The Eurovision Song Contest 2004
The 49th in the series was held in Abdi Ipekci Arena in Istanbul in Turkey on the 15th May 2004, and the new event of the Eurovision Semi final was on the 12th May, 3 days earlier. This was the first to be a two day event. The big four countries were given an automatic entry into the final and avoiding the semi-final. The event this year had 24 countries in the final and a further 12 from the semi-final that did not qualify.
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Final
The finalists for Eurovision 2004 were:
- The four automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and The UK.
- The top 10 countries from Eurovision 2003 contest (other than automatic qualifiers).
- The top 10 countries from the 2004 semi-final.
The Ukrainian entrant easily won this years contest with an impressive 280 points followed closely by the Serbia and Montenegro entrant Zeljko Joksimovic who's song unusually was sung in his native Serbian. The United Kingdom's Eurovision entry this year fared a lot better than the 2003 Eurovision entry but still only came in 16th place.
Winners Table
The final standing for the 2004 Eurovison Song contest were as follows:
- 1st Ukraine - Ruslana
- 2nd Serbia and Montenegro - Zeljko Joksimovic
- 3rd Greece - Sakis Rouvas
- 4th Turkey - Athena
- 5th= Cyprus - Lisa Andreas
- 5th= Sweden - Lena Philipsson
- 7th Albania - Anjeza Shahini
- 8th Germany - Max
- 9th Bosnia and Herzegovina - Deen
- 10th Spain - Ramon
Ruslana Lyzhychko
As well as being a talented singer she also an accomplished pianist, composer and video director. Her song for Eurovision 2004, "Wild Dances" received 280 points. Prior to the event she had released four albums in her native language but has since released two English speaking albums.
Ruslana Lyzhychko - Wild Dances
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