• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 20 May 2006 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Olympic Indoor Hall (O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor Hall / Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (O.A.C.A.) «Spyros Louis», Ολυμπιακού Αθλητικού Κέντρου Αθήνας (O.A.K.A.)  «Σπύρος Λούης»); Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, Ολυμπιακό Κλειστό Γυμναστήριο Νίκος Γκάλης / Athens Olympic Indoor Hall), Athens, 🇬🇷 Greece.
• Presenter (s): Maria Menounos (Μαρία Μενούνος) & Sakis Rouvas (Σάκης Ρουβάς)
• Musical Director: —
• Director: Volker Weicker
• Executive Producer: Fotini Yannoulatou
• Executive Supervisor: Svante Stockselius
• Multicamera Director: Volker Weicker
• Host broadcaster: Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi / Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)
• Motto: “Feel The Rhythm!” (Νιώστε Το Ρυθμό)
• Opening Act: “The Mermaid Song” performed by Foteini Darra accompanied by Greek dancers; “My Number One” performed by Helena Paparizou.
• Interval Act: “Mambo!” performed by Elena Paparizou; 4000 Years of Greek Song (composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou, choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos); Nana Mouskouri.
• Participants – Number of entries: 37: Final 24 [🇬🇧 United Kindom (45ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (42ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (43ª), 🇫🇷 France (46ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (18ª), 🇭🇷 Croatia (13ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (27ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (46ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (9ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (25ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (11ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (8ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (4ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (42ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (6ª), 🇲🇩 Moldova (2ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (26ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (35ª), 🇱🇻 Latvia (6ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (45ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (7ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (37ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (37ª)]; Semi-Final 23 [🇫🇮 Finland (37ª), 🇧🇾 Belarus (3ª), 🇦🇩 Andorra (3ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (37ª), 🇲🇨 Monaco (22ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (7ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (6ª),  🇸🇮 Slovenia (11ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (11ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (44ª), 🇧🇪 Belgium (45ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (19ª), 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (2ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (37ª), 🇵🇱 Poland (11ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (1ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (3ª), 🇨🇾 Cyprus (24ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (9ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (27ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (4ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (43ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (11ª)]
• Debuting countries: 🇦🇲 Armenia (1ª) 
• Return: —
• Non-returning countries: 🇦🇹 Austria (41ª), 🇭🇺 Hungary (5ª),  Serbia and Montenegro (2ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: —
• Winning song: “Hard Rock Hallelujah” – Lordi – 🇫🇮 Finland (1ª)

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

Unpredictable as ever. Carola, who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in 1991 and finished third in 1983, returned to the contest with her song Invincible, was widely tipped to do well. Another hotly tipped winner was Russian singer Dima Bilan with his song “Never Let You Go”. German group Texas Lightning did well in at the bookmakers with their refreshing pop-country song “No No Never”, but the song only managed a disappointing 14th place. Anna Vissi, the Greek pop queen who had already participated in the song contest in 1980 and 1982, had high hopes to win the competition with her dramatic performance of “Everything”.

About the winner. Not many experts expected the masked hardrockers Lordi to win 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, the highest amount of points ever achieved at that time. Lordi went on to have lots of success with their song which made the top 10 in dozens of European charts.

Facts and figures. In order to save time only the points 8, 10 and 12 were read out by the national spokespersons. Points 1 to 7 were automatically added to the scoreboard; Nana Mouskouri, who represented Luxembourg in the 1963 contest, appeared on-stage during the Grand Final; The slogan in 2006 was ‘Feel The Rhythm’.

Final:

