Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

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Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Country Greece
National selection
Selection processArtist: Internal selection
Song: Eurovision Party
Selection date(s)Artist: 22 January 2005
Song: 2 March 2005
Selected entrantHelena Paparizou
Selected song"My Number One"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final result1st, 230 points
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2004 • 2005 • 2006►

Greece won the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, its first Eurovision Song Contest victory. Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Helena Paparizou who sang "My Number One" in Kyiv, winning the competition with 230 points. The song is written by Manos Psaltakis, Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou. "My Number One" was selected through a national final on 2 March 2005, where the public and a professional jury chose it over three other candidate songs.

Background

Main article: Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 marked Greece's twenty-sixth entry in the Eurovision Song Contest since its debut in 1974.

Thalassa, receiving only twelve points in total, all from Cyprus.[2]

The Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) broadcasts the event in Greece each year and organizes the selection process for its entry.[3][4] Its selection techniques have varied from national finals where the public selects the entry, to internal selections like used in 2004, where the broadcaster has complete control over the selection. For the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, ERT decided to hold a televised national final after internally selecting an artist.

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

Selected entrant Helena Paparizou, pictured in 2005.

ERT announced that they would be selecting their artist for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 internally. The first artist approached by ERT with an official proposal was 2004 representative

Helena Paparizou.[10] Around the same time, Greek-American singer and Fame Story participant Annet Artani was also rumored, however negotiations failed to materialize.[11][12] On 8 December 2004, Bokota once again stated that there would be a delay in the artist announcement because of an "obstacle" within the broadcaster.[13][14] On 15 January 2005, Star Channel reported that front runners Franz Ferdinand met with ERT but were soon excluded as they were requesting more money, and had "no idea how Eurovision works and thus they proposed to compose a remake of a past song of theirs".[15]

On 22 January 2005, ERT confirmed Helena Paparizou as the Greek representative for the 2005 contest. Paparizou had previously represented Greece at the

Antique.[12] ERT also stated that Paparizou's singing career in Sweden was "a factor which surely contributed to the final choice of Paparizou, since the 'northern' votes are considered to be important".[16]

Eurovision Party

Following the announcement of Helena Paparizou as the Eurovision 2005 representative, ERT revealed that Paparizou would perform four songs during a national final, titled Eurovision Party. Fifteen songs were shortlisted out of 100 submitted by Greek and foreign composers, and four were selected by a jury panel consisting of Paparizou and representatives from ERT and

Amazon.de by the band Big Alice before the 1 October cutoff date.[19] An additional program was broadcast on 25 February 2005 in order to familiarize the Greek public with the selected artist.[20]

Final

The final took place on 2 March 2005 at the Fever Music Center in

Alcazar and Greek musical group C:Real.[25][26]

Final – 2 March 2005
Draw Song Songwriter(s) Jury Televote Total Place
1 "My Number One" Manos Psaltakis, Christos Dantis, Natalia Germanou 83 152,269 66.47% 1
2 "OK" Christodoulos Siganos, Valentino 46 73,500 24.55% 2
3 "Let's Get Wild" Douglas Carr 48 20,500 8.98% 3

Promotion

Before her appearance at the contest, Paparizou went on a promotional tour sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Greek National Tourism Organization, singing her song in several Eurovision countries. The tour started off on 12 March 2005 in

MTV Russia and then presented the Greek song at the International Tourism Exhibit, the largest tourism exhibit in the world. She also gave several interviews to the press and before leaving, attended a Greek Independence Day reception at the Greek embassy.[28] Upon her return to Greece, she was greeted at the airport by fans along with the music video of "My Number One" playing on the video monitors.[29] While in Greece, she attended the opening ceremony of the European final four for the Volleyball Champions League in Pylaia, where her song was played as she appeared on stage with cheerleaders.[30]

On 29 March 2005, Paparizou arrived in Valletta, Malta where she signed autographs, appeared on television stations, and gave interviews to the local media.[31] She then traveled to Serbia and Montenegro where she gave additional interviews before moving on to Andorra on 10 April 2005.[32][33] She was soon in Lisbon, Portugal where she promoted not only her song, but also Greek export products, as she was sponsored by the Greek tourism industry. She also attended an international exhibition of food and drink where the song was played, while its music video was seen on a large monitor.[34]

On 20 April 2005, Paparizou arrived in

Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who told her that it was good luck that the contest fell on her name-day of 21 May 2005.[37] While in Turkey, she also posed for magazines and was interviewed by the media. She soon returned to Greece before leaving for a short trip to Kyiv, the location of the contest.[38]

At Eurovision

Alexandra Pascalidou replaced Dafni Bokota as the Eurovision commentator.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 took place at the

Palace of Sports in Kyiv, Ukraine and consisted of one semi-final on 19 May, and the final on 21 May 2005.[39] As Greece had finished the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in third place, its entry was pre-qualified for the final the following year. Greece was drawn to perform 19th on the night, following Croatia's Boris Novković and Lado with "Vukovi umiru sami" and preceding Russia's Natalia Podolskaya with "Nobody Hurt No One".[40] Paparizou appeared confident on stage and her dancers prepared a show with carefully choreographed stage moves.[41] She wore a short orange-yellow dress while the dancers wore tan colored clothing. The performance included Paparizou playing the lyra, a Greek musical instrument and the backing dancers forming the number 1 on stage.[42] The final was hosted and commentated on Greek television by Alexandra Pascalidou, who also hosted the national final, while the spokesperson who revealed Greece's votes for other countries was Alexis Kostalas, an ERT Board member who had been the spokesperson since 1998.[21][43]

"My Number One" won with a total of 230 points. It received 12 points, the maximum number of points a country can give to another country, from

Serbia & Montenegro, Sweden, United Kingdom and Turkey.[41][44][45] The highest viewing ratings in the history of Greek television were recorded during the presentation of the pure gold trophy to Helena Paparizou by the Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, with 94.2% of the Greek population tuned in.[41][46]

Voting

See also:
Voting in the Eurovision Song Contest

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding points from 1-8, 10 and 12 to the other competing countries; counties were not allowed to register votes for themselves. All countries participating in the contest were required to use televoting and/or SMS voting during both evenings of the contest. Greece awarded its top 12 points from televoting to Romania in the semi-final and to Cyprus in the final.[47][48] The tables below visualise a complete breakdown of points awarded to Greece in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, as well as by the country in the semi-final and final.

Points awarded to Greece

Map of points awarded to Greece in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005.
Points awarded to Greece (Final)[48]
Score Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points  Croatia
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

Points awarded by Greece

After Eurovision

Reception

Paparizou's first words after winning the 50th Eurovision Song Contest were "We showed the modern face of Greece. I reckon that’s the face everybody loves. Europe is our home!"[44] Upon arrival back in Greece, she was greeted by crowds of fans at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport and the National Fire Brigade created a water-jet archway for her airplane, suggestively bearing the number "001", to pass through after it had landed.[49] On the way to ERT Studios for a welcome party for Paparizou and the Greek delegation, people were standing on either side of the road throwing rose petals along the route of Paparizou's bus. When she reached ERT Studios, she was "met with deafening applause" and after moving from sight for a few minutes, she emerged on stage dressed in the Greek flag and holding the Eurovision trophy.[49]

"

Hot Dance Club Play charting for eight weeks.[53][54]

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest

Among the distinctions awarded to "My Number One" was that it was chosen among thirteen other Eurovision songs to compete in Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, a 50th anniversary special in 2005, just a few months after Paparizou's victory. It was the only Greek entry and one of three winners from the '00s to compete (alongside the Olsen Brothers' "Fly on the Wings of Love" and Sertab Erener's "Everyway That I Can"). The song closed the first round of the contest in slot 14, following 1976 winners Brotherhood of Man with "Save Your Kisses for Me". Paparizou appeared on stage during the performance, lip-syncing along with a section of the song. At the end of the first round, "My Number One" was announced as one of the five songs proceeding to the second and final round. It was later revealed that it placed fourth in the first round, with 167 points (in both rounds, Greece were allowed to award themselves the maximum twelve points, a privilege usually not given at Eurovision).[55]

"My Number One" finished fourth in the final round, scoring 245 points. This was 15 points more than her winning score at Eurovision; however, all countries could give each song in the final no fewer than six points, meaning that unlike in Eurovision, "My Number One" earned points from all the voting countries.[56]

Voting

References

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