Songs of Europe
Dates
Final	22 August 1981
Host
Venue	Momarken, Mysen, Norway
Presenter(s)	Rolf Kirkvaag Titten Tei
Musical director	Sigurd Jansen
Directed by	Johnny Bergh
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Host broadcaster	EBU, NRK
Participants
Number of entries	21 songs from 1956 to 1981

Songs of Europe (1981 concert). Songs of Europe is a concert television programme commemorating the Eurovision Song Contest’s twenty-fifth anniversary. The event was held in Mysen, Norway in 1981, featuring all but eight of the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest from its first edition in 1956 to 1981, and broadcast to more than 100 million viewers all over Europe.

The concert, which was the largest ever in Norway at the time, and still the largest in Mysen, was hosted by Norwegian television personalities Rolf Kirkvaag and children’s television character Titten Tei, who led the two-hour live broadcast in English, German, French, Norwegian and Spanish. The majority of entries were conducted by Sigurd Jansen, although the song “Hallelujah” was conducted, as it was in 1979, by composer Kobi Oshrat.^[1] “Nous les amoureux” was conducted by Raymond Bernard, “La, la, la” by Manuel Gas, and “Boom Bang-a-Bang” by Kenny Clayton.

Background. The concert was an annual fund raiser for the International Red Cross, with previous headline acts including Julie Andrews, Charles Aznavour and in 1975, Eurovision winners ABBA.

The theme of the Eurovision winning songs was chosen for the 1981 edition, with a double-album containing all 29 winning tracks released by the Red Cross imprinted on their own label to raise additional funding, entitled Eurovision Gala: 29 Winners – 29 Worldsuccesses.

It is the biggest concert arranged to feature such an amount of Eurovision Song Contest artists and more specifically winners performing at once, with 21 out of a total 29 winners (four winners in the 1969 Contest) attending to perform their past winning songs; that is with the Eurovision Song Contest’s fiftieth anniversary, Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, featuring most of the artists as guests and not as performers, and the Contest’s sixtieth anniversary, Eurovision Song Contest’s Greatest Hits, featuring fifteen artists acts.

The show. Heavy rain delayed the start of the concert and interrupted some of the early performances. The songs were performed on the stage or shown in videos, in accordance to the chronological order of the Eurovision Song Contest’s winners from the first edition in 1956 up to and including the 1981 edition; although 1981 was the 26th edition, it was held a few months prior to the concert and thus included in it.

Some snippets of earlier ESC performances intermingled into the show. 21 acts performed their winning songs live (although Dana lip-synched her winning song, as she was recovering from throat surgery), including three out of the four winners of the 1969 Contest. The remaining eight winners, marked in light red, were shown in video footage of their performances in their respective editions of the Eurovision Song Contest, where available. Others were shown in still photographs or in clips taken from other broadcasts where no clip from the contest was known to exist. Abba’s performance of Waterloo was taken from the televised Red Cross concert the group had performed in Mysen in 1975. Waterloo was the only one of the absentee winning songs performed in its entirety.

Massiel performed a new, extended arrangement of her 1968 winning song, losing her timing and was briefly out of synch with the live orchestra. Martin Lee of Brotherhood of Man fumbled the lyrics of the 1976 winning song, repeating the first verse twice. Despite the rain and the wet stage, Sandie Shaw performed bare foot much to the appreciation of the audience.

The show ended with all of the performers and guest Teddy Scholten appearing on stage for a curtain call and photographs.

Year	Country	Artist	Song	Language
1956	Switzerland	Lys Assia	“Refrain”	French
1957	Netherlands	Corry Brokken	“Net als toen”	Dutch
1958	France	André Claveau	“Dors, mon amour”	French
1959	Netherlands	Teddy Scholten[a]	“Een beetje”	Dutch
1960	France	Jacqueline Boyer	“Tom Pillibi”	French
1961	Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Pascal	“Nous les amoureux”	French
1962	France	Isabelle Aubret	“Un premier amour”	French
1963	Denmark	Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann	“Dansevise”	Danish
1964	Italy	Gigliola Cinquetti	“Non ho l’età”	Italian
1965	Luxembourg	France Gall	“Poupée de cire, poupée de son”	French
1966	Austria	Udo Jürgens	“Merci, Chérie”	German[b]
1967	United Kingdom	Sandie Shaw	“Puppet on a String”	English
1968	Spain	Massiel	“La, la, la”	Spanish
1969	Spain	Salomé	“Vivo cantando”	Spanish
1969	United Kingdom	Lulu	“Boom Bang-a-Bang”	English
1969	Netherlands	Lenny Kuhr	“De troubadour”	Dutch
1969	France	Frida Boccara	“Un jour, un enfant”	French
1970	Ireland	Dana	“All Kinds of Everything”	English
1971	Monaco	Séverine	“Un banc, un arbre, une rue”	French
1972	Luxembourg	Vicky Leandros	“Après toi”	French
1973	Luxembourg	Anne-Marie David	“Tu te reconnaîtras”	French
1974	Sweden	ABBA	“Waterloo”	English
1975	Netherlands	Teach-In[c]	“Ding-a-dong”	English
1976	United Kingdom	Brotherhood of Man	“Save Your Kisses for Me”	English
1977	France	Marie Myriam	“L’Oiseau et l’Enfant”	French
1978	Israel	Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta[d]	“A-Ba-Ni-Bi” (א-ב-ני-בי)	Hebrew
1979	Israel	Milk and Honey[e]	“Hallelujah” (הללויה)	Hebrew
1980	Ireland	Johnny Logan	“What’s Another Year?”	English
1981	United Kingdom	Bucks Fizz	“Making Your Mind Up”	English

International broadcasting. In the United Kingdom, a highlights programme was broadcast by BBC Two on 25 September 1981 and introduced by Terry Wogan. BBC Radio 2 transmitted the concert on 26 December 1981, introduced by Len Jackson.

