Eurovision Song Contest 2006
| File:Sublogo02.jpg | |
| Date | 18 May 2006, 20 May 2006 |
|---|---|
| Presenters | Maria Menounos, Sakis Rouvas |
| Host Broadcaster | ERT |
| Venue | Olympic Indoor Hall, Athens, Greece |
| Winning Song | Hard Rock Hallelujah (Finland) |
| Voting system | Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs |
| Number of Songs | 24 in final, another 13 DNQ from semi-final |
| Countries Making Debut | Armenia |
| Nul points | None |
| Interval Act | Elena Paparizou, Greek dancers |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the fifty-first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece. The scheduled dates for the contests were 18 May 2006 for the semi-final, and 20 May 2006 for the final. The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was ERT. The Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" with 292 points, the highest points total in Eurovision history (although more countries have been able to vote since the introduction of the semi-final in 2004, and so the 1997 winning entry "Love Shine A Light", sung by Katrina and the Waves for the United Kingdom, is still considered the most dominant winning song in contest history with a 70-point margin over the second-place Ireland [1]). "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest (Eurovision is normally associated with softer pop music and schlager). Runner-up was Russia's Dima Bilan with "Never Let You Go", whose score of 248 would have been enough to win last year.
The official logo of the contest remained the same from 2004 and 2005 with the country's flag in the heart being changed. The 2006 sub-logo created by the design company Karamela for Greek television was apparently based on the Phaistos Disc which is a popular 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". Following Istanbul's "Under The Same Sky" and Kiev's "Awakening", the slogan for the 2006 show was "Feel The Rhythm". This theme was also the basis for the postcards for the 2006 show, which emphasized Greece's historical significance as well as being a modern tourist destination.
The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens were popular Greek singer Sakis Rouvas (the Greek representative at Eurovision in 2004) and the Greek-American television presenter and actress, Maria Menounos. In the semi-final, both the hosts sang Katrina and the Waves' contest-winning "Love Shine A Light". For one of the intervals, Sakis Rouvas sang an English version of his Greek hit "Se' exo Erotefti" called "I'm in love with you". Elena Paparizou, who performed the winning song in Kyiv, returned to the Eurovision stage in Athens. Following the examples of Sertab Erener and Ruslana in the last two years, Elena Paparizou sang in the interval acts for the final. She sang "My Number One" and "Mambo!". Greek dancers were also present in the interval acts, as well as other Greek elements. An official CD and DVD will be released and a new introduction is an official fan book released this year, and every year to come with detailed information of every country.
To save time in the final, the voting process was changed: points 1-7 were shown immediately on a live scoreboard. The spokespersons only announced the countries scoring 8, 10 and 12 points. Despite this being intended to speed proceedings up, there were still problems during voting - EBU imaging over-rode Maria Menounos during a segment in the voting interval and some scoreboards were slow to load. The Netherlands' spokeperson Paul de Leeuw also caused problems, giving out (what was presumably his) mobile number during the Dutch results, and slowing down proceedings. Constantinos Christoforou had to be cut-off for taking too long to give the twelve points from the Cypriot televote.
The 2006 contest also saw the 1,000th song to be performed in the contest, when "Every Song Is A Cry For Love" by Ireland's Brian Kennedy was first sung in the semi-final. Armenia also entered for the first time in the contest.
Individual entries
Albania | Andorra | Armenia | Belarus | Belgium | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Bulgaria | Croatia | Cyprus | Denmark | Estonia | Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Iceland | Ireland | Israel | Latvia | Lithuania | FYR Macedonia | Malta | Moldova | Monaco | Netherlands | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Russia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | Turkey | Ukraine | United Kingdom
Final 2006-05-20
Semi-Final 2006-05-18
Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final
| Country | Language | Artist | Song | Translation | Place | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Armenia |
English | André | Without Your Love | - | 6 | 150 |
| 02 |  Bulgaria |
English | Mariana Popova | Let Me Cry | - | 17 | 36 |
| 03 |  Slovenia |
English | Anžej Dežan | Mr Nobody | - | 16 | 49 |
| 04 |  Andorra |
Catalan | Jenny | Sense tu | Without You | 23 | 8 |
| 05 |  Belarus |
English | Polina Smolova | Mum | - | 22 | 10 |
| 06 |  Albania |
Albanian | Luiz Ejlli | Zjarr e ftohtë | Fire And Cold | 14 | 58 |
| 07 |  Belgium |
English | Kate Ryan | Je t'adore | I Adore You | 12 | 69 |
| 08 |  Ireland |
English | Brian Kennedy | Every Song Is A Cry For Love | - | 9 | 79 |
| 09 |  Cyprus |
English | Annet Artani | Why Angels Cry | - | 15 | 57 |
| 10 |  Monaco |
French | Séverine Ferrer | La coco-dance | The Coco Dance | 21 | 14 |
| 11 |  Macedonia |
English, Macedonian | Elena Risteska | Ninanajna | - | 10 | 76 |
| 12 |  Poland |
English, Polish, German, Russian | Ich Troje feat. Real McCoy | Follow My Heart | - | 11 | 70 |
| 13 |  Russia |
English | Dima Bilan | Never Let You Go | - | 3 | 217 |
| 14 |  Turkey |
Turkish | Sibel Tüzün | Süper star | Superstar | 8 | 91 |
| 15 |  Ukraine |
English | Tina Karol | Show Me Your Love | - | 7 | 146 |
| 16 |  Finland |
English | Lordi | Hard Rock Hallelujah | - | 1 | 292 |
| 17 |  Netherlands |
English, imaginary | Treble | Amambanda | - | 20 | 22 |
| 18 |  Lithuania |
English | LT United | We Are The Winners | - | 5 | 163 |
| 19 |  Portugal |
English, Portuguese | Nonstop | Coisas de nada | Meaningless Things | 19 | 26 |
| 20 |  Sweden |
English | Carola | Invincible | - | 4 | 214 |
| 21 |  Estonia |
English | Sandra | Through My Window | - | 18 | 28 |
| 22 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Bosnian | Hari Mata Hari | Lejla | Layla | 2 | 267 |
| 23 |  Iceland |
English | Silvia Night | Congratulations | - | 13 | 62 |
Score sheet
Other countries
- On June 18, 2005, Austrian newspaper Der Kurier reported that the Austrian broadcaster ORF would not be taking part in the 2006 contest.
