The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 will be the fiftieth Eurovision competition and will be held in Kiev, Ukraine on May 21, 2005. The semi-finals will take place on May 19, 2005. 10 out of 25 countries with the highest scores in the semi-final will join 14 already pre-qualified countries in the final. Both events will be televised. The event is set to take place at the Palace of Sports in downtown Kiev in front of over 6000 spectators. Organisers hope that this event will boost Ukraine's image abroad and increase tourism, while the country's new government hopes it will also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring European Union membership. Bulgaria and Moldova will take part for the first time while Hungary returns after a hiatus since 1998. Lebanon had been expected to make its debut appearance but decided to withdraw. The singer Ruslana, who brought the contest to Ukraine with her victory in 2004, will host the event alongside the internationally known Ukrainian boxer Volodmyr Klitchsko , as well as DJ Pasha , a TV Presenter and Radio DJ.
Participating countries
Pre-qualified for the final
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Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Malta, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom.
Taking part in the semi-final
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Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia (F.Y.R.), Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Switzerland.
Running Order
Semi-Final: 19 May 2005
Final: 21 May 2005
Individual arrangements in countries
The winning Albanian song is "Nesër shkoj" ("Tomorrow I will leave") sung by locally famous Ledina Çelo. The song mixes a modern World Music style with traditional Balkan influence. The 2005 Festivalli ne RTSH was held on the 18th December in Tirana, with semi-finals on the 16th and 17th. It was the first public preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005.
The Netherlands-born hotel owner Marian van de Wal will represent Andorra with the song "La Mirada Interior" ("The Look Inside"). Marian was chosen using a Pop Idol-style show out of 36 contestants. In the final stage, she narrowly defeated Mar Capdevila and Isthar Ruíz, who ended up second in the Andorran National Final in 2004 together as the duo Bis A Bis, and entered separately in 2005. Later, in a song selection show, "La Mirada Interior" was selected from a choice of three songs. It is written by the Catalan composers Rafah Tanit, Daniel Aragay and Rafa Fernández.
For the first time in a generation the Austrian preselection "song.null.fünf" shaped up to be an exciting event with the participation of popular comedian Alf Poier as well as the locally famous folk band Global Kryner. The most popular Austrian entertainer DJ Ötzi also considered participating but decided against it when the Austrian television pointed out he had to sing an original song, not a cover. The national final took place on Friday 25 February 2005, and once again it was the televoters who decided which song and performer was to represent Austria. Global Kryner narrowly beat out Alf Poier by a mere four points.
Angelica Argubash (Belarussian: Анжаліка Агурбаш) was originally selected to represent Belarus with the rock ballad "Boys & Girls". Television viewers joined internet voters to select three songs from the national final. A jury then chose '"Boys & Girls" out of the three. The song was inspired by the Beslan massacre. However, disappointed by the lukewarm reaction the song received across Europe, the Belarussian authorities have since opted to take the highly unusual step of allowing Angelica to perform a different song in Kiev, entitled "Love Me Tonight".
The French speaking RTBF chose its representative at a national final on Sunday 20 March 2005. Only two songs were performed in that final, with the public displaying their preference for Nuno Resende's "Le grand soir" by a wafer-thin margin.
15 songs competed in the Bosnian final on 6 March. The result was decided by 50% jury and 50% televoting. The 2003 Bosnian representative Mija Martina competed in the preselection. The winning song was "Zovi" performed by Feminnem , a female trio composed of contestants of a television show (Hrvatski Idol, the Croatian version of American Idol; they were allowed to compete despite being from Croatia because two of them hail originally from Herzegovina). In Kiev, the group will compete with an English language version of the song entitled "Call Me".
Bulgaria will participate for the first time. Their national broadcaster BNT held a national final on 12 February and a jazz inspired band Kaffee was chosen.
The Croatian national final ("Dora") was held on 5 March after two semifinals. Notable participants were the former Croatian representatives Magazin (1995), Danijela Martinović ; (1995, 1998), Goran Karan (2000) and Vesna Pisarović (2002). Giuliano made his fifth Dora appearance. The eventual winner, however, was Boris Novković featuring members of the ethno group "Lado ", with the song "Vukovi Umiru Sami".
