The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th Eurovision Song Contest, which was held at the Palace of Sports, Kyiv, Ukraine. The winner was Greece's My Number One, written by the famous songwriters Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanos and performed by Greek-Swedish singer Helena Paparizou, who scored 230 points, while Malta's Angel, Chiara, was the runner up with 192 points, and the third place went to Romania's Let Me Try.
Moldova and Bulgaria made their debuts, while Hungary returned to the contest for the first time since 1998.
Lebanon and the Czech Republic initally confirmed participation but withdrew.
The contest took place on 19 May 2005 for the semi-final and 21 May 2005 for the final. Organizers hoped that this event 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.
In the same year, the Congratulations: 50 Years show was hosted, by Katrina Leskanich and Renars Kaupers of Brainstorm, in Forum Arena, in Copenhagen, Denmark, to celebrate the 50th show.
Gallery[]
Format[]
The official logo with the heart was kept. The slogan of the contest was "Awakening", representing Ukraine's awakening as a part of Europe. Each postcard showed clips of Ukrainian culture and industry. The contest was broadcast in 16:9 for the first time.
The 1-semi-final was kept again for 2005. As the top 10 non-Big Four countries of 2004, Ukraine, Serbia-Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Sweden, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia and Malta all automaticaly advanced to the final. 5 of these countries finished in the bottom 10, while 3 finished in the top 10.
NTU considered a return of the live orchestra, but this never materialised.
Lebanon and the Czech Republic initally confirmed participation but withdrew. Lebanon was disqualified for their late withdrawal, due to Lebanese law barring the broadcast of anything Israeli. Lebanon were to participate with "Quand tout s'enfuit" by Aline Lahoud.
The EBU introduced a minimum threshold number of televotes for validity, otherwise the televotes would be replaced with a jury. Andorra and Monaco did not televote in either round. The Albanian televotes were invalidated in the semi-final, and the Moldovan ones in the final.
Participants[]
Semi Final[]
All countries, including the Big Four, voted in the Semi Final that was held on 19 May 2005. Only the top ten qualified to the final out of 25 participants.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Austria
|
Global Kryner | Y así | English, Spanish | Like that | 21 | 30 |
| 02 |  Lithuania
|
Laura and The Lovers | Little by little | English | -- | 25 | 17 |
| 03 |  Portugal
|
2B | Amar | English, Portuguese | To love | 17 | 51 |
| 04 |  Moldova
|
Zdob şi Zdub | Boonika Bate Doba | English, Romanian | Grandmother beats the drum | 2 | 207 |
| 05 |  Latvia
|
Walters and Kazha | The War is Not Over | English | -- | 10 | 85 |
| 06 |  Monaco
|
Lise Darly | Tout de moi | French | All of me | 24 | 22 |
| 07 |  Israel
|
Shiri Maimon | HaSheket SheNish'ar | English, Hebrew | The silence that remains | 7 | 158 |
| 08 |  Belarus
|
Angelica Agurbash | Love Me Tonight | English | -- | 13 | 67 |
| 09 |  The Netherlands
|
Glennis Grace | My Impossible Dream | 14 | 53 | ||
| 10 |  Iceland
|
Selma | If I Had Your Love | 16 | 52 | ||
| 11 |  Belgium
|
Nuno Resende | Le grand soir | French | The big night | 22 | 29 |
| 12 |  Estonia
|
Suntribe | Let's Get Loud | English | -- | 20 | 31 |
| 13 |  Norway
|
Wig Wam | In my dreams | 6 | 164 | ||
| 14 |  Romania
|
Luminiţa Anghel and Sistem | Let Me Try | English | 1 | 235 | |
| 15 |  Hungary
|
NOX | Forogj, világ! | Hungarian | Spin, world! | 5 | 167 |
| 16 |  Finland
|
Geir Rönning | Why? | English | -- | 18 | 50 |
| 17 |  North Macedonia
|
Martin Vučić | Make My Day | 9 | 97 | ||
| 18 |  Andorra
|
Marian van de Wal | La mirada interior | Catalan | The inner glance | 23 | 27 |
| 19 |  Switzerland
|
Vanilla Ninja | Cool Vibes | English | -- | 8 | 114 |