Commentators. The following countries, listed in order of broadcasting dates, had confirmed that they would broadcast the anniversary show.

Date of broadcast	Country[7]	Channel	Station	Commentators
22 August 1981	Denmark	DR	DR TV	TBC
	France	TF1		No commentator
	Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ
	Mexico	Las Estrellas
	Norway	NRK	NRK Fjernsynet	Knut Aunbu
			NRK	TBC
25 September 1981	United Kingdom	BBC	BBC Two	Terry Wogan
26 December 1981			BBC Radio 2	Len Jackson
Unknown	Austria	ORF	FS2	No commentator
	Belgium	BRT	BRT1
	Cyprus	CyBC	RIK 1
	Egypt	ERTU	Channel 1
	El Salvador	TCS	Canal 2
	Finland	Yle	Yle TV1
	Germany	ARD	Das Erste	TBC
	Jordan	JRTV	JTV 2	No commentator
	Greece	ERT	ERT
	Iceland	RÚV	RÚV Sjónvarpið
	Netherlands	NPO	NPO 1
	Peru	ATV
	Portugal	RTP	RTP1
	Dominican Republic	CERTV	RTD
	Spain	RTVE	La 1
	Sweden	SVT	TV2	Arne Weise
	Venezuela	VTV		No commentator

Non-broadcasting countries. The following countries originally intended to broadcast the event, but withdrew for unknown reasons

Country	Station	Channel
Hong Kong	RTHK
Israel	IBA	Channel 1

The following list of countries, which participated in the Eurovision Song Contest at least once, also did not broadcast the show:

Official album. 

Eurovision Gala
Compilation album by Eurovision Song Contest
Released	August 1981
Genre	Various
Label	Polydor Red Cross
Eurovision Song Contest chronology
Eurovision Gala (1981) The Very Best Of The Eurovision Song Contest (2005)

Eurovision Gala: 29 Winners – 29 Worldsuccesses (also known as 25 Years Eurovision Song Contest Winners 1956-1981) is a compilation album with the first 29 winners of the Eurovision Song Contest.^[3] The album was released in the summer of 1981 in connection with the competition’s 25th anniversary show. The first final took place in 1956, and it was thus 25 years since the competition started. However, the final in 1981 was the 26th in a row, and in 1969 there were four winners, so the total number of winners was 29 at this time.

The album cover featured the flags of the 13 nations that had won the contest to date, plus colour photographs of 10 of the winning artists: Jacqueline Boyer, Jean-Claude Pascal, Udo Jürgens, Sandie Shaw, Séverine, Vicky Leandros, ABBA, Milk and Honey with Gali Atari, Johnny Logan and Bucks Fizz, despite Leandros, ABBA and Atari not participating in the live concert. Inside the gatefold sleeve, monochrome photographs of all the winners were printed, with full details of the winning song (date, host city, author, composer, conductor, singer).For the album release, a newly recorded version with a new arrangement of the 1966 winner by Udo Jürgens was included rather than the original version that won the contest. Additionally, the English versions of both the Israeli winners of 1978 and 1979 were used rather than the original Hebrew recordings.

Track listing.

LP 1.

Side A

1. Lys Assia with “Refrain” (Switzerland 1956) – 3:16
2. Corry Brokken with “Net als toen” (The Netherlands 1957) – 3:23
3. André Claveau with “Dors, mon amour” (France 1958) – 3:14
4. Teddy Scholten with “Een beetje” (The Netherlands 1959) – 3:00
5. Jacqueline Boyer with “Tom Pillibi” – (France 1960) – 3:04
6. Jean-Claude Pascal with “Nous les amoureux” (Luxembourg 1961) – 3:06
7. Isabelle Aubret with “Un premier amour” (France 1962) – 2:33

Side B

1. Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann with “Dansevise” (Denmark 1963) – 2:55
2. Gigliola Cinquetti with “Non ho l’età” (Italy 1964) – 3:14
3. France Gall with “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” (Luxembourg 1965) – 2:30
4. Udo Jürgens with “Merci, Chérie” (Austria 1966) – 2:42
5. Sandie Shaw with “Puppet on a String” (UK 1967) – 2:20
6. Massiel with “La, la, la” (Spain 1968) – 2:31
7. Salomé with “Vivo cantando” (Spain 1969) – 2:08 

LP 2.

