العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolEUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2007
The 'Eurovision Song Contest 2007' was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was won by Serbia [1] and was held at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland from 10 May (semi-final) to 12 May (final). The hosting broadcaster of the contest was YLE.
Finland earned the right to host the event thanks to the heavy metal band Lordi winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 as Finland's representatives. It meant that the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was to be staged in Finland for the first time. The hosts were popular Finnish television personality Jaana Pelkonen and Finnish musician, stage performer and actor Mikko Leppilampi, with Krisse Salminen in the green room.
The official logo of the contest remained the same with the flag in the centre of the heart being changed to the Finnish National Flag. The European Broadcasting Union and YLE announced that the theme for the 2007 contest would be “True Fantasy”, which embraced Finland and Finnishness in terms of the polarities associated with the country.[2] The design agency “Dog Design” was responsible for the design of the visual theme of the contest which incorporated vibrant kaleidoscopic patterns formed from various symbols including exclamation marks and the letter "F".[3] On 20 February 2007 a reworked official website for the contest was launched marking the first public exhibition of this year's theme. An official CD and DVD were released. A new introduction to Eurovision merchandise was a board game, which mimics the contest in the process of creating and establishing an entry and then undergoing an interesting voting procedure in the game's conclusion. An official fan book was also released.
The Hartwall Areena, Finland's largest ice hockey arena, was always the favourite to be chosen to host the contest. The city of Helsinki has the best connections and facilities in the country, therefore allowing as many people as possible to experience the contest. The arena itself is practically next door to YLE's centre of operations, allowing for relatively easy logistics. A budget of 13 million € was also presented for arranging the contest. Other bids to host the contest came from the Finnish cities such as Espoo, Turku and Tampere.
A record number of 42 countries participated. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) put aside its former maximum of 40 countries, which would have necessitated excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme, to accept all applicants.
On 12 March 2007, the official draws for the running order for the semi-final, final and voting procedure took place. A new feature introduced during the draw allowed five wildcard countries from the semi-final and three countries from the final to choose their starting position. The head of the delegation would go on stage and choose the number they wished to take. In the semi-final, Austria, Andorra, Turkey, Slovenia and Latvia were able to choose their positions. In the final, Armenia, Ukraine and Germany were able to exercise this privilege. Ultimately, all countries opted for spots in the second half of both evenings. Shortly after the draw, all of the entries were approved by the EBU, ending controversy surrounding the possible disqualification of the Israeli song. The United Kingdom chose their entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU.
The contest saw some minor changes with emphasis on the voting timeframe. The compilation summary video of all entries including phone numbers was shown twice. The voting process was the same as last year except there was fifteen minutes to vote, an increase from the usual ten minutes. In the final, the results from each country were once again shown from 1-7 points automatically appearing on screen and ony 8, 10, and 12 being read by the spokesperson. For the first time, the winner was awarded with a promotion tour around Europe, making stops in Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece and Germany. The tour was held between 16 May and 21 May.
The event was sponsored by European communications group TeliaSonera, and — as with several previous contests — Nobel Biocare.
 |  The hosts Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi |
Individual entries
Participating countries
Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU.
42 countries submitted preliminary applications. Despite the fact that in previous years the maximum number of participating countries was 40, the EBU stated that all would be allowed to participate in 2007. Though they did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro (formerly Serbia and Montenegro), Georgia, Austria and Hungary all confirmed that they would enter the contest in 2007. [4] Monaco announced its withdrawal on 12 December 2006, [5] and the EBU announced the final lineup of 42 countries on 15 December 2006. Italy and Slovakia did not participate either.
Semi-final
The semi-final was held on Thursday 10 May 2007, 19:00 UTC/GMT. For the first time, up to 28 countries were allowed to participate.
With those who qualified for the final in bold, the contestants were:
Final
The participating countries of the final were:
★ the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
★ the top 10 placed countries from the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 final (other than the automatic qualifiers)
★ the top 10 placed countries from the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 semi-final;
The final was held on 12 May 2007, 21:00 CET, 19:00 UTC/GMT.
''Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 Final.''
Non-participating regions where the contest was broadcast
; 'Australia' : Although Australia is not itself eligible to enter, it broadcast the event on SBS[7]. As is the case each year, it did not however broadcast it live due to the difference in Australian time zones. The semi-final was screened on 12 May and the final on the annual Sunday immediately after the final, 13 May. Australia airs the United Kingdom's broadcast, including commentary from Paddy O'Connell and Terry Wogan.Both shows,the semi final and the final were not broadcast in high definition. Before the broadcasts, viewers were told by an SBS host that the Eurovision Song Contest was one of their most popular programmes. It rated 432,000 viewers.[8]
; 'Azerbaijan' : Azerbaijan were willing to enter the contest but since AzTV applied for active EBU membership but was denied on 18 June 2007, they missed the contest and have to wait until they're accepted. Another Azerbaijan broadcaster, OTV, broadcast the contest. It is a passive EBU member, and has broadcast it for the last 2 years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest.[1]
; 'Italy': Italian television does not enter because RAI the national broadcaster is in strong competition with commercial TV stations and they believe that Eurovision 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.
; 'Monaco': Monaco broadcast the final on TMC after having withdrawn from this competition in December 2006. A return is possible next year.
; 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.
; Possible broadcasts : Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands Antilles, Suriname and Vietnam may have broadcast as well, as they have also broadcast the contest in the past. While Liechtenstein has no television broadcaster of its own, Liechtensteiners could watch the contest on Swiss, Austrian or German television.
; 'Gibraltar': Gibraltar screened only the final.
High-definition broadcast
YLE produced the event in 1080i HD and 5.1 Surround Sound.[9] This was the first year that the event was broadcast live in HD. The BBC in the United Kingdom broadcast the final in high definition on BBC HD.[10] Swedish broadcaster SVT broadcast both the semi-final and the final on their HD-channel SVT HD.[11]
Score sheet
All countries participating in the contest were required to use televoting and/or SMS voting during both evenings of the contest. In the event of technical difficulties, or if the votes of the country did not meet the EBU threshold, then a back-up jury's results were to be used. Albania and Andorra were the only countries that used juries.It has been speculated that Malta also used juries as a result of neighbourhood voting. A draw was held in Helsinki to establish the order in which the countries presented their votes during the final.
 | Televoting Results [12] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Total Score |  Albania |  Andorra |  Armenia |  Austria |  Belarus |  Belgium |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |  Bulgaria |  Croatia |  Cyprus |  Czech Republic |  Denmark |  Estonia |  Finland |  France |  Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia |  Georgia |  Germany |  Greece |  Hungary |  Iceland |  Ireland |  Israel |  Latvia |  Lithuania |  Malta |  Moldova |  Montengro |  Norway |  Poland |  Portugal |  Romania |  Russia |  Serbia |  Slovenia |  Spain |  Sweden |  Switzerland |  Netherlands |  Turkey |  Ukraine |  United Kingdom | ||
 Contestants | 1. 'Serbia' | '268' | 1 | 7 | '12' | 7 | 7 | '12' | 6 | '12' | 3 | 8 | 6 | '12' | 8 | '12' | 6 | 8 | 4 | '12' | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 5 | '12' | 10 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 5 | '12' | 1 | 10 | '12' | 8 | 6 | ||||||
| 2. Ukraine | 235 | '12' | 6 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | '12' | 3 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 10 | '12' | 8 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 2 | '12' | '12' | 4 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||
