Eurovision Song Contest 2000

, host venue of the 2000 contest. The 2000 contest took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven", performed by Charlotte Nilsson. It was the fourth time that Sweden had staged the contest, following the , and contests held in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, respectively. The selected venue was the Stockholm Globe Arena, also known as in Swedish, an indoor arena first opened in 1989 and the world's largest hemispherical building. With capacity for over 16,000 people, which was reduced slightly to 13,000 for the contest, the Globe Arena was the largest venue the Eurovision Song Contest had ever seen at that point. Malmö was subsequently eliminated as a potential host city, due to high costs required to complete a suitable arena within the Malmömässan area and which would still have a relatively small audience capacity compared to the other venues on offer. Of the remaining options, Stockholm and were ultimately chosen by SVT managing director to host the event. Stockholm's bid won out over Gothenburg due to the lower costs of producing the event in the capital as well as with Stockholm having not hosted the event since 1975. == Participants ==

Per the rules of the contest twenty-four countries were allowed to participate in the 2000 contest, one more than the twenty-three countries that participated in the . entered the contest for the first time, and , , , , and returned after being absent from the previous year's event. 1999 participants , , , and did not participate in this year's contest. Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists in past editions. Serafín Zubiri competed in the contest for a second time, having previously participated for . Roger Pontare competed as a solo artist in this year's edition, following his appearance for where he competed alongside Marie Bergman. The two members of the Cypriot duo , Alexandros Panayi and Christina Argyri, had also both participated in Eurovision before, with Panayi having previously represented , while Argyri had been a backing performer at the same contest. A number of former participating artists also returned to perform as backing vocalists for some of the competing entries: , having previously represented alongside , returned to support the Icelandic duo as a backing singer; Albano Carrisi, who twice represented and with Romina Power as Al Bano and Romina Power, supported Switzerland's on stage; and , a member of the group that represented , was a backing singer for Malta's Claudette Pace in this year's event. Additionally, competed for Ireland in this year's contest, having previously served as backing vocalist for . Qualification Due to the high number of countries wishing to enter the contest, a relegation system was introduced in in order to reduce the number of countries which could compete in each year's contest. Any relegated countries would be able to return the following year, thus allowing all countries the opportunity to compete in at least one in every two editions. The relegation rules introduced for the 1997 contest were again utilised ahead of the 2000 contest, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. However the rules were modified for 2000 to ensure that the four participating countries which provide the largest financial contribution towards the organisation of the contest would be given an automatic place in the contest every year. Alongside the previous year's winning country and the Big Four, the remaining places in the 2000 contest were given to any eligible countries which had not competed in the 1999 contest, and the countries which had competed in 1999 that had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests. In cases where the average was identical between two or more countries, the total number of points scored in the most recent contest determined the final order. Broadcasters in , , and , participating countries from the which had not competed in 1999, and were therefore eligible to participate in 2000, decided not to enter, reportedly due to financial reasons. The calculations used to determine the countries relegated for the 2000 contest are outlined in the table below. Table key : Qualifier : Automatic qualifier : New/returning countries which did not compete in 1999 == Production ==

The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was produced SVT; Svante Stockselius served as executive producer, Peter Lundin served as producer, Marius Bratten served as director, and Mikael Varhelyi and Kristofer Röhr served as designers. On behalf of the contest organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the event was overseen by Christine Marchal-Ortiz as scrutineer. The contest was presented by the journalist Kattis Ahlström and the television presenter Anders Lundin. The chosen logo, presented publicly in early 2000, was a pair of open lips, and described as "a sensual, yet stylistically pure, mouth representing song, dialogue and speech" by its designers; ahead of the this logo was also considered by contest organisers when developing the contest's new generic logo for that edition. A compilation album featuring all 24 competing entries was released within Europe ahead of the contest, through the German record labels Ariola and BMG. This was the first time an official album had been commissioned by the organisers and followed a previous attempt at an album for the 1999 contest which failed to contain all entries in that year's contest due to copyright issues. == Format ==