Side A

1. Lulu with “Boom Bang-a-Bang” (UK 1969) – 2:21
2. Lenny Kuhr with “De Troubadour” (The Netherlands 1969) – 3:36
3. Frida Boccara with “Un jour, un enfant” (France 1969) – 2:42
4. Dana with “All Kinds of Everything” (Ireland 1970) – 3:00
5. Séverine with “Un banc, un arbre, une rue” (Monaco 1971) – 3:01
6. Vicky Leandros with “Après toi” (Luxembourg 1972) – 3:31
7. Anne-Marie David with “Tu te reconnaîtras” (Luxembourg 1973) – 2:38

Side B

1. ABBA with “Waterloo” (Sweden 1974) – 2:45
2. Teach-In with “Ding-a-dong” (Netherlands 1975) – 2:24
3. Brotherhood of Man with “Save Your Kisses for Me” (UK 1976) – 3:05
4. Marie Myriam with “L’oiseau et l’enfant” (France 1977) – 2:41
5. Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta with “A-ba-ni-bi” (Israel 1978) – 2:56
6. Milk and Honey with “Hallelujah” (Israel 1979) – 3:27
7. Johnny Logan with “What’s Another Year” (Ireland 1980) – 3:09
8. Bucks Fizz with “Making Your Mind Up” (UK 1981) – 2:39

Release. The album was put together and released by Polydor, on behalf of the Red Cross. It was released all over Europe on double LP and cassette with various titles:

Scandinavia, Israel, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK and Yugoslavia: Eurovision Gala: 29 Winners – 29 Worldsuccesses

France and French-speaking countries and territories: Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson: 29 winners – 9 successes

Germany and German-speaking countries and territories: Eurovision Gala: 29 Sieger – 29 Welterfolge

Notes.

• a^ Attended the show as a guest in the audience.
• b^ The song also contains phrases in French.
• c^ The line up of Teach-in was different from the winning 1975 group, although still led by lead singer Getty Kaspers.
• d^ The Alphabeta appeared as a quartet, with two boys and two girls; a different line up from the quintet who had won in 1978.
• e^ Gali Atari who sang the lead vocal with Milk and Honey when they won Eurovision, was replaced by Leah Lupatin.

Kvalifikacija za Millstreet
Dates
Final	3 April 1993
Host
Venue	TV SLO Studio 1, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Presenter(s)	Tajda Lekše
Musical director	Petar Ugrin, Mojmir Sepe
Directed by	Peter Juratovec
Executive supervisor	Frank Naef
Executive producer	Edo Brzin
Host broadcaster	Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO)
Participants
Number of entries	7
Participation map Participating countries
Vote
Voting system	One juror from each country awarded 12, 10, 8–5 points to each song
Winning song	Slovenia – “Tih deževen dan“  Bosnia and Herzegovina – “Sva bol svijeta“  Croatia – “Don’t Ever Cry”

Kvalifikacija za Millstreet (English: Preselection for Millstreet; French: Présélection pour Millstreet) was a televised song contest held as a qualifying round for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO), the contest was held on 3 April 1993 in Studio 1 of Televizija Slovenija in Ljubljana, Slovenia and presented by Slovenian television presenter Tajda Lekše [sl].

The contest was organised with the purpose of reducing the number of competing countries in the Eurovision Song Contest as a result of increased interest in participation among countries following the fall of communist regimes in Europe and the formation of new countries due to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of both Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Three places in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May in Millstreet, Ireland, were provided for countries which had never taken part before, and seven countries ultimately sent entries to be performed and voted on in the televised contest in Slovenia.

One juror from each of the competing countries voted on the competing entries, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia were chosen to progress to the contest in Millstreet. A relegation system was introduced to the Eurovision Song Contest, which allowed new countries direct access to the contest in future editions to replace the lowest-scoring countries from the previous year’s event. Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, the countries which failed to progress through Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, subsequently made their contest debuts in 1994. This continued until the introduction of the semi-final in 2004.

Background[edit]

The Eurovision Song Contest is an internationally televised songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and featuring participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed by a chosen artist, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries’ songs to determine a winner.^[1] Originally held in 1956 with seven competing countries, the contest quickly began to grow as more countries became interested in participating, and by the early 1990s entries from over 20 countries were regularly featured in each year’s event.^[2][3][4]

By 1992 an increasing number of countries had begun expressing an interest in participating in the contest for the first time; this increase in interest was the result of many new countries being formed following the breakup of Yugoslavia and dissolution of the Soviet Union and as part of revolutions leading to the fall of communist regimes in Europe and across the world which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[5][6] To accommodate this new interest the EBU expanded the maximum number of participating countries for the 1993 contest to twenty-five, with entries from three new countries being joined by twenty-two of the twenty-three countries which had participated in the 1992 event, with Yugoslavia unable to participate after its EBU member broadcaster Jugoslovenska radiotelevizija (JRT) was disbanded in 1992 and its successor organisations Radio-televizija Srbije (RTS) and Radio-televizija Crne Gore (RTCG) were barred from joining the union due to sanctions placed against the country as part of the Yugoslav Wars.^[4][7][8]