| 3. Russia | 207 | 3 | '12' | '12' | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 2 | '12' | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 6 | |||||||
| 4. Turkey | 163 | 10 | 10 | '12' | 10 | 7 | 10 | 4 | '12' | 10 | 2 | '12' | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 10 | '12' | 1 | '12' | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 5. Bulgaria | 157 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | '12' | 10 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6. Belarus | 145 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 4 | '12' | 8 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | '12' | 2 | '12' | |||||||||||||||||||
| 7. Greece | 139 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 3 | '12' | '12' | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 8. Armenia | 138 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | '12' | 2 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | '12' | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9. Hungary | 128 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 8 | '12' | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10. Moldova | 109 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 10 | '12' | 6 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 11. Bosnia-Herzegovina | 106 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12. Georgia | 97 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | '12' | 4 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 8 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 13. Romania | 84 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 1 | '12' | 7 | 1 | '12' | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14. FYR Macedonia | 73 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15. Slovenia | 66 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16. Latvia | 54 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17. Finland | 53 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 | '12' | 5 | 4 | '12' | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18. Sweden | 51 | 2 | '12' | 8 | 10 | '12' | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19. Germany | 49 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 20. Spain | 43 | '12' | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 21. Lithuania | 28 | 1 | 2 | '12' | 10 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 22. France | 19 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 23. United Kingdom | 19 | 7 | '12' | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 24. Ireland | 5 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Commentators
★ - Meri Picart & Josep Lluís Trabal
★ - Gohar Gasparian
★ - Andi Knoll
★ - Denis Kurian & Alexander Tikhanovich
★ - Jean-Pierre Hautier & Jean-Louis Lahaye (RTBF) / André Vermeulen & Anja Daems (VRT)
★ - Dejan Kukrić
★ - Georgi Kushvaliev & Elena Rosberg
★ - Duško Čurlić
★ - Vasso Komninou
★ - Kateřina Kristelová
★ - Søren Nystrøm Rasted & Adam Duvå Hall [13]
★ - Marko Reikop
★ - Heikki Paasonen & Ellen Jokikunnas & Asko Murtomäki ''(fi)'' / Thomas Lundin ''(sv)''
★ - Julien Lepers & Tex
★ FYR Macedonia - Milanka Rašić
★ - Peter Urban
★ - Fotis Sergoulopoulos & Maria Bakodimou
★ - Gábor Gundel Takács
★ - Sigmar Guðmundsson
★ - Marty Whelan
★ - Kārlis Streips
★ - Darius Užkuraitis
★ - Antonia Micallef
★ - Dražen Bauković, Tamara Ivanković
★ - Cornald Maas (both evenings) & Paul de Leeuw (final only)
★ - Per Sundnes
★ - Artur Orzech
★ - Isabel Angelino and Jorge Gabriel
★ - Andreea Demirgian
★ - Yuri Aksyuta and Yelena Batinova
★ - Duška Vučinić-Lučić
★ - Mojca Mavec
★ - Bernhard Thurnheer (SF), Jean-Marc Richard (TSR), Claudio Lazzarino and Sandy Altermatt (RTSI)
★ - Beatriz Pécker
★ - Kristian Luuk and Josef Sterzenbach
★ - Hakan Urganci
★ - Tymur Miroshnychenko
★ - Paddy O'Connell & Sarah Cawood (semi-final) & Terry Wogan (final) (BBC TV), Ken Bruce (BBC Radio 2)
Spokespersons
Announcing the votes.
