ATHENS 2006 - OIKOTIMES

With the Eurovision Song Contest already enjoying enormous popularity in Greece, Helena Paparizou’s victory in 2005 created the perfect circumstances to organize the show. Under the Greek sun, the 2006 contest took place in Athens!

VOTING GRID: SEMIFINAL – FINAL

SEMIFINAL – MAY 18, 2006
The 2006 Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final brought us the 1000th song to be sung at the Eurovision Song Contest: Ireland’s entry Every Song Is A Cry For Love by Brian Kennedy.

The official logo of the 2006 contest remained the same from 2004 and 2005 with the country’s flag in a heart-shaped form. However, the 2006 sub-logo was 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 Kyi’s Awakening, the motto 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.

23 countries took part in the Semi-Final, covering all musical ranges: from Finnish hard-rock to Albanian ethnic sounds, via Swedish schlager. Contrary to the 2005 Semi-Final, most experts and fans agreed on the songs that went on to the Final, with the only exception being the shocking exit of Belgian star Kate Ryan, who had had a handful of European smash hits before.

Iceland’s diva character Silvia Night had all the cameras zooming in her direction due to her extravagant behaviour, but didn’t qualify either. In interviews, she referred to the Finnish participants as “stars without a real make-up artist” and she accused the Swedish participant of poisoning her. People of the host country certainly did not welcome her rather rude comments about Greeks in general, and she was welcomed on stage with loud boo-ing from the audience.

	COUNTRY	PERFORMER(S)	SONG TITLE	SCORE	RANK
01	Armenia	André	Without Your Love	150	07
02	Bulgaria	Mariana Popova	Let Me Cry	036	17
03	Slovenia	Anej Dean	Mr. Nobody	049	16
04	Andorra	Jennifer	Sense Tu	008	23
05	Belarus	Polina Smolova	Mum	010	22
06	Albania	Luiz Ejlli	Zjarr E Ftohtë	058	15
07	Belgium	Kate Ryan	Je T’adore	069	12
08	Ireland	Brian Kennedy	Every Song Is A Cry For Love	079	10
09	Cyprus	Annet Artani	Why Angels Cry	057	13
10	Monaco	Séverine Ferrer	La Coco-dance	014	21
11	FYR Macedonia	Elena Risteska	Ninanajna	076	08
12	Poland	Ich Troje	Follow My Heart	070	11
13	Russia	Dima Bilan	Never Let You Go	217	03
14	Turkey	Sibel Tüzün	Superstar	091	09
15	Ukraine	Tina Karol	Show Me Your Love	146	06
16	Finland	Lordi	Hard Rock Hallelujah	292	01
17	Netherlands	Treble	Amambanda	022	19
18	Lithuania	LT United	We Are The Winners	163	05
19	Portugal	Nonstop	Coisas De Nada	026	19
20	Sweden	Carola	Invincible	214	04
21	Estonia	Sandra	Through My Window	028	18
22	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Hari Mata Hari	Lejla	267	02
23	Iceland	Silvia Night	Congratulations	062	13
24	Serbia & Montenegro	withdrew , but eligible to vote		000	24

FINAL – MAY 20, 2006
There were lots of discussions in Athens among the media and fans who would be the winner of the 51st Eurovision Song Contest. Sweden, represented by Carola and her song Invincible, was named very often. The singer had already won the Eurovision Song Contest in1991 and wanted to be the second person on earth to win it twice. Another hotly tipped winner was Russian heartthrob Dima Bilan, who had already tried to represent Russia the year before. German group Texas Lightning did well in at the bookmakers with their refreshing pop-country song No No Never, but the song only managed to end up at a disappointing 14th place. Anna Vissi, the Greek pop queen who had already entered the contests of 1980 (for Greece) and 1982 (for Cyprus) had high hopes as well to win the competition with her dramatic performance of Everything.

However, not many experts expected the masked hardrockers Lordi to get the trophy. With their Hard Rock Hallelujah and their performance filled with spectacular pyrotechnical effects, the Finns managed to win the contest with 292 points. Funnily enough, they had the exact same score in the Semi-Final! These 292 points are the highest amount of points ever achieved in a Eurovision Song Contest to date. Lordi went on to have lots of success with their song which made the top 10 in dozens of European charts.

2006 saw some rule changes in the voting of the Eurovision Song Contest Final. Not all points were read out by the national spokespersons any longer as the marks from 1 point till 7 points were automatically beamed onto the screen, and just the three highest votes were still announced by the national spokespersons. The reason for this was that the voting in the previous years seemed too long, and with this rule change, the organizers wanted to streamline the show.

	COUNTRY	PERFORMER(S)	SONG TITLE	SCORE	RANK
01	Switzerland	Six4One	If We All Give A Little	030	16
02	Moldova	Arsenium & Natalia Gordienko	Loca	022	20
03	Israel	Eddie Butler	Ze Hazman	004	23
04	Latvia	Cosmos	I Hear Your Heart	030	16
05	Norway	Christine Guldbrandsen	Alvedansen	036	14
06	Spain	Las Ketchup	Bloody Mary	018	21
07	Malta	Fabrizio Faniello	I Do	001	24
08	Germany	Texas Lightning	No, No, Never	036	14
09	Denmark	Sidsel Ben Semmane	Twist Of Love	026	18
10	Russia	Dima Bilan	Never Let You Go	248	02
11	FYR Macedonia	Elena Risteska	Ninanajna	056	12
12	Romania	Mihai Traistariu	Tornero	172	04
13	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Hari Mata Hari	Lejla	229	03
14	Lithuania	LT United	We Are The Winners	162	06
15	Un. Kingdom	Daz Sampson	Teenage Life	025	19
16	Greece	Anna Vissi	Everything	128	09
17	Finland	Lordi	Hard Rock Hallelujah	292	01
18	Ukraine	Tina Karol	Show Me Your Love	145	07
19	France	Virginie Pouchin	Il était Temps	005	22
20	Croatia	Severina	Moja tikla	056	12
21	Ireland	Brian Kennedy	Every Song Is A Cry For Love	093	10
22	Sweden	Carola	Invincible	170	05
23	Turkey	Sibel Tüzün	Superstar	091	11
24	Armenia	André	Without Your Love	129	08