o/r	Country	participant(s)	SONG – TRANSLATE – LANGUAGE	Points	rank
01	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	six4one	If we all give a little English	030	16
02	🇲🇩 Moldova TRM	Arsenium feat. Natalia Gordienko & Connect-R (Arsenium feat. Natalia Gordienko și Connect-R)	Loca (Crazy) English[b]	022	20
03	🇮🇱 Israel IBA	Eddie Butler (אדי בטלר)	Together we are one (יחד אנחנו כאחד/זה הזמן, Ze Hazman, זה הזמן, It’s Time) Нebrew, English	004	23
04	🇱🇻 Latvia LTV	Cosmos (Vocal Group Cosmos)	I Hear Your Heart (Es dzirdu tavu sirdi) English	030	16
05	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Christine Guldbrandsen	Alvedansen (The Elf Dance) Norwegian	036	14
06	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	Las Ketchup	Bloody mary (Un Blodymary, A Bloody Mary) Spanish	018	21
07	🇲🇹 Malta PBS	Fabrizio Faniello	I Do (Irrid) English	001	24
08	🇩🇪 Germany  ARD	Texas Lightning	No No Never (Nein nein niemals) English	036	14
09	🇩🇰 Denmark DR	Sidsel Ben Semmane	Twist Of Love English	026	18
10	🇷🇺 Russia C1R	Dima Bilan (Дима Билан)	Never Let You Go (Никогда не позволю тебе уйти / Никогда не отпущу тебя) English	248	02
11	🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia MKRTV	Elena Risteska (Елена Ристеска)	Ninanajna (Нинанајна) English, Macedonian	056	12
12	🇷🇴 Romania TVR	Mihai Trăistariu	Tornerò (I’ll return) English, Italian	172	04
13	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT	Hari Mata Hari (Хари Мата Хари)	Lejla (Лејла, Layla) Bosnian	229	03
14	🇱🇹 Lithuania LRT	LT United	We Are The Winners (Mes esame nugalėtojai) English[d]	162	06
15	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Daz Sampson	Teenage Life English	025	19
16	🇬🇷 Greece ERT	Anna Vissi (Άννα Βίσση)	Everything English	128	09
17	🇫🇮 Finland  YLE winner	Lordi	Hard Rock Hallelujah English	292	01
18	🇺🇦 Ukraine NTU	Tina Karol (Тіна Кароль)	Show Me Your Love (Покажи мені своє кохання, I am Your Queen, Я – твоя королева) English	145	07
19	🇫🇷 France France 3	Virginie Pouchain	Il était temps (It was time) French	005	22
20	🇭🇷 Croatia HRT	Severina (Северина)	Moja štikla (Моја штикла, My stiletto heel / My High-Heel) Croatian	056	12
21	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Brian Kennedy	Every Song Is A Cry For Love English	093	10
22	🇸🇪 Sweden  SVT	Carola (Carola Häggkvist)	Invincible (Evighet, Eternity) English	170	05
23	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	Sibel Tüzün	Süper Star (Superstar) Turkish, English[c]	091	11
24	🇦🇲 Armenia AMPTV	André (Անդրե)	Without Your Love (Առանց քո սիրո) English	129	08

• • Dates – Semi-Final: Thursday, 18 May 2006 – 21:00 CEST
  • Host – Venue & Location: Olympic Indoor Hall (O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor Hall / Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (O.A.C.A.) «Spyros Louis», Ολυμπιακού Αθλητικού Κέντρου Αθήνας (O.A.K.A.)  «Σπύρος Λούης»); Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, Ολυμπιακό Κλειστό Γυμναστήριο Νίκος Γκάλης / Athens Olympic Indoor Hall), Athens, 🇬🇷 Greece.
  • Presenter (s): Maria Menounos (Μαρία Μενούνος) & Sakis Rouvas (Σάκης Ρουβάς)
  • Musical Director: —
  • Director: Volker Weicker
  • Executive Producer: Fotini Yannoulatou
  • Executive Supervisor: Svante Stockselius
  • Multicamera Director: Volker Weicker
  • Host broadcaster: Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi / Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)
  • Motto: “Feel The Rhythm!” (Νιώστε Το Ρυθμό)
  • Opening Act: Eurovision medley performed by Greek gods and goddesses; “Love Shine a Light” performed by Sakis Rouvas and Maria Menounos.
  • Interval Act: Emilia Tsoulfa and Dimosthenis Tampakos; “I’m In Love With You” performed by Sakis Rouvas; Greek musical and dance pieces (composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou, choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos).
  • Participants – Number of entries: 37: Final 24 [🇬🇧 United Kindom (45ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (42ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (43ª), 🇫🇷 France (46ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (18ª), 🇭🇷 Croatia (13ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (27ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (46ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (9ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (25ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (11ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (8ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (4ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (42ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (6ª), 🇲🇩 Moldova (2ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (26ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (35ª), 🇱🇻 Latvia (6ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (45ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (7ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (37ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (37ª)]; Semi-Final 23 [🇫🇮 Finland (37ª), 🇧🇾 Belarus (3ª), 🇦🇩 Andorra (3ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (37ª), 🇲🇨 Monaco (22ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (7ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (6ª),  🇸🇮 Slovenia (11ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (11ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (44ª), 🇧🇪 Belgium (45ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (19ª), 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (2ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (37ª), 🇵🇱 Poland (11ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (1ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (3ª), 🇨🇾 Cyprus (24ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (9ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (27ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (4ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (43ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (11ª)]
  • Debuting countries: 🇦🇲 Armenia (1ª) 
  • Return: —
  • Non-returning countries: 🇦🇹 Austria (41ª), 🇭🇺 Hungary (5ª),  Serbia and Montenegro (2ª)
  • Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs.
  • Nil Points: —
  • Winning song: “Hard Rock Hallelujah” – Lordi – 🇫🇮 Finland (1ª)

