4 months ago

Date: Saturday, 21 May 2005 - Venue: Palace of Sports, Kyiv, Ukraine
Presentation: Maria Efrosnina & Pavlo Shylko
Voting: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to its top 10 (by televote).
Number of countries: 24 (total: 39)
Qualification: Host + big 4 + 9 best of 2004 (excl. host & big 4) + 10 best of semi-final

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the 2004 contest with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. It was the first time Ukraine had hosted the contest - only 2 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), the contest was held at the Palace of Sports, and consisted of a semi-final on 19 May, and the final on 21 May 2005. The two live shows were presented by Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko.

Thirty-nine countries participated in the contest, three more than the previous record of thirty-six, that took part the year before. Bulgaria and Moldova made their first participation this year, while Hungary returned to the contest after a six-year absence, having last taken part in 1998.

The winner was Greece with the song "My Number One", performed by Helena Paparizou and written by Manos Psaltakis, Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou. This was Greece's first victory in the contest, in 31 years of participation. Malta, Romania, Israel and Latvia rounded out the top five. Malta equalled their best result from 2002, while Romania achieved their best result in their Eurovision history. Unusually, all "Big Four" countries (France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom) ended up as the "Last Four", all placing in the bottom four positions in the final.

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.

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 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.

Results:

Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01 Hungary NOX "Forogj, világ!" Hungarian 12 97
02 United Kingdom Javine "Touch My Fire" English 22 18
03 Malta Chiara "Angel" English 2 192
04 Romania Luminița Anghel & Sistem "Let Me Try" English 3 158
05 Norway Wig Wam "In My Dreams" English 9 125
06 Turkey Gülseren "Rimi Rimi Ley" Turkish 13 92
07 Moldova Zdob și Zdub "Boonika bate doba" English, Romanian 6 148
08 Albania Ledina Çelo "Tomorrow I Go" English 16 53
09 Cyprus Constantinos Christoforou "Ela Ela" English 18 46
10 Spain Son de Sol "Brujería" Spanish 21 28
11 Israel Shiri Maimon "Hasheket Shenish'ar" (השקט שנשאר) Hebrew, English 4 154
12 Serbia and Montenegro No Name "Zauvijek moja" (Заувијек моја) Montenegrin 7 137
13 Denmark Jakob Sveistrup "Talking to You" English 9 125
14 Sweden Martin Stenmarck "Las Vegas" English 19 30
15 Macedonia Martin Vučić "Make My Day" English 17 52
16 Ukraine GreenJolly "Razom nas bahato" (Разом нас багато) Ukrainian, English[a] 19 30
17 Germany Gracia "Run and Hide" English 24 4
18 Croatia Boris Novković feat. Lado Members "Vukovi umiru sami" Croatian 11 115
19 Greece Helena Paparizou "My Number One" English 1 230
20 Russia Natalia Podolskaya "Nobody Hurt No One" English 15 57
21 Bosnia and Herzegovina Feminnem "Call Me" English 14 79
22 Switzerland Vanilla Ninja "Cool Vibes" English 8 128
23 Latvia Walters & Kazha "The War Is Not Over" English 5 153
24 France Ortal "Chacun pense à soi" French 23 11