Eurovision Song Contest 2005

"Eurovision 2005" redirects here. For the junior contest, see Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the 2004 contest with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), the contest was held at the Palace of Sports, and consisted of a semi-final on 19 May, and a final on 21 May 2005. The two live shows were presented by Ukrainian television presenters Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko.

Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Awakening
Dates
Semi-final	19 May 2005 (2005-05-19)
Final	21 May 2005 (2005-05-21)
Host
Venue	Palace of Sports Kyiv, Ukraine
Presenter(s)	Maria Efrosinina Pavlo Shylko
Directed by	Sven Stojanovic
Executive supervisor	Svante Stockselius
Executive producer	Pavlo Grytsak
Host broadcaster	National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU)
Website	eurovision.tv/event/kyiv-2005
Participants
Number of entries	39
Debuting countries	Bulgaria  Moldova
Returning countries	Hungary
Non-returning countries	None
Participation map      Participating countries     Did not qualify from the semi final     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2005
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
Nul points in final	None
Winning song	Greece "My Number One"
2004 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 2006

Thirty-nine countries participated in the contest, three more than the previous record of thirty-six, that took part the year before. Bulgaria and Moldova made their first participation this year, while Hungary returned to the contest after a six-year absence, having last taken part in 1998.

The winner was Greece with the song "My Number One", performed by Helena Paparizou and written by Manos Psaltakis, Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou. This was Greece's first victory in the contest after 31 years of participation. Malta, Romania, Israel and Latvia rounded out the top five. Malta equalled their best result from 2002, while Romania achieved their best result in their Eurovision history. Unusually, all "Big Four" countries (France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom) ended up as the "Last Four", all placing in the bottom four positions in the final.

Location

 

Palace of Sports, Kyiv – host venue pictured during the 2005 contest.

Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper. The Palace of Sports, a multi-purpose indoor arena, was confirmed by officials as the host venue on 6 September 2004.^[1] However, in order to host the contest, the facilities had been brought up to the standard required by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

At the end of December 2004, work began on the renovation of the hall,^[2] for which approximately 4 million francs were allocated.^[3] Renovation works were to be finished by 20 April,^[4] however, they were completed at the beginning of May.^[5][6] The arena could accommodate over 5,000 seated spectators. Additionally 2,000 press delegates were catered for.

Hotel rooms were scarce as the contest organisers asked the Ukrainian government to put a block on bookings they did not control themselves through official delegation allocations or tour packages: this led to many people's hotel bookings being cancelled.^[7]

Organizers hoped that by hosting Eurovision, it would boost Ukraine's image abroad and increase tourism, while the country's new government hoped that it would also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring European Union membership.

Format

Visual design

The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the country's flag in the heart being changed. Following Istanbul's 'Under The Same Sky', the slogan for the 2005 show was 'Awakening', which symbolised the awakening of the country and city ready to present itself to Europe. The postcards (short clips shown between performances) for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine's culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country.

This was the first edition to be broadcast in widescreen 16:9 format.^[8]

Presenters

The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv were television presenter Maria "Masha" Efrosinina and DJ Pavlo "Pasha" Shylko. Previous winner Ruslana returned to the stage in Kyiv to perform in the interval act and to interview the contestants backstage in the 'green room'. The Ukrainian boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko opened the televoting, while a special trophy was presented to the winner by Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko.

Publicity

An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, which contains heart-shaped pins with the flags of all thirty-nine participating countries. The EBU also commissioned a book "The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History" by British/American author John Kennedy O'Connor to celebrate the contest's fiftieth anniversary.^[9] The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13 (Serbia and Montenegro, Denmark). The book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish.

During the semi final, there were a few sound faults, most notably during the Norwegian song, shortly after the intro and also during the Irish song. These were not fixed for the DVD release.

Participating countries

 

Ruslana performing at the opening of the final

Thirty-nine countries participated in the 2005 contest. Hungary returned to the contest after a six-year absence, last competing in 1998. Bulgaria and Moldova competed in the contest for the first time.

