The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the contest, held in Istanbul, Turkey at the Abdi İpekçi Arena and was hosted by Meltem Cumbul and Korhan Abay. The 2004 contest introduced the new generic logo for the competition which would feature the host country's flag in the stylized center heart that formed the "V" in "Eurovision".
The theme of the 2004 contest is "Under The Same Sky", which reflects Istanbul being a city that straddles two continents, as well as bringing the artists together to celebrate music.
As new countries expressed their desire to join the contest (Albania, Andorra, Belarus and Serbia-Montenegro all made their debut this year), this year's edition introduced the semi-final round to accommodate the growing demand, thereby scrapping the relegation rule. The ten highest scores from the semi-final would advance to the final joining 14 other pre-qualified countries (the Big Four and the top 10 from the 2003 contest outside the Big Four). Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia and Switzerland returned from relegation, while Monaco returned after a 25-year-long hiatus from the contest.
Ukraine won on only its second entry. The winning song was Wild Dances performed by Ukrainian superstar Ruslana. She had been on an extensive promotional tour in lots of European countries before the contest, which could have contributed to her victory. The pre-qualified countries in the Final didn't do significantly well: Nine of these entries ended up bottom-10 and only Turkey, Sweden, Germany and Spain made it into the top-10.
After a few countries had given their votes, it was clear that competition would be a three horse race between Ukraine, Serbia & Montenegro and Greece.
The final was not just shown in the participating countries, but also in Armenia, Kosovo, Puerto Rico, and Australia. For the first time, a DVD was released shortly after the event including both the Semi-Final and the Final.[1]
Gallery[]
Participants[]
Semi Final[]
All participants of the contest broadcast and voted in the semi final, except for France, Poland and Russia, who all automatically qualified to the final. The following year, the EBU made it mandatory for all countries to broadcast the semi final.
Countries highlighted in gold/silver/peach qualified to the final.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Finland
|
Jari Sillanpää | Takes 2 to Tango | English | -- | 14 | 51 |
| 02 |  Belarus
|
Aleksandra and Konstantin | My Galileo | 19 | 10 | ||
| 03 |  Switzerland
|
Piero & the MusicStars | Celebrate | 22 | 0 | ||
| 04 |  Latvia
|
Fomins and Kleins | Dziesma par laimi | Latvian | A song about happiness | 17 | 23 |
| 05 |  Israel
|
David D'Or | Leha'amin | English, Hebrew | To believe | 11 | 57 |
| 06 |  Andorra
|
Marta Roure | Jugarem a estimar-nos | Catalan | We'll be playing at each other | 18 | 12 |
| 07 |  Portugal
|
Sofia Vitória | Foi magia | Portuguese | It was magic | 15 | 38 |
| 08 |  Malta
|
Julie and Ludwig | On Again... Off Again | English | -- | 8 | 74 |
| 09 |  Monaco
|
Maryon | Notre planète | French | Our planet | 20 | 10 |
| 10 |  Greece
|
Sakis Rouvas | Shake It | English | -- | 3 | 238 |
| 11 |  Ukraine
|
Ruslana | Wild Dances | English, Ukrainian | 2 | 256 | |
| 12 |  Lithuania
|
Linas and Simona | What's Happened to Your Love? | English | 16 | 26 | |
| 13 |  Albania
|
Anjeza Shahini | The Image of You | 4 | 167 | ||
| 14 |  Cyprus
|
Lisa Andreas | Stronger Every Minute | 5 | 149 | ||
| 15 |  North Macedonia
|
Toše Proeski | Life | 10 | 71 | ||
| 16 |  Slovenia
|
Platin | Stay Forever | 21 | 5 | ||
| 17 |  Estonia
|
Neiokõsõ | Tii | Võro | Path | 12 | 57 |
| 18 |  Croatia
|
Ivan Mikulić | You Are The Only One | English | -- | 9 | 72 |
| 19 |  Denmark
|
Tomas Thordarson | Shame on You | 13 | 56 | ||
| 20 |  Serbia and Montenegro
|
Željko Joksimović | Lane moje | Serbian | My sweetheart | 1 | 263 |
| 21 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
Deen | In The Disco | English | -- | 7 | 133 |
| 22 |  The Netherlands
|
Re-Union | Without You | 6 | 146 |
Final[]
Countries highlighted in gold/silver/peach automatically qualified to the 2005 final.
Trivia[]
- Andorra's debut marked the first time Catalan was heard in the contest.
- 2004 was also the first time Ukrainian, Latvian and Võro were heard in the contest. The latter two have not been heard since.
- Multiple small errors were made where graphics were broadcast in the wrong place, but these often lasted for less than a second.
- This is the only time to date where the semi-final results (only of the non-qualifiers) were shown immediately after.
- Estonia's result was miscalculated as 11th with 67 points.
- Notably, Serbia and Montenegro won the semi-final over Ukraine, who won the final.
- This could have been because Poland and Russia, neighbors of Ukraine, did not broadcast the semi-final and so could not vote for them.
- France not showing the semi-final likely affected Monaco's result negatively.
- This could have been because Poland and Russia, neighbors of Ukraine, did not broadcast the semi-final and so could not vote for them.
- This was the final contest to be broadcast in the 4:3 aspect ratio.
- The top three of 2004 shares similarities to that of 1991:
- The winners were both popular female singers in their countries, with high-tempo songs and intense choreography.
- The runners-up were low-key ethno songs which set a future trend in contests; both songs also got votes from more countries than the winner.
- The third-placers were up-tempo songs with ethnic elements which became classics in their respective countries.
- Along with Eurovision Song Contest 2003, this would be the only time where two consecutive years had no returning artists.
- This would be the last contest where the Netherlands qualified for the grand final until 2013.