Entries Each participating broadcaster was represented by one song, which was required to be no longer than three minutes in duration. A maximum of six performers were allowed on stage during each country's performance and all performers were required to be at least 16 years old in the year the contest was held. Selected entries were not permitted to be released commercially before 1 January 2000, and were then only allowed to be released in the country they represented until after the contest was held (except as part of a compilation album of all participating songs). The final submission date for all selected entries to be received by the contest organisers was set for 10 March. This submission was required to include a sound recording of the entry and backing track for use during the contest, a video presentation of the song on stage being performed by the artists, and the text of the song lyrics in its original language and translations in French and English for distribution to the participating broadcasters, their commentators and juries. Selected performers were required to be available from 7 May, with a staggered timetable for rehearsals in the contest venue to be developed by the organisers. Voting procedure The results of the 2000 contest were determined using the scoring system introduced in : each country awarded twelve points to its favourite entry, followed by ten points to its second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to one for the remaining songs which featured in the country's top ten, with countries unable to vote for their own entry. Each participating broadcaster was required to use televoting to determine their points, with viewers able to register their vote by telephone for a total of five minutes following the performance of the last competing entry. Viewers could vote by calling one of twenty-three different telephone numbers to represent the twenty-four competing entries except that which represented their own country. Once phone lines were opened a video recap containing short clips of each competing entry with the accompanying phone number for voting was shown in order to aid viewers during the voting window, with each household able to vote a maximum of three times. The postcards for the 2000 contest focussed on different aspects of life in Sweden; central to each country's postcard was a specific concept, e.g. an object or person, from that country which can be found in everyday Swedish life. The exception to this was the postcard for the Swedish entry, which showed a group of workers at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany. Listed below by order of performance are the locations featured in each postcard as well as the concept for the respective country represented: • Stockholm Public Library; a book by the Israeli author Amos Oz • Microbiology Centre, Karolinska Institute; Dutch scientists • Råsunda Stadium; the British football manager Stuart Baxter • Apartment in Stockholm; Estonian choral singing • Nightclub in Stockholm; French club music • Masquerade at the Royal Swedish Opera; a man dressed as Dracula • Stockholm harbour; the Maltese cross upon the sail of a boat • Stockholm City Centre; a man fills a boat with Norwegian petrol • Royal Dramatic Theatre; a performance of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters • Neighbourhood in Stockholm; a burglar is stopped by two • Underground station in Stockholm; two long-distance ice skaters eat Cypriot oranges • Forest outside Stockholm; two campers are disturbed by two Icelandic horses • ; designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo • Apartment building in Stockholm; various apartments all have the same Danish lamp • Street in Stockholm; a street vendor holds a knackwurst as a police chase passes by • ; a swimming race is timed using Swiss technology • Stockholm from the air; a group of skydivers use parachutes, credited to the Croatian inventor Faust Vrančić • Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany; construction workers watch the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 • Cinema in Stockholm; showing of the Macedonian film Before the Rain • Stockholm Archipelago; a ferry from Finland • Restaurant in Stockholm; pickled mushrooms, a Latvian speciality • Internet office in Stockholm; Mahir Çağrı, a Turkish internet celebrity • Dance studio in Stockholm; a group perform Irish dance • Stockholm Arlanda Airport; a man returns from an Austrian ski holiday with a noticeable sun tan == Contest overview ==

(pictured in 2008) were the second Danish act to win the contest, thirty-seven years after the country's previous win. The contest was held on 13 May 2000 at 21:00 CEST and lasted 3 hours and 2 minutes. The table below outlines the participating countries, the order in which they performed, the competing artists and songs, and the results of the voting. The winner was represented by the song "Fly on the Wings of Love", written by and performed by the Olsen Brothers. This marked Denmark's second contest win, thirty-seven years after its first victory in . and achieved their best-ever results, finishing second and fourth respectively, while achieved one of the strongest ever début performances in the contest's history with a third-place finish. Denmark's win was considered by some to be a surprise, as the song was not among the pre-contest favourites of fans or bookmakers, both of which had highly tipped Estonia for the win; however the Danish song ultimately received the third-highest points total yet seen at Eurovision and would go on to success across European charts in the weeks following the contest. Following the contest, the Russian delegation petitioned for Denmark to be disqualified due to the use of a vocoder during a brief moment of the performance to add an electronic sound to the vocals; the petition was ultimately rejected by the EBU. Spokespersons Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing, in English or French, the votes for its respective country. • • Marlayne • Colin Berry • Evelin Samuel • Hugo de Campos • • Axel Bulthaupt • Astrid von Stockar • Marko Rašica • Malin Ekander • Sandra Todorovska • Pia Mäkinen • Lauris Reiniks • == Detailed voting results ==

All countries were expected to use televoting to determine the points awarded by all countries, unless technological limitations in a country prevented a televote being held to a high standard, or where exceptional circumstances prevented a televote from being held. as well as in Macedonia, Romania and Turkey. The Netherlands and Latvia had originally planned to use televoting to determine their points, however the votes of their back-up juries were used instead. In the Netherlands, due to the Enschede fireworks disaster the broadcast of the contest was suspended partway through and thus a televote could not be held, while in Latvia televoting lines were overloaded resulting in viewers unable to vote and leaving organisers unable to accurately determine a valid result. The announcement of the results from each country was conducted in the order in which they performed, with the spokespersons announcing their country's points in English or French in ascending order. The detailed breakdown of the points awarded by each country is listed in the tables below. 12 points The below table summarises how the maximum 12 points were awarded from one country to another. The winning country is shown in bold. Denmark received the maximum score of 12 points from eight countries, with Latvia and Russia receiving four sets of 12 points each, Germany receiving three sets, Turkey receiving two, and Iceland, Romania and Sweden each receiving one maximum score. == Broadcasts ==

Each participating broadcaster was required to relay live and in full the contest via television. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants"; any passive countries wishing to participate in the following year's event were also required to provide a live broadcast of the contest or a deferred broadcast within 24 hours. In addition to the broadcasts by EBU members, the contest was also available on the internet for the first time in its history. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators, are shown in the tables below. } } ==Other awards==

The Barbara Dex Award, created in 1997 by fansite House of Eurovision, was awarded to the performer deemed to have been the "worst dressed" among the participants. The winner in 2000 was Belgium's representative , as determined by visitors to the House of Eurovision website. ==Notes and references==

Notes References Bibliography • • • • ==External links==