Eurovision Song Contest 2007
The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following Lordi's win at the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". It was the first time Finland had hosted the contest - 46 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Yleisradio, the contest was held at the Hartwall Areena, and consisted of a semi-final on 10 May, and the final on 12 May 2007. The two live shows were hosted by Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi. In addition, Krisse Salminen acted as guest host in the green room, and reported from the crowds at the Senate Square.
Forty-two countries participated in the contest - three more than the previous record of thirty-nine, that took part in. The EBU decided to put aside its limit of 40 countries, which would have meant excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme. The Czech Republic and Georgia made their first participation this year, with Montenegro and Serbia taking part as independent nations for the first time. Austria and Hungary both returned, after their absence from the previous edition. Meanwhile, Monaco decided not to participate.
The winner was Serbia with the song "Molitva", performed by Marija Šerifović and written by Vladimir Graić and Saša Milošević Mare. This was Serbia's first victory in the contest, and indeed, the first year they competed as an independent nation. Also, this was the first victory for one of the former Yugoslav republics. It was also the first winning song entirely performed in a country's native language since 's "Diva" in. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and Bulgaria rounded out the top five. Further down the table, Belarus achieved their best placing to date, finishing sixth. Meanwhile, Ireland achieved their worst placing in the contest, finishing twenty-fourth. Of the "Big Four" countries Germany placed the highest, finishing nineteenth.
For the first time, the contest featured songs entered in languages other than a country's own national language or in English. Although this happened in 2003, this was the first time the contest featured countries doing this with actual languages as opposed to an imaginary one.
Location
Venue
, the Finnish capital, was chosen as the host city, although other cities were in the running; the second-largest city of Espoo, the third-largest city of Tampere, and the city of Turku all submitted bids to host the contest.In the end, Helsinki was chosen, with the host venue being the Hartwall Areena. The venue is a large multi-functional indoor arena, which opened in 1997, and can take some 12,000-15,000 spectators for concerts. Its name comes from its largest sponsor, the beverage company Hartwall, also based in Helsinki. For the contest, the arena was referred to as the Helsinki Arena.
Format
On 12 March 2007, the draws for the running order for the semi-final, final and voting procedure took place. A new feature allowed five wild-card countries from the semi-final and three countries from the final to choose their starting position. The heads of delegation went on stage and chose the number they would take. In the semi-final, Austria, Andorra, Turkey, Slovenia and Latvia were able to choose their positions. In the final, Armenia, Ukraine and Germany were able to exercise this privilege. All countries opted for spots in the second half of both evenings. Shortly after the draw, the entries were approved by the EBU, ending the possibility of disqualification for the Israeli song. The United Kingdom chose their entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU.and Mikko Leppilampi
The contest saw some minor changes to the voting time-frame. The compilation summary video of all entries including phone numbers was shown twice. The voting process was the same as 2006 except there was fifteen minutes to vote, an increase of five minutes on the 2006 Contest. In the final, the results from each country were once again shown from one to seven points automatically on screen and only eight, ten and twelve were read by the spokespeople. For the first time, the winner was awarded a promotion tour around Europe, visiting Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece and Germany. The tour was held between 16 May and 21 May. The event was sponsored by Nordic communications group TeliaSonera, and — as with several previous contests — Nobel Biocare. Apocalyptica were the interval act, and played a medley of songs: Worlds Collide, Faraway and finally Life Burns!, but without the usual lyrics.
Visual design
The official logo of the contest remained the same as 2006; the flag in the centre of the heart was changed to the Finnish flag. The European Broadcasting Union and YLE announced that the theme for the 2007 contest would be "True Fantasy", which embraced Finland and "Finnishness" in terms of the polarities associated with the country. The design agency Dog Design was responsible for the design of the visual theme of the contest which incorporated vibrant kaleidoscopic patterns formed from various symbols including exclamation marks and the letter F. The stage was in the shape of a kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument. On 20 February 2007 a reworked official website for the contest was launched marking the first public exhibition of this year's theme. An official CD and DVD were released. An official fan book was also released. The themes of the postcards were short stories happening in different Finnish places.Participating countries
Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU.42 countries submitted preliminary applications. Although in previous years the maximum number of participating countries was 40, the EBU allowed all 42 to participate in 2007. The Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro and Georgia all entered the contest for the first time in 2007. Monaco announced its non-participation on 12 December 2006, and the EBU announced the final lineup of 42 countries on 15 December 2006.
