Eurovision Song Contest crossed the line of 50 years on run in Athens, Greece, on May 20th, 2006. Greece won last year and took the possibility to host the contest. The winner was the hard-rock band "Lordi" with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" that beat the Ruslana record in 2004 by 12 points.
The presenters of the show were Sakis Rouvas (the contestant of Eurovision 2004 who came 3rd with the song that started the string of success for Greece in this contest)
and american actress and TV presenter with the fluent knowledge of the Greek language, Maria Menounos.
The contest has seen the brilliant début of Armenia (6th place), but also "said goodbye" to Serbia & Montenegro, Austria and Hungary. The first refused to take part
in the contest due to the scandal on their national final show within the country. Had the said country participated in the contest
the Montenegrin band "No Name" would have taken part in the "Eurovision" again. They finished 7th in the prior contest.
"Eurovision" had the 1,000th song performed in the contest, Every Song Is A Cry For Love, sung by Brian Kennedy, who were presenting Ireland and,
by the way, finished 10th with 93 points overally. From this year on only 8, 10 and 12 points have been announced by the spokespeople. And others are automatically added to the scoreboard.
This way of representing the votes was heavily criticized by the audience because, at first, many people can't think through every vote due to such short time,
and others can't just notice some. At second, this change spoils the "fun" and the suspence, that everybody were used to. For instance, I don't like this way either.
Mostly, because of the last point i stated above. However this really saves time. On the other note, probably the only problem occurred during the voting procedure
is when the Dutch spokesperson tried to tell his telephone number to Sakis Rouvas, the presenter of the show. It's woth noticing that
for the first time the scoreboard had the full "Former Yougoslav Republic of Macedonia" instead of the usual abbreviation "F.Y.R. Macedonia".
As "Eurovision" is mainly associated with soft-"pop", schlager, the "hard-rock/metal" song victory in such a contest was the complete surprise for almost the whole audience.
"Creatures in masks" astonished the public with the song, the performance and, probably, much much more with their outfit. First time in contest's life
this happened. After 6 years on, the second place again was held by Russia. Their representative was Dima Bilan with the song Never Let You Go.
Bosnia & Herzegovina was represented by the band Hari Mata Hari with the beautiful Balkan ballad called "Lejla".
Top 3 of the most "12"s nations received consisted of these three countries, who made the Top 3 in the contest. Finland and Bosnia & Herzegovina received 8 highest marks
and Russia scored 7. The returning artists of the contest were "Ich Troje" from Poland, Carola from Sweden (participated for the 3rd time, won in 1991),
Eddie Butler from Israel, Fabrizio Faniello from Malta and Anna Vissi from the host nation (but, in 1982 she represented Cyprus, in 1980 - Greece).
Also You can notice some interesting facts about this year's contest. Sweden came fifth without receiving any "12", whereas Turkey got 3 highest
points but finished, just outside the Top 10, 11th. Lithuania, for the first time in their 12-year participation, scored their first 12 points.
Russia (2nd) and Romania (4th) received votes from 35 countries and Finland, who won, gained at least one point from 34 countries.
For the third year in a row, Greece keep their success and finish inside the Top 10 again. By looking forward, they will manage to continue doing it until 2009 included.
   
| 01. |  | Finland | Lordi | Hard rock hallelujah | 292 |
| 02. |  | Russia | Dima Bilan | Never let you go | 248 |
| 03. |  | Bosnia & Herzegovina | Hari Mata Hari | Lejla | 229 |
| 04. |  | Romania | Mihai Trăistariu | Tornerò | 172 |
| 05. |  | Sweden | Carola | Invincible | 170 |
| 06. |  | Lithuania | LT United | We are the winners | 162 |
| 07. |  | Ukraine | Tina Karol | Show me your love | 145 |
| 08. |  | Armenia | André | Without your love | 129 |
| 09. |  | Greece | Anna Vissi | Everything | 128 |
| 10. |  | Ireland | Brian Kennedy | Every song is a cry for love | 93 |
| 11. |  | Turkey | Sibel Tüzün | Süper Star | 91 |
| 12. |  | Croatia | Severina | Moja Štikla | 56 |
| 13. |  | FYR Macedonia | Elena Risteska | Ninanajna | 56 |
| 14. |  | Norway | Christine Guldbrandsen | Alvedansen | 36 |
| 15. |  | Germany | Texas Lightning | No, no, never | 36 |
| 16. |  | Switzerland | Six4One | If we all give a little | 30 |
| 17. |  | Latvia | Vocal Group Cosmos | I hear your heart | 30 |
| 18. |  | Denmark | Sidsel Ben Semmane | Twist of love | 26 |
| 19. |  | United Kingdom | Daz Sampson | Teenage life | 25 |
| 20. |  | Moldova | Arsenium feat. Natalia Gordienko | Loca | 22 |
| 21. |  | Spain | Las Ketchup | Un Blodymary | 18 |
| 22. |  | France | Virginie Pouchain | Il était temps | 5 |
| 23. |  | Israel | Eddie Butler | Together We Are One | 4 |
| 24. |  | Malta | Fabrizio Faniello | I Do | 1 |
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