Returning artists

Lead artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Constantinos Christoforou	Cyprus	1996, 2002 (as member of One)
Helena Paparizou	Greece	2001 (as member of Antique)
Selma	Iceland	1999
Chiara	Malta	1998

Backing performers

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Anabel Conde	Andorra	1995 (for   Spain)
Elina Konstantopoulou	Cyprus	1995 (for   Greece)

Semi-final

The semi-final was held on 19 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET). 25 countries performed but all 39 participants voted.

  Qualifiers

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Language^[10]	Points	Place^[11]
1	Austria	Global.Kryner	"Y así"	English, Spanish	30	21
2	Lithuania	Laura and the Lovers	"Little by Little"	English	17	25
3	Portugal	2B	"Amar"	Portuguese, English	51	17
4	Moldova	Zdob și Zdub	"Boonika bate toba"	English, Romanian	207	2
5	Latvia	Walters and Kazha	"The War Is Not Over"	English	85	10
6	Monaco	Lise Darly	"Tout de moi"	French	22	24
7	Israel	Shiri Maimon	"HaSheket SheNish'ar" (השקט שנשאר)	Hebrew, English	158	7
8	Belarus	Angelica Agurbash	"Love Me Tonight"	English	67	13
9	Netherlands	Glennis Grace	"My Impossible Dream"	English	53	14
10	Iceland	Selma	"If I Had Your Love"	English	52	16
11	Belgium	Nuno Resende	"Le Grand soir"	French	29	22
12	Estonia	Suntribe	"Let's Get Loud"	English	31	20
13	Norway	Wig Wam	"In My Dreams"	English	164	6
14	Romania	Luminița Anghel and Sistem	"Let Me Try"	English	235	1
15	Hungary	Nox	"Forogj, világ"	Hungarian	167	5
16	Finland	Geir Rönning	"Why"	English	50	18
17	Macedonia	Martin Vučić	"Make My Day"	English	97	9
18	Andorra	Marian van de Wal	"La mirada interior"	Catalan	27	23
19	Switzerland	Vanilla Ninja	"Cool Vibes"	English	114	8
20	Croatia	Boris Novković feat. Lado members	"Vukovi umiru sami"	Croatian	169	4
21	Bulgaria	Kaffe	"Lorraine"	English	49	19
22	Ireland	Donna and Joe	"Love?"	English	53	14
23	Slovenia	Omar Naber	"Stop"	Slovene	69	12
24	Denmark	Jakob Sveistrup	"Talking to You"	English	185	3
25	Poland	Ivan and Delfin	"Czarna dziewczyna"	Polish, Russian	81	11

Final

The finalists were:

• the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
• the top 10 countries from the 2004 final (other than the automatic qualifiers);
• the top 10 countries from the 2005 semi-final.

The final was held on 21 May 2005 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Greece.

  Winner

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Language^[10]	Points	Place^[12]
1	Hungary	Nox	"Forogj, világ"	Hungarian	97	12
2	United Kingdom	Javine	"Touch My Fire"	English	18	22
3	Malta	Chiara	"Angel"	English	192	2
4	Romania	Luminița Anghel and Sistem	"Let Me Try"	English	158	3
5	Norway	Wig Wam	"In My Dreams"	English	125	9
6	Turkey	Gülseren	"Rimi Rimi Ley"	Turkish	92	13
7	Moldova	Zdob și Zdub	"Boonika bate toba"	English, Romanian	148	6
8	Albania	Ledina Çelo	"Tomorrow I Go"	English	53	16
9	Cyprus	Constantinos Christoforou	"Ela Ela"	English	46	18
10	Spain	Son de Sol	"Brujería"	Spanish	28	21
11	Israel	Shiri Maimon	"HaSheket SheNish'ar" (השקט שנשאר)	Hebrew, English	154	4
12	Serbia and Montenegro	No Name	"Zauvijek moja" (Заувијек моја)	Montenegrin	137	7
13	Denmark	Jakob Sveistrup	"Talking to You"	English	125	9
14	Sweden	Martin Stenmarck	"Las Vegas"	English	30	19
15	Macedonia	Martin Vučić	"Make My Day"	English	52	17
16	Ukraine	GreenJolly	"Razom nas bahato" (Разом нас багато)	Ukrainian, English^[a]	30	19
17	Germany	Gracia	"Run & Hide"	English	4	24
18	Croatia	Boris Novković feat. Lado members	"Vukovi umiru sami"	Croatian	115	11
19	Greece	Helena Paparizou	"My Number One"	English	230	1
20	Russia	Natalia Podolskaya	"Nobody Hurt No One"	English	57	15
21	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Feminnem	"Call Me"	English	79	14
22	Switzerland	Vanilla Ninja	"Cool Vibes"	English	128	8
23	Latvia	Walters and Kazha	"The War Is Not Over"	English	153	5
24	France	Ortal	"Chacun pense à soi"	French	11	23