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

Unpredictable as ever. Carola, who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in 1991 and finished third in 1983, returned to the contest with her song Invincible, was widely tipped to do well. Another hotly tipped winner was Russian singer Dima Bilan with his song “Never Let You Go”. German group Texas Lightning did well in at the bookmakers with their refreshing pop-country song “No No Never”, but the song only managed a disappointing 14th place. Anna Vissi, the Greek pop queen who had already participated in the song contest in 1980 and 1982, had high hopes to win the competition with her dramatic performance of “Everything”.

About the winner. Not many experts expected the masked hardrockers Lordi to win 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, the highest amount of points ever achieved at that time. Lordi went on to have lots of success with their song which made the top 10 in dozens of European charts.

Facts and figures. In order to save time only the points 8, 10 and 12 were read out by the national spokespersons. Points 1 to 7 were automatically added to the scoreboard; Nana Mouskouri, who represented Luxembourg in the 1963 contest, appeared on-stage during the Grand Final; The slogan in 2006 was ‘Feel The Rhythm’.

Semi-Final: [Q] – Qualifiers qualifier

o/r	country	participant(s)	canzone – traduzione	Points	rank
01	🇦🇲 Armenia AMPTV qualifier	André (Անդրե)	Without Your Love (Առանց քո սիրո) English	150	06
02	🇧🇬 Bulgaria BNT	Mariana Popova (Мариана Попова, Mariana Popova feat. Azis,Мариана Попова с Азис)	Let Me Cry (Остави ме да плача) English	036	17
03	🇸🇮 Slovenia  RTVSLO	Anžej Dežan (Анжеј Дежан)	Mr. Nobody (Plan B) English	049	16
04	🇦🇩 Andorra RTVA	Jennifer (Jenny)	Sense tu (Without you, Sin ti) Catalan	008	23
05	🇧🇾 Belarus BTRC	Polina Smolova (Паліна Смолава, Palina Smolava)	Mum (Мама) English	010	22
06	🇦🇱 Albania RTSH	Luiz Ejlli	Zjarr e Ftohtë (Cold as fire / Fire and cold) Albanian	058	14
07	🇧🇪 Belgium VRT	Kate Ryan	Je t’adore (I adore you) English	069	12
08	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ qualifier	Brian Kennedy	Every Song Is A Cry For Love English	079	09
09	🇨🇾 Cyprus CyBC	Annet Artani (Αννέτ Αρτάνι)	Why Angels Cry English	057	15
10	🇲🇨 Monaco TMC	Séverine Ferrer	La Coco-Dance (The Coco Dance) French, Tahitian	014	21
11	🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia MKRTV qualifier	Elena Risteska (Елена Ристеска)	Ninanajna (Нинанајна) English, Macedonian	076	10
12	🇵🇱 Poland  TVP	Ich Troje[a] (Ich Troje feat. Real McCoy)	Follow My Heart English, Polish, German, Russian[b]	070	11
13	🇷🇺 Russia C1R qualifier	Dima Bilan (Дима Билан)	Never Let You Go (Никогда не позволю тебе уйти / Никогда не отпущу тебя) English	217	03
14	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT qualifier	Sibel Tüzün	Süper Star (Superstar) Turkish[c]	091	08
15	🇺🇦 Ukraine NTU qualifier	Tina Karol (Тіни Кароль)	Show Me Your Love (Покажи мені своє кохання, I am Your Queen, Я – твоя королева) English	146	07
16	🇫🇮 Finland YLE qualifier	Lordi	Hard Rock Hallelujah English	292	01
17	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NOS	Treble	Amambanda English, Imaginary	022	20
18	🇱🇹 Lithuania LRT qualifier	LT United	We Are The Winners (Mes esame nugalėtojai) English[d]	163	05
19	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	NonStop	Coisas de Nada (Gonna Make You Dance) [Meaningless things (Gonna Make You Dance)] Portuguese, English	026	19
20	🇸🇪 Sweden SVT qualifier	Carola (Carola Häggkvist)	Invincible (Evighet, Eternity) English	214	04
21	🇪🇪 Estonia ERR	Sandra Oxenryd	Through My Window English	028	18
22	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT qualifier	Hari Mata Hari (Хари Мата Хари)	Lejla (Лејла, Layla) Bosnian	267	02
23	🇮🇸 Iceland RÚV	Silvía Night (Silvía Nótt)	Congratulations (Til hamingju Ísland, Congratulations Iceland) English	62	23

