The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 6 and 8 May and a final on 10 May 2014, held at B&W Hallerne in Copenhagen, Denmark, and presented by Lise Rønne, Nikolaj Koppel, and Pilou Asbæk. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), which staged the event after winning the for with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest.
Broadcasters from thirty-seven countries participated in the contest; this included the return of and after absences of two years and one year respectively. Overall, there were two fewer countries competing compared to the previous year, making thirty-seven participants, the smallest number since 2006. , , , and announced that they would not be taking part.
The winner was with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix", performed by Conchita Wurst and written by Charley Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski, and Julian Maas. The entry won both the jury vote and televote. Austria's first victory was 48 years earlier in , which at the time was the longest gap between wins. The , , , and rounded out the top five, with the Netherlands achieving their best result since its victory in , Hungary achieving its best result since its fourth place in , and Armenia equalling its best result from . Of the "Big Five" countries, only achieved a place in the top ten, while finished in last place for the first time in its Eurovision history. Meanwhile, and both qualified for the final for the first time.
A new record of 195 million viewers for the contest was reported. The host broadcaster DR and the EBU won the International TV Award at the Ondas Awards for their production of the event. The Danish organisers spent in total , three times more than the initially budgeted costs, and were furthermore accused of nepotism.
Location
The contest was held at the former shipyard Refshaleøen, in the B&W Hallerne in Copenhagen, with the social networking hashtag "#JoinUs" as the motto. The location had been refurbished to accommodate the event, with the surrounding area transformed into "Eurovision Island"—an Olympic Park-inspired complex housing the event venue, press centre, and other amenities.
The mayor of Copenhagen, Frank Jensen, declared in late August that the city would contribute to the budget with 40 million (Danish Kroner) (). He also announced that the aim was to make the Eurovision 2014 into the greenest contest to date since Copenhagen had been elected European Green Capital for 2014.
Bidding phase Five cities had been considered as host city of the contest, including Herning and Copenhagen, both favourites to be the next host. The Parken Stadium, located in Copenhagen, which hosted the contest and Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, which hosted the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2013 final, were the first venues to join the bidding phase. Later, Fredericia and Aalborg entered the phase with the Messe C and Gigantium venues, respectively. The fifth city to join the phase was Horsens, with the venue being the courtyard of the former Horsens State Prison. In the event that Horsens had been chosen to host the contest, the courtyard would have been covered by a permanent glass roof. The contest was provisionally set to take place on 13, 15 and 17 May 2014, however, the dates were later brought forward a week in order to accommodate the candidate cities.
On 17 June 2013, the municipality executive of Aalborg decided not to bid for hosting the contest due to the city's lack of sufficient hotel capacity. While DR required the host city to have at least 3,000 hotel rooms, the city of Aalborg had only 1,600 hotel rooms, more than half of which had been booked for other events taking place at the same time as the Eurovision Song Contest. On 18 June 2013, DR announced that formal bids on hosting the contest had been received by the municipalities of Copenhagen, Herning and Horsens, and that the Municipality of Fredericia had confirmed its intention to place a formal bid, too.
On 19 June 2013, the deadline for placing bids on hosting the contest, it was reported that Wonderful Copenhagen, the official convention, event and visitors bureau of the Greater Copenhagen area, had proposed three venues in its bid on hosting the contest: The Parken Stadium, a large tent on the grounds of DR Byen and the B&W Hallerne. On 25 June 2013, the Municipality of Fredericia announced that the Triangle Region had withdrawn its bid on hosting the contest, due to the lack of a suitable venue. DR required the hosting venue to have no pillars blocking any views and an interior height of at least . However, no venues in the region met those requirements and, therefore, Fredericia was no longer in the running for becoming host city of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. On 28 June 2013, Anders Hørsholt, CEO of Parken Sport & Entertainment, stated that the Parken Stadium was no longer in the running for hosting the contest due to several football matches having already been scheduled to take place at the stadium in the weeks leading up to the contest.
On 2 September 2013, the Danish broadcaster DR announced that it had chosen Copenhagen as the host city for the 2014 contest, with B&W Hallerne chosen as the host venue.
Key
Host venue City Venue Notes Aalborg Gigantium Hosted Dansk Melodi Grand Prix in 2006, 2010 and 2012. Withdrew on 17 June 2013. Copenhagen A large tent on the grounds of DR Byen — B&W Hallerne — Parken Stadium Hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. Withdrew on 28 June 2013. Fredericia Messe C Withdrew on 26 June 2013. Herning Jyske Bank Boxen Hosted the final of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2013 Horsens Fængslet —
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 Nytorv Square, it was open from 4 to 11 May 2014.
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 VEGA CPH Music Club.
The "Red Carpet" event, where the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place at Copenhagen City Hall on 4 May 2014 at 17:00 CET, followed by the Opening Ceremony.
Participants
Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the Eurovision network and broadcasting it live nationwide. The EBU issued an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members.
Thirty-seven countries participated in the 2014 contest. and both returned to the contest, having last participated in and respectively. However, broadcaster Bulgarian National Television (BNT), broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT), broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) and broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) did not participate in the 2014 contest.
Valentina Monetta who had represented and , returned to the contest for the third year in a row. This makes Monetta the fourth main singer to compete in three consecutive contests (and the only one of amongst them never to win in one of these occasions), following Lys Assia, who represented , , and , Corry Brokken, who represented the , , and , and Udo Jürgens, who represented , , and . Monetta would return again in . Paula Seling and Ovi had represented . The Tolmachevy Sisters, representing Russia, had won Junior Eurovision for .
In addition, Tamara Todevska, providing backing vocals for Macedonia, had represented . She would later represent . Martina Majerle, providing backing vocals for Montenegro, had represented and provided backing vocals for , , and , , and .
+ Eurovision Song Contest 2014 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Hersi "One Night's Anger" English AMPTV Aram Mp3 "Not Alone" English ORF Conchita Wurst "Rise Like a Phoenix" English İTV Dilara Kazimova "Start a Fire" English BTRC Teo "Cheesecake" English VRT Axel Hirsoux "Mother" English DR Basim "Cliche Love Song" English ERR Tanja "Amazing" English Yle Softengine "Something Better" English Twin Twin "" French GPB The Shin and Mariko "Three Minutes to Earth" English NDR Elaiza "Is It Right" English NERIT Freaky Fortune RiskyKidd "Rise Up" English MTVA András Kállay-Saunders "Running" English RÚV Pollapönk "No Prejudice" English RTÉ Can-linn feat. Kasey Smith "Heartbeat" English IBA Mei Finegold "Same Heart" English, Hebrew Rami Talmid RAI Emma "" Italian Emma Marrone LTV "Cake to Bake" English Guntis Veilands LRT Vilija "Attention" English MRT Tijana "To the Sky" English PBS Firelight "Coming Home" English Richard Edwards Micallef TRM Cristina Scarlat "Wild Soul" English RTCG Sergej Ćetković "" () Montenegrin AVROTROS The Common Linnets "Calm After the Storm" English NRK Carl Espen "Silent Storm" English Josefin Winther TVP Donatan and Cleo "My Słowianie – We Are Slavic" Polish, English RTP Suzy "" Portuguese Emanuel TVR Paula Seling and Ovi "Miracle" English RTR Tolmachevy Sisters "Shine" English SMRTV Valentina Monetta "Maybe" English RTVSLO Tinkara Kovač "Round and Round" English, Slovene RTVE Ruth Lorenzo "Dancing in the Rain" English, Spanish SVT Sanna Nielsen "Undo" English SRG SSR Sebalter "Hunter of Stars" English Sebastiano Paù-Lessi NTU Mariya Yaremchuk "Tick-Tock" English BBC Molly "Children of the Universe" English
Other countries Active EBU members broadcaster BHRT initially stated their intention to participate in the contest; however, in late 2013 it was announced that they would not be taking part due to a lack of sponsorship. Similarly, broadcaster BNT initially planned to participate but later announced otherwise due to limited funds.
Active EBU member broadcasters in , , , the , , , , , and confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU, some of them citing reasons such as poor results in previous editions, dissatisfaction with the mixed jury/televote voting system, the European financial crisis and the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis.
Non-EBU members While Kosovan broadcaster RTK did not voice any intention regarding the 2014 contest, Kosovo's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Petrit Selimi told the Swedish television programme that he thought Kosovo would be granted EBU membership and acceptance into the Eurovision in time for the 2014 edition; however, the country failed to meet the requirement of being recognized as an independent country by the International Telecommunication Union, and was not granted membership in the EBU. Liechtensteiner broadcaster 1FLTV had originally intended to join the EBU in time to participate in the 2013 contest, but the government never granted the required financial subsidies and the broadcaster put off the aim to make their debut to 2014; however, the government again failed to provide any funds and 1FLTV was unable to join the contest.
Format
The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been in use since 2008. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final qualified to the final where they joined the host nation Denmark and the five main sponsoring nations (known as the Big Five): France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry.