Eurovision Song Contest 2007

The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following Lordi's win at the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". The contest was held at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland from 10 May to 12 May, and staged by host broadcaster Yle.

A budget of 13 million was presented for arranging the contest. Other bids to host the contest came from Espoo, Turku and Tampere. The hosts were Finnish television personality Jaana Pelkonen and Finnish musician, stage performer and actor Mikko Leppilampi. Krisse Salminen acted as guest host in the green room, and reported from the crowds at the Senate Square.

A record number of 42 countries participated. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) put aside its limit of 40 countries, which would have meant excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme.[1]

The winner was Serbia, appearing as an independent country for the first time.[2] After Lordi scored the first ever Eurovision victory with a hard rock song, several countries sent rock songs to the Contest rather than the soft pop and schlager styles more closely associated with Eurovision. This trend continued at the 2008 and 2009 Contests.

Cyprus and Latvia entered songs in languages other than their own or English. Although this happened with the Belgium 2003 entry, this was the first time the contest featured countries doing this with actual languages as opposed to an imaginary one.

Participating countries

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

42 countries submitted preliminary applications. Although in previous years the maximum number of participating countries was 40, the EBU allowed all 42 to participate in 2007. The Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro and Georgia all entered the contest for the first time in 2007.[3] Monaco announced its withdrawal on 12 December 2006,[4] and the EBU announced the final lineup of 42 countries on 15 December 2006.

Returning artists

Evridiki returned to represent Cyprus, having previously represented the nation in 1992 and 1994. Eiríkur Hauksson previously represented Iceland in 1986 as part of the vocal trio ICY and he previously represented Norway in 1991 as part of the group Just 4 Fun. Karolina Gočeva previously represented Macedonia in 2002. Edsilia Rombley previously represented the Netherlands in 1998.

Semi-final

The semi-final was held on 10 May 2007 at 21:00 (CET). 28 countries performed and all 42 participants voted.

Countries qualified for the final are highlighted.

Draw Country Artist Song Language[5] Place Points
01   Bulgaria Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov "Water" Bulgarian 6 146
02   Israel Teapacks "Push the Button" English, French, Hebrew 24 17
03   Cyprus Evridiki "Comme ci, comme ça" French 15 65
04   Belarus Koldun "Work Your Magic" English 4 176
05   Iceland Eiríkur Hauksson "Valentine Lost" English 13 77
06   Georgia Sopho "Visionary Dream" English 8 123
07   Montenegro Stevan Faddy "'Ajde, kroči" ('Ајде, крочи) Montenegrin 22 33
08   Switzerland DJ BoBo "Vampires Are Alive" English 20 40
09   Moldova Natalia Barbu "Fight" English 10 91
10   Netherlands Edsilia Rombley "On Top of the World" English 21 38
11   Albania Frederik Ndoci "Hear My Plea" English, Albanian 17 49
12   Denmark DQ "Drama Queen" English 19 45
13   Croatia Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić "Vjerujem u ljubav" Croatian, English 16 54
14   Poland The Jet Set "Time to Party" English 14 75
15   Serbia Marija Šerifović "Molitva" Serbian 1 298
16   Czech Republic Kabát "Malá dáma" Czech 28 1
17   Portugal Sabrina "Dança comigo" Portuguese, English1 11 88
18   Republic of Macedonia Karolina "Mojot svet" Macedonian, English 9 97
19   Norway Guri Schanke "Ven a bailar conmigo" English2 18 48
20   Malta Olivia Lewis "Vertigo" English 25 15
21   Andorra Anonymous "Salvem el món" Catalan, English 12 80
22   Hungary Magdi Rúzsa "Unsubstantial Blues" English 2 224
23   Estonia Gerli Padar "Partners in Crime" English 22 33
24   Belgium The KMG's "Love Power" English 26 14
25   Slovenia Alenka Gotar "Cvet z juga" Slovene 7 140
26   Turkey Kenan Doğulu "Shake It Up Şekerim" English 3 197
27   Austria Eric Papilaya "Get a Life – Get Alive" English 27 4
28   Latvia Bonaparti.lv "Questa notte" Italian 5 168

Notes

1.^ Contained some words in French and Spanish.
2.^ Although the song was performed in English, the title and sentence in the lyrics "Ven a bailar conmigo" is in Spanish.

Final

The finalists were:

  • the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom;
  • the top 10 countries from the 2006 final (other than the automatic qualifiers);
  • the top 10 countries from the 2007 semi-final.

The final was held on 12 May 2007 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Serbia.

Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01   Bosnia and Herzegovina Marija Šestić "Rijeka bez imena" Serbian 11 106
02   Spain D'NASH "I Love You Mi Vida" Spanish3 20 43
03   Belarus Dmitry Koldun "Work Your Magic" English 6 145
04   Ireland Dervish "They Can't Stop the Spring" English 24 5
05   Finland Hanna Pakarinen "Leave Me Alone" English 17 53
06   Republic of Macedonia Karolina "Mojot svet" Macedonian, English 14 73
07   Slovenia Alenka Gotar "Cvet z juga" Slovene 15 66
08   Hungary Magdi Rúzsa "Unsubstantial Blues" English 9 128
09   Lithuania 4Fun "Love or Leave" English 21 28
10   Greece Sarbel "Yassou Maria" English 7 139
11   Georgia Sopho "Visionary Dream" English 12 97
12   Sweden The Ark "The Worrying Kind" English 18 51
13   France Les Fatals Picards "L'amour à la française" French, English 22[6] 19
14   Latvia Bonaparti.lv "Questa notte" Italian 16 54
15   Russia Serebro "Song #1" English 3 207
16   Germany Roger Cicero "Frauen regier'n die Welt" German, English 19 49
17   Serbia Marija Šerifović "Molitva" Serbian 1 268
18  Ukraine Verka Serduchka "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" (<span title="Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Language/data/ISO 639 override' not found. transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">Dancing Лаша Тумбай) German, English, Ukrainian, Russian 2 235
19   United Kingdom Scooch "Flying the Flag (For You)" English 22 19
20   Romania Todomondo "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" (<span title="Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Language/data/ISO 639 override' not found. transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">Люби, Люби, I Love You) English, Italian, Spanish,
Russian, French, Romanian
13 84
21   Bulgaria Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov "Water" Bulgarian 5 157
22   Turkey Kenan Doğulu "Shake It Up Şekerim" English 4 163
23   Armenia Hayko "Anytime You Need" English, Armenian 8 138
24   Moldova Natalia Barbu "Fight" English 10 109

Notes

3.^ Contained some words in English.

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Media

References

  1. "Eurovision EBU Press conference". esctoday.com.
  2. Marija from Serbia wins Helsinki 2007 Archived 9 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Eurovision.tv
  3. ESC 2007 Event page, ESCKaz.com
  4. EXCLUSIVE: Monaco withdraws, 12 December 2006, ESCtoday.com
  5. "Eurovision Song Contest 2007". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  6. "Eurovision Song Contest 2007". EBU. Retrieved 30 July 2009.