Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's fiftieth anniversary and to determine the contest's most popular entrant of its fifty years. Hosted by Katrina Leskanich and Renārs Kaupers, the event took place at Forum, in Copenhagen on 22 October 2005. The host was Danish broadcaster DR. Fourteen songs from the contest's first half-century, chosen through an internet poll and by a jury, contested the event.

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest
Dates
Final22 October 2005
Host
VenueForum, Copenhagen, Denmark
Presenter(s)
Musical directorMichael Bojesen
Directed byLars Hammer
Executive supervisor
Executive producerJan Frifelt
Host broadcasterEBU, DR
Participation map
  •      Countries that broadcast the show live and were allowed to vote     Countries that broadcast the show delayed and thus were not allowed to vote     Countries that participated at Eurovision in the past but did not broadcast or vote     Countries that hadn't participated at Eurovision in the past but broadcast the show delayed
Vote
Voting systemTelevoting and juries; each country awarded 1–8, 10, and 12 points to their ten favourite songs. In the second round, each country distributes 6 points and above to the best five songs from the first round.
Winning song"Waterloo" by ABBA

Thirty-one EBU-member countries broadcast the concert (although notably France, Italy and the United Kingdom did not) and televoting and juries in these countries decided the winner. A total of 2.5 million votes were cast during the live broadcast. The event was won by Swedish group ABBA, who did not attend, with the song "Waterloo"; the band had originally won the Contest for Sweden in 1974.

To coincide with the event, the EBU released two double album CDs featuring Eurovision songs from the previous fifty years. Two DVDs with original Eurovision performances of these songs were also released.

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