Detailed voting results

The EBU introduced an undisclosed threshold number of televotes that would have to be registered in each voting country in order to make that country's votes valid. If that number was not reached, the country's backup jury would vote instead. This affected Albania, Andorra and Monaco in the semi-final, and Andorra, Moldova and Monaco in the final.^[13][14]

Semi-final

Detailed voting results of the semi-final^[15][16]

Voting procedure used:   100% televoting   100% jury vote		Total score	Austria	Lithuania	Portugal	Monaco	Belarus	Netherlands	Iceland	Belgium	Estonia	Finland	Andorra	Bulgaria	Ireland	Slovenia	Poland	Hungary	United Kingdom	Malta	Romania	Norway	Turkey	Moldova	Albania	Cyprus	Spain	Israel	Serbia and Montenegro	Denmark	Sweden	Macedonia	Ukraine	Germany	Croatia	Greece	Russia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Switzerland	Latvia	France
Contestants	Austria	30											7			10									5									1		1			6
	Lithuania	17													5				4																					8
	Portugal	51								10																	5							12					12		12
	Moldova	207	8	10	8		10		8	4	5	3		6	3	7	6	6	5		12	1	12		3	8	1	10	6			10	12		4	6	12	6		10	5
	Latvia	85		12	4		7		2		10				6	6				12		3				2		6		5			2		7		1
	Monaco	22											10											2																	10
	Israel	158		2	6	12	12	10		3		1	12	4	7		4	5	6	6	8		6	5	7	3	4		3	4		1	5	3			8		3		8
	Belarus	67		3		1								12			1			7			3			7		2				6	4			8	10			3
	Netherlands	53				8				12			5		4				2	8	1							5		6									2
	Iceland	52											6						3			8		10			2	4		10	7										2
	Belgium	29			12			6																3	1																7
	Estonia	31		5								6			1	2		1						1						3										12
	Norway	164	2	6	1		5	2	12	2	6	12		2	10	3	7		7	3	7		2	8	2	4		7	4	12	8	2	6			4		7	5	6
	Romania	235	10		10	7	3	8	5	8	1	4	4	5	8	1	8	12	8	10		7	7	12		12	12	12	5	7	5	5	1	7	1	12	3	5	4		6
	Hungary	167	7		7		4		7	6	4	5	1	7		4	12		1	2	10	6	8			6	3	8	8	1	3	4	10		8	5	7	3	1	5	4
	Finland	50				6		1			8		3									10								8	10			4
	Macedonia	97	4			3		3						10		8					4		10		12				10		1			2	12			10	8
	Andorra	27						7																4	6		10
	Switzerland	114	1	8	2	2	8		6		12	10		3	2	5	5	3		1	2	2				5		3	2	2	4	3		6	3	3	2	2		7
	Croatia	169	12	4	3	5	1	4	4	1	3	2		8		12	3	8			6	4		6	10				12		6	12	7	10				12	10	4
	Bulgaria	49																					5	7	4	10	6		1			8				7		1
	Ireland	53									2		2	1			2	10	12	5	5		4			1									5			4
	Slovenia	69	3			4	2		1			7						2							8			1	7			7	3		10		6	8
	Denmark	185	6	7	5	10		12	10	7	7	8	8		12		10	7	10	4	3	12					8				12			5	6	2	4		7	2	1
	Poland	81	5	1			6	5	3	5								4				5	1				7				2		8	8	2	10	5			1	3

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the semi-final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	Romania	Cyprus,   Greece,   Hungary,   Israel,   Moldova,   Spain
5	Croatia	Austria,   Bosnia and Herzegovina,   Macedonia,   Serbia and Montenegro,   Slovenia
4	Denmark	Ireland,   Netherlands,   Norway,   Sweden
	Moldova	Romania,   Russia,   Turkey,   Ukraine
3	Israel	Andorra,   Belarus,   Monaco
	Norway	Denmark,   Finland,   Iceland
	Portugal	France,   Germany,   Switzerland
2	Latvia	Lithuania,   Malta
	Macedonia	Albania,   Croatia
1	Belarus	Bulgaria
	Belgium	Portugal
	Estonia	Latvia
	Hungary	Poland
	Ireland	United Kingdom
	Netherlands	Belgium
	Switzerland	Estonia

Final

Detailed voting results of the final^[17][18]

Voting procedure used:   100% televoting   100% jury vote		Total score	Austria	Lithuania	Portugal	Monaco	Belarus	Netherlands	Iceland	Belgium	Estonia	Finland	Andorra	Bulgaria	Ireland	Slovenia	Poland	Hungary	United Kingdom	Malta	Romania	Norway	Turkey	Moldova	Albania	Cyprus	Spain	Israel	Serbia and Montenegro	Denmark	Sweden	Macedonia	Ukraine	Germany	Croatia	Greece	Russia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Switzerland	Latvia	France
Contestants	Hungary	97			2		2		6	2	3		6	5			10				8		6			7	5	8	6			1	2		6	2	3	1		3	3
	United Kingdom	18													8					4			1			5
	Malta	192	5	2		5	5	5	4	8	4	8			10	1		5	10		2	10	8		4	6	7	10		10	6		10	8	4	8	12		3	5	7
	Romania	158	6		12	4	1	3	5	7			7	8	5		7	10		7		6	4	7	5	8	12	12	3	3	2	2				5		2			5
	Norway	125		5			4	1	12	3	8	12	2	1	4	4	8		5	5				3		3	3	1	2	12	8		6			4		3		6
	Turkey	92	7					12		10				3					1		3				8					8		4		10				8	6		12
	Moldova	148	2	10	10		7		8	1	6			6		3	3	4	2	2	12		7			2	4	4	5			5	12	1	1	7	10	4		8	2
	Albania	53	3																				2						8			12			2	10		5	10		1
	Cyprus	46												10					3	12	1				7				1							12
	Spain	28			8								12																										4		4
	Israel	154	1	3	5	12	8	7		6	1	5	8		6			8	7	8	7	5	3	6	3		6			5	1		7	5			8		1	2	10
	Serbia and Montenegro	137	12			6	3	4						4		10		2			6			1	6	10					4	10	3	3	12	6	6	10	12	1	6
	Denmark	125		4	1	10		8	10	4	5	2	3		7		5	6	8	3	4	12					10	3			10			6						4
	Sweden	30				3						6										1		5			2			7		6
	Macedonia	52				1								7		5							5		10				7						8			7	2
	Ukraine	30			7												12							8			1										2
	Germany	4				2																		2
	Croatia	115	8	6		7		2	1		2	1		2		12	2	7			5	2			2				10			8	8	2			1	12	8	7
	Greece	230	4	1	3			10	2	12		3	4	12	2	2	1	12	12	6	10	4	12	4	12	12	8	7	12	2	12	7		12	5		4	6	7		8
	Russia	57		7			12				7	7												10									4							10
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	79	10					6							1	8			4			7	10						4	4	7	3			10				5
	Switzerland	128		8	4	8	10		7		12	10	1		3	6	6	3		1		3				4		2		1	5		5	4	3	3	7			12
	Latvia	153		12	6		6		3	5	10	4	10		12	7	4	1	6	10		8		12		1		6		6	3		1	7	7	1	5
	France	11											5												1			5

12 points

 

Points given to Greece.

