| Eurovision Song Contest 2006 |
Article Index for Eurovision Song |
Website Links For Eurovision Song |
Information AboutEurovision Song Contest 2006 |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2006 | |
| eurovision song contest by year | |
| 2006 in music | |
| athens | |
| greek music | |
| 2006 in greece | |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the fifty-first Eurovision Song Contest , held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens , Greece on the 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 a record 292 points. "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was the first ever Hard Rock song to win the contest (Eurovision is normally associated with softer Pop Music and Schlager ). This was also Finland's first victory in Eurovision after 40 years of participation. 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 major 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 "S' exo Erotefti" called "I'm in love with you". Helena Paparizou , who performed the winning song in Kiev, returned to the Eurovision stage in Athens. Following the examples of Sertab Erener and Ruslana in the last two years, Helena 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 was released and a new introduction was an official fan book released from this year, and every year to come with detailed information of every country. To save time in the final, the voting time was for ten minutes long and 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 ' spokesperson Paul De Leeuw also caused problems, giving his Mobile Number to presenter Rouvas during the Dutch results, and slowing down proceedings, also by announcing the first seven points. Constantinos Christoforou (who also represented Cyprus in 1996, 2002 and 2005) had to be cut-off for taking too long to give the twelve points from the Cypriot televote. During Cyprus reading, the telecast displayed Switzerland by mistake. This voting process has been criticized because suspense was lost by only reading three votes instead of ten. 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. A number of fans were also shocked by the success of the Lithuania n entry - LT United singing 'We Are The Winners' and the failure of the Belgian entry - Je T'Adore by Kate Ryan to qualify from the Semi-Final. INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES FINAL 2006-05-20 ''Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Final.'' SEMI-FINAL 2006-05-18 ''Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final'' SCORE SHEET Televoting was used in all nations except Monaco & Albania, who didn't hold a televote due to the chances of the threshold number of votes needed to validify the televoting results being reached in Monaco being very low and some problems occurred in the Albanian televoting. In the semi final, Andorra joined Monaco & Albania in using the jury due to insufficient televoting numbers. If you would like to see the scoreboard for the semi-final click here... {Link without Title} OTHER COUNTRIES
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 EBU countries that did not participate were Slovakia , Luxembourg , Morocco , Algeria , Lebanon , Egypt , Jordan , Tunisia , Libya and San Marino . Liechtenstein was not able to participate as it does not have a national Television or Radio service and therefore is not a member of the EBU . RATINGS After the Contest, EBU officials that the overall ratings for the Semi-Final were 35% higher than in 2005, and for the Final had risen by 28%. In France , average market shares reached 30.3%, up by 8% over the 2005 figure. Other countries that showed a rise in average market shares included Germany with 38% (up from 29%), United Kingdom with 37.5% (up from 36%), Spain with 36% (up from 35%), Ireland with 58% (up from 35%) and Sweden , which reached over 80% compared to 57% the year previously. Voting revenues had also risen from the Kiev Contest, and the official Eurovision website, www.eurovision.tv, reported visits from over 200 countries and over 98 million page views, compared with 85 million in 2005. TRIVIA AND RECORDS ''From the Final''
==Non-participating regions where the contest was broadcast ; Australia : Although Australia is not itself eligible to enter, it broadcast the event on SBS. As Is The Case Each Year, It Did Not However Broadcast It Live Due To The Difference In Australian Time Zones. The Semi-final Was Screened On Friday And The Final On The Annual Sunday Immediately After The Final.Australia Airs The United Kingdom's Broadcast, Including Commentary From Paddy O'Connell and Terry Wogan .Both shows,the semi final and the final were not broadcast in High Definition . Before the broadcasts, viewers were told by an SBS host that the Eurovision Song Contest was one of their most popular programmes. ; Azerbaijan : Azerbaijan were willing to enter the contest but since AzTV applied for active EBU membership but was denied on 18 June 2007 , they missed the contest and have to wait until they're accepted. Another Azerbaijan broadcaster, OTV, broadcast the contest. It is a passive EBU member, and has broadcast it for the last 2 years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest. {Link without Title} ; Italy: Italian television does not enter because RAI the national broadcaster is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and they believe that Eurovision would not be a popular show in Italy. They have not broadcast the contest in recent years, although an independent Italian channel for the gay community has shown the show. ; Monaco: Monaco broadcast the final on TMC after having withdrawn from this competition in December 2006. A return is possible next year. ; Worldwide : A live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast worldwide by satellite through Eurovision streams such as transport Octoshape . ; Possible broadcasts : Japan , Kazakhstan , the Netherlands Antilles , Suriname and Vietnam may have broadcast as well, as they have also broadcast the contest in the past. While Liechtenstein has no television broadcaster of its own, Liechtensteiners could watch the contest on Swiss, Austrian or German television. ; Gibraltar: Gibraltar screened only the final. ; Kosovo: The Serbian autonomus province of Kosovo ,broadcasted the contest live on RTK .However they can't participate because they are not a country. COMMENTATORS
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. {Link without Title}
REFERENCES MAP |
|
|