The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition held in Athens, Greece at the OAKA Olympic Arena and was presented by Greek-born American TV personality Maria Menounos and 2004 Eurovision participant Sakis Rouvas. The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 and the final on 20 May 2006.
A new system was adopted this year regarding the presentation of each country's votes. Instead of having the individual spokesperson read out every point as done in the past, the scores from 1-7 were shown on screen first, followed by the spokesperson only reading out the top 3 scores of 8, 10 and 12 points. This new system helped shave approximately 40 minutes off the show's running time and has been used ever since.
The contest was won by Finland, considered to be the "underachievers" of Eurovision, with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah performed by the group Lordi. It is the first hard rock song to ever win the contest, winning both the semi and the final with the same amount of points. Finland waited a full 45 years for their first victory, eclipsing the previous mark of 31 years set by Greece the year before. That record has since been eclipsed by Portugal with their victory in 2017 ending a 53-year drought.
Format[]
Presenters[]
Television presenter Maria Menounos and two-time Eurovision entrant for Greece Sakis Rouvas hosted the contest.
Theme[]
The logo of the 2006 Contest was created by the design company Karamela, and it was based on the Phaistos Disc - a symbol of ancient Greece. According to ERT, it was "inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden sunlight and the glow of the sand".
The Pre-Song Postcards showed places connected to Greece's history as well as its modern tourism hotspots.
Incidents[]
- Paul de Leeuw, the Dutch spokesperson, insisted on pretending to give Rouvas his phone number and announce points 1 to 7, which were already displayed to save time.
- Constantinos Christoforou gave his votes from Cyprus whilst the graphic showed Switzerland was calling.
- EBU imaging overrode Menounos during a voting interval segment.
- The Icelandic Participant, Silvia Night, caused controversy during the week of rehearsals by being rude to the other participants, journalists and Greek people, even accusing Carola, the officials made sure they she was far away from Carola to avoid an Argument. Little did anyone know that Silvia Night was a Character from an Icelandic sitcom played by Augusta Eva Erlandsdottir.
Participants[]
37 countries participated, Armenia making its debut with Austria and Hungary withdrawing. Serbia and Montenegro also withdrew due to a scandal at the national final and ultimately Montenegro seceded 2 weeks after the final. Ireland's entry was the 1,000th song performed at the contest.
Semi-final[]
Final[]
All countries voted including Serbia and Montenegro. The final took place on 20 May 2006. Lordi won for Finland with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah.
Trivia[]
- After this edition was shown as part of Eurovision Again in mid-2020, the EBU came on board with their support for the project.
- Hard Rock Hallelujah was the first semi-final winner to win the entire contest as well (Wild Dances came second in the 2004 semi-final, while My Number One was an auto-qualifier for 2005).
- Tapes of the 2006 contest recorded in high definition were unearthed by ERT in July 2021. The tapes were sent to the Netherlands to be digitized and the EBU aired the high-definition broadcast on the official YouTube channel on 31 July 2021.
- Strangely, the EBU counts Serbia and Montenegro as being last place in the semi-final.
- Co-presenter Maria Menounos co-hosted the 2023 Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador.