49th Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was held in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 15 of the same year. The contest was quite different from the others as the new feature was
the participation of all countries, who, of course, wish to participate. The Semifinal stage was introduced. And due to more and more countries wanting to take part in "Eurovision" each year,
it's been decided to finally implement the idea according to which every country may take part in the compettion regardless of the low finishing positions in the last contests
(that rule having low finished countries excluded from the contest was quite unfair to be honest, because you had to wait for a year to pass for your next participation).
Besides the introduction of the semifinal rule, the rule of votes' announcement was changed. For saving time presenters from now on re-read every vote in only
one language instead of two as it used to be. Andorra, Belarus, Albania and Serbia & Montenegro made their début in the contest, but the first two
didn't make it to the final.
The contest was won by Ruslana, the representative of the country that started the way in "Eurovision" only one year ago. Second place was held by débutants,
Serbia & Montenegro and their entrant, Željko Joksimović. It's worth noticing that this country scored 263 points both in the Semifinal and the in Final
having finished first and second there respectively. Greece enjoyed their third place, having sent Sakis Rouvas, the big Greek "star". Turkey, being the hosts of the contest,
re-launched the tradition of a host's entry doing well in the contest, having finished in the fourth place with 195 points. Fifth place was technically placed by both
Cyprus and Sweden, but, if use tie-breaker rules, Cyprus must be higher than Sweden.
During the show a couple of technical problems took place and in the short commercial break the hosts tried to connect to German, Turkish and Spanish parties but only Germans answered.
Also, during the Romanian postcard the information on the song was displayed on the screens, but immediately was taken away in a moment. On the half way to
the stage with a trophy in her hands to pass to Ruslana, who won the contest that night, Sertab Erener's shoe got stuck in the floor. It took some help to "rescue" the heel, but everything went good after.
On the whole, apart from these slips, the show went very smoothly.
You can observe the full Final Scoreboard below.
   
| 01. |  | Ukraine | Ruslana | Wild dances | 280 |
| 02. |  | Serbia & Montenegro | Željko Joksimović | Lane moje | 263 |
| 03. |  | Greece | Sakis Rouvas | Shake it | 252 |
| 04. |  | Turkey | Athena | For real | 195 |
| 05. |  | Cyprus | Lisa Andreas | Stronger every minute | 170 |
| 06. |  | Sweden | Lena Philipsson | It hurts | 170 |
| 07. |  | Albania | Anjeza Shahini | The image of you | 106 |
| 08. |  | Germany | Max | Can't wait until tonight | 93 |
| 09. |  | Bosnia & Herzegovina | Deen | In the Disco | 91 |
| 10. |  | Spain | Ramón | Para llenarme de ti | 87 |
| 11. |  | Russia | Julia Savicheva | Believe me | 67 |
| 12. |  | Malta | Julie & Ludwig | On again...off again | 50 |
| 13. |  | Croatia | Ivan Mikulić | You are the only one | 50 |
| 14. |  | FYR Macedonia | Toše Proeski | Life | 47 |
| 15. |  | France | Jonatan Cerrada | À chaque pas | 40 |
| 16. |  | United Kingdom | James Fox | Hold on to our love | 29 |
| 17. |  | Poland | Blue Café | Love Song | 27 |
| 18. |  | Romania | Sanda Ladosi | I admit | 18 |
| 18. |  | Iceland | Jónsi | Heaven | 16 |
| 20. |  | Netherlands | Re-union | Without you | 11 |
| 21. |  | Austria | Tie Break | Du bist | 9 |
| 22. |  | Belgium | Xandee | 1 Life | 7 |
| 23. |  | Ireland | Chris Doran | If my world stopped turning | 7 |
| 24. |  | Norway | Knut Anders Sørum | High | 3 |
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