In order to determine which countries would progress to the contest proper, a preselection round was held for the first time in the contest’s history, with the top three countries in this round progressing to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 held in Millstreet, Ireland. This contest, Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia and was produced by the Slovenian public broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO).^[5][6][7] Originally planned to be held in Portorož, the event was ultimately held in Studio 1 of Televizija Slovenija, with Edo Brzin serving as executive producer, Peter Juratovec serving as director, Jože Spacal serving as designer, and Petar Ugrin [sl] and Mojmir Sepe serving as musical directors and leading the RTVSLO Revue Orchestra [sl].^{[9][10][11][12][13]} A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to conduct the orchestra during their performance.^[14]

Participating countries[edit]

Initially broadcasters in as many as fourteen countries registered their interest in competing in the Eurovision Song Contest’s first preselection event, including broadcasters in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine.^[11][15][16] By February 1993 however the number of competing countries had dropped to six, comprising planned entries from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia. Subsequently Bulgaria’s planned entry did not materialise, however Estonia and Slovakia joined the contest, resulting in seven countries competing in total for the three spots available in Millstreet.^[6][12]

Participants of Kvalifikacija za Millstreet^[14][17][18]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Bosnia and Herzegovina	RTVBiH	Fazla	“Sva bol svijeta“	Bosnian	Dino Dervišhalidović Fahrudin Pecikoza	Esad Arnautalić
Croatia	HRT	Put	“Don’t Ever Cry”	Croatian, English	Andrej Baša Đorđe Novković	Andrej Baša
Estonia	ETV	Janika Sillamaa	“Muretut meelt ja südametuld“	Estonian	Leelo Tungal Andres Valkonen	Peeter Lilje
Hungary	MTV	Andrea Szulák	“Árva reggel“	Hungarian	Emese Hatvani György Jakab László Pásztor	Petar Ugrin
Romania	TVR	Dida Drăgan	“Nu pleca“	Romanian	Dida Drăgan Adrian Ordean	George Natsis
Slovakia	STV	Elán	“Amnestia na neveru“	Slovak	Ján Baláž Boris Filan Jozef Ráž	Vladimir Valovič
Slovenia	RTVSLO	1X Band	“Tih deževen dan“	Slovene	Tomaž Kosec Cole Moretti	Petar Ugrin

Contest overview[edit]

Kvalifikacija za Millstreet took place on 3 April 1993 and was presented by Tajda Lekše [sl].^[17]

The three countries which received the most votes once all countries had voted, and thus progressed to the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, were Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.^[5][7][17] As former constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, all three countries had previously been represented in the Eurovision Song Contest through entries sent by Yugoslavia.^[19] Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, which failed to progress through Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, made their contest debuts the following year, following the introduction of a relegation system for the 1994 contest which resulted in the seven lowest-scoring countries from the 1993 contest losing the right to participate in the following year’s event to make room for new countries.^[5][20]

Results of Kvalifikacija za Millstreet^[17][21]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Fazla	“Sva bol svijeta“	52	2
2	Croatia	Put	“Don’t Ever Cry”	51	3
3	Estonia	Janika Sillamaa	“Muretut meelt ja südametuld“	47	5
4	Hungary	Andrea Szulák	“Árva reggel“	44	6
5	Romania	Dida Drăgan	“Nu pleca“	38	7
6	Slovenia	1X Band	“Tih deževen dan“	54	1
7	Slovakia	Elán	“Amnestia na neveru“	50	4

Detailed voting results[edit]

Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. As telephone communications could not be relied upon to reach juries based in the competing countries, one juror from each country was sent to Slovenia in order to provide votes for their respective country. These jurors was based in the studio and announced their votes live and on camera during the voting segment. Each juror awarded twelve points to their favourite entry, followed by ten points to their second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to five for the remaining songs, excluding the entry from their own country.^[13][17] The respective jurors from each country and the detailed breakdown of the points awarded is listed in the tables below.^[10][17]

Jurors

Detailed voting results of Kvalifikacija za Millstreet^[17]

		Total score	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Croatia	Estonia	Hungary	Romania	Slovenia	Slovakia
Contestants	Bosnia and Herzegovina	52		5	8	10	10	7	12
	Croatia	51	10		6	12	7	8	8
	Estonia	47	6	8		8	6	12	7
	Hungary	44	7	6	12		8	6	5
	Romania	38	5	12	5	5		5	6
	Slovenia	54	8	7	10	7	12		10
	Slovakia	50	12	10	7	6	5	10

Broadcasts[edit]

The contest was broadcast via the EBU’s Eurovision network, with EBU member broadcasters able to relay the contest via their broadcast channels. Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.^[23] The broadcast was taken by all competing countries, as well as by broadcasters in Cyprus, Denmark, Portugal and Spain.^[6] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	RTVBiH	Unknown	Unknown	[6]
Croatia	HRT	HRT 1	Aleksandar Kostadinov	[13][24]
Estonia	ETV		Olavi Pihlamägi [et]	[13][25]
Hungary	MTV	MTV1	István Vágó	[13][26]
Romania	TVR	TVR 1	Unknown	[27]
Slovakia	STV	STV2	Unknown	[26]
Slovenia	RTVSLO	SLO 1 [sl]	Gregor Krajc	[13][28]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Denmark	DR[a]	DR TV	Unknown	[29]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest
Dates
Final	22 October 2005
Host
Venue	Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Presenter(s)	Katrina Leskanich Renārs Kaupers
Musical director	Michael Bojesen
Directed by	Lars Hammer
Executive supervisor	Svante Stockselius (EBU) Kjell Ekkolm (EBU) Søren Therkelsen (DR) Anders Kierulf (DR)
Executive producer	Jan Frifelt
Host broadcaster	EBU, DR
hide Participation map Countries that broadcast the show live and were allowed to vote     Countries that broadcast the show delayed and thus were not allowed to vote     Countries that participated at Eurovision in the past but did not broadcast or vote     Countries that hadn’t participated at Eurovision in the past but broadcast the show delayed
Vote
Voting system	Televoting and juries; each country awarded 1–8, 10, and 12 points to their ten favourite songs. In the second round, each country distributes 6 points and above to the best five songs from the first round.
Winning song	“Waterloo” by ABBA

