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 after 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.
Location
Palace of Sports, Kyiv – host venue pictured during the 2005 contest.
Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper. The Palace of Sports, a multi-purpose indoor arena, was confirmed by officials as the host venue on 6 September 2004.[1] However, in order to host the contest, the facilities had been brought up to the standard required by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
At the end of December 2004, work began on the renovation
of the hall,[2] for which approximately 4 million francs were allocated.[3] Renovation works were to be finished by 20 April,[4] however, they were completed at the beginning of May.[5][6] The arena could accommodate over 5,000 seated spectators. Additionally 2,000 press delegates were catered for.
Hotel rooms were scarce as the contest organisers asked the Ukrainian government to put a block on bookings they did not control themselves through official delegation allocations or tour packages: this led to many people's hotel bookings being cancelled.[7]
Organizers hoped that by hosting Eurovision, it would boost Ukraine's image abroad and increase tourism, while the country's new government hoped that it would also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring European Union membership.
Thirty-nine countries participated in the 2005 contest. Hungary returned to the contest after a six-year absence, last competing in 1998. Bulgaria and Moldova competed in the contest for the first time.
Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005[8][9][10]
Czech broadcaster Czech Television initially applied to participate in the 2005 contest; however, the broadcaster reconsidered débuting in the contest and later withdrew their application.[12]Lebanese broadcaster Télé Liban initially confirmed Lebanon's début in the contest and selected the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" performed by Aline Lahoud as their entry; however, the broadcaster announced their withdrawal from the competition in March 2005 after finding out the obligation to broadcast all participating entries, including the Israeli one, as well as enabling their viewers to vote for them; this contravened a Lebanese law prohibiting any acknowledgement of Israel.[13]
Format
Visual design
The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the country's flag in the heart being changed. Following Istanbul's 'Under the Same Sky', the slogan for the 2005 show was 'Awakening', which symbolised the awakening of the country and city ready to present itself to Europe. The postcards (short clips shown between performances) for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine's culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country.
This was the first edition to be broadcast in widescreen16:9 format.[14]
An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, which contains heart-shaped pins with the flags of all thirty-nine participating countries. The EBU also commissioned a book "The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History" by British/American author John Kennedy O'Connor to celebrate the contest's fiftieth anniversary.[15] The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13 (Serbia and Montenegro, Denmark). The book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish.
Contest overview
Semi-final
The semi-final was held on 19 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET). 25 countries performed but all 39 participants voted.
Qualifiers
Results of the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005[16]
The order in which each country announced their votes was compiled by placing the countries that failed to qualify from the semi-final first in the running order they performed during the semi-final, followed by the finalists which voted in the order they performed in during the final. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.[18]
The EBU introduced an undisclosed threshold number of televotes that would have to be registered in each voting country in order to make that country's votes valid. If that number was not reached, the country's backup jury would vote instead. This affected Albania, Andorra and Monaco in the semi-final, and Andorra, Moldova and Monaco in the final.[19][20]
The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final.[111] The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award which was voted by previous winners of the contest, Composer Award and Press Award.[112]
The Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed by the fansite House of Eurovision from 1997 to 2016 and is being carried out by the fansite songfestival.be since 2017.[113]
Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005 was the official compilation album of the 2005 contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by EMI Records and CMC International on 2 May 2005. The album featured all 39 songs that entered in the 2005 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.[115]
The original cover designed for the album was changed after Lebanon's withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 after announcing they would show advertisements over the Israeli entry. Had they entered, they would have been on track 4, disc 2 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" by Aline Lahoud.[116]
It was reported that sales of the 2005 Eurovision merchandise reached record-breaking levels.[117]
^Bakker, Sietse (3 December 2004). "Czech Republic Withdraws". ESC Today. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
^"Eurowizja w TVP". TVP (in Polish). 19 December 2004. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2023 – via Wirtualne Media.
^"TV spored"(PDF). Gorenjski glas (in Slovenian). 17 May 2005. pp. 11–18. Archived(PDF) from the original on 28 January 2023. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ abThorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 326–327. ISBN91-89136-29-2.
^Sietse Bakker (18 March 2005). "Lebanon withdraws". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Archived from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