Missed participation

• Serbia and Montenegro: “Moja Ljubavi” (Моја љубави, My love) (Montenegrin) – No Name (Но нејм). Although Serbia & Montenegro did not compete in the contest, they still regained voting rights due to a scandal that was caused during their National Selection. “Moja ljubavi” was placed second in the Montenegrin semifinal Montevizija 2006 and won the Serbo-Montenegrin Eurovision Song Contest national selection Evropesma/Europjesma 2006 with a new arrangement and therefore became the Serbian and Montenegrin entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. But, due to the accusations of tactical voting of the RTCG jury members (Serbian TV protested that the voting of Montenegran jurors was partisan and proposed a second final with different voting). Montenegran TV believed that their song had won fairly and squarely. The two sides could not agree before the entry deadline so UJRT decided that Serbia and Montenegro would withdraw from ESC 2006. Withdrew from the competition, but still voted.

• 🇺🇦 Ukraine: “I am Your Queen” (Я – твоя королева) (Inglese) – Tina Karol (Тіна Кароль). Ukraine’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was chosen in a selection process called “Ty-Zirka” (Ти — зірка!), the Ukrainian version of the Irish show “You’re A Star”. In 2006 Karol won at the casting for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song “I Am Your Queen” and therefore represented Ukraine at the event finishing 7th, scoring 145 points, with a revised version of the song entitled “Show Me Your Love”. The final took place on 11 March and both the televoters and jury agreed that Tina Karol should represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song I am Your Queen. Kirill Turichenko and Irina Rosenfeld accumulated 21 points but it was Irina who finished 2nd following the televote. For Eurovision, the lyrics of the song changed and Show Me Your Love was performed by Tina.

Participation map

Participating countries Did not qualify from the semi final  Countries that participated in the past but not in 2006

ESC 2006 Scoreboard Grand Final Ι Detailed voting results:

Final:

ESC 2006 Scoreboard Semi-Final Ι Detailed voting results:

Semi-Final:

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Athens, Greece, following the country’s victory at the 2005 contest with the song “My Number One” by Helena Paparizou. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), the contest was held at the Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, and consisted of a semi-final on 18 May, and a final on 20 May 2006. The two live shows were presented by American television personality Maria Menounos and former Greek contestant 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 this, the nation did retain voting rights for the contest.

The winner was Finland with the heavy metal-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, the longest time a country had competed without a win at that point. It was also the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, as well as the first band to win since 1997. 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 (with Norway).

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.

1.Location. The contest took place in Athens, Greece, following the country’s victory at the 2005 edition with the song “My Number One”, performed by Helena Paparizou. It was the first time Greece hosted the contest.

1.1.Venue. The venue that was chosen as the host venue was the Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall (in 2006 it was named as Olympic Indoor Arena), which is located in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, in the capital city of Greece. Completed in 1995, it was the largest indoor venue used at the 2004 Summer Olympics when hosted gymnastics and the basketball finals and the 2004 Summer Paralympics when hosted the wheelchair basketball.

1.2.Bidding phase. 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 (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras) 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.

