Eurovision Song Contest 2006
The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Athens, Greece, following Helena Paparizou's win at the 2005 contest in Kiev, Ukraine with the song "My Number One". It was the first time Greece had hosted the contest - 32 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, the contest was held at the Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, and consisted of a semi-final on 18 May, and the final on 20 May 2006. The two live shows were hosted by Maria Menounos and Sakis Rouvas.
Thirty-seven countries participated in the contest. Armenia took part for the first time this year. Meanwhile, Austria, Hungary, and Serbia and Montenegro announced their non-participations in the contest for various reasons. Serbia and Montenegro had intended to participate, however, due to a scandal in the national selection, tensions were caused between the Serbian broadcaster, RTS, and the Montenegrin broadcaster, RTCG. Despite of this, the nation did retain voting rights for the contest.
The winner was with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", performed by Lordi and written by lead singer Mr. Lordi a.k.a. Tomi Petteri Putaansuu. This was Finland's first victory in the contest - and first top five placing - in 45 years of participation. It was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, and Lordi was the first band to win since. Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Sweden rounded out the top five. Bosnia and Herzegovina achieved their best result in their Eurovision history. Further down the table, Lithuania also achieved their best result to date, finishing sixth. Of the "Big Four" countries Germany placed the highest, finishing joint fourteenth.
The contest saw the 1,000th song performed in the contest, when Ireland's Brian Kennedy performed "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" in the semi-final.
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.
Location
When Greece won the 2005 contest, the Head of the Greek Delegation, Fotini Yiannoulatou, said that ERT was ready to host the event in Athens the next year. However, multiple cities bid to host the 2006 contest, including Thessaloniki and Patras, the second and the third largest city in Greece, respectively. The majors of the three cities were said that their cities were ready to host the event. The venues that were rumored for each city were Olympic Indoor Hall for Athens, Pylea Sports Hall for Thessaloniki and Dimitris Tofalos Arena for Patras.In the end, ERT had chosen Athens to host the event. The venue that was chosen as the host venue was the Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, which is located in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, in the capital city of Greece. Completed in 1995, it was the largest indoor venue in use for sporting events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Format
Visual design
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.Voting
To save time in the final, the voting time lasted ten minutes and the voting process was changed: points 1-7 were shown immediately on-screen. 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 Dutch 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 saluted from "Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe"; 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. And for the first and only time before the Prespa agreement, the display for the Macedonian entry had the title spelled out in its entirety instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years.Participating countries
Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU.Semi-final
The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21:00. 23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia and Montenegro voted.Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | André | "Without Your Love" | English | 6 | 150 | |
| 02 | Mariana Popova | "Let Me Cry" | English | 17 | 36 | |
| 03 | Anžej Dežan | "Mr Nobody" | English | 16 | 49 | |
| 04 | Jenny | "Sense tu" | Catalan | 23 | 8 | |
| 05 | Polina Smolova | "Mum" | English | 22 | 10 | |
| 06 | Luiz Ejlli | "Zjarr e ftohtë" | Albanian | 14 | 58 | |
| 07 | Kate Ryan | "Je t'adore" | English | 12 | 69 | |
| 08 | Brian Kennedy | "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" | English | 9 | 79 | |
| 09 | Annet Artani | "Why Angels Cry" | English | 15 | 57 | |
| 10 | Séverine Ferrer | "La Coco-Dance" | French, Tahitian | 21 | 14 | |
| 11 | Elena Risteska | "Ninanajna" | English, Macedonian | 10 | 76 | |
| 12 | Ich Troje feat. Real McCoy | "Follow My Heart" | English, Polish, German, Russian | 11 | 70 | |
| 13 | Dima Bilan | "Never Let You Go" | English | 3 | 217 | |
| 14 | Sibel Tüzün | "Süper Star" | Turkish | 8 | 91 | |
| 15 | Tina Karol | "Show Me Your Love" | English | 7 | 146 | |
| 16 | Lordi | "Hard Rock Hallelujah" | English | 1 | 292 | |
| 17 | Treble | "Amambanda" | English, Imaginary | 20 | 22 | |
| 18 | LT United | "We Are the Winners" | English | 5 | 163 | |
| 19 | Nonstop | "Coisas de nada" | Portuguese, English | 19 | 26 | |
| 20 | Carola | "Invincible" | English | 4 | 214 | |
| 21 | Sandra Oxenryd | "Through My Window" | English | 18 | 28 | |
| 22 | Hari Mata Hari | "Lejla" | Bosnian | 2 | 267 | |
| 23 | Silvia Night | "Congratulations" | English | 13 | 62 |
Notes
Final
The finalists were:- the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
- the top 10 countries from the 2005 final ;
- the top 10 countries from the 2006 semi-final.
Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Final.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | six4one | "If We All Give a Little" | English | 16 | 30 | |
| 02 | Arsenium and Natalia Gordienko | "Loca" | English | 20 | 22 | |
| 03 | Eddie Butler | "Together We Are One" | Hebrew, English | 23 | 4 | |
| 04 | Vocal Group Cosmos | "I Hear Your Heart" | English | 16 | 30 | |
| 05 | Christine Guldbrandsen | "Alvedansen" | Norwegian | 14 | 36 | |
| 06 | ' | Las Ketchup | "Un Blodymary" | Spanish | 21 | 18 |
| 07 | Fabrizio Faniello | "I Do" | English | 24 | 1 | |
| 08 | ' | Texas Lightning | "No No Never" | English | 14 | 36 |
| 09 | Sidsel Ben Semmane | "Twist of Love" | English | 18 | 26 | |
| 10 | ' | Dima Bilan | "Never Let You Go" | English | 2 | 248 |
| 11 | Elena Risteska | "Ninanajna" | English, Macedonian | 12 | 56 | |
| 12 | ' | Mihai Trăistariu | "Tornerò" | English, Italian | 4 | 172 |
| 13 | ' | Hari Mata Hari | "Lejla" | Bosnian | 3 | 229 |
| 14 | ' | LT United | "We Are the Winners" | English | 6 | 162 |
| 15 | ' | Daz Sampson | "Teenage Life" | English | 19 | 25 |
| 16 | ' | Anna Vissi | "Everything" | English | 9 | 128 |
| 17 | Lordi | "Hard Rock Hallelujah" | English | 1 | 292 | |
| 18 | ' | Tina Karol | "Show Me Your Love" | English | 7 | 145 |
| 19 | ' | Virginie Pouchain | "Il était temps" | French | 22 | 5 |
| 20 | Severina | "Moja štikla" | Croatian | 12 | 56 | |
| 21 | ' | Brian Kennedy | "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" | English | 10 | 93 |
| 22 | ' | Carola | "Invincible" | English | 5 | 170 |
| 23 | Sibel Tüzün | "Süper Star" | Turkish, English | 11 | 91 | |
| 24 | André | "Without Your Love" | English | 8 | 129 |
Notes
Voting during the final and 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. A draw was held to determine each country's voting order. Countries revealed their votes in the following order:Although Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from the contest, it retained its voting rights.
Score sheet
Televoting was used in all nations except Monaco and Albania. Monaco used a jury as the chances of getting enough votes needed to validate the votes were low. Albania used a jury since there were problems with their televote. In the semi final, Monaco and Albania used the jury voting due to insufficient televoting numbers. Coincidentally, Albania and Monaco were two of the three countries that did not vote for the winning entry, the third one was Armenia.Semi-final
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the semi-final:| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 9 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Croatia, Finland, Monaco, Norway, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey |
| 8 | Russia | Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine |
| 6 | - | - |
| 6 | Armenia | Belgium, Cyprus, France, Netherlands, Russia, Spain |
| 6 | Finland | Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom |
| 3 | Sweden | Denmark, Malta, Portugal |
| 1 | - | - |
| 1 | Albania | Macedonia |
| 1 | Cyprus | Greece |
| 1 | Lithuania | Ireland |
| 1 | Macedonia | Albania |
| 1 | Portugal | Andorra |
| 1 | Turkey | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Final
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 8 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Albania, Croatia, North Macedonia, Monaco, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey |
| 8 | Finland | Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom |
| 7 | Russia | Armenia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine |
| 3 | Turkey | France, Germany, Netherlands |
| 2 | Armenia | Belgium, Russia |
| 2 | Greece | Cyprus, Bulgaria |
| 2 | Romania | Moldova, Spain |
| 1 | Croatia | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 1 | Lithuania | Ireland |
| 1 | Moldova | Romania |
| 1 | Spain | Andorra |
| 1 | Switzerland | Malta |
| 1 | Ukraine | Portugal |
Other Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoringthe best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Composer Award.
| Category | Country | Song | Performer | Composer | Final result | Points |
| Artists Award | "Invincible" | Carola | , Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Carola | 5th | 170 | |
| Composer Award | "Lejla" | Hari Mata Hari | Željko Joksimović, Fahrudin Pecikoza, Dejan Ivanović | 3rd | 229 | |
| Press Award | "Hard Rock Hallelujah" | Lordi | Mr. Lordi | 1st | 292 |
Barbara Dex Award
The Barbara Dex Award has been annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision since 1997, and is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed dress.| Country | Song | Performer | Composer |
| "Coisas de nada" | Nonstop | José Manuel Afonso, Elvis Veiguinha |
Other countries
- Austria - On 18 June 2005, Austrian newspaper Kurier reported that the Austrian broadcaster ORF would not be taking part in the 2006 contest.
- Czech Republic - On 6 October 2005 Česká televize announced that the Czech Republic would not participate. The country did make its debut the following year.
- Georgia - On 5 October 2005 the managing director of Georgia Television & Radio Broadcasting stated that Georgia would not enter the 2006 contest, however made its debut the year after.
- Hungary - On 9 December 2005 Hungarian broadcaster Magyar TV announced that Hungary would not participate for financial reasons.
- Serbia and Montenegro - 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 20 March, it was decided that Croatia, who finished 11th in the 2005 Contest, would fill the empty spot.
Ratings
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%, United Kingdom with 37.5%, Spain with 36%, Ireland with 58% 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.
Returning artists
Broadcasting
International broadcasts
; Australia : Although Australia was not itself eligible to enter, the semi-final and final were broadcast on SBS. As is the case each year, they were not however broadcast live due to the difference in Australian time zones. Australia aired the United Kingdom's broadcast, including commentary from Paddy O'Connell and Terry Wogan. Before the broadcasts, viewers were told by an SBS host that the Eurovision Song Contest was one of their most popular programmes. The final rated an estimated 462,000, and was ranked 21st of the broadcaster's top rating programs for the 2005/06 financial year.; Azerbaijan : Azerbaijan were willing to enter the contest but since AzTV applied for active EBU membership but was denied on June 18, 2007, they missed the contest and had to wait until they were accepted. Another Azerbaijan broadcaster, İctimai, broadcast the contest. It was a passive EBU member, and had broadcast it for the last 2 years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest.
; Italy: Italian television did not enter because RAI, the national broadcaster, is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and they believe that the Eurovision Song Contest 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.
; Worldwide : A live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast worldwide by satellite through Eurovision streams such as Channel One Russia, ERT World, TVE Internacional, TVP Polonia, RTP Internacional and TVR i. The official Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary using the peer-to-peer transport Octoshape.
; Gibraltar: Gibraltar screened only the final.