Returning artists
returned to represent, having previously represented the nation in as a backing singer for Alexia, and in and. Eiríkur Hauksson previously represented in as part of the vocal trio ICY and he previously represented in as part of the group Just 4 Fun. Karolina Gočeva previously represented in. Edsilia Rombley previously represented the in.Semi-final
The semi-final was held on 10 May 2007 at 21:00. 28 countries performed and all 42 participants voted.Countries qualified for the final are highlighted.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov | "Water" | Bulgarian | 6 | 146 | |
| 02 | Teapacks | "Push the Button" | English, French, Hebrew | 24 | 17 | |
| 03 | Evridiki | "Comme ci, comme ça" | French | 15 | 65 | |
| 04 | Dmitry Koldun | "Work Your Magic" | English | 4 | 176 | |
| 05 | Eiríkur Hauksson | "Valentine Lost" | English | 13 | 77 | |
| 06 | Sopho Khalvashi | "Visionary Dream" | English | 8 | 123 | |
| 07 | Stevan Faddy | "'Ajde, kroči" | Montenegrin | 22 | 33 | |
| 08 | DJ BoBo | "Vampires Are Alive" | English | 20 | 40 | |
| 09 | Natalia Barbu | "Fight" | English | 10 | 91 | |
| 10 | Edsilia Rombley | "On Top of the World" | English | 21 | 38 | |
| 11 | Frederik Ndoci | "Hear My Plea" | English, Albanian | 17 | 49 | |
| 12 | DQ | "Drama Queen" | English | 19 | 45 | |
| 13 | Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić | "Vjerujem u ljubav" | Croatian, English | 16 | 54 | |
| 14 | The Jet Set | "Time to Party" | English | 14 | 75 | |
| 15 | Marija Šerifović | "Molitva" | Serbian | 1 | 298 | |
| 16 | Kabát | "Malá dáma" | Czech | 28 | 1 | |
| 17 | Sabrina | "Dança comigo" | Portuguese, English | 11 | 88 | |
| 18 | Karolina | "Mojot svet" | Macedonian, English | 9 | 97 | |
| 19 | Guri Schanke | "Ven a bailar conmigo" | English | 18 | 48 | |
| 20 | Olivia Lewis | "Vertigo" | English | 25 | 15 | |
| 21 | Anonymous | "Salvem el món" | Catalan, English | 12 | 80 | |
| 22 | Magdi Rúzsa | "Unsubstantial Blues" | English | 2 | 224 | |
| 23 | Gerli Padar | "Partners in Crime" | English | 22 | 33 | |
| 24 | The KMG's | "Love Power" | English | 26 | 14 | |
| 25 | Alenka Gotar | "Cvet z juga" | Slovene | 7 | 140 | |
| 26 | Kenan Doğulu | "Shake It Up Şekerim" | English | 3 | 197 | |
| 27 | Eric Papilaya | "Get a Life – Get Alive" | English | 27 | 4 | |
| 28 | Bonaparti.lv | "Questa notte" | Italian | 5 | 168 |
Notes
Final
The finalists were:- the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
- the top 10 countries from the 2006 final ;
- the top 10 countries from the 2007 semi-final.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Marija Šestić | "Rijeka bez imena" | Serbian | 11 | 106 | |
| 02 | D'NASH | "I Love You Mi Vida" | Spanish | 20 | 43 | |
| 03 | Dmitry Koldun | "Work Your Magic" | English | 6 | 145 | |
| 04 | Dervish | "They Can't Stop the Spring" | English | 24 | 5 | |
| 05 | Hanna Pakarinen | "Leave Me Alone" | English | 17 | 53 | |
| 06 | Karolina | "Mojot svet" | Macedonian, English | 14 | 73 | |
| 07 | Alenka Gotar | "Cvet z juga" | Slovene | 15 | 66 | |
| 08 | Magdi Rúzsa | "Unsubstantial Blues" | English | 9 | 128 | |
| 09 | 4Fun | "Love or Leave" | English | 21 | 28 | |
| 10 | Sarbel | "Yassou Maria" | English | 7 | 139 | |
| 11 | Sopho Khalvashi | "Visionary Dream" | English | 12 | 97 | |
| 12 | The Ark | "The Worrying Kind" | English | 18 | 51 | |
| 13 | Les Fatals Picards | "L'amour à la française" | French, English | 22 | 19 | |
| 14 | Bonaparti.lv | "Questa notte" | Italian | 16 | 54 | |
| 15 | Serebro | "Song #1" | English | 3 | 207 | |
| 16 | Roger Cicero | "Frauen regier'n die Welt" | German, English | 19 | 49 | |
| 17 | Marija Šerifović | "Molitva" | Serbian | 1 | 268 | |
| 18 | Verka Serduchka | "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" | German, English, Ukrainian, Russian | 2 | 235 | |
| 19 | Scooch | "Flying the Flag " | English | 22 | 19 | |
| 20 | Todomondo | "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" | English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French, Romanian | 13 | 84 | |
| 21 | Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov | "Water" | Bulgarian | 5 | 157 | |
| 22 | Kenan Doğulu | "Shake It Up Şekerim" | English | 4 | 163 | |
| 23 | Hayko | "Anytime You Need" | English, Armenian | 8 | 138 | |
| 24 | Natalia Barbu | "Fight" | English | 10 | 109 |
Notes
Scoreboard
All countries participating in the contest were required to use televoting and/or SMS voting during both evenings of the contest. In the event of technical difficulties, or if the votes of the country did not meet the EBU threshold, then a back-up jury's results were to be used. Albania and Andorra were the only countries that used juries. A draw was held in Helsinki to establish the order in which the countries presented their votes during the final.Semi-final