Constantinos Christoforou (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Χριστοφόρου) will sing "Ela Ela" for Cyprus. Christoforou previously sang for Cyprus in the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest where he ended ninth and again as part of the group One in the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest when Cyprus took sixth place. He will be accompanied by Elena Patroclou , who represented Cyprus in 1991."Ela Ela" was chosen out of four songs written either by him or other songwriters on a TV show. A combined "expert jury" and televoting system selected the song.
The Danish Melodi Grand Prix took place in Horsens Forum on February 12 2005. One major change in the rules that was agreed upon was that from 2005, all contestants participating will be permitted to sing in either Danish or English at the Danish national final. In previous years Danmarks Radio, the televising sponsor of the event, has always insisted that performers sing in Danish at the national final and then in English at the Eurovision contest. The Olsen Brothers, winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 entered a song in the competition in the hope of repeating their triumph but placed only 2nd.
The songs were: 01. "Uhh La La La" by Chi Hua Hua 02. "Make A Wish" by Marie Keis Uhre 03. "Tćnder pĺ dig" by Jakob Sveistrup 04. "I Believe In Love" by Luna Park 05. "Em smule af dig" by Kim Schwartz 06. "Peace, Understanding & Love" by Tamra Rosanes 07. "Little Yellow Radio" by Olsen Brothers (Brřdrene Olsen) 08. "Troublesome" by Ditlev Ulriksen 09. "I Must Be Crazy" by Sweethearts 10. "Lonnie fra Berlin" by Kandis
The winning entry was "Tćnder pĺ dig" by Jakob Sveistrup. With a Danish language entry thus having won the public's confidence in a 'free language' pre-selection, there was some clamour in support of the proposition that in justice the song ought, in a reversal of recent practice, to remain in Danish for Eurovision. However, it has since been switched to English language lyrics, with the new title "Talking to You".
The all-girl group Suntribe will sing "Let's Get Loud" for Estonia. Its members participated in star casting shows in the past. The song defeated 8 others by televote in the national final Eurolaul.
Heikki Paasonen and Jaana Pelkonen hosted the four semi finals and the final of the 2005 national finals for Finland. A new record was set when 503 songs were submitted to broadcaster YLE for the 2005 national selection. 476 song were received in 2002. In addition, YLE invited eight composers to submit songs directly to the competition. Lahti, Jyväskylä, Turku and Imatra were the host towns of the semifinals on January 14, January 21, February 4 and February 11 respectively. The grand final was held at Tampere Hall on February 19 2005 and the winner was "Why" by Geir Rönning .
For the first time since Eurovision 2000, France 3 organised a National Preselection. Five singers battled it out for the right to represent France, with Ortal emerging as the popular choice with her song "Chacun pense ŕ soi".
The German final, Germany 12 Points was held on 12 March in Berlin. It was won by Gracia , with the song "Run & Hide", with other participants including Allee der Kosmonauten, Ellen ten Damme, Stefan Gwildis, Königwerq, Murphy Brothers, Orange Blue, Under One Flag, Villaine and the Swiss singer Mia Aegerter .
The Swedish national Helena Paparizou (Greek: Έλενα Παπαρίζου), who won third place for Greece in the 2001 contest together with her group Antique, has been selected internally by ERT. She will sing "My Number One" in Kiev, chosen by a mixture of televoting and jury selection in the national final on March 2.
Hungary will return to the Eurovision Song Contest after six years of absence, with the song "Forogj világ", performed by NOX .
The 1999 Eurovision Song Contest runner-up Selma was internally selected to represent Iceland, and will perform the song "If I Had Your Love" in Kiev.
RTÉ, the Irish state broadcaster once again ran the You're A Star talent contest to choose an act. The act will technically represent only the Republic of Ireland (though entered in the Eurovision under the official name of "Ireland"), but as is common in Ireland, the You're A Star competition is run on an all-island basis, the winner of which, announced on 06 March 2005 at 21:37 GMT, was Donna & Joseph McCaul with the song "Love?" (pronounced: "love question mark").
