Eurovision Song Contest 2006

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Athens, Greece, following Helena Paparizou's win at the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine with the song "My Number One". It was the first time Greece had hosted the contest - 32 years after the country made its debut. 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 the final on 20 May 2006. The two live shows were hosted by Maria Menounos and Sakis Rouvas.[2]

Eurovision Song Contest 2006
Feel The Rhythm
Dates
Semi-final18 May 2006 (2006-05-18)
Grand final20 May 2006 (2006-05-20)
Host
VenueNikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall
Athens, Greece
Presenter(s)
Directed byVolker Weicker
Executive supervisorSvante Stockselius
Executive producerFotini Yannoulatou
Host broadcasterHellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT)
Opening act
  • Semi-final: Eurovision medley performed by Greek gods and goddesses;
  • "Love Shine a Light" performed by Sakis Rouvas and Maria Menounos
  • Final: "The Mermaid Song" performed by Foteini Darra accompanied by Greek dancers;
  • "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou
Interval act
  • Semi-final: 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)
  • Final: "Mambo!" performed by Helena Paparizou;
  • 4000 Years of Greek Song (composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou, choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos);
  • Nana Mouskouri[1]
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/athens-2006
Participants
Number of entries37
Debuting countries Armenia
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countries
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 point(s) to their 10 favourite songs
Nul pointsNone
Winning song

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 of this, the nation did retain voting rights for the contest.

The winner was Finland with the 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. It was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, and Lordi was 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. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official fan book released from this year, and every year to come with detailed information of every country.

Location

The contest took place in Athens, Greece, following the country's victory at the 2006 edition with the song "My Number One", performed by Helena Paparizou. It was the first time Greece hosted the contest.[3]

Venue

Olympic Indoor Hall, Athens - host venue of the 2006 contest.

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 whelchair basketball.[4]

Bidding phase

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 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.[5][6]

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.[5] 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.[7]

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.[8][9]

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.[8]

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.[8]

Format

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.[10]

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.[11]

Voting

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,[12] 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").

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.[13]

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 will 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.[14]

Menounos and Rouvas, will also host 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.[15][16]

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.[17]

Opening and interval acts

Nana Mouskouri was appeared as a guest in the grand final.

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 Luxembourgise entrant at the 1963 Contest, Nana Mouskouri.

Returning artists

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Anna Vissi  Greece 1980 (for  Greece) and 1982 (for  Cyprus)
Carola  Sweden 1983 and 1991
Eddie Butler  Israel 1999 (as a member of Eden)
Fabrizio Faniello  Malta 2001
Ich Troje  Poland 2003
Victor Diawara (part of LT United)  Lithuania 2001 (as a member of Skamp)

Additionally, Hari Mata Hari were selected to represented 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. Sigga, who represented Iceland on three different occasions (1990, as a member of Stjórnin; 1992, as a member of Heart 2 Heart; and 1994, as a solo artist), appeared as a backing vocalist for Silvia Night. 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.

Participating countries

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

The EBU initially announced on 16 January 2006 that thirty-eight countries would participate in the contest,[18] with Austria opting not to participate due to the bad result at the previous contest[19] and Hungary also deciding not to participate due to financial reasons.[20] Armenia participated for the very first time in the history of the contest.[21]

Serbia and Montenegro announced its withdrawal on 15 March 2006, reducing the participants number from 38 to 37.[22]

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.

Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final

Draw Country Artist Song Language[23] Place Points
01  Armenia André "Without Your Love" English 6 150
02  Bulgaria Mariana Popova "Let Me Cry" English 17 36
03  Slovenia Anžej Dežan "Mr Nobody" English 16 49
04  Andorra Jenny "Sense tu" Catalan 23 8
05  Belarus Polina Smolova "Mum" English 22 10
06  Albania Luiz Ejlli "Zjarr e ftohtë" Albanian 14 58
07  Belgium Kate Ryan "Je t'adore" English 12 69
08  Ireland Brian Kennedy "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" English 9 79
09  Cyprus Annet Artani "Why Angels Cry" English 15 57
10  Monaco Séverine Ferrer "La Coco-Dance" French, Tahitian 21 14
11  Macedonia Elena Risteska "Ninanajna" (Нинанајна) English, Macedonian 10 76
12  Poland Ich Troje feat. Real McCoy "Follow My Heart" English, Polish, German, Russian1 11 70
13  Russia Dima Bilan "Never Let You Go" English 3 217
14  Turkey Sibel Tüzün "Süper Star" Turkish3 8 91
15  Ukraine Tina Karol "Show Me Your Love" English 7 146
16  Finland Lordi "Hard Rock Hallelujah" English 1 292
17  Netherlands Treble "Amambanda" English, Imaginary 20 22
18  Lithuania LT United "We Are the Winners" English2 5 163
19  Portugal Nonstop "Coisas de nada" Portuguese, English 19 26
20  Sweden Carola "Invincible" English 4 214
21  Estonia Sandra Oxenryd "Through My Window" English 18 28
22  Bosnia and Herzegovina Hari Mata Hari "Lejla" Bosnian 2 267
23  Iceland Silvia Night "Congratulations" English 13 62