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the semi-final:| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 9 | Serbia | Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland |
| 6 | Turkey | Albania, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom |
| 5 | - | - |
| 5 | Belarus | Armenia, Israel, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine |
| 5 | Latvia | Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Poland |
| 3 | - | - |
| 3 | Hungary | Denmark, Iceland, Serbia |
| 3 | Iceland | Finland, Norway, Sweden |
| 3 | Moldova | Belarus, Portugal, Romania |
| 2 | Bulgaria | Cyprus, Turkey |
| 1 | - | - |
| 1 | Andorra | Spain |
| 1 | Belgium | Georgia |
| 1 | Cyprus | Greece |
| 1 | Estonia | Latvia |
| 1 | Macedonia | Bulgaria |
| 1 | Portugal | Andorra |
Final
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 9 | Serbia | Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland |
| 5 | Ukraine | Andorra, Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland, Portugal |
| 5 | Turkey | Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom |
| 3 | Russia | Armenia, Belarus, Estonia |
| 3 | Belarus | Israel, Russia, Ukraine |
| 2 | Armenia | Georgia, Turkey |
| 2 | Finland | Iceland, Sweden |
| 2 | Greece | Bulgaria, Cyprus |
| 2 | Sweden | Denmark, Norway |
| 2 | Romania | Moldova, Spain |
| 1 | Bulgaria | Greece |
| 1 | Georgia | Lithuania |
| 1 | Hungary | Serbia |
| 1 | Lithuania | Ireland |
| 1 | Moldova | Romania |
| 1 | Spain | Albania |
| 1 | United Kingdom | Malta |
Other Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoring the 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 | "Molitva" | Marija Šerifović | Vladimir Graić Saša Milošević Mare | 1st | 268 | |
| Composer Award | "Unsubstantial Blues" | Magdi Rúzsa | Magdi Rúzsa Imre Mózsik | 9th | 128 | |
| Press Award | "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" | Verka Serduchka | Verka Serduchka | 2nd | 235 |
OGAE
Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profitable company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll was opened allowing members from different clubs around the world to vote for their favourite songs of the 2007 contest. Below is the top five overall results, after all the votes had been cast.| Country | Song | Performer | Composer | OGAE result | Eurovision Ranking |
| "Molitva" | Marija Šerifović | Vladimir Graić, Saša Milošević Mare | 184 | 1st | |
| "Work Your Magic" | Dmitry Koldun | Philip Kirkorov, Karen Kavaleryan | 159 | 6th | |
| "Vampires Are Alive" | DJ BoBo | DJ BoBo | 156 | 20th in Semi-Final | |
| "Comme ci, comme ça" | Evridiki | Dimitris Korgialas, Poseidonas Giannopoulos | 142 | 15th in Semi-Final | |
| "Yassou Maria" | Sarbel | Alex Papakonstantinou, Marcus Englöf, "Mack" | 107 | 7th |
- Table reflects the corrected result of Switzerland since the cited source had a calculation error.
Barbara Dex Award
| Country | Song | Performer | Composer |
| "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" | Verka Serduchka | Andriy Danylko |
International broadcasts and voting
Voting and spokespersons
The order in which each country announced their votes was determined in a draw during the heads of delegation meeting. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.- – Vidak Latković
- – Juliana
- – Sirusho
- – Marian van de Wal
- – Eva Pölzl
- – Vanessa Dolmen
- – Susanne Georgi
- – Alexis Kostalas
- – Ainhoa Arbizu
- – Maja Nikolić
- – Laura Voutilainen
- – Meltem Ersan Yazgan
- – Vesna Andree Zaimović
- – Maureen Louys
- – Francisco Mendes
- – Leon Menkshi
- – Andreea Marin Bănică
- – Giannis Haralambous
- – Barbara Kolar
- – Peter Poles
- – Jason Danino-Holt
- – Thomas Hermanns
- – Lavija Šurnaitė
- – Synnøve Svabø
- – Sven Epiney
- – Andrea Savane
- – Paul de Leeuw and Edsilia Rombley
- – Linda Martin
- – Mireille Bonello
- – Laura Põldvere
- – Neli Agirba
- – Mira Dobreva
- – André Pops
- – Katya Osadcha
- – Yana Churikova
- – Jānis Šipkevics
- – Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir
- – Maciej Orłoś
- – Andrei Porubin
- – Fearne Cotton
- – Elena Risteska
- – Éva Novodomszky
Other countries
- Australia – Although Australia was not itself eligible to enter, the semi-final and final were broadcast the event on SBS. As is the case each year, they were not broadcast live due to the difference in Australian time zones. Australia aired the United Kingdom's broadcast, including commentary from Paddy O'Connell, Sarah Cawood 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 436,000 viewers, and was ranked number 20 on the broadcasters top rating programs of the 2006/2007 financial year.
