Finalist countries Countries eliminated in the semi-final Countries that did not participate but were allowed to vote Countries that participated in the past but not in 2006
Vote
Voting system
Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
The winner wasFinland with the heavy metal-song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", performed byLordi and written by lead singerMr. Lordi. 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 everhard rock song to win the contest, as well as the first band to win since1997.Russia,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Romania, andSweden 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" countriesGermany placed the highest, finishing joint fourteenth (withNorway).
Location of host venue (red) and other contest-related sites and events (blue)
The contest took place inAthens, Greece, following the country's victory at the 2005 edition. It was the first time Greece hosted the contest.[2]The venue that was chosen as the host venue was theOlympic Indoor Hall, which is located in theAthens Olympic Sports Complex, in the capital city of Greece. Completed in 1995, it was the largest indoor venue used at the2004 Summer Olympics when hosted gymnastics and the basketball finals and the2004 Summer Paralympics when hosted the wheelchair basketball.[3]
Locations of the candidate cities: the chosen host city is marked in blue, while the eliminated cities are marked in red.
When Greece won the 2005 contest, the Head of the Greek Delegation, Fotini Yiannoulatou, said that theHellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) was ready to host the event inAthens the next year. However, multiple cities bid to host the 2006 contest, includingThessaloniki andPatras, 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: the Olympic Indoor Hall for Athens,Pylea Sports Hall for Thessaloniki andDimitris Tofalos Arena for Patras.[4][5]
A few days after Greece's win, 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.[4] 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 andEuropean Broadcasting Union (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.[6]
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 theZappeion, it was open from 15 to 21 May 2006.[7][8]
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 atAthens Technopolis, an industrial museum and a major cultural venue of the city.[7]
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 Zappeion on 15 May 2006 at 21:00EET, followed by the Opening Ceremony.[7]
This section contains numerous links to pages onforeign language Wikipedias. They are shown asred links with the language codes in [small blue letters] in brackets. Click on the language code to see the page in that language.
Eurovision Song Contest 2006 – Participation summaries by country
All participating broadcaters in the Eurovision Song Contest must beactive members of the EBU. On 16 January 2006, the EBU announced that the broadcasters from thirty-eight countries would participate in the 2006 contest,[9] with the broadcaster from Austria opting not to participate due to the bad result at the previous contest,[10] and the one from Hungary also deciding not to participate due to financial reasons.[11] Armenia participated for the very first time in the history of the contest.[12]
On 15 March 2006, the participating broadcaster fromSerbia and Montenegro announced its withdrawal, reducing the participants number from 38 to 37 and leaving a vacancy in the final; however, the country retained its rights to vote in the contest.[13][14]
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 was presented to the public through a press conference that was held on 1 November 2005, at the King George Hotel in Athens, while it was created by the design company Karamela for ERT and was apparently based on thePhaistos Disc which is a popular symbol ofancient Greece.[23] According to ERT, it was "inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden sunlight and the glow of the sand".[23] Following2004's "Under The Same Sky" and2005's "Awakening", the slogan for 2006 was "Feel The Rhythm". This theme was also the basis for the postcards in 2006, which emphasized Greece's historical significance as well as being a major modern tourist destination.[24]
In addition to the graphic design, there was a theme music for the contest composed by Nikko Patrelakis, which was used in the intros and in-between commercial breaks, as well as besides the participating entries. The theme music package was conducted by Andreas Pylarinos, while the ERT Symphony Orchestra recorded all music used during the show.[25]
As with the 2005 edition, the shows were broadcast inwidescreen16:9 format instandard-definition. The shows were also filmed (but not broadcast) inhigh-definition, as part of a research experiment carried by the EBU, host broadcaster ERT, theInstitute for Broadcasting Technology in Munich, theresearch and development laboratories [it] ofRAI and the BBC. This was done to test high-definition television and to gather "artistic and scientific knowledge" for future contests, but the HD footage was never intended to be used as part of the original broadcast.[26] The first edition produced and broadcast in high-definition was thesubsequent contest in 2007.[26]
On 31 July 2021, the HDTV raw footage of the 2006 contest was broadcast for the first time, as part of theEurovisionAgain series, on the Eurovision YouTube channel.[26][27]
ERT announced that the British companyStage One has been appointed to build the set for the contest.Stage One had designed the sets for theOpening andClosing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics. The broadcaster have announced that the concept will be rich with traditional Greek elements, paying homage to the country's history and culture.[28][29] The stage for the contest was designed by Greek stage designer Elias Ledakis. He would go on to design the stage for theJunior Eurovision Song Contest 2013 inKyiv, Ukraine.[30] The stage was a replica of an ancient Greek amphitheatre.[31]
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 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.[32]
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 spokespersonPaul de Leeuw also caused problems, giving hismobile number to presenter Rouvas during the Dutch results, and slowing down proceedings, also by announcing the first seven points.Constantinos Christoforou (who representedCyprus in 1996,in 2002, andin 2005) saluted from "Nicosia, the lastdivided 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 thePrespa 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").
After Greece's win, several websites claimed to know thatAlexandra Pascalidou would be co-host the 2006 contest, together with theGreek-French journalist and entertainerNikos Aliagas, but these speculations were untrue.[33][34]
Initially, ERT askedSakis Rouvas to represent again Greece inAthens, 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.
Menounos and Rouvas also hosted the allocation draw on 21 March 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.[36][37] The "Welcome to the Party" opening ceremony was hosted by actressZeta Makrypoulia and actor/screenwriter of the show,Giorgos Kapoutzidis, while Ioanna Papanikolopoulou was moderating the press conferences.
The top ten of the 2005 contest, who automatically qualify.
The "Big Four" countries, who automatically qualify.
The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 22:00EEST (21:00CEST). 23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia[38][39] (as a part of Serbia and Montenegro) voted. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.
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" by the host Sakis Rouvas. A folkloric ballet composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and choreographed byFokas Evangelinos followed, using traditional Greek music and dances, with the pan flute as a conducting element.
Qualifiers
Results of the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006[40]
the top 10 countries from the2005 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 22:00EEST (21:00CEST). and was won by Finland. 24 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia[38][39] (as a part of Serbia and Montenegro) voted.
The grand final opened with a ballet dance, symbolizing the birth of Greece. The 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 performed her winning song, "My Number One".
The interval act of the final featured Helena Paparizou performed her song "Mambo!", already a smash hit in Greece, and a contemporary ballet composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos entitled4000 Years of Greek Song and which traced the history of the musical culture of the host country.
Finland won with 292 points. Russia came second with 248 points, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Sweden, Lithuania, Ukraine, Armenia, Greece and Ireland completing the top ten. Moldova, Spain, France, Israel and Malta occupied the bottom five positions.
Winner
Results of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006[41]
The following people were the spokespersons for their countries. A spokesperson delivers the results of national televoting during the final night, awarding points to the entries on behalf of his or her country.[42] Although Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from the contest, it retained its voting rights.[40] A draw was held to determine each country's voting order. Countries revealed their votes in the following order:
Televoting was used in all nations except Monaco and Albania. Monaco used a jury as the chances of getting enough votes needed to validate the votes were low. Albania used a jury since there were problems with their televote. In the semi-final, Monaco and Albania used the jury voting due to insufficient televoting numbers. Coincidentally, Albania and Monaco were two of the three countries that did not vote for the winning entry, the third one was Armenia.
Serbia had been allowed to vote in the two shows, despite not competing, and despite not being an independent country, but a part of Serbia and Montenegro.[38]
All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing an insight about the show to their local audience and, while they must broadcast at least the semi-final they are voting in and the final, most broadcasters air all three shows with different programming plans. Similarly, some non-participating broadcasters may still want to air the contest. The tables below show known data regarding the broadcasts:
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries[16]
Australia – Although Australia was not itself eligible to enter, the semi-final and final were broadcast onSBS, and took commentary from the BBC broadcast. As is the case each year, they were not however broadcast live due to the difference in Australian time zones. The final rated an estimated 462,000, and was ranked 21st of the broadcaster's top rating programs for the 2005/06 financial year.[123]
Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan were willing to enter the contest but sinceAzTV applied for active EBU membership but was denied on June 18, 2007, they missed the contest and had to wait until they were accepted. Another Azerbaijan broadcaster,İctimai, broadcast the contest. It was a passive EBU member, and had broadcast it for the last 2 years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest.[117]
Italy – Italy did not enter becauseRAI, the national broadcaster, is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and they believed that the Eurovision Song Contest would not be a popular show in Italy. They had not broadcast the contest in recent years, although an independent Italian channel for the gay community had shown it in 2003.[124] Italy eventually rejoined in2011, and has since enjoyed an upturn in fortunes.
Serbia – Serbia and Montenegro was originally set to compete in 2006, before withdrawing after being unable to select an entry following a controversy at its national final. Despite this, Serbia's broadcasterRTS retained broadcasting rights, and viewers in Serbia were allowed to vote in both the semi-final and the final.[38]
After the contest, EBU officials stated that the overall ratings for the semi-final were 35% higher than in 2005, and for the Final had risen by 28%.[125]
In France, average market shares reached 30.3%, up by 8% over the 2005 figure. Other countries that showed a rise in average market shares included Germany with 38% (up from 29%), United Kingdom with 37.5% (up from 36%), Spain with 36% (up from 35%), Ireland with 58% (up from 35%) and Sweden, which reached over 80% compared to 57% the year previously.[125]
Voting revenues had also risen from the previous contest, and the official Eurovision website, www.eurovision.tv, reported visits from over 200 countries and over 98 million page views, compared with 85 million in 2005.
ERT's net income from the Eurovision event amounted to €7.28 million, while the cost of the entire event reached €5.5 million, said on Thursday in a press conference the president of ERT, Christos Panagopoulos and the authorized consultant George Chouliaras, who stated:"The allegations about the waste of money of the Greek taxpayer do not apply. The Greek people did not pay a penny for the event. It was a commercial and profitable event and the money we spent was donor money".[125][126]
According to G. Chouliaras, the revenues that ERT had from the event were €3.63 million from national sponsors, €2.2 million from tickets and €1.45 million from the share of international sponsors, advertising revenues outside sponsorships, sms, etc.[125][126]
Regarding the costs paid by ERT for the event together with the EBU, it amounted to a total of €9 million, of which €5.5 million were paid by ERT and €3.5 million by the EBU. These costs include the costs for the television production, the production of the artistic program, the technical production, the payment of contributions, the organization of the competition and any other direct costs related to the organization of Eurovision 2006. It is also noted that ERT paid for the production of 47 commercials and their promotion during the semifinals and the final €3.5 million.[125][126]
The president of ERT, Christos Panagopoulos, clarified, however, that the total cost does not include the shows that started in February for the advertising support of the event, for which he estimated that their cost will not exceed €1 million. He stated that in essence the net profit of ERT amounts to €745,000, which will be allocated for other cultural events.[125]
It was also clarified that ERT did not pay anything to Anna Vissi, nor toNikos Karvelas, as well as did not pay for the dress of Anna Vissi. Chouliaras stressed that all the participants in the event were paid at market prices and in particularZeta Makrypoulia andGiorgos Kapoutzidis received €8–10,000 per month for their four-month employment, Sakis Rouvas €50,000 and Maria Menounos €45,000.[125][126]
It was also clarified that the costs of the "promotour" of Anna Vissi are included in the total cost and that from these the transfers were covered byOlympic Airlines and the hotels, the cost of which amounted to €150,000, by the sponsors.[125]
Regarding the future, Giorgos Chouliaras noted that "ERT should have a dynamic participation in the next Eurovision Song Contests and not devalue the institution, since it is a television product watched by 3.5 million Greeks".[125]
TheMarcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representativeChrister Björkman, and 1984 winnerRichard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final.[127] The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award which was voted byprevious winners of the contest, Composer Award, and Press Award.[128]
TheBarbara Dex Award was a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named afterBelgium'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 by the fansite songfestival.be from 2017 to 2021.
Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006 was the official compilation album of the 2006 contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released byCMC International on 28 April 2006. The album featured all 37 songs that entered in the 2006 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.[129]
^ab"Eurovision 2006" (in French). European Broadcasting Union. 15 January 2006. Archived fromthe original on 28 September 2006. Retrieved3 February 2023.
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^"Eurovisiooni 51. lauluvõistlus".Koit Nädal (in Estonian).Põlva, Estonia. 13 May 2006. p. 2.Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved2 February 2023 – via DIGAR Eesti artiklid.
^"EUROVISION SONG CONTEST ATHENS 2006".CL Productions (in Greek).Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved31 March 2023.[...]η τηλεθέαση "άγγιξε" κατά μέσο όρο το 82.2% που αποτελεί νέο ρεκόρ για το κανάλι της ΝΕΤ. [[...]the viewership reached an average of 82.2%, which is a new record for NET channel]
^"Ελλάδα: Διευθύντρια στο "Δεύτερο Πρόγραμμα της ΕΡΑ" η Μαρία Κοζάκου!".Eurovision Fun (in Greek). 9 July 2020.Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved1 April 2023.Ακόμη έχει σχολιάσει το διαγωνισμό τραγουδιού της Eurovision τρεις φορές για τη Δημόσια Ραδιοφωνία (2006,2008,2010)[...] [She has even commented the Eurovision song contest three times for Public Radio (2006,2008,2010)[...]]
^Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006).Melodifestivalen genom tiderna : de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp. 348–349.ISBN91-89136-29-2.