Notes

1.^ The song also contains phrases in Spanish.
2.^ The song also contains phrases in French.
3.^ The songs was performed entirely in Turkish in the semi-final, and with an English chorus in the final.

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);
  • 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.

Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Final.

Draw Country Artist Song Language[23] Place Points
01   Switzerland six4one "If We All Give a Little" English 16 30
02  Moldova Arsenium and Natalia Gordienko[24] "Loca" English4 20 22
03  Israel Eddie Butler "Together We Are One" Hebrew, English 23 4
04  Latvia Vocal Group Cosmos "I Hear Your Heart" English 16 30
05  Norway Christine Guldbrandsen "Alvedansen" Norwegian 14 36
06  Spain Las Ketchup "Un Blodymary" Spanish 21 18
07  Malta Fabrizio Faniello "I Do" English 24 1
08  Germany Texas Lightning "No No Never" English 14 36
09  Denmark Sidsel Ben Semmane "Twist of Love" English 18 26
10  Russia Dima Bilan "Never Let You Go" English 2 248
11  Macedonia Elena Risteska "Ninanajna" (Нинанајна) English, Macedonian 12 56
12  Romania Mihai Trăistariu "Tornerò" English, Italian 4 172
13  Bosnia and Herzegovina Hari Mata Hari "Lejla" Bosnian 3 229
14  Lithuania LT United "We Are the Winners" English2 6 162
15  United Kingdom Daz Sampson "Teenage Life" English 19 25
16  Greece Anna Vissi "Everything" English 9 128
17  Finland Lordi "Hard Rock Hallelujah" English 1 292
18  Ukraine Tina Karol "Show Me Your Love" English 7 145
19  France Virginie Pouchain "Il était temps" French 22 5
20  Croatia Severina "Moja štikla" Croatian 12 56
21  Ireland Brian Kennedy "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" English 10 93
22  Sweden Carola "Invincible" English 5 170
23  Turkey Sibel Tüzün "Süper Star" Turkish, English3 11 91
24  Armenia André "Without Your Love" English 8 129

Notes

3.^ The songs was performed entirely in Turkish in the semi-final, and with an English chorus in the final.
4.^ The song also contains words in Spanish.

Voting during the final and spokespersons

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.[25] A draw was held to determine each country's voting order. Countries revealed their votes in the following order:

  1.  SloveniaPeter Poles
  2.  AndorraXavi Palma
  3.  RomaniaAndreea Marin Bănică (Presenter of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006)
  4.  DenmarkJørgen de Mylius
  5.  LatviaMārtiņš Freimanis (Latvian singer in the 2003 Contest as part of F.L.Y.)
  6.  PortugalCristina Alves
  7.  SwedenJovan Radomir
  8.  FinlandNina Tapio
  9.  BelgiumYasmine (Hilde Rens)
  10.  CroatiaMila Horvat
  11.  Serbia and MontenegroJovana Janković (later co-presenter of the 2008 Contest)
  12.  NorwayIngvild Helljesen
  13.  EstoniaEvelin Samuel (Estonian singer in the 1999 Contest and veteran of several 1990s Eurolauls)
  14.  IrelandEimear Quinn (Irish winner of the 1996 Contest)
  15.  MaltaMoira Delia (Presenter of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014)
  16.  LithuaniaLavija Šurnaitė
  17.  CyprusConstantinos Christoforou (Cypriot singer in the 1996, 2002 and 2005 Contests)
  18.  NetherlandsPaul de Leeuw
  19.   SwitzerlandJubaira Bachmann
  20.  UkraineIgor Posypaiko
  21.  RussiaYana Churikova
  22.  PolandMaciej Orłoś
  23.  United KingdomFearne Cotton
  24.  ArmeniaGohar Gasparyan (Co-presenter of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011)
  25.  FranceSophie Jovillard
  26.  BelarusCorrianna
  27.  GermanyThomas Hermanns
  28.  SpainSonia Ferrer
  29.  MoldovaSvetlana Cocoş
  30.  Bosnia and HerzegovinaVesna Andree-Zaimović
  31.  IcelandRagnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir
  32.  MonacoÉglantine Eméyé
  33.  IsraelDana Herman
  34.  AlbaniaLeon Menkshi
  35.  GreeceAlexis Kostalas
  36.  BulgariaDragomir Simeonov
  37.  MacedoniaMartin Vučić (Macedonian singer in the 2005 Contest)
  38.  TurkeyMeltem Yazgan

