🔵 2005 Eurovision Song Contest Full Show Semifinal in Kiev

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.

In the semifinal, the first qualifier was Hungary as shown on the card, but instead of showing Hungary's flag, it showed the Bulgarian flag accidentally.

Semi-final results:

The semi-final was held on 19 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET). 25 countries performed and all 39 participants voted.

Draw Country Artist Song Language[10] Place[11] Points
01 Austria Global.Kryner "Y así" English, Spanish 21 30
02 Lithuania Laura & The Lovers "Little by Little" English 25 17
03 Portugal 2B "Amar" Portuguese, English 17 51
04 Moldova Zdob și Zdub "Boonika bate doba" English, Romanian 2 207
05 Latvia Walters & Kazha "The War Is Not Over" English 10 85
06 Monaco Lise Darly "Tout de moi" French 24 22
07 Israel Shiri Maimon "Hasheket Shenish'ar" (השקט שנשאר) Hebrew, English 7 158
08 Belarus Angelica Agurbash "Love Me Tonight" English 13 67
09 Netherlands Glennis Grace "My Impossible Dream" English 14 53
10 Iceland Selma "If I Had Your Love" English 16 52
11 Belgium Nuno Resende "Le grand soir" French 22 29
12 Estonia Suntribe "Let's Get Loud" English 20 31
13 Norway Wig Wam "In My Dreams" English 6 164
14 Romania Luminița Anghel & Sistem "Let Me Try" English 1 235
15 Hungary NOX "Forogj, világ!" Hungarian 5 167
16 Finland Geir Rönning "Why?" English 18 50
17 Macedonia Martin Vučić "Make My Day" English 9 97
18 Andorra Marian van de Wal "La mirada interior" Catalan 23 27
19 Switzerland Vanilla Ninja "Cool Vibes" English 8 114
20 Croatia Boris Novković feat. Lado Members "Vukovi umiru sami" Croatian 4 169
21 Bulgaria Kaffe "Lorraine" English 19 49
22 Ireland Donna and Joe "Love?" English 14 53
23 Slovenia Omar Naber "Stop" Slovene 12 69
24 Denmark Jakob Sveistrup "Talking to You" English 3 185
25 Poland Ivan & Delfin "Czarna dziewczyna" Polish, Russian 11 81