For the first time since 2001, a full-scale Israeli preselection ("Kdam") was held on 2 March. Unlike previous years, IBA invited only established artists to the Kdam. Among the better-known participants were Shiri Maymon (runner-up of a popular Idol-style casting show in 2003) as well as Tvika Pick , composer and producer of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest winner "Diva". Shiri Maymon's song "Hasheket shemish'ar" won the event to become Israel's entry in Kiev.
The semi finals took place on 29 January and 5 February, with the national final being aired on 26 February from Ventspils. As in previous years, the concept of a super final continued. After the first round of televoting had taken place, all but three songs were eliminated. After a further performance, viewers were asked to decide which of the three should go to Kiev. Notable was the appearance of Tatjana Timchuka , who finished in the top 3 of the previous two years, and changed her stage name to Marta. However, it was Valters & Kaa that won the event with "The War is Not Over".
The Lebanese broadcaster Télé Liban had internally selected Aline Lahoud to be their debut entrant, but had to withdraw from the contest after doubts were raised over whether Israel's entry would be broadcast in Lebanon. Aline had been intended to sing "Quand tout s'enfuit", composed by Jad Rahbani.
The Lithuanian national final, Nacionalinė atranka į Euroviziją 2005, was held in Kaunas on 26 February. 21 songs selected from 7 semifinals participated. Audronė Girkontaitė , who set an all-time low record in a 2004 semifinal of only 22 televotes, more than tripled her points this year and managed to collect 67 votes in one of the semi-finals, still a long way short of qualifying for the final. Laura & the Lovers eventually won through with the song "Little by Little".
The 2005 Macedonian national final was held on 19, February 2005 in Skopje and feautured two artists Aleksandra Pileva and Martin Vucic . During the first phase of the preselection both of them were selected to participate in the final by a jury of sixteen music professionals. The two performed 4 songs each - one song was of their own choosing, the other three were from an open competition to submit songs for the final. Martin Vucic turned out to be the winner.
Malta Song for Europe was held on 19 February. Out of 22 participating songs, 5 were written by German Eurovision winning composer Ralph Siegel. Former Maltese Eurovision participants, Chiara (1998) and Fabrizio Faniello (2001) were among the participants, and a televote decided that Chiara's song "Angel" would represent Malta in Kiev.
Moldova will participate for its first time. Despite earlier rumours, the popular pop band O-Zone did not participate in the national final. The song selected was "Bunica Bate Toba" by the group Zdob si Zdub.
The French singer Lise Darly was selected internally to sing "Tout de moi" in Kiev. Lise finished second to Märyon in the Monegasque singer selection of 2004.
The Netherlands chose their song for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday, 13 February at the Pepsi Center in Amsterdam. Twenty-four songs participated in the four televised semi finals. From each heat, three songs won places in the final. The heats were broadcasted by TROS and there was no ‘second chance’ round next year. The winner turned out to be a Whitney Houston influenced singer Glennis Grace .
On March 5 2005, viewers will be given the chance to help decide which song should represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev. The rules for the national final have been changed for the 2005 contest. Previously NRK has issued an open call for songs; in 2005 the broadcaster plans to invite composers and artists directly with the aim of providing eight songs for consideration by televoters and a professional jury.
The Russian-Polish duo Ivan i Delfin will sing the Russian folk-style "Czarna dziewczyna" ("Black haired girl"). The song has one of the fastest beats per minute in Eurovision's history. It has been internally selected by TVP amongst 63 songs. The song will be performed in both Polish and Ukrainian.
The Portuguese entry, "Amare" by 2B was selected internally by RTP (Portugal).
12 songs competed in the Romanian national final on 5 March 2005. The winning song was "Let Me Try" performed by Luminita Anghel and Sistem .
The Russian final took place on 25 February in Moscow. Three songs that qualified from each of the three semifinals participated. Natalia Podolskaya emerged victorious with her song "Nobody Hurt No-one".
