The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of a semi-final on 10 May and a final on 12 May 2007, held at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland, and presented by Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (YLE), who staged the event after winning the for with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. In addition, Krisse Salminen acted as guest presenter in the green room and reported from the crowds at the Senate Square.
Broadcasters from forty-two countries participated in the contest—three more than the previous record of thirty-nine that took part in . The EBU decided to put aside its limit of 40 countries, which would have meant excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme. The and participated for the first time this year, with and taking part as independent nations for the first time. and both returned after their absence from the previous edition. Meanwhile, decided not to participate,EXCLUSIVE: Monaco withdraws, 12 December 2006, ESCtoday.com despite initially confirming participation,Internal selection again for Monaco, 19 November 2006 and are yet to make a return to the contest.
The winner was with the song "Molitva", performed by Marija Šerifović and written by Vladimir Graić and Saša Milošević Mare. This was Serbia's first victory in the contest, coincidently the first year it competed as an independent nation, and the only instance of a country winning on debut, not counting the first contest. It was also the first winning song entirely performed in a country's native language since "Diva" for . , , , and rounded out the top five. Further down the table, achieved their best placing to date, finishing sixth. Meanwhile, Ireland achieved its worst placing in the contest up until that point, finishing twenty-fourth (last place) in the final. Of the "Big Four" countries, placed the highest, finishing nineteenth.
Location
Helsinki, the Finnish capital, was chosen as the host city, although other cities were in the running; the second-largest city of Espoo, the third-largest city of Tampere, and the city of Turku all submitted bids to host the contest alongside Kittilä, Lahti, and Rovaniemi. The choice of Helsinki was justified, among other things, by the requirements of the number of people and technology, as well as its superior flight and transport connections and accommodation capacity.
Venue
A total of 11 venues in seven locations applied for hosting rights. The known possible venues for the contest included LänsiAuto Areena in Espoo, Helsinki Ice Hall, Helsinki Fair Center, industrial workshop buildings at in Helsinki, in Lahti, Rovaniemi Lapland Arena, Pirkkahalli (main hall of Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre), Tampere Ice Stadium and Turkuhalli.
In the end, Helsinki was chosen, with the host venue being the Hartwall Areena. The venue is a large multi-functional indoor arena, which opened in 1997, and can take some 12,000–15,000 spectators for concerts. Its name comes from its largest sponsor, the beverage company Hartwall, also based in Helsinki. For the contest, the arena was referred to as the Helsinki Arena.
Format On 12 March 2007, the draws for the running order for the semi-final, final and voting procedure took place. A new feature allowed five wild-card countries from the semi-final and three countries from the final to choose their starting position. The heads of delegation went on stage and chose the number they would 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. All countries opted for spots in the second half of both evenings. Shortly after the draw, the entries were approved by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The chose its entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU.
The contest saw some minor changes to the voting time-frame. The recap, a compilation summary video of all entries including phone numbers, was shown twice. The voting process was the same as 2006 except there was fifteen minutes to vote, an increase of five minutes on the 2006 contest. In the final, the results from each country were once again shown from one to seven points automatically on screen and only eight, ten and twelve were read by the spokespeople. For the first time, the winner was awarded a promotion tour around Europe, visiting Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece, and Germany. The tour was held between 16 May and 21 May. The event was sponsored by Nordic communications group TeliaSonera, and — as with several previous contests — Nobel Biocare. Apocalyptica were the interval act, and played a medley of songs: Worlds Collide, Faraway and finally Life Burns!, but without the usual lyrics.
Visual design The official logo of the contest remained the same as 2006; the flag in the centre of the heart was changed to the Finnish flag. The EBU 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.The 2007 Eurovision Song Contest theme is True Fantasy , 27 November 2006, YLE 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.Eurovision.tv meets dog design , Eurovision.tv The stage was in the shape of a kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument. On 20 February 2007 a reworked official website for the contest was launched marking the first public exhibition of this year's theme.
The shows were produced and broadcast in high-definition for the first time, following tests at the .
An official CD and DVD as well as an official fan book were released. The themes of the postcards (short videos between the acts) were short stories occurring in different Finnish landmarks.
Participants
Participating broadcasters in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU. The broadcasters from 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. Monaco announced its non-participation on 12 December 2006, and the EBU announced the final lineup of 42 countries on 15 December 2006.
Several of the performing artists had previously represented the same country in past editions: Evridiki had represented and , and provided backing vocals and ; Karolina had represented ; and Edsilia Rombley had represented the . In addition Eiríkur Hauksson representing Iceland, had represented as member of ICY and as part of Just 4 Fun.
+ Eurovision Song Contest 2007 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Frederik Ndoci "Hear My Plea" English, Albanian RTVA Anonymous "" Catalan, English AMPTV Hayko "Anytime You Need" English, Armenian ORF Eric Papilaya "Get a Life – Get Alive" English BTRC Koldun "Work Your Magic" English RTBF The KMG's "LovePower" English BHRT Marija Šestić "" () Serbian BNT Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov "Water" Bulgarian HRT Dragonfly Dado Topić "" Croatian, English Dado Topić CyBC Evridiki "" French ČT Kabát "" Czech DR DQ "Drama Queen" English ETV Gerli Padar "Partners in Crime" English Yle Hanna Pakarinen "Leave Me Alone" English Les Fatals Picards "" French, English ("Franglais") GPB Sopho "Visionary Dream" English NDR Roger Cicero "" German, English ERT Sarbel "" () English MTV Magdi Rúzsa "Unsubstantial Blues" English RÚV Eiríkur Hauksson "Valentine Lost" English RTÉ Dervish "They Can't Stop the Spring" English IBA Teapacks "Push the Button" English, French, Hebrew Kobi Oz LTV Bonaparti.lv "" Italian LRT 4Fun "Love or Leave" English Julija Ritčik MRT Karolina "" () Macedonian, English PBS Olivia Lewis "Vertigo" English TRM Natalia Barbu "Fight" English RTCG Stevan Faddy " () Montenegrin NOS Edsilia Rombley "On Top of the World" English NRK Guri Schanke "" English Thomas G:son TVP The Jet Set "Time to Party" English RTP Sabrina "" Portuguese TVR Todomondo "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" (, I Love You) English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French, Romanian C1R Serebro "Song #1" English RTS Marija Šerifović "" () Serbian RTVSLO Alenka Gotar "" Slovene RTVE D'Nash "I Love You " Spanish, English SVT The Ark "The Worrying Kind" English Ola Salo SRG SSR DJ BoBo "Vampires Are Alive" English TRT Kenan Doğulu "Shake It Up " English Kenan Doğulu NTU Verka Serduchka "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" German, English, Surzhyk Andriy Danylko BBC Scooch "Flying the Flag (For You)" English
Contest overview Semi-final
The semi-final was held on 10 May 2007 at 22:00 EEST (21:00 CEST). 28 countries performed and all 42 participants voted. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.
+ Results of the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Country Artist Song Points Place 1 "Water" 146 6 2 Teapacks "Push the Button" 17 24 3 Evridiki "" 65 15 4 Koldun "Work Your Magic" 176 4 5 "Valentine Lost" 77 13 6 Sopho "Visionary Dream" 123 8 7 " 33 22 8 "Vampires Are Alive" 40 20 9 "Fight" 91 10 10 "On Top of the World" 38 21 11 "Hear My Plea" 49 17 12 DQ "Drama Queen" 45 19 13 Dragonfly Dado Topić "" 54 16 14 "Time to Party" 75 14 15 "" 298 1 16 Kabát "" 1 28 17 Sabrina "" 88 11 18 Karolina "" 97 9 19 "" 48 18 20 "Vertigo" 15 25 21 Anonymous "" 80 12 22 "Unsubstantial Blues" 224 2 23 "Partners in Crime" 33 22 24 "LovePower" 14 26 25 "" 140 7 26 "Shake It Up " 197 3 27 "Get a Life – Get Alive" 4 27 28 Bonaparti.lv "" 168 5
Final The finalists were: the four automatic qualifiers , , , and the ; 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 22:00 EEST (21:00 CEST). and was won by . 24 countries performed and all 42 participants voted.
Serbia won with 268 points. Ukraine came second with 235 points, with Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Belarus, Greece, Armenia, Hungary and Moldova completing the top ten. Spain, Lithuania, France, United Kingdom and Ireland occupied the bottom five positions.
+ Results of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Country Artist Song Points Place 1 "" 106 11 2 D'Nash "I Love You " 43 20 3 Koldun "Work Your Magic" 145 6 4 Dervish "They Can't Stop the Spring" 5 24 5 "Leave Me Alone" 53 17 6 Karolina "" 73 14 7 "" 66 15 8 "Unsubstantial Blues" 128 9 9 4Fun "Love or Leave" 28 21 10 Sarbel "" 139 7 11 Sopho "Visionary Dream" 97 12 12 "The Worrying Kind" 51 18 13 "" 19 22 14 Bonaparti.lv "" 54 16 15 Serebro "Song #1" 207 3 16 "" 49 19 17 "" 268 1 18 "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" 235 2 19 Scooch "Flying the Flag (For You)" 19 22 20 Todomondo "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" 84 13 21 "Water" 157 5 22 "Shake It Up " 163 4 23 Hayko "Anytime You Need" 138 8 24 "Fight" 109 10
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country. The order in which they announced their votes was determined in a draw during the heads of delegation meeting. The spokespersons appeared in the final in the following order:
Vidak Latković Juliana Sirusho Marian van de Wal
Susanne Georgi
Laura Voutilainen Meltem Ersan Yazgan Vesna Andree Zaimović Maureen Louys Francisco Mendes Leon Menkshi Andreea Marin Bănică Giannis Haralambous Barbara Kolar Peter Poles Jason Danino-Holt Thomas Hermanns
Synnøve Svabø Sven Epiney Andrea Savane Paul de Leeuw and Edsilia Rombley Linda Martin Mireille Bonello Laura Põldvere Neli Agirba Mira Dobreva André Pops Kateryna Osadcha Yana Churikova