- On October 5, 2005 the managing director of Georgia Television & Radio Broadcasting stated that Georgia would not enter the 2006 contest.
- On October 6, 2005 Česká televize announced that the Czech Republic would not participate.
- On December 9, 2005 Hungarian broadcaster Magyar TV announced that Hungary would not participate for financial reasons.
Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from the contest due to a scandal in the selection process, which has caused tensions between the Serbian broadcaster, RTS, and the Montenegrin broadcaster, RTCG. Serbia and Montenegro did retain voting rights for the contest.
Serbia and Montenegro's withdrawal left a vacancy in the final. In the delegations meeting on March 20, it was decided that Croatia, who finished 11th in the 2005 Contest, would fill the empty spot.
The other full-European countries that dit not participate were Italy, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City.
Commentators
- Belgium - André Vermeulen & Bart Peeters
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Dejan Kukrić
- Croatia - Duško Čurlić
- Denmark - Mads Vangsø & Adam Duvå Hall
- Estonia - Marko Reikop
- Finland - Heikki Paasonen & Jaana Pelkonen & Asko Murtomäki
- France - Michel Drucker & Claudy Siar
- FYR Macedonia - Karolina Petkovska
- Germany - Peter Urban
- Greece - Giorgos Kapoudzidis & Zeta Makrypoulia
- Iceland - Sigmar Guðmundsson
- Ireland - Marty Whelan
- Latvia - Kārlis Streips
- Lithuania - Darius Užkuraitis
- Malta - Eileen Montesin
- Monaco - Bernard Montiel & Églantine Eméyé
- Netherlands - Cornald Maas & Paul de Leeuw
- Norway - Jostein Pedersen
- Poland - Artur Orzech
- Portugal - Eládio Clímaco
- Russia - Yuri Aksyuta
- Slovenia - Mojca Mavec
- Spain - Beatriz Pecker
- Sweden - Pekka Heino
- Switzerland - Sandra Studer
- Ukraine - Pavlo Shylko (DJ Pasha)
- United Kingdom - Paddy O'Connell (semi-final) & Terry Wogan (final)
Spokespersons
The following people were the spokespersons for their countries. A spokesperson delivers the results of national televoting during the final night, awarding points to the entries on behalf of his or her country. [2]
- Albania - Leon Menkshi
- Andorra - Xavi Palma
- Armenia - Gohar Gasparyan
- Belarus - Corrianna
- Belgium - Yasmine
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Vesna Andree Zaimović
- Bulgaria - Dragomir Simeonov
- Croatia - Mila Horvat
- Cyprus - Konstantinos Christoforou (Cypriot singer in the 1996, 2002 and 2005 Contests)
- Denmark - Jørgen de Mylius
- Estonia - Evelin Samuel (Estonian singer in the 1999 Contest and veteran of several 1990s Eurolauls)
- Finland - Nina Tapio
- France - Sophie Jovillard
- FYR Macedonia - Martin Vučić (Macedonian singer in the 2005 Contest)
- Germany - Thomas Hermanns
- Greece - Alexis Kostalas
- Iceland - Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir
- Ireland - Eimear Quinn (Irish singer in the 1996 Contest, which she won)
- Israel - Dana Herman
- Latvia - Mārtiņš Freimanis
- Lithuania - Lavija Šurnaitė
- Malta - Moira Delia
- Monaco - Églantine Eméyé
- Moldova - Svetlana Cocosh
- Netherlands - Paul de Leeuw
- Norway - Ingvild Helljesen
- Poland - Maciej Orłoś
- Portugal - Cristina Alves
- Romania - Andreea Marin
- Russia - Yana Churikova
- Serbia and Montenegro - Jovana Janković
- Slovenia - Peter Poles
- Spain - Sonia Ferrer
- Sweden - Jovan Radomir
- Switzerland - Jubaira Bachmann
- Turkey - Meltem Yazgan
- Ukraine - Igor Posypaiko
- United Kingdom - Fearne Cotton
References
See also
External links
- Official Greek Host website
- Official Eurovision Website - Audio and video clips available in the Multimedia Lounge
Unofficial sites, in alphabetic order:
- Commentary and video of the 2006 winners, Lordi
- Dot Eurovision - news site including a prediction poll
- ESCKaz
- ESC Today - news site, including the biggest ESC forum and a prediction poll
- Eurosong.net
- Eurovision Cyprus
- Eurovision en français in french
- Template:Fr icon Eurovision-fr
- EurovisionMadrid
- Eurovision Record Book - includes 2006 voting simulator
- Eurovision-Romania
- Oikotimes - news and gossip
- Song information about the 2006 Contest
- Euromusic Romania