Few days after Greece’s won in the contest, the Greek public broadcaster stated that “ERT intends to hold the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, taking into account EBU’s already expressed wish for the event to be combined with the Olympic facilities and amenities that the city of Athens has to offer”. Mr. Panaghiotis Psomiadis, the Prefect of Thessaloniki stated the city will fight for the hosting of the contest. As the city of Patras seemed not to be available to host the contest, at the end it was a two-horse race between Athens and Thessaloniki.

Finally, on June 30, 2005, ERT and EBU announced that Athens will be the host city of the 2006 contest, despite the opposition of some Greek politicians, stated that Athens already had its promotion during the 2004 Summer Olympics and that it’s “another city’s turn now”. The joint decision of the EBU and ERT is to host the 51st Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, which has several modern Olympic venues, infrastructure and a proven ability to host events of this size.

1.3.Other sites. The Eurovision Village was the official Eurovision Song Contest fan and sponsors’ area during the events week. There it was possible to watch performances by local artists, as well as the live shows broadcast from the main venue. Located at the Zappeion, it was open from 15 to 21 May 2006.

The EuroClub was the venue for the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. Unlike the Eurovision Village, access to the EuroClub was restricted to accredited fans, delegates, and press. It was located at Athens Technopolis, an industrial museum and a major cultural venue of the city.

The official “Welcome and Opening Ceremonies” events, where the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place also in Zappeon on 15 May 2006 at 21:00 EET, followed by the Opening Ceremony.

2.Format.

2.1.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 Kyiv’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 stage for the contest was designed by Greek stage designer Elias Ledakis. He would go on to design the stage for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The stage was a replica of an ancient Greek amphitheatre.

2.2.Postcards. As it was referred, the theme “Feel The Rhythm” was also the basis for the postcards, which emphasized Greece’s historical significance as well as being a major modern tourist destination. The postcards filmed between March and April 2006. The host broadcaster ERT spent 3 million euros on the production of the 37 postcards. Fanis Papathanisiou of ERT said: “An impressive, international tourism campaign is expensive as well. The Eurovision Song Contest is a perfect platform to achieve equal or even better results. That’s why it is worth the investment”. To decide what to show in the postcards, ERT hold surveys in all participating countries, asking what people associate Greece with.

2.3.Voting segment. 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 (who also represented Cyprus in 1996, 2002 and 2005) 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 (as “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”) instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years (as “FYR Macedonia”).

2.4.Presenters. Initially, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) asked Sakis Rouvas to represent again Greece in Athens, an offer which he didn’t accept. With the Greek broadcaster wanting Rouvas’ involvement in the contest, they offered him to be one of the hosts of the contest, where he accepted. Between the names that were rumored for the female host, included the Greek Canadian actress, screenwriter, director, and producer Nia Vardalos (known for writing and starring in My Big Fat Greek Wedding), the Greek social entrepreneur and philanthropist Elizabeth Filippouli (later, she founded the Global Thinkers Forum in London), the Greek American actress, producer, and businesswoman Jennifer Aniston (world-known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), for which she earned Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards), all three of them having Greek roots, and the previous edition’s winner, Helena Paparizou.

After a lot of speculations, the Greek broadcaster announced on 7 March 2006 that the Greek American entertainment reporter, television personality, professional wrestler, actress, and businesswoman Maria Menounos would be the hostess of the contest. Menounos was starring along with Sean Connery in the movie remake video game James Bond 007: From Russia with love, while in 2002 she joined the NBC show Entertainment Tonight.

Menounos and Rouvas also hosted the allocation draw on March 21, 2006, in order to determine the running order for the semi-final, the grand final and – for the first time in the history of the contest – the voting order.

The “Welcome to the Party” opening ceremony was hosted by actress Zeta Makrypoulia and actor/screenwriter of the show, Giorgos Kapoutzidis, while Ioanna Papanikolopoulou was moderated the press conferences.