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
10	Greece	Albania,   Belgium,   Bulgaria,   Cyprus,   Germany,   Hungary,   Serbia and Montenegro,   Sweden,   Turkey,   United Kingdom
3	Latvia	Ireland,   Lithuania,   Moldova
	Norway	Denmark,   Finland,   Iceland
	Romania	Israel,   Spain,   Portugal
	Serbia and Montenegro	Austria,   Croatia,   Switzerland
2	Croatia	Bosnia and Herzegovina,   Slovenia
	Cyprus	Greece,   Malta
	Moldova	Romania,   Ukraine
	Switzerland	Estonia,   Latvia
	Turkey	France,   Netherlands
1	Albania	Macedonia
	Denmark	Norway
	Israel	Monaco
	Malta	Russia
	Russia	Belarus
	Spain	Andorra
	Ukraine	Poland

Spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was compiled by placing the countries that failed to qualify from the semi-final first in the running order they performed in during the semi-final, followed by the finalists which voted in the order they performed in during the final. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.^[19]

1.   Austria – Dodo Roscic [de]
2.   Lithuania – Rolandas Vilkončius [lt]
3.   Portugal – Isabel Angelino [pt]
4.   Monaco – Anne Allegrini
5.   Belarus – Elena Ponomareva
6.   Netherlands – Nancy Coolen
7.   Iceland – Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir
8.   Belgium – Armelle Gysen [fr]
9.   Estonia – Maarja-Liis Ilus
10.   Finland – Jari Sillanpää
11.   Andorra – Ruth Gumbau
12.   Bulgaria – Evgeniya Atanasova [bg]
13.   Ireland – Dana
14.   Slovenia – Katarina Čas
15.   Poland – Maciej Orłoś [pl]
16.   Hungary – Zsuzsa Demcsák [hr]
17.   United Kingdom – Cheryl Baker
18.   Malta – Valerie Vella
19.   Romania – Berti Barbera [ro]
20.   Norway – Ingvild Helljesen
21.   Turkey – Meltem Ersan Yazgan
22.   Moldova – Elena Camerzan
23.   Albania – Zhani Ciko [sq]
24.   Cyprus – Melani Steliou
25.   Spain – Ainhoa Arbizu [es]
26.   Israel – Dana Herman [he]
27.   Serbia and Montenegro – Nina Radulović
28.   Denmark – Gry Johansen
29.   Sweden – Annika Jankell
30.   Macedonia – Karolina Gočeva
31.   Ukraine – Maria Orlova
32.   Germany – Thomas Hermanns
33.   Croatia – Barbara Kolar
34.   Greece – Alexis Kostalas [el]
35.   Russia – Yana Churikova
36.   Bosnia and Herzegovina – Ana Mirjana Račanović
37.   Switzerland – Cécile Bähler [de]
38.   Latvia – Marija Naumova
39.   France – Marie Myriam

Other countries

•   Czech Republic – Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) initially applied to participate in the 2005 contest, however, the broadcaster reconsidered débuting in the contest and later withdrew their application on 3 December 2004.^[20]
•   Lebanon – Lebanese broadcaster Télé Liban confirmed Lebanon's début in the contest and selected the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" performed by Aline Lahoud as their entry. However, the broadcaster announced their withdrawal from the competition on 18 March 2005 after the EBU informed them that the rules of the competition require them to broadcast the Israeli entry during the live show and enable viewers to vote for the nation, which contravened a Lebanese law prohibiting any acknowledgement of Israel. As the withdrawal period for the contest had passed, Télé Liban forfeited the return of their participation fee and potentially faced further fines from the EBU.^[21]

Broadcasts

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries^[22]