| 20 |  Croatia
|
Boris Novković ft. Lado | Vukovi umiru sami | Croatian | Wolves die alone | 4 | 169 |
| 21 |  Bulgaria
|
Kaffe | Lorraine | English | -- | 19 | 49 |
| 22 |  Ireland
|
Donna and Joe | Love? | 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 | Black haired girl | 11 | 81 |
Grand Final[]
The Eurovision 2005 final was held on 21 May 2005. The qualifiers to the final were:
- The Big Four (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom)
- The top 10 non-big four countries of 2004
- The top 10 of the semi final of 2005
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Translation | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Hungary
|
NOX | Forogj, világ! | Hungarian | Spin, world! | 12 | 97 |
| 02 |  United Kingdom
|
Javine | Touch My Fire | English | -- | 22 | 18 |
| 03 |  Malta
|
Chiara | Angel | 2 | 192 | ||
| 04 | Romania
|
Luminiţa Anghel and Sistem | Let Me Try | 3 | 158 | ||
| 05 | Norway
|
Wig Wam | In My Dreams | 9 | 125 | ||
| 06 |  Türkiye
|
Gülseren | Rimi Rimi Ley | Turkish | 13 | 92 | |
| 07 | Moldova
|
Zdob şi Zdub | Boonika Bate Doba | English, Romanian | Grandmother beats the drum | 6 | 148 |
| 08 |  Albania
|
Ledina Çelo | Tomorrow I Go | English | -- | 16 | 53 |
| 09 |  Cyprus
|
Constantinos Christoforou | Ela Ela (Come Baby) | 18 | 46 | ||
| 10 |  Spain
|
Son de Sol | Brujería | Spanish | Witchcraft | 21 | 28 |
| 11 | Israel
|
Shiri Maimon | HaSheket SheNish'ar | English, Hebrew | The silence that remains | 4 | 154 |
| 12 |  Serbia and Montenegro
|
No Name | Zauvijek moja | Montenegrin | Forever mine | 7* | 137 |
| 13 | Denmark
|
Jakob Sveistrup | Talking to You | English | -- | 9 | 125 |
| 14 |  Sweden
|
Martin Stenmarck | Las Vegas | 19 | 30 | ||
| 15 | North Macedonia
|
Martin Vučić | Make My Day | 17 | 52 | ||
| 16 |  Ukraine
|
GreenJolly | Razom nas bahato | Ukrainian, English | Together we are many | 19 | 30 |
| 17 |  Germany
|
Gracia | Run & Hide | English | -- | 24 | 4 |
| 18 | Croatia
|
Boris Novković and Lado | Vukovi umiru sami | Croatian | Wolves die alone | 11* | 115 |
| 19 |  Greece
|
Helena Paparizou | My Number One | English | -- | 1 | 230 |
| 20 |  Russia
|
Natalia Podolskaya | Nobody Hurt No One | 15 | 57 | ||
| 21 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
Feminnem | Call Me | 14 | 79 | ||
| 22 | Switzerland
|
Vanilla Ninja | Cool Vibes | 8 | 128 | ||
| 23 | Latvia
|
Walters and Kazha | The War is Not Over | 5 | 153 | ||
| 24 |  France
|
Ortal | Chacun pense à soi | French | Everyone thinks of themselves | 23 | 11 |
- Serbia and Montenegro's automatic place in the 2006 final was taken by Croatia as they withdrew after a national final scandal (and ultimately dissolved 2 weeks after the final). The country however, voted anyway.
Trivia[]
- Due to the extended time it took with multiple countries voting, this was the last contest where all the points were read during the voting.
- The bottom 7 in the final were all auto-qualified, in order they were: Cyprus, Sweden, Ukraine, Spain, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
- Furthermore, every member of The Big Four placed in the bottom four in the final
- My Number One is the only winner to be an auto-qualifer outside the Big Five.
- Three contestants from the 1995 came back to sing as backing vocalists:
- Anabel Conde sang backing for Andorra.
- Alexandros Panayi sang backing for Greece, who ended up winning the contest.
- Elina Konstantopoulou sang backing for Cyprus after the original vocalist, Elena Patroklou, left because of personal issues.
- This was the first time Finland participated in an odd-numbered year since 1993.
- Two mistakes regarding flags were made by the presenters
- In the semi final. The card showing Hungary had moved on to the final showed Bulgaria's flag
- In the final, the stripes for the flag of Serbia and Montenegro were in the wrong order for the first half of the show. The red stripe was on the top, the blue stripe in the middle, and the white stripe on the bottom