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest‘s fiftieth anniversary and to determine the contest’s most popular entrant of its fifty years. Hosted by Katrina Leskanich and Renārs Kaupers, the event took place at Forum, in Copenhagen on 22 October 2005. The host was Danish broadcaster DR. Fourteen songs from the contest’s first half-century, chosen through an internet poll and by a jury, contested the event.^[1]

Thirty-one EBU-member countries broadcast the concert (although notably France, Italy and the United Kingdom did not) and televoting and juries in these countries decided the winner.^[2] A total of 2.5 million votes were cast during the live broadcast.^[3] The event was won by Swedish group ABBA, who did not attend, with the song “Waterloo“; the band had originally won the Contest for Sweden in 1974.^[4]

To coincide with the event, the EBU released two double album CDs featuring Eurovision songs from the previous fifty years. Two DVDs with original Eurovision performances of these songs were also released.^[5]

Organisation[edit]

In November 2002, Jürgen Meier-Beer from the Reference Group of the EBU announced plans to organize a special jubilee programme in 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. At the time no host broadcaster was announced, with German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and the Dutch broadcasting organization Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) reportedly as potential hosts.^[6]

Change of host broadcaster[edit]

In June 2004, the EBU announced that it was to hold a concert to celebrate fifty years of the contest. The event was to be held on 16 October 2005 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. The BBC was to be the host broadcaster for the concert.^[7] The Royal Albert Hall was reportedly unavailable, so in August 2004 the EBU announced that DR would stage the event instead. Eurovision Song Contest supervisor Svante Stockselius said that Denmark’s previous experience of hosting Eurovision events (the 2001 Contest and the first Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003) were influential in the Union’s choice. The event was codenamed Extravaganza.^[8]

1998 Eurovision winner Dana International, who appeared at the event, later went to suggest that the reason behind the change of host country was also due to the fact that the BBC wanted to present the show “with humour” as though to poke fun at the Contest, an idea that proved to be less popular with the EBU. The BBC ended up not broadcasting the show from Copenhagen,^[9] and went on to broadcast their own 50th anniversary programme, Boom Bang-a-Bang: 50 Years of Eurovision, in May 2006. The programme featured archive footage and highlights of past contests, along with a performance of that year’s UK entry by Daz Sampson and was hosted by Terry Wogan.^[10]

Selection of venue and hosts[edit]

On 25 October 2004 Copenhagen was confirmed as the host city for the event, which was now scheduled to take place on 22 October 2005.^[11] In May 2005 Congratulations was confirmed as the official name of the concert.^[12] A month later DR announced that Forum Copenhagen would host the programme.^[13] The chosen venue had previously hosted the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.^[14]

On 9 September 2005, DR announced that Katrina Leskanich and Renārs Kaupers would present the concert. Leskanich was the lead singer of Katrina and The Waves, who won the Contest for the United Kingdom in 1997. Kaupers is the lead singer of Latvian group Brainstorm, who represented Latvia on its debut in the Contest in 2000.^[15] Tickets for the event went on sale on 22 August 2005 from 10:00 (CET) and sold out in just over one hour.^[16] The event was attended by an audience of 6,000.^[17]

Participating songs[edit]

Fourteen songs competed in Congratulations.^[18] In May 2005, the EBU opened a poll on its website to decide ten songs that would contest the event.^[19] Voters chose their two favourite songs from each of five decades: 1956 to 1965, 1966 to 1975, 1976 to 1985, 1986 to 1995 and 1996 to 2005. The remaining four songs would be selected by the EBU’s Reference Group.^[1]

On 16 June 2005 the fourteen chosen songs were announced, although no indication was given as to which had been chosen online and which by the Reference Group.^[20] Eleven of the fourteen songs were Eurovision winners; only “Nel blu, dipinto di blu”, “Congratulations” and “Eres tú” (which all finished in the top three at the contest) were not. Two countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland, were represented twice on the list. Johnny Logan, who won the contest twice for Ireland as a singer, had both of his songs featured on the list.^[12]

First round[edit]

All 31 countries broadcasting the contest voted in the first round. The five songs that are marked in orange qualified to the second and final round.

