Eurovision Song Contest 2007
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 and host broadcaster Yleisradio, 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, despite initially confirming participation. Monaco has not competed in Eurovision Song Contest ever since.
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. 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 in the final. Of the "Big Four" countries, placed the highest, finishing nineteenth.
Location
, 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, 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. The chose its entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU.File:ESC 2007 hosts.jpg|right|thumb|The hosts Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi
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 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. 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 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.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter |
| RTSH | Frederik Ndoci | "Hear My Plea" | English, Albanian | ||
| RTVA | Anonymous | "Salvem el món" | Catalan, English | ||
| AMPTV | Hayko | "Anytime You Need" | English, Armenian | ||
| ORF | "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 | "Vjerujem u ljubav" | Croatian, English | Dado Topić | |
| CyBC | Evridiki | "Comme ci, comme ça" | French | ||
| ČT | Kabát | "Malá dáma" | Czech | ||
| DR | DQ | "Drama Queen" | English | ||
| ETV | Gerli Padar | "Partners in Crime" | English | ||
| Yle | Hanna Pakarinen | "Leave Me Alone" | English | ||
| France Télévisions | Les Fatals Picards | "L'Amour à la française" | French, English | ||
| GPB | Sopho | "Visionary Dream" | English | ||
| NDR | Roger Cicero | "Frauen regier'n die Welt" | German, English | ||
| ERT | Sarbel | "Yassou Maria" | 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 | "Questa notte" | Italian | ||
| LRT | 4Fun | "Love or Leave" | English | Julija Ritčik | |
| MRT | Karolina | "Mojot svet" | Macedonian, English | ||
| PBS | Olivia Lewis | "Vertigo" | English | ||
| TRM | Natalia Barbu | "Fight" | English | ||
| RTCG | Stevan Faddy | "'Ajde, kroči" | Montenegrin | ||
| NOS | Edsilia Rombley | "On Top of the World" | English | ||
| NRK | Guri Schanke | "Ven a bailar conmigo" | English | Thomas G:son | |
| TVP | The Jet Set | "Time to Party" | English | ||
| RTP | Sabrina | "Dança comigo" | Portuguese | ||
| TVR | "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" | English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French, Romanian | |||
| C1R | Serebro | "Song #1" | English | ||
| RTS | Marija Šerifović | "Molitva" | Serbian | ||
| RTVSLO | Alenka Gotar | "Cvet z juga" | Slovene | ||
| RTVE | D'Nash | "I Love You Mi Vida" | 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 Şekerim" | English | Kenan Doğulu | |
| NTU | Verka Serduchka | "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" | German, English, Surzhyk | Andriy Danylko | |
| BBC | Scooch | "Flying the Flag " | English |