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 | ||
| Public [Television Company of Armenia|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 (For You)" | English |
Contest overview
Semi-final
The semi-final was held on 10 May 2007 at 22:00 EEST. 28 countries performed and all 42 participants voted. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | |
| 1 | "Water" | 146 | 6 | ||
| 2 | Teapacks | "Push the Button" | 17 | 24 | |
| 3 | Evridiki | "Comme ci, comme ça" | 65 | 15 | |
| 4 | Koldun | "Work Your Magic" | 176 | 4 | |
| 5 | "Valentine Lost" | 77 | 13 | ||
| 6 | Sopho | "Visionary Dream" | 123 | 8 | |
| 7 | "'Ajde, kroči" | 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 | "Vjerujem u ljubav" | 54 | 16 | |
| 14 | "Time to Party" | 75 | 14 | ||
| 15 | "Molitva" | 298 | 1 | ||
| 16 | Kabát | "Malá dáma" | 1 | 28 | |
| 17 | Sabrina | "Dança comigo" | 88 | 11 | |
| 18 | Karolina | "Mojot svet" | 97 | 9 | |
| 19 | "Ven a bailar conmigo" | 48 | 18 | ||
| 20 | "Vertigo" | 15 | 25 | ||
| 21 | Anonymous | "Salvem el món" | 80 | 12 | |
| 22 | "Unsubstantial Blues" | 224 | 2 | ||
| 23 | "Partners in Crime" | 33 | 22 | ||
| 24 | "LovePower" | 14 | 26 | ||
| 25 | "Cvet z juga" | 140 | 7 | ||
| 26 | "Shake It Up Şekerim" | 197 | 3 | ||
| 27 | "Get a Life – Get Alive" | 4 | 27 | ||
| 28 | Bonaparti.lv | "Questa notte" | 168 | 5 |
Final
The finalists were:- the four automatic qualifiers,,, and the ;
- the top 10 countries from the 2006 final ;
- the top 10 countries from the 2007 semi-final.
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.
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | |
| 1 | "Rijeka bez imena" | 106 | 11 | ||
| 2 | D'Nash | "I Love You Mi Vida" | 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 | "Mojot svet" | 73 | 14 | |
| 7 | "Cvet z juga" | 66 | 15 | ||
| 8 | "Unsubstantial Blues" | 128 | 9 | ||
| 9 | 4Fun | "Love or Leave" | 28 | 21 | |
| 10 | Sarbel | "Yassou Maria" | 139 | 7 | |
| 11 | Sopho | "Visionary Dream" | 97 | 12 | |
| 12 | "The Worrying Kind" | 51 | 18 | ||
| 13 | "L'Amour à la française" | 19 | 22 | ||
| 14 | Bonaparti.lv | "Questa notte" | 54 | 16 | |
| 15 | Serebro | "Song #1" | 207 | 3 | |
| 16 | "Frauen regier'n die Welt" | 49 | 19 | ||
| 17 | "Molitva" | 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 Şekerim" | 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
- Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir
- Andrei Porubin
- Fearne Cotton
- Elena Risteska
- Éva Novodomszky
Detailed voting results
Semi-final
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the semi-final:| N. | Contestant | Nation giving 12 points |
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| 6 | ,,,,, | |
| 5 | ,,,, | |
| 5 | ,,,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 2 | , | |
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 |
Final
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final:| N. | Contestant | Nation giving 12 points |
| 9 | ,,,,,,,, | |
| 5 | ,,,, | |
| 5 | ,,,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 3 | ,, | |
| 2 | , | |
| 2 | , | |
| 2 | , | |
| 2 | , | |
| 2 | , | |
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 |
Broadcasts
The official Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary, using the peer-to-peer transport Octoshape.International broadcasts
- Although Australia was not itself eligible to enter, the semi-final and final were broadcast on SBS, and as per previous years, took commentary from the BBC. As was the case each year, they were not broadcast live due to the difference in Australian time zones. The final rated an estimated 436,000 viewers, and was ranked number 20 on the broadcasters top rating programs of the 2006/2007 financial year.
- AzTV was willing to enter the contest, but since it applied for active EBU membership but was denied on 18 June 2007, missed the contest and had to wait until it was accepted. Another Azerbaijani broadcaster, İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti, broadcast the contest. It was a preliminary EBU member at the time, and had broadcast it for the previous two years. It was the only non-participating broadcaster this year to send its own commentators to the contest.
High-definition broadcast
Other awards
In addition to the main winner's trophy, the Marcel Bezençon Awards and the Barbara Dex Award were contested during the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. The OGAE, "General Organisation of Eurovision Fans" voting poll also took place before the contest.Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final. The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award which was voted by previous winners of the contest, Composers Award, and Press Award.| Category | Country | Song | Artist | Songwriter |
| Artistic Award | "Molitva" | Marija Šerifović | ||
| Composers Award | "Unsubstantial Blues" | Magdi Rúzsa | ||
| Press Award | "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" | Verka Serduchka | Andriy Danylko |
OGAE
, an organisation of over forty Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, conducts an annual voting poll first held in 2002 as the Marcel Bezençon Fan Award. After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2007 poll was also the winner of the contest, Serbia's "Molitva" performed by Marija Šerifović; the top five results are shown below.| Country | Artist | Song | Points |
| Marija Šerifović | "Molitva" | 184 | |
| Dmitry Koldun | "Work Your Magic" | 159 | |
| DJ BoBo | "Vampires Are Alive" | 156 | |
| Evridiki | "Comme ci, comme ça" | 142 | |
| Sarbel | "Yassou Maria" | 107 |
Barbara Dex Award
The Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after Barbara Dex who came last for, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed by the fansite House of Eurovision from 1997 to 2016 and is being carried out by the fansite songfestival.be since 2017.| Country | Artist |
| Verka Serduchka |