Draw	Year	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
01	1968	United Kingdom	Cliff Richard	“Congratulations“	English	8	105
02	1980	Ireland	Johnny Logan	“What’s Another Year“	English	12	74
03	1998	Israel	Dana International	“Diva“	Hebrew	13	39
04	1973	Spain	Mocedades	“Eres tú“	Spanish	11	90
05	1982	Germany	Nicole	“Ein bißchen Frieden“	German	7	106
06	1958	Italy	Domenico Modugno	“Nel blu, dipinto di blu“	Italian	2	200
07	1974	Sweden	ABBA	“Waterloo“	English	1	331
08	2000	Denmark	Olsen Brothers	“Fly on the Wings of Love“	English	6	111
09	1965	Luxembourg	France Gall	“Poupée de cire, poupée de son“	French	14	37
10	2003	Turkey	Sertab Erener	“Everyway That I Can“	English	9	104
11	1988	Switzerland	Celine Dion	“Ne partez pas sans moi“	French	10	98
12	1987	Ireland	Johnny Logan	“Hold Me Now“	English	3	182
13	1976	United Kingdom	Brotherhood of Man	“Save Your Kisses for Me“	English	5	154
14	2005	Greece	Helena Paparizou	“My Number One“	English	4	167

Second round[edit]

All 31 countries broadcasting the contest voted in the second round.

Draw	Year	Country	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
01	1958	Italy	Domenico Modugno	“Nel blu, dipinto di blu“	Italian	2	267
02	1974	Sweden	ABBA	“Waterloo“	English	1	329
03	1987	Ireland	Johnny Logan	“Hold Me Now“	English	3	262
04	1976	United Kingdom	Brotherhood of Man	“Save Your Kisses for Me“	English	5	230
05	2005	Greece	Helena Paparizou	“My Number One“	English	4	245

Scoreboard[edit]

Both juries and televoting were used at Congratulations; both having an equal influence over the vote. In the first round of voting, the number of songs was reduced to five. Each country awarded points from one to eight, then ten and finally twelve for their ten most popular songs. Unlike in the Contest proper, viewers were allowed to vote for songs which had represented their country. The top five songs were then subjected to another round of voting, where only six points and above were awarded. The voting was conducted in private, and the results were not announced until after the show. The song with the most points in the second round was the winner.^[21]

The full scoreboard is as follows:^{[22][23][better source needed]}

First round[edit]

Voting results in the first round^[22]

		Total score	Andorra	Austria	Belgium	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Croatia	Cyprus	Denmark	Finland	Germany	Greece	Iceland	Ireland	Israel	Latvia	Lithuania	Macedonia	Malta	Monaco	Netherlands	Norway	Poland	Portugal	Romania	Russia	Serbia and Montenegro	Slovenia	Spain	Sweden	Switzerland	Turkey	Ukraine
Songs	“Congratulations”	105	8	10		1	5	8	6	1	2	3	5	5		5			10		3	4	7	2	4		1	1	2	7			5
	“What’s Another Year”	74	2		4			6	5	4	1	6		8			3	3	2	3	6	6		4	6						1	4
	“Diva”	39			3			1		3					12	2	2			1						6	2		3				4
	“Eres tú”	90	10		10	5			3	10	4				10			1			12			6				3	12			1	3
	“Ein bißchen Frieden”	106	1	3		2	3	3	4	5	3		8	6	2	7	7		1		4	5	5	7	3	1	3	8	4	4	4	3
	“Nel blu, dipinto di blu”	200	6	7	6	7	10	5		8	7	8	7	2	4	6	8	7	6	8		2	6	8	7	10	8	10	8	5	8	10	6
	“Waterloo”	331	12	12	12	8	12	10	12	12	12	7	10	10	8	12	12	8	8	12	10	12	12	12	8	12	12	12	10	12	10	8	12
	“Fly on the Wings of Love”	111	3	5	1		6		10		6		12	7		10	10	2	7	2		8	3		1	3		4		8	3
	“Poupée de cire, poupée de son”	37		8	8		1			2		1			3					7			1			2			1	1			2
	“Everyway That I Can”	104			2	10		2		6	8	4	4	3	7	1	1	4			8				5	5	5	2	5	3	7	12
	“Ne partez pas sans moi”	98	7	1		3	2		1			5	1	1	1	4		10	3	10	2	1	8	3		4	4			2	12	5	8
	“Hold Me Now”	182		4	5	6	8	7	7	7	10	10	2	12	5		4	12	12	5	7	10	2	5	10		10	7		6	6	2	1
	“Save Your Kisses for Me”	154	4	6		4	7	4	8			2	3		6	8	6	6	5	6	5	7	10	10	2	8	6	6	6		2	7	10
	“My Number One”	167	5	2	7	12	4	12	2		5	12	6	4		3	5	5	4	4	1	3	4	1	12	7	7	5	7	10	5	6	7

12 points[edit]

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded in the first round:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
18	“Waterloo”	Andorra,  Austria,  Belgium,  Croatia,  Denmark,  Finland,  Germany,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Monaco,  Norway,  Poland,  Portugal,  Russia,  Serbia and Montenegro,  Slovenia,  Sweden,  Ukraine
4	“My Number One”	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Cyprus,  Greece,  Romania
3	“Hold Me Now”	Ireland,  Macedonia,  Malta
2	“Eres tú”	Netherlands,  Spain
1	“Fly on the Wings of Love”	Iceland
	“Everyway That I Can”	Turkey
	“Ne partez pas sans moi”	Switzerland
	“Diva”	Israel