2.5.Opening and interval acts. The semi-final opened with a medley of former Eurovision songs performed by Greek gods: “Welcome to the Party” (runner-up at the Ellinikós Telikós 2006) of Anna Vissi performed by Muses, “Nel blu, dipinto di blu” (Italy 1958) of Domenico Modugno performed by Zeus, “L’amour est bleu” (Luxembourg 1967) of Vicky Leandros performed by Poseidon, “Save Your Kisses for Me” (United Kingdom 1976) of Brotherhood of Man performed by Hermes, “Making Your Mind Up” (United Kingdom 1981) of Bucks Fizz performed by Athena, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” (Israel 1978) of Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta performed by Hephaestus, “Dschinghis Khan” (Germany 1979) of Dschinghis Khan performed by Ares, “Diva” (Israel 1998) of Dana International performed by Aphrodite, “Waterloo” (Sweden 1974) of ABBA performed by Charites, “Wild Dances” (Ukraine 2004) of Ruslana performed by Artemis and “My Number One” (Greece 2005) of Helena Paparizou performed by the ensemble cast of the Greek gods. In addition, the hosts Maria Menounos and Sakis Rouvas sang the winning song of the 1997 contest, “Love Shine a Light” of Katrina and the Waves, representing the United Kingdom.

The grand final opened with a ballet dance, symbolizing the birth of Greece. Greek singer Foteini Darra performed “The Mermaid Song” (also known as “The Song of Life”), while the dancers and the sets mimicked the creative elements (the sea, the wind, the sun). At the end of the ballet, the presenters appeared in the air, suspended from ropes. They landed on the stage and greeted the audience. They immediately introduced the previous year’s winner, Helena Paparizou, who covered her winning song, “My Number One”.

The interval act of the semi-final began with the English cover of the song “S’eho Erotefthi”, performed as “I’m In Love With You” from the host Sakis Rouvas. A folkloric ballet followed, using traditional Greek music and dances, with the pan flute as a conducting element. This ballet was composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos, while for the grand final, Helena Paparizou performed her song “Mambo!”, already a hit in Greece. The interval act closed with a contemporary ballet entitled 4000 Years of Greek Song and which traced the history of the musical culture of the host country. This ballet was also composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos.

The voting lines for both shows opened by three special guests: for the semi-final the lines opened by Emilia Tsoulfa (Gold medalist in Athens 2004 at 470 class sailing representing Greece) and Dimosthenis Tampakos (Greek gymnast and Olympic gold medalist) and for the grand final the lines opened from the Luxembourgish entrant at the 1963 contest, Nana Mouskouri.

3.Participating countries. All participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU. 

It was initially announced on 16 January 2006 that thirty-eight countries would participate in the contest, with Austria opting not to participate due to the bad result at the previous contest and Hungary also deciding not to participate due to financial reasons. Armenia participated for the very first time in the history of the contest.

Serbia and Montenegro announced its withdrawal on 15 March 2006, reducing the participants number from 38 to 37. Despite its withdrawal, Serbia and Montenegro still regained their rights to vote in the contest.

3.1.Returning artists.

Lead artists

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Anna Vissi	🇬🇷 Greece	1980 (with the Epikouri) and 1982 (for 🇨🇾 Cyprus)
Carola	🇸🇪 Sweden	1983 and 1991
Eddie Butler	🇮🇱 Israel	1999 (as member of Eden)
Fabrizio Faniello	🇲🇹 Malta	2001
Ich Troje	🇵🇱 Poland	2003
Victor Diawara (member of LT United)	🇱🇹 Lithuania	2001 (as member of Skamp)

Backing performers

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Sigríður Beinteinsdóttir	🇮🇸 Iceland	1990 (as member of Stjórnin), 1992 (as member of Heart 2 Heart), and 1994

Additionally, Hari Mata Hari were selected to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1999 contest, but their entry was disqualified. Ireland’s Brian Kennedy performed in Lumen, the interval act of the 1995 contest.

Host Sakis Rouvas previously represented Greece at the 2004 contest. If No Name had been permitted to represent Serbia and Montenegro, they would have done so for the second consecutive year.

3.2.Semi-final. The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET). 23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia and Montenegro voted.

3.3.Final. The finalists were: the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom; the top 10 countries from the 2005 final (other than the automatic qualifiers);^[e] the top 10 countries from the 2006 semi-final.

The final was held on 20 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Finland.

3.4.Participants and results.

3.5.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 2006:

• National Selections in 2006: