2 months ago

Final date: 15 May 2004 - Venue: Abdi İpekçi Arena - Istanbul, Turkey
Presenters: Korhan Abay & Meltem Cumbul - Directed by Sven Stojanovic
Executive supervisor: Svante Stockselius - Executive producer: Bülent Osma
Host broadcaster: Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT)
Opening act: Sertab Erener - Interval act: Fire of Anatolia

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following Sertab Erener's win at the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia with the song "Everyway That I Can". It was the first time Turkey had hosted the contest - 29 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), the contest was held at the Abdi İpekçi Arena, and (for the first time) consisted of a semi-final on 12 May, and the final on 15 May 2004. The two live shows were hosted by Korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul.

It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a transcontinental country and city, in a Muslims-majority country and in Turkic language-speaking country.

Thirty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-six in the previous edition. Albania, Andorra, Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro took part for the first time this year. The old relegation system was replaced with a semi-final format. This was done in order to accommodate the increasing number of countries who wished to participate. The new format allowed all countries to participate every year, rather than being forced to sit out per the relegation rules, which had been the standard since 1994. Because of this, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Monaco and Switzerland all returned to the contest.

The winner was Ukraine with the song "Wild Dances", performed by Ruslana who wrote it with Oleksandr Ksenofontov (her husband). This was Ukraine's first victory in the contest, after only 1 year of participation. Serbia and Montenegro, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus rounded out the top five.

This year was the first time in which a non-winning entry scored over 200 points. Prior to this contest, only the winning entries in 1994 and 1997 had passed this mark. In this contest, the top 3 songs all got over 200 points.

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'; France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom (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 a 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. In Belgium, the French-language RTBF did not broadcast the semi-final, but the Dutch-language VRT did.

Results of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

R/O Country Artist Song Points Place

1 Spain Ramón "Para llenarme de ti" 87 10
2 Austria Tie Break "Du bist" 9 21
3 Norway Knut Anders Sørum "High" 3 24
4 France Jonatan Cerrada "À chaque pas" 40 15
5 Serbia and Montenegro Željko Joksimović and Ad-Hoc Orchestra "Lane moje" 263 2
6 Malta Julie and Ludwig "On Again... Off Again" 50 12
7 Netherlands Re-union "Without You" 11 20
8 Germany Max "Can't Wait Until Tonight" 93 8
9 Albania Anjeza Shahini "The Image of You" 106 7
10 Ukraine Ruslana "Wild Dances" 280 1
11 Croatia Ivan Mikulić "You Are the Only One" 50 12
12 Bosnia and Herzegovina Deen "In the Disco" 91 9
13 Belgium Xandee "1 Life" 7 22
14 Russia Julia Savicheva "Believe Me" 67 11
15 Macedonia Toše Proeski "Life" 47 14
16 Greece Sakis Rouvas "Shake It" 252 3
17 Iceland Jónsi "Heaven" 16 19
18 Ireland Chris Doran "If My World Stopped Turning" 7 22
19 Poland Blue Café "Love Song" 27 17
20 United Kingdom James Fox "Hold On to Our Love" 29 16
21 Cyprus Lisa Andreas "Stronger Every Minute" 170 5
22 Turkey Athena "For Real" 195 4
23 Romania Sanda "I Admit" 18 18
24 Sweden Lena Philipsson "It Hurts" 170 5