Second round[edit]

Voting results in the second round^[22]

		Total score	Andorra	Austria	Belgium	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Croatia	Cyprus	Denmark	Finland	Germany	Greece	Iceland	Ireland	Israel	Latvia	Lithuania	Macedonia	Malta	Monaco	Netherlands	Norway	Poland	Portugal	Romania	Russia	Serbia and Montenegro	Slovenia	Spain	Sweden	Switzerland	Turkey	Ukraine
Songs	“Nel blu, dipinto di blu”	267	10	10	8	10	8	7	6	10	12	8	10	7	7	8	12	8	8	10	6	6	8	8	7	10	7	10	10	7	10	12	7
	“Waterloo”	329	12	12	12	8	10	10	12	12	7	7	12	10	10	12	10	10	10	12	12	12	12	7	8	12	10	12	12	12	12	8	12
	“Hold Me Now”	262	6	7	10	7	12	8	10	8	8	10	8	12	8	6	6	12	12	7	10	10	6	12	12	6	8	8	6	8	7	6	6
	“Save Your Kisses for Me”	230	7	8	6	6	6	6	8	7	6	6	7	6	12	10	8	7	6	8	8	8	10	10	6	8	6	7	8	6	6	7	10
	“My Number One”	245	8	6	7	12	7	12	7	6	10	12	6	8	6	7	7	6	7	6	7	7	7	6	10	7	12	6	7	10	8	10	8

12 points[edit]

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded in the second round:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
17	“Waterloo”	Andorra,  Austria,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Finland,  Iceland,  Latvia,  Monaco,  Netherlands,  Norway,  Poland,  Russia,  Slovenia,  Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  Ukraine
6	“Hold Me Now”	Croatia,  Ireland,  Macedonia,  Malta,  Portugal,  Romania
4	“My Number One”	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Cyprus,  Greece,  Serbia and Montenegro
3	“Nel blu, dipinto di blu”	Germany,  Lithuania,  Turkey
1	“Save Your Kisses for Me”	Israel

Performances[edit]

The show started with the traditional Eurovision “Te Deum” theme followed by a message from Cliff Richard. After a quick montage of all 14 songs, the orchestra began playing “Ding-a-Dong” (Netherlands 1975), with dancers on stage. “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” (Israel 1978), “Le dernier qui a parlé…” (France 1991), and “Dschinghis Khan” (Germany 1979) was also played and accompanied by choreography, which was then followed by “Love Shine a Light” (UK 1997) sung by the co-host, Katrina Leskanich, who came out with flag holders of all the countries that have participated in Eurovision up to that point.

Throughout the telecast, a number of highlights segments were presented which showed montages of various Eurovision performances which were either interesting, notable or unorthodox. There were 6 assortments, which were under the categories described by the hosts as ‘past winners’, ‘political, daring, larger than life’, ‘cute men’, ‘unforgettable interpretation of dance’, ‘girlpower’ and ‘close/narrow second-place finishers’. A number of former Eurovision artists returned to help introduce and present the show, inlcuding Carola Häggkvist, Massiel, Dana International, Birthe Wilke, Anne-Marie David, Sandra Kim, Elisabeth Andreassen, Hanne Krogh, Olsen Brothers, Emilija Kokić, Marie Myriam, Sertab Erener, Helena Paparizou, Nicole and Hugo, Cheryl Baker and Lys Assia. Cliff Richard and Nicole gave pre-recorded messages as they were unable to attend.

During the show, there were many presentations by various guest artists during the voting and tallying period. These consisted of the Finnish shouting choir Mieskuoro Huutajat, Riverdance (the 1994 interval act), Ronan Keating (the 1997 co-host), and Johnny Logan, singing his new single “When a Woman Loves a Man”, as well as an appearance by the Belgian duo of 1973, Nicole and Hugo.

There were three medleys, consisting of performances of past Eurovision songs. The first consisted of : Dana International, singing “Parlez-vous Francais” (originally performed by Baccara for Luxembourg in Eurovision Song Contest 1978); Carola Haggkvist, singing “Främling” (1983, 3rd place); Alsou, singing “Solo” (2000, 2nd); Fabrizio Faniello, singing “Another Summer Night” (2001, 9th); Marie Myriam, singing “L’amour est bleu” (originally performed by Vicky Leandros for Luxembourg in 1967); Richard Herrey, singing “Let Me Be the One” (originally performed by The Shadows for United Kingdom in 1975); and Thomas Thordarson, singing “Vi maler byen rød” (originally performed by Birthe Kjær for Denmark in 1989).

The second consisted of: Gali Atari, singing “Hallelujah” (1979, winner); Bobbysocks!, singing “La det swinge” (1985, winner); Anne-Marie David, singing “Après toi” (originally sung by Vicky Leandros for Luxembourg in 1972, winner); Lys Assia, singing “Refrain” (1956, winner), Sandra Kim singing “Non ho l’età” (originally sung by Gigliola Cinquetti for Italy in 1964, winner) and Bucks Fizz singing “Making Your Mind Up” (1981, winner).

The final medley was sung by Eimear Quinn, Charlie McGettigan, Jakob Sveistrup and Linda Martin, the Eurovision winners of 1996, 1994 and 1992, and (in Sveistrup’s case), the 2005 Danish representative. All four acted as backup singers during the show. They were also joined by the Olsen Brothers for a brief, Eurovision-themed version of their song “Walk Right Back”.

Medleys[edit]

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Opening medley

Winners of Eurovision

Unforgettable performances

Men in Eurovision

Dancing in Eurovision

Women in Eurovision

Eurovision favourites

Eurovision winners medley

Second places

Medley “backing vocals”

Broadcasts[edit]

A total of thirty-five countries broadcast the event, but only thirty-one participated in the voting.

Broadcasters and commentators in voting countries^[2]

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Andorra	RTVA	ATV	Unknown
Austria	ORF	ORF 2[a]	Elisabeth Engstler [de] and Christian Ludwig	[24][25]
Belgium	VRT	Eén	Unknown	[26][27]
	RTBF	La Une, RTBF Sat	Jean-Pierre Hautier	[26][28][29]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	PBSBiH	Unknown	Unknown
Croatia	HRT	HRT 1	Unknown	[30]
Cyprus	RIK	Unknown	Unknown
Denmark	DR	DR1	Nicolai Molbech	[31][32]
Finland	YLE	YLE TV2	Jaana Pelkonen and Heikki Seppälä [fi]	[33]
		YLE Radio Suomi	Sanna Kojo
		YLE Radio Vega	Hans Johansson
Germany	ARD	Südwest Fernsehen, WDR Fernsehen	Unknown	[25][29][34]
Greece	ERT	NET	Elizabeth Filippouli	[35]
Iceland	RÚV	Sjónvarpið	Unknown	[36]
Ireland	RTÉ	RTÉ Two	Marty Whelan	[37][38]
Israel	IBA	Unknown	Unknown
Latvia	LTV	LTV1	Unknown	[39]
Lithuania	LRT	Unknown	Unknown
Macedonia	MRT	Unknown	Unknown
Malta	PBS	TVM	Tony Micallef	[40]
Monaco	TMC Monte Carlo		Bernard Montiel [fr] and Yves Lecoq	[29]
Netherlands	NPO	Nederland 2	Willem van Beusekom	[26][41]
Norway	NRK	NRK1	Jostein Pedersen	[31]
Poland	TVP	TVP1	Unknown	[42]
Portugal	RTP	RTP1	Unknown	[43]
Romania	TVR	Unknown	Unknown
Russia	Channel One		Unknown	[44]
Serbia and Montenegro	RTS	Unknown	Unknown
	RTCG	Unknown	Unknown
Slovenia	RTV SLO	SLO 1 [sl]	Mojca Mavec [sl]	[30][45]
Spain	TVE	La Primera	José María Íñigo and Beatriz Pécker [es]	[46]
Sweden	SVT	SVT1	Pekka Heino	[31][47]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	SF 1	Unknown	[25][29][48]
		TSR 1	Jean-Marc Richard
		TSI 1	Unknown
Turkey	TRT	TRT 1	Unknown	[49]
Ukraine	NTU	Pershyi Natsionalnyi	Unknown	[50]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-voting countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Albania	RTSH	Unknown	Unknown	[51]
Armenia	AMPTV	Unknown	Unknown	[51]
Australia	SBS	SBS TV[b]	Marty Whelan	[51][52]
Hungary	MR	Petőfi Rádió [hu][c]	Erzsébet Jeney [hu]	[53]
Kosovo	RTK	RTK	Unknown	[51]

Viewing figures[edit]

Estimated viewership by country (in millions)^[54]

Country	Viewership
Austria	0.80
Belgium	1 (VRT)
Cyprus	0.07
Denmark	1.42
Finland	0.44
Germany	0.63 (SWR, WDR)
Netherlands	1.2
Norway	0.97
Poland	3.2
Portugal	0.85
Spain	2.83
Sweden	2

Non-participating countries[edit]

Countries that have previously competed but were not involved with the broadcast or voting of the contest;

The BBC (UK), RAI (Italy) and France Télévisions chose not to broadcast the event. Søren Therkelsen, the commissioning editor of the event, said he was “disappointed” at the broadcasters’ decision not to transmit the show.^[55] The BBC chose not to carry the event as it was “too remote” for British audiences.^[17]

Official album[edit]

To coincide with the broadcast of the programme, an official compilation album for the 50th anniversary titled The Very Best of the Eurovision Song Contest (also known as Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest),^[56] was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by CMC International on 21 October 2005.^[57] The compilation featured over 100 songs, including all Eurovision Song Contest winners from 1956 until 2005 and a selection of all-time favourites, that was divided into 2 separate double CDs: 1956–1980 and 1981–2005. The 22-page booklet includes information about the entries, contestants and venues.^[58]

Notes[edit]

Eurovision Song Contest’s Greatest Hits
Dates
Final	31 March 2015
Host
Venue	Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Petra Mede Graham Norton
Musical director	David Arch
Directed by	Geoff Posner
Executive supervisor	Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer	Guy Freeman
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Participants
Number of entries	21 songs from 15 artists
hide Participation map