting. The rules aimed at providing more transparency regarding each five member national jury by releasing the names of all jurors on 1 May 2014 prior to the start of the contest and providing each juror's full ranking results after the conclusion of the contest. In addition, jury members on a particular nation's jury can only serve as a juror if they have not already participated as such in one of the preceding two contest editions.

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall. Prior to the allocation draw, on 24 November 2013 it was announced that Norway and Sweden would perform in different semi-finals in order to maximise the availability of tickets for visitors from both countries. A draw at the EBU headquarters determined that Sweden would perform in the first semi-final, while Norway would perform in the second semi-final. The EBU also allocated Israel to the second semi-final after a request from the delegation in order to avoid complications with a national holiday coinciding with the date of the first semi-final. The remaining participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), were split into six pots, based on voting patterns from the previous ten years.

The pots were calculated by the televoting partner Digame and were as follows:

Running order

As in 2013, the host broadcaster DR and their producers determined the running order for each show with only the starting position of the host nation being determined by draw. A draw which took place during the heads of delegation meeting on 17 March 2014 in Copenhagen determined that Denmark would perform 23rd in the final. On 24 March 2014, the running order for the two semi-finals was released. Prior to the creation of the running order for the final, an allocation draw was held during the semi-final winners press conferences following the conclusion of each semi-final and during the individual press conferences on 6 May 2014 for the Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom). The draw determined whether the country would perform in the first or second half of the final. The producers published the final running order shortly before 0200 CEST on 9 May 2014. Ukraine were drawn to perform first, whilst the United Kingdom were drawn to perform last.

Crimea

The contest was held in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Russian military intervention in Ukraine, and the crisis in Crimea, in which Crimea was annexed by Russia. Votes cast through Ukrainian telecom providers which service Crimea were counted towards Ukraine's votes.

Graphic design

The graphic design of the contest was revealed by the EBU on 18 December 2013. The theme art comprises a blue and purple diamond, within it the generic Eurovision Song Contest logo featuring the Danish flag as well as the hashtag and slogan "#JoinUs" at the centre of the diamond.

The postcards used to introduce a country and their participants were shot in their respective countries and featured the artists using unique ways to create their country's flag, e.g. the postcard for the United Kingdom features Molly creating the Union Flag from AEC Routemaster buses, Royal Mail vans, and people wearing blue raincoats along with strips of red and white paper, and the postcard for Denmark featuring Basim and his singers using old furniture and red and white paint to paint the Danish flag. The postcards then ended with the act taking a picture on a camera or phone and a close up of the resulting artwork was shown onscreen. The flag created by the artist(s) is then captured into a diamond and it transitions to the official flag. It then swirls round for the before-hand details of the artist/composer. For example, the entry for San Marino features the painting of the flag that Valentina Monetta (the artist) created, transitioning into the official flag for San Marino.

National host broadcaster

Pernille Gaardbo was appointed by DR's Director General, Maria Rørbye Rønn, as the Executive Producer for the contest, three-days after Denmark's victory at the 2013 contest. Maria Rørbye Rønn stated in an interview that "By choosing Penille Gaardbo, we have a person who has all the necessary leadership skills, which are essential in order to run a project of this magnitude, and the technical insight for such a large TV-production, which the Eurovision Song Contest is". Gaardbo has worked for the host broadcaster for 17 years, 12 of which was in the role of supervisor of the DR Medieservice.

Danish Royal Family members Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary attended the final as invited guests of the host broadcaster DR. In March 2014, the host broadcaster DR invited Jessica Mauboy to perform during the interval act of the second semifinal on 8 May 2014, part of DR's recognition of Australia's loyalty to the Eurovision Song Contest. Mauboy performed the song "Sea of Flags" during the interval act.

Participating countries

Thirty-seven countries participated in the 2014 Contest. Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT), Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT), Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) and Serbian broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) withdrew from the 2014 contest. Other absent countries that previously have participated are Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Slovakia and Turkey. Portugal have also in the past withdrew from the contest. Poland returned after last participating in 2011.

Returning artists

Valentina Monetta represented San Marino for a third and final consecutive year, having previously represented the microstate at the 2012 and 2013 contests. This makes Monetta the fourth main singer to compete in three consecutive contests (and the only one of amongst them never to win in one of these occasions), following Lys Assia and Corry Brokken, who both competed in the 1956, 1957 and 1958 contests, and Udo Jürgens, who competed in 1964, 1965 and 1966.

Paula Seling and Ovi returned as a duo, having previously represented Romania in 2010.

The Tolmachevy Sisters, who represented Russia, previously participated in and won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006.

Macedonian backing vocalist Tamara Todevska previously represented Macedonia in 2008.

Martina Majerle, who represented Slovenia in 2009 and provided backing vocals numerous times for Croatia (2003), Montenegro (2008) and Slovenia (2007, 2011, 2012), returned as a backing vocalist for Montenegro.

Results

Full semi-final results including televoting and results from the individual jury members were released shortly after the final.

Semi-final 1

Spain, France, and Denmark also voted in this semi-final. The ten songs that are marked in orange qualified to the final.

Notes

1.^ Contained some words in Latvian.

Semi-final 2

Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom also voted in this semi-final. The ten songs that are marked in orange qualified to the final.

Final

As in the 2013 contest, the winner was announced as soon as it was mathematically impossible to catch up. In this case, the winner had been determined by the 34th vote, which came from Ukraine.

2.^ Contains some phrases in English and one Spanish. 3.^ Contains some words in English.

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semifinal:

Below is a summary of the split number one selection, by respectively each country's jury and televoters in the First Semi Final:

Albania, Montenegro, San Marino and Moldova used juries due to vote in Televote

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semifinal:

Below is a summary of the split number one selection, by respectively each country's jury and televoters in the Second Semi Final:

Georgia and Macedonia used juries due to either technical issues with the televoting or an insufficient amount of votes cast during the televote period.

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the Grand Final:

Below is a summary of the split number one selection, by respectively each country's jury and televoters in the Grand Final:

Other countries

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU issued an invitation of participation for the 2014 Contest to all 56 active members. Thirty-seven countries confirmed their participation. Lebanon, Tunisia, and five other EBU members, however, did not publish their reasons for declining, whilst the following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below.

Active EBU members

 Andorra – The Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) informed a Eurovision news website that due to financial reasons and budget constraints, Andorra would not return to the contest in 2014.

 Bosnia and Herzegovina - Despite the Bosnian broadcaster Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) initially stating their intention to participate in the contest, on 18 December 2013 it was announced that they would not be taking part due to a lack of sponsorship.

 Bulgaria – Despite initial indications that Bulgarian broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT) had planned to participate in the 2014 contest, on 22 November 2013, BNT announced their withdrawal from the competition, citing an expensive participation fee and limited funds due to budget cuts as reasons for this decision.

 Croatia – Croatian broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) announced on 19 September 2013 that they are withdrawing from the 2014 contest, citing the European financial crisis, as well as a string of poor results between 2010 and 2013 influencing their decision to take a year break. The last time Croatia qualified for the grand final before 2016 was in 2009.

 Cyprus – On 3 October 2013, the Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) announced their withdrawal from the 2014 contest, citing public opinion regarding the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis and budget restrictions as factors that influenced this decision.

 Czech Republic – The Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) confirmed on 30 September 2013, that they would not return to the contest in 2014, citing low viewing figures and poor results as their reason.

 Luxembourg – The chief executive officer of RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, Alain Berwick, stated that Luxembourg would not return to the contest, citing the potential financial burden of hosting the contest and a lack of public interest as reasons for this decision. The broadcaster further confirmed on 24 July 2013, that Luxembourg would not be participating in the 2014 contest.

 Monaco – The Monegasque broadcaster Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) informed a Eurovision news website that Monaco would not be returning to the contest in 2014.

 Morocco – On 11 September 2013, Moroccan broadcaster Société Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision (SNRT) informed and confirmed to a Eurovision news website that they have not ruled out the possibility of making a comeback in the near future, but currently have no plans to make their return at the 2014 contest.

 Serbia – On 22 November 2013, Serbian broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) announced that it would withdraw from the 2014 contest due to financial difficulties and a lack of available sponsorship for a potential Serbian entry.

 Slovakia – Slovakian broadcaster Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska (RTVS) announced through their the official Twitter feed on 1 September 2013 that Slovakia would not participate in the 2014 contest. The non-participation was further confirmed on 9 September 2013.

 Turkey – On 14 September 2013, the general director of Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT), İbrahim Şahin, stated that there are no plans to return to the contest under the current conditions. Dissatisfaction with the introduction of a mixed jury/televote voting system and the current status of the "Big Five" were once again cited as reasons for this decision. The non-participation was further confirmed on 7 November 2013.

Require active EBU membership

 Kosovo – While Kosovan broadcaster Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK) did not voice any intention regarding the 2014 contest, Kosovo's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Petrit Selimi told the Swedish television programme Korrespondenterna that he thought Kosovo, whose status is disputed, would be granted EBU membership and acceptance into the Eurovision in time for the 2014 edition. However, Kosovo has not been recognized as an independent country by the International Telecommunications Union, which is a requirement for full membership in the EBU.

 Liechtenstein – Broadcaster 1 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Television (1FLTV) had originally intended to participate in the 2013 contest, pending subsidies being sought from the Liechtenstein government in order to join the EBU. However such financial offerings were never granted. The broadcaster at the time had stated that they would try again with the aim to make their debut in 2014. On 10 September 2013, 1FLTV announced that they will not be present at any foreseeable Eurovision Song Contest until such financial support has been granted by the government of Liechtenstein.

Armenian contestant's statements

On the week of the contest, Armenian contestant Aram Mp3 commented on Conchita Wurst's image by saying that her lifestyle was "not natural" and that she needed to decide to be either a woman or a man. The statement sparked controversy, following which Aram Mp3 apologised and added that what he said was meant to be a joke. Wurst accepted the apology, by stating, "I have to say that if it's a joke it's not funny... but he apologised and that's fine for me."

Georgia jury votes

Georgia's jury votes in the Grand Final were all declared invalid, as all the jury members had voted exactly the same from 3 points up to 12 points. According to EBU, this constitutes a statistical impossibility. Therefore, only Georgia's televoting result was used for the distribution of the Georgian points in the Grand Final.

Lithuanian spokesperson's commentary

Lithuanian spokesperson Ignas Krupavičius, just before announcing that ten points of his country's vote had been assigned to Conchita Wurst, said referring to Wurst's beard, "Now it is time to shave", then pulled out a razor and pretended to shave his own face, before giggling at the joke. Host Nikolaj Koppel replied to that by saying, "Time to shave? I think not.", because the next country announcing the votes was Austria. BBC commentator Graham Norton also expressed his frustration at the joke and supported Koppel's reply.

Reaction to Russia's performance

Russia's Tolmachevy Sisters were the subject of booing from the audience, during the semifinal and when they qualified into final. Russia's act were also booed during the grand final; and when the Russian spokesperson delivered their top-three votes. The booing was also heard when countries awarded Russia votes, including neighbouring countries such as Armenia and Belarus.

Internet activist security breach

After Conchita Wurst had won and performed the song again, and shortly before the end of the television broadcast, press photographers crowded around Wurst for pictures. During the photo session, Estonian "Free Anakata" activist Meelis Kaldalu managed to breach security and approach Wurst, giving her flowers and a Danish flag. She accepted the flowers, and Kaldalu knelt before her; what he said could not be heard. As security personnel realised Kaldalu was not supposed to be there, they began to drag him away, and Kaldalu produced a piece of paper, which he had hidden under his shirt, reading "#free anakata".

Other awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, the OGAE voting poll and the Barbara Dex Awards are awards that were contested by the entries competing at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, in addition to the main winner’s trophy. In contrast, the Ondas Awards have honoured the production of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 itself in one of their categories.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia, honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and the current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (a member of the Herreys and the 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 three categories: Press Award, Artistic Award, and Composer Award.

OGAE

Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision (more commonly known as OGAE) is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll was opened allowing members from forty clubs to vote for their favourite songs of the 2014 contest. Below is the top five overall results, after all the votes had been cast.

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 dress.

Ondas Awards

The Ondas Awards (Spanish: Premios Ondas) is an award ceremony organised by Radio Barcelona, a subsidiary of Cadena SER, since 1954. They are awarded in recognition of professionals in the fields of radio and television broadcasting, the cinema, and the music industry. The 61st Ondas Award recipients were announced on 6 November 2014, where Danish broadcaster, Danmarks Radio and the European Broadcasting Union received the International Television Award, for their production of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. The award will be handed over during the awards ceremony that will take place on 25 November 2014 at the Liceu in Barcelona.

International broadcasts and voting

It was reported by the EBU that the 2014 Contest was viewed by a worldwide television audience of a record breaking 195 million viewers.

Voting and spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was determined in a draw following the jury results from the final dress rehearsal. An algorithm implemented by NRK, based on jury vote, was used to generate as much suspense as possible. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.

Commentators

Non-participating countries

 Australia – Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang (SBS One, all shows)

 Canada – Adam Rollins and Tommy D. (OUTtv, broadcast the three shows between 20–22 June 2014)

 Croatia – Aleksandar Kostadinov (HRT 1 and HR2, final)

 Cyprus – Melina Karageorgiou (RIK 1, all shows)

 Faroe Islands – TBC (Kringvarp Føroya, all)

 Kazakhstan – Diana Snegina and Kaldybek Zhaysanbay (Khabar, all shows)

 New Zealand – TBC (BBC UKTV, all shows)

 Serbia – Silvana Grujić (RTS1, RTS SAT and RTS HD, all shows), Dragan Ilić (RTS1, RTS SAT and RTS HD, final)

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2014 was the official compilation album of the 2014 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group on 14 April 2014. The album featured all 37 songs that entered in the 2014 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final. It also featured as a bonus track, the official #JoinUs theme, "Rainmaker", performed by the 2013 contest winner, Emmelie de Forest.