- 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 had to wait until they were accepted. Another Azerbaijani broadcaster, İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti, broadcast the contest. It was a passive EBU member at the time, and had broadcast it for the previous two years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest.
- Italy – Italian television had not entered since 1997. National broadcaster RAI is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and believes that Eurovision would not be a popular show in Italy, although the 1991 edition was followed by 6 million people. 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 despite not participating in it, opening the possibility of returning for the 2008 contest.
High-definition broadcast
produced the event in 1080i HD and 5.1 Surround Sound. This was the first year that the event was broadcast live in HD. The BBC in the United Kingdom broadcast the final in high definition on BBC HD. Swedish broadcaster SVT broadcast both the semi-final and the final on their HD-channel SVT HD. However the event is only available to buy on standard-definition DVD, with no HD DVD or Blu-ray version available in high definition.Commentators
Commentators for participating countries
The commentators of the 42 participating countries are as follows:| Country | SF / Final | Commentator |
| All | Leon Menkshi | |
| All | Meri Picart | |
| All | Josep Lluís Trabal | |
| - | Gohar Gasparian | |
| - | Andi Knoll | |
| All | Denis Kurian | |
| All | Alexander Tikhanovich | |
| All | Jean-Pierre Hautier | |
| All | Jean-Louis Lahaye | |
| All | Patrick Duhamel | |
| All | Corinne Boulangier | |
| All | André Vermeulen | |
| All | Anja Daems | |
| All | Michel Follet | |
| All | Sven Pichal | |
| All | Dejan Kukrić | |
| All | Georgi Kushvaliev | |
| All | Elena Rosberg | |
| All | Duško Čurlić | |
| All | Vaso Komninou | |
| All | Kateřina Kristelová | |
| Final | Pepa Vojtek | |
| All | Søren Nystrøm Rasted | |
| All | Adam Duvå Hall | |
| - | Marko Reikop | |
| All | Heikki Paasonen | |
| All | Ellen Jokikunnas | |
| All | Asko Murtomäki ' | |
| All | Thomas Lundin | |
| Final | Sanna Kojo | |
| Final | Jorma Hietamäki | |
| SF | Peggy Olmi | |
| SF | Yann Renoard | |
| Final | Julien Lepers | |
| Final | Tex | |
| Final | Yves Derisbourg | |
| - | Sandro Gabisonia | |
| - | Sopho Altunashvili | |
| All | Peter Urban | |
| Final | Thomas Mohr | |
| Final | Tim Frühling | |
| All | Fotis Sergoulopoulos | |
| All | Maria Bakodimou | |
| All | Gábor Gundel Takács | |
| - | Sigmar Guðmundsson | |
| All | Marty Whelan | |
| All | Larry Gogan | |
| - | - | |
| - | Kārlis Streips | |
| - | Darius Užkuraitis | |
| - | Milanka Rašić | |
| - | Antonia Micallef | |
| - | Vitalie Rotaru | |
| - | - | |
| - | Dražen Bauković | |
| - | Tamara Ivanković | |
| All | Cornald Maas | |
| Final | Paul de Leeuw | |
| All | Per Sundnes | |
| All | Artur Orzech | |
| - | Isabel Angelino | |
| - | Jorge Gabriel | |
| - | Andreea Demirgian | |
| - | Yuri Aksyuta | |
| - | Yelena Batinova | |
| All | Duška Vučinić-Lučić | |
| - | Mojca Mavec | |
| All | Beatriz Pécker | |
| All | Kristian Luuk | |
| All | Josef Sterzenbach | |
| All | Carolina Norén | |
| SF | Nicolas Tanner | |
| Final | Henri Dès | |
| All | Bernhard Thurnheer | |
| All | Jean-Marc Richard | |
| All | Claudio Lazzarino | |
| All | Sandy Altermatt | |
| All | Hakan Urgancı | |
| All | Timur Miroshnychenko | |
| SF | Paddy O'Connell | |
| SF | Sarah Cawood | |
| Final | Terry Wogan | |
| Final' | Ken Bruce |
Commentators for non-participating countries
The commentators of the non-participating countries are:| Country | SF / Final | Commentator |
| All | As per United Kingdom Commentary | |
| All | Hüsniyə Məhərrəmova | |
| unknown | unknown |