Although Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from the contest, it retained its voting rights.

Score sheet

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.

Semi-final

Voting procedure used:
  100% Televoting
  100% Jury vote
Televoting results
Total score
Slovenia
Andorra
Romania
Denmark
Latvia
Portugal
Sweden
Finland
Belgium
Croatia
Serbia and Montenegro
Norway
Estonia
Ireland
Malta
Lithuania
Cyprus
Netherlands
Switzerland
Ukraine
Russia
Poland
United Kingdom
Armenia
France
Belarus
Germany
Spain
Moldova
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Iceland
Monaco
Israel
Albania
Greece
Bulgaria
Macedonia
Turkey
Contestants
Armenia15023121212371233127712210310810
Bulgaria3618458361
Slovenia49167522273473
Andorra88
Belarus10163
Albania58127310221357123
Belgium6957325335721743246
Ireland793544143166643212812751
Cyprus5744137712104122
Monaco143218
Macedonia768181068101258
Poland7031271821051324644322
Russia21744711277623641048121011281212512461251254
Turkey9110681108108123618
Ukraine14626861022543366106101031035284327
Finland2921010510881210108812101010765681212581210581278776
Netherlands2224134125
Lithuania1636534105487535812455410106162841642
Portugal261277
Sweden2147861251210544107812524443766547761086541
Estonia28278515
Bosnia and Herzegovina267121128261012612121216235812875456310187121106101012
Iceland627136712752751611
The table is ordered by appearance in the semi-final, then by pre-determined voting order.

12 points

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

N.ContestantVoting nation
9Bosnia and HerzegovinaCroatia, Finland, Monaco, Norway, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey
8RussiaArmenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine
6
ArmeniaBelgium, Cyprus, France, Netherlands, Russia, Spain
FinlandEstonia, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom
3SwedenDenmark, Malta, Portugal
1
AlbaniaMacedonia
CyprusGreece
LithuaniaIreland
MacedoniaAlbania
PortugalAndorra
TurkeyBosnia and Herzegovina

Final

Voting procedure used:
  100% Televoting
  100% Jury vote
Televoting results
Total score
Slovenia
Andorra
Romania
Denmark
Latvia
Portugal
Sweden
Finland
Belgium
Croatia
Serbia and Montenegro
Norway
Estonia
Ireland
Malta
Lithuania
Cyprus
Netherlands
Switzerland
Ukraine
Russia
Poland
United Kingdom
Armenia
France
Belarus
Germany
Spain
Moldova
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Iceland
Monaco
Israel
Albania
Greece
Bulgaria
Macedonia
Turkey
Contestants
Switzerland301123464
Moldova221233211
Israel44
Latvia303484128
Norway36162537113412
Spain18126
Malta11
Germany363311337555
Denmark2683618
Russia248 4682127712375310551282121011221267106512481085
Macedonia56688478366
Romania17253621066254446101101143647351212221027223
Bosnia and Herzegovina2291278210106121282428121064564715312212671212
Lithuania1623771043846358121465581061441073413
United Kingdom252411228311
Greece12811041106831255785281181274
Finland292810412861281071212107105787812128710106712712567
Ukraine145253512124251276110610103856265358
France523
Croatia56101062124102
Ireland93142545542764643228314110
Sweden1707851078753110776526274635623755101
Turkey91671210312121017344
Armenia12911227108125108387810810
The table is ordered by appearance in the final, then by pre-determined voting order.

12 points

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

N.ContestantVoting nation
8 Bosnia and HerzegovinaAlbania, Croatia, Macedonia, Monaco, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey
FinlandDenmark, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom
7RussiaArmenia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine
3TurkeyFrance, Germany, Netherlands
2 ArmeniaBelgium, Russia
GreeceCyprus, Bulgaria
RomaniaMoldova, Spain
1 CroatiaBosnia and Herzegovina
LithuaniaIreland
MoldovaRomania
SpainAndorra
SwitzerlandMalta
UkrainePortugal

Other Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest and current Head of Delegation for Sweden) and Richard Herrey (member of the Herreys, Eurovision Song Contest 1984 winner from Sweden), the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon.[26] The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Composer Award.[27]

Category Country Song Performer(s) Composer(s) Final result Points
Artists Award
(Voted by previous winners)
 Sweden "Invincible" Carola Thomas G:son, Bobby Ljunggren,
Henrik Wikström, Carola
5th 170
Composer Award  Bosnia and Herzegovina "Lejla" Hari Mata Hari Željko Joksimović,
Fahrudin Pecikoza, Dejan Ivanović
3rd 229
Press Award  Finland "Hard Rock Hallelujah" Lordi Mr. Lordi 1st 292

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award has been annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision since 1997, and is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed dress.

Country Song Performer(s) Composer(s)
 Portugal "Coisas de nada" Nonstop José Manuel Afonso, Elvis Veiguinha

Other countries

Ratings

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%.[33]

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.[33]

Voting revenues had also risen from the Kyiv 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.

Aftermath

ERT's net income from the Eurovision event amounted to 7,280,000 euros, while the cost of the entire event reached 5,500,000 euros, 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".[33][34]

According to G. Chouliaras, the revenues that ERT had from the event were 3,630,000 euros from national sponsors, 2,200,000 euros from tickets and 1,450,000 euros from the share of international sponsors, advertising revenues outside sponsorships, sms, etc.[33][34]

Regarding the costs paid by ERT for the event together with the EBU, it amounted to a total of 9 million euros, of which 5.5 million euros were paid by ERT and 3.5 million euros 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 EOT paid for the production of 47 commercials and their promotion during the semifinals and the final 3.5 million euros.[33][34]

Spectacles and rewards

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 euros. He stated that in essence the net profit of ERT amounts to 745,000 euros, which will be allocated for other cultural events.[33]

It was also clarified that ERT did not pay anything to Anna Vissi, nor to Nikos Karvelas, as well as did not pay for the dress of Anna Vissi. Chouliaras stressed that all the participants of the event were paid at market prices and in particular Zeta Makrypoulia and Giorgos Kapoutzidis received 8-10 thousand euros per month for their four-month employment, Sakis Rouvas 50,000 euros and Maria Menounos 45,000 euros.[33][34]

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 by Olympic Airlines and the hotels, the cost of which amounted to 150,000 euros, by the sponsors.[33]

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".[33]

Broadcasters and commentators

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. These are the broadcasters that have confirmed their broadcasting plans and/or their commentators:

Country Show(s) Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
Participating countries
 Albania All shows TVSH Leon Menkshi
 Andorra All shows RTVA Meri Picart and Josep Lluís Trabal
 Armenia All shows Public Television Gohar Gasparyan and Phelix Khachatryan
 Belarus All shows Belarus 1 Denis Dudinskiy [35]
 Belgium All shows één Dutch: André Vermeulen and Bart Peeters [36]
Radio 2 Dutch: Michel Follet and Sven Pichal
La Une French: Jean-Pierre Hautier
La Première French: Patrick Duhamel and Thomas Gunzig
 Bosnia and Herzegovina All shows BHT1 Dejan Kukrić [37]
 Bulgaria All shows BNT Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev
 Croatia All shows HRT Duško Čurlić [38]
 Cyprus Semi-final RIK 1 Evi Papamichail and Pampina Themistokleous [39]
Final Evi Papamichail and Vasso Komninou
 Denmark All shows DR1 Mads Vangsø and Adam Duvå Hall [40]
 Estonia All shows ERR Marko Reikop [41]
 Finland All shows YLE TV2 Finnish: Heikki Paasonen, Jaana Pelkonen and Asko Murtomäki [42][43]
YLE Radio Suomi Finnish: Sanna Kojo and Jorma Hietamäki
YLE FST Swedish: Thomas Lundin (YLE FST)
 France Semi-final France 4 Peggy Olmi and Éric Jean-Jean [36]
Final France 3 Michel Drucker, Claudy Siar
France Bleu Alexandre Devoise
 Germany All shows Das Erste Peter Urban [44][45]
Deutschlandfunk/NDR 2 Thomas Mohr
 Greece All shows ERT, NET Zeta Makrypoulia and Giorgos Kapoutzidis [46]
Second Programme Maria Kozakou [47]
 Iceland All shows Sjónvarpið Sigmar Guðmundsson [48]
 Ireland All shows RTÉ One Marty Whelan [49]
Final RTÉ Radio 1 Larry Gogan
 Israel All shows IBA No commentary
 Latvia All shows LTV Kārlis Streips
 Lithuania All shows LRT Darius Užkuraitis
 Malta All shows TVM Eileen Montesin [50]
 Moldova All shows TRM Vitalie Rotaru
 Monaco All shows TMC Monte Carlo Bernard Montiel and Églantine Eméyé [51]
 Netherlands All shows Nederland 2 Cornald Maas and Paul de Leeuw [52]
Radio 2 Ron Stoeltie
 Macedonia All shows MRT Karolina Petkovska
 Norway All shows NRK1 Jostein Pedersen [53]
 Poland All shows TVP1 Artur Orzech [54]
 Portugal All shows RTP1 Eládio Clímaco [55]
 Romania All shows TVR1 Andreea Demirgian
 Russia All shows C1R Yuri Aksyuta and Tatiana Godunova
 Slovenia All shows RTV SLO Mojca Mavec
 Spain All shows TVE1 Beatriz Pécker [56]
 Sweden All shows SVT1 Pekka Heino [57][58]
SR P3 Carolina Norén and Björn Kjellman
  Switzerland All shows SF zwei German: Sandra Studer
TSR 1 French: Jean-Marc Richard and Alain Morisod
TSI 2 Italian: Sandy Altermatt and Claudio Lazzarino
 Turkey All shows TRT 1 Bülend Özveren
 Ukraine All shows First National TV Channel Pavlo Shylko
 United Kingdom Semi-final BBC Three Paddy O'Connell
Final BBC One Terry Wogan
BBC Radio 2 Ken Bruce
Non-participating countries
 Australia All shows SBS TBC [59]
 Austria All shows ORF2 Andi Knoll [60]
 Azerbaijan All shows İctimai TBC [61][62]
 Gibraltar Final GBC TBC [63]
 Italy All shows TBC TBC [64]
 Serbia and Montenegro All shows RTS1 Serbian: Duška Vučinić-Lučić
TVCG2 Montenegrin: Dražen Bauković and Tamara Ivanković

International broadcasts

  • Australia: Although Australia was not itself eligible to enter, the semi-final and final were broadcast on SBS. As is the case each year, they were not however broadcast live due to the difference in Australian time zones. Australia aired the United Kingdom's broadcast, including commentary from Paddy O'Connell and Terry Wogan. Before the broadcasts, viewers were told by an SBS host that the Eurovision Song Contest was one of their most popular programmes. The final rated an estimated 462,000, and was ranked 21st of the broadcaster's top rating programs for the 2005/06 financial year.[59]
  • Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan were willing to enter the contest but since AzTV 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.[62]
  • Italy: Italian television did not enter because RAI, the national broadcaster, is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and they believe that the Eurovision Song Contest would not be a popular show in Italy. They have not broadcast the contest in recent years, although an independent Italian channel for the gay community has shown the show.[64]
  •   Worldwide: A live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast worldwide by satellite through Eurovision streams such as Channel One Russia, ERT World, TVE Internacional, TVP Polonia, RTP Internacional and TVR i. The official Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary using the peer-to-peer transport Octoshape.
  • Gibraltar: Gibraltar screened only the final.[63]


Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006
Compilation album by
Released28 April 2006
GenrePop
Length
  • 53:38 (CD 1)
  • 56:12 (CD 2)
LabelCMC
Eurovision Song Contest chronology
Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005
(2005)
Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006
(2006)
Eurovision Song Contest: Helsinki 2007
(2007)

Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006 was the official compilation album of the 2006 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by CMC 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.[65]

Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
German Compilation Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[66] 2

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