The national final was held in Podgorica on 4 March 2005. It featured 14 Serbian and 10 Montenegrin songs that had earlier been pre-selected in each republic. "Zauvijek Moja" by the band No Name, a qualifier from Montenegro's semi-final, was the controversial winner of the event which was decided by a mixture of jury selection and televote. All four Montenegrin jurors had noticeably awarded no points whatsoever to Jelena Tomasevic 's song "Jutro", the leading qualifier from the Serbian semi-final, which conversely had received high scores from all four Serbian jurors. The probable partisan feeling that led to such a polarised outcome may be partly attributable to the fallout from an earlier heated dispute, initiated by Montenegrin allegations that the Serbian qualifiers had been actively promoted on the airwaves in the run-up to the final, in a perceived breach of a 'gentlemen's agreement' between the two sides. Before allowing "Zauvijek Moja" to be confirmed as Serbia and Montenegro's entry, the EBU launched an investigation into a number of formal complaints, which also related to hotly disputed allegations of plagiarism. However, after prolonged deliberations, the song was given the green light.
The Slovenian national final (EMA) took place on February 13 2005 in Ljubljana. Unlike the last previous years, there was only one show and no semi finals. Songs for consideration were being accepted until December 10th, 2004. "Stop" sung by Omar Naber was the choice to go to Kiev.
12 acts participated in the Spanish national preselection held in Madrid and broadcasted by TVE on March 4th and 5th, 2005. The list of participants included the controversial trio Las Supremas de Móstoles, who finally ranked second. Son de Sol won the contest featuring their song "Brujería".
Four semi finals and one ‘second chance’ show were broadcast to decide the line-up for the grand final. As in recent years the qualifying heats were held across Sweden. The Melodifestival started out in Göteborg and travelled through Linköping, Skellefteĺ, and Växjö before the final. The final was won by Martin Stenmarck with his song "Las Vegas". Nanne Grönvall came second, Alcazar were third, and Shirley Clamp was fourth.
The Estonian girl-band Vanilla Ninja will represent Switzerland with the song "Cool Vibes". The band has had a major amount of hits in Germany and Switzerland among others and therefore was internally selected by the Swiss television.
After two years of selecting an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest internally, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) decided to return to the public national final system used previously. Ten songs were short-listed by an internal committee at TRT to take part. All songs had to be written in Turkish. "Rimi Rimi Ley", performed by Gülseren, was the eventual choice to represent Turkey in Kiev.
For the first time ever Ukraine held a national final. 527 songs were received by NTU. A jury narrowed this down to 75. Five songs were shown each week from November 1, 2004 on and viewers picked the best one each week for fifteen weeks. The fifteen winners went forward to a public national final on February 27, 2005, although singers of entries that had been published prior to November 2004, including the heavy favourite Ani Lorak , were asked to submit a new song for the final. In addition, four wildcards were added to the line-up for the final and one of these, the hip-hop entry "Razom Nas Bahato" by the band Grindzholy, was controversially voted the winner, beating Ani Lorak into second place. The controversial decision to add the entrants into the final was initiated by Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister on Humanitarian Policy Mykola Tomenko . While he tried to justify his decision in the contest aftermath arguing that it needed to reflect the dramatic changes in the society due to the recent Orange Revolution, the perceived government intervention into a musical contest attracted much criticism. Indeed, for many weeks the song, which almost certainly owes its victory to its familiarity as an unofficial anthem of the Orange Revolution, appeared to be in danger of falling foul of two criteria for eligibility as an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Firstly, it was openly derivative of an older revolutionary song, and therefore was arguably not an original composition, and secondly, the lyrics could be classed as political propaganda, especially since they mentioned President Viktor Yushchenko by name. However, after substantial revisions were made, the song was deemed a legitimate entry by the EBU.
The BBC held the United Kingdom final Making Your Mind Up on 5 March in London. The five acts taking part were Andy Scott-Lee , Australian-born Gina G (who represented the UK in 1996, coming 8th), Javine, Katie Price (better known as glamour model Jordan), and Tricolore . Voting was open to the public, with votes converted into points in a similiar way to the actual contest, and the act receiving the most points representing the UK. Javine and Katie Price each recieved over 100 points, a large amount more than all the other acts. Throughout the later votes Katie Price and Javine repeatedly swapped positions for first place, but in the end Javine won and will be representing the United Kingdom this year.
