This week the 50th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country’s victory at the 2004 contest with the song Wild Dances by Ruslana. 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 a final on 21 May 2005. The two live shows were presented by Ukrainian television presenters 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.
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. 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.
During the semi-final, there were a few sound faults, most notably during the Norwegian song, shortly after the intro and also during the Irish song. These were not fixed for the DVD release.
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 widescreen 16:9 format.
The Netherlands did not qualify for the final on Saturday. My Impossible Dream by Glennis Grace got 53 point and ended as 14th in the semi-final.
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
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