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Show(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Albania	RTSH	Unknown	All shows	Unknown
Andorra	RTVA	ATV	All shows	Meri Picart [ca] and Josep Lluís Trabal	^[23]^[24]
Austria	ORF	ORF 1	All shows	Andi Knoll	^[25]^[26]^[27]
Belarus	BTRC	Belarus-1	All shows	Ales Kruglyakov	^[28]^[29]
Belgium	RTBF	La Une, RTBF Sat	All shows	Jean-Pierre Hautier	^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]
			Semi-final	Jean-Louis Lahaye [fr]
	VRT	Eén	All shows	André Vermeulen and Anja Daems	^[34]^[35]^[36]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	PBSBiH	Unknown	All shows	Unknown
Bulgaria	BNT	Unknown	All shows	Unknown
Croatia	HRT	HRT 2	Semi-final	Duško Ćurlić	^[37]^[38]
		HRT 1	Final
Cyprus	RIK	Unknown	All shows	Evi Papamichail	^[39]
Denmark	DR	DR1	All shows	Jørgen de Mylius	^[40]^[41]^[42]^[43]
Estonia	ETV		All shows	Marko Reikop	^[44]
	ER	Raadio 2		Mart Juur and Andrus Kivirähk
Finland	YLE	YLE TV2	All shows	Jaana Pelkonen and Heikki Paasonen	^[45]^[46]^[47]
			Final	Asko Murtomäki [fi]
		YLE FST, YLE Radio Vega	All shows	Thomas Lundin [sv] and Hans Johansson	^[45]^[48]^[49]^[50]^[51]^[52]
		YLE Radio Suomi		Sanna Kojo and Jorma Hietamäki	^[45]^[53]^[54]^[55]
France	France Télévisions	France 4^[b]	Semi-final	Unknown	^[57]
		France 3	Final	Julien Lepers and Guy Carlier [fr]	^[31]
Germany	ARD	NDR Fernsehen	Semi-final	Peter Urban	^[26]^[58]
		Das Erste	Final
Greece	ERT	NET	All shows	Alexandra Pascalidou	^[59]^[60]
Hungary	MTV	m1	All shows	Zsuzsa Demcsák [hr], András Fáber and Dávid Szántó	^[61]^[62]^[63]
Iceland	RÚV	Sjónvarpið, Rás 2	All shows	Gísli Marteinn Baldursson	^[64]^[65]^[66]
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ Two	Semi-final	Marty Whelan	^[67]
		RTÉ One	Final		^[68]
Israel	IBA	Unknown	All shows	Unknown
Latvia	LTV	Unknown	All shows	Kārlis Streips [lv]	^[69]
Lithuania	LRT	Unknown	All shows	Darius Užkuraitis	^[70]
Macedonia	MRT	Unknown	All shows	Unknown
Malta	PBS	TVM	All shows	Unknown	^[71]^[72]
Moldova	TRM	Moldova 1	All shows	Unknown
Monaco	TMC Monte Carlo		All shows	Bernard Montiel [fr] and Genie Godula [fr]	^[30]^[31]
Netherlands	NPO	Nederland 2	All shows	Willem van Beusekom and Cornald Maas	^[34]^[35]^[73]
		Radio 2		Unknown
Norway	NRK	NRK1	All shows	Jostein Pedersen	^[40]^[41]^[74]
		NRK P1		Unknown
Poland	TVP	TVP1	All shows	Artur Orzech	^[75]^[76]
Portugal	RTP	RTP1	All shows	Eládio Clímaco	^[77]^[78]^[79]
Romania	TVR	TVR 1	All shows	Unknown	^[80]^[81]
Russia	Channel One		All shows	Yuriy Aksyuta [ru] and Yelena Batinova [ru]	^[82]^[83]
Serbia and Montenegro	RTS	Unknown	All shows	Unknown
	RTCG	Unknown		Unknown
Slovenia	RTV SLO	SLO 2 [sl]	Semi-final	Mojca Mavec [sl]	^[37]^[84]
		SLO 1 [sl]	Final
Spain	TVE	La 2	Semi-final	Beatriz Pécker [es], Ainhoa Arbizu [es] and Carlos Cerezo	^[85]
		La Primera	Final	Beatriz Pécker	^[86]
Sweden	SVT	SVT1	All shows	Pekka Heino	^[40]^[41]^[87]^[88]
	SR	SR P4		Björn Kjellman and Carolina Norén	^[88]^[89]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	SF 2	Semi-final	Sandra Studer	^[25]^[90]
		SF 1	Final		^[26]
		TSR 2	Semi-final	Jean-Marc Richard and Marie-Thérèse Porchet	^[30]
		TSR 1	Final		^[31]^[91]
		TSI 2	Semi-final	Daniela Tami and Claudio Lazzarino	^[92]
		TSI 1	Final
Turkey	TRT	TRT 1	All shows	Unknown	^[93]^[94]
Ukraine	NTU	Pershyi Natsionalnyi	All shows	Yaroslav Chornenkyi	^[95]^[96]^[97]
	UR	Unknown		Galyna Babiy [uk]	^[98]
United Kingdom	BBC	BBC Three	Semi-final	Paddy O'Connell	^[99]
		BBC One, BBC Prime	Final	Terry Wogan	^[31]^[100]
		BBC Radio 2		Ken Bruce	^[101]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries^[22]