★ - Leon Menkshi
★ - Marian van de Wal
★ - Sirusho
★ - Eva Pölzl
★ - Juliana
★ - Maureen Louys
★ - Vesna Andree Zaimović
★ - Mira Dobreva
★ - Barbara Kolar
★ - Alex Michael
★ - Andrea Savane
★ - Susanne Georgi
★ - Laura Põldvere
★ - Laura Voutilainen
★ - Vanessa Dolmen
★ FYR Macedonia - Elena Risteska
★ - Neli Agirba
★ - Thomas Hermanns
★ - Alexis Kostalas
★ - Éva Novodomszky
★ - Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir
★ - Linda Martin
★ - Jason Danino-Holt
★ - Janis Šipkevics
★ - Lavija Šurnaitė
★ - Mireille Bonello
★ - Bogdan Dascăl
★ - Vidak Latković
★ - Paul de Leeuw (the 12 points were announced by Edsilia Rombley)
★ - Synnøve Svabø
★ - Maciej Orłoś
★ - Francisco Mendes
★ - Andreea Marin Bănică
★ - Yana Churikova
★ - Maja Nikolić
★ - Peter Poles
★ - Ainhoa Arbizu
★ - André Pops
★ - Sven Epiney
★ - Meltem Yazgan
★ - Katya Kodyreva
★ - Fearne Cotton
Maps
Participation
'
★ ' Debuting countries
'†' Returning countries
Ranking
Controversy
Some countries have protested against the voting system following the 2007 contest. Robert Abela, in charge of Malta's contingent, suggested many results were "not based solely on the public vote", while also admitting the 12 points Malta gave United Kingdom were fixed deliberately in protest of bloc-voting.The way the voting is processed in the EBU is wrong, and needs updating say many Eurovision fans. Malta slates Eurovision's voting
German newspaper Bild commented on the irony that Western European countries pay the largest amount for a competition where they apparently have no chance of winning. Germany's sole winner, Nicole, was also quoted as saying "It is obvious that Eastern European countries engage in dirty trade with points every year. Germany should withdraw from the competition". The voting was also brought up in the Parliament of the United Kingdom by Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross who suggested the current voting system is "harmful to the relationship between the peoples of Europe". [14] Also, some countries, such as Ireland and Andorra have announced that they may boycott the 2008 event over the way the voting went.
In contrast, both EBU and many papers in the same West European countries hit back strongly at this criticism, saying that it was more about racism and discrimination being displayed in some West European countries than actual concern for the competition. 649712. The fact that the results would have remained more or less the same, with the same winner, even if only West European votes had been counted was also brought forward as evidence for the criticism being more about negative feelings towards East European countries rather than any actual bias in the competition. The head of EBU and some Scandinavian papers encouraged West European countries to start sending good and modern songs like the East European countries do. [2] In Finland, the organising country, the bad reactions in some countries even became the topic of the leader page in papers, Hufvudstadsbladet accusing those who still divide Europe into a Western and an Eastern part for being stuck in history, and encouraging all Europeans not to let "envious bad losers destroy a nice and all-European spectacle". [3]. The Swedish paper Expressen wrote about feeling "shame" over the reactions in many west European nations and claimed that the Eurovision Song Contest had never been better. Calling the Serbian winner a "worthy, historic winner", it went on to call the proposals for a separate contest "incredibly pathetic".[4]
Also, Russian viewers were said to complain about Nordic countries 'sense of togetherness' by voting consistently for each other.
Following Serbia’s victory there were claims by an Albanian reader in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun that Molitva (Prayer), performed by Marija Serifovic is a copy of another song “Ndarja” of the Albanian singer Soni Malaj. These claims have been dismissed by the EBU.
Gallery
Sopho Khalvashi performing "Visionary Dream" for 'Georgia'
Verka Serduchka performing "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" for 'Ukraine'
.jpg)
References
1. Marija from Serbia wins Helsinki 2007, Eurovision.tv
2. The 2007 Eurovision Song Contest theme is True Fantasy, 27 November 2006, YLE
3. Eurovision.tv meets dog design, Eurovision.tv
4. ESC 2007 Event page, ESCKaz.com
5. EXCLUSIVE: Monaco withdraws, December 12 2006, ESCtoday.com
6. Eurovision Song Contest - Helsinki 2007
7. Eurovision to be aired in Australia 1 April 2007, ESCtoday.com
8. SMH: Stay In Touch
9. Technical Partners Appointed for Eurovision Song Contest, 16 March 2007
10. Eurovision Song Contest 2007 schedule, BBC
11. Nu storsatsar SVT på hd-tv, SVT.se
12. Eurvision Song Contest 2007 Official results table
13. Vi tager MGP dødsens alvorligt, BT.dk
14. MP demands Eurovision vote change
External links
★ Official Eurovision Site
★ Official Helsinki Tourist Information
★ Official Tickets for Eurovision 2007
★ Final results (Eurovision.tv
★ Semi-final Results (Eurovision.tv)
★ Official DVD release
★ Semi-final score sheet
★ Final score sheet
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