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Show(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Armenia	AMPTV	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Australia	SBS	SBS TV^[c]	Semi-final	Paddy O'Connell	^[102]^[103]
			Final	Terry Wogan
Kosovo	RTK	RTK	Unknown	Unknown

Incidents

Germany's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest rejected calls to quit after her producer admitted manipulating the country's pop charts with mass purchases of her single. Gracia Baur defended her producer David Brandes, also behind Swiss entry "Cool Vibes" by Vanilla Ninja, and said she would go to the finals in Kyiv despite complaints from other German singers. Bulgaria's debut was overshadowed by a scandal. The song "Lorraine" by Kaffe was accused of plagiarism. The song sounded too similar to another one released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001. There were also problems in Malta with the electricity supply during the contest, so TV viewers were unable to watch their national selection from the very beginning. There was a controversy regarding the Turkish entry: TRT got a false jury which led to the victory of the song "Rimi Rimi Ley" by Gülseren, which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice. There were similar controversies in Macedonia which led to an eventual victory for Martin Vučić. The Ukrainian song had to be changed because it would bring a political message to the people, and EBU stated that no politics could be involved in the contest. The entry for Serbia and Montenegro was also overshadowed by a scandal and an accusation of plagiarism. Portugal's entry, "Amar", had very poor sound quality, with the female singer's microphone failing many times on stage.

It is also notable that the programme lasted just short of 3.5 hours. This was mainly due to the extremely long voting procedure, where 39 countries voted, reading out every single score. Many people, including United Kingdom commentator Terry Wogan, noticed this and commented about the marathon-like voting procedure, when Russia voted he stated "How many more [countries] have we got to go? What time is it?". Because the show overran so badly, the EBU changed the way the votes were announced in 2006 into a much shorter method, where only the top 3 scores were read out (the rest appeared on the scoreboard automatically).

Ruslana was also intended to be a presenter for the show, but was pulled out before the contest for numerous reasons, including her poor English skills. She opened the contest, and did do a few brief interviews in the green room at a few different stages in the event.

In the semifinal, the first qualifier was Hungary as shown on the card, but instead of showing Hungary's flag, it showed the Bulgarian flag accidentally.

Other awards

In addition to the main winner's trophy, the Marcel Bezençon Awards and the Barbara Dex Award were contested during the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final.^[104] The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award which was voted by previous winners of the contest, Composer Award and Press Award.^[105]

Category	Country	Song	Performer(s)	Composer(s)	Final result	Points
Artistic Award	Greece	"My Number One"	Helena Paparizou	Manos Psaltakis Christos Dantis Natalia Germanou	1st	230
Composer Award	Serbia and Montenegro	"Zauvijek moja"	No Name	Slaven Knezović Milan Perić	7th	137
Press Award	Malta	"Angel"	Chiara	Chiara Siracusa	2nd	192

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed by the fansite House of Eurovision from 1997 to 2016 and is being carried out by the fansite songfestival.be since 2017.^[106]

Place^[107]	Country^[107]	Performer(s)^[107]	Votes^[107]
1	Macedonia	Martin Vučić	42
2	Iceland	Selma	39
3	Portugal	2B	34
4	Norway	Wig Wam	29
5	Belarus	Angelica Agurbash	21

Official album

 

Cover art of the official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005 was the official compilation album of the 2005 contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by EMI Records and CMC International on 2 May 2005. The album featured all 39 songs that entered in the 2005 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.^[108]

The original cover designed for the album was changed after Lebanon's withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 after announcing they would show advertisements over the Israeli entry. Had they entered, they would have been on track 4, disc 2 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" by Aline Lahoud.^[109]

It was reported that sales of the 2005 Eurovision merchandise reached record-breaking levels.^[110]

Charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
German Compilation Albums (Offizielle Top 100)^[111]	2

Notes

1. The song also contains phrases in Polish, German, Spanish, Czech, French and Russian.
2. Delayed repeat broadcast on France 3 on 21 May at 01:20 CEST (20 May, 23:20 UTC)^[56]
3. Deferred broadcast on 20 May (semi-final) and 22 May (final) at 19:30 AEST (09:30 UTC)^[102]

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February 19, 2023