The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the 2003 contest with the song "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), the contest was held at the Abdi İpekçi Arena, and, for the first time, consisted of a semi-final on 12 May, and a final on 15 May 2004. The two live shows were presented by Turkish actors Korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul. It was the first time that Turkey had hosted the contest, 29 years after the country made its debut, and was also the first time since the 1998 contest in Birmingham that it was not hosted in the host country's capital city.
Thirty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-six in the previous edition. Albania, Andorra, Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro took part for the first time this year. The old relegation system was replaced with a semi-final format. This was done in order to accommodate the increasing number of countries who wished to participate. The new format allowed all countries to participate every year, rather than being forced to sit out per the relegation rules, which had been the standard since 1994. Because of this, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Monaco and Switzerland all returned to the contest, Monaco not having competed since 1979.
The winner was Ukraine with the song "Wild Dances", performed by Ruslana who wrote it with her husband Oleksandr Ksenofontov. This was Ukraine's first victory in the contest, only one year after the country made its debut in 2003. Serbia and Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Sweden rounded out the top five. Due to the expansion of the contest, this year was the first time in which a non-winning entry scored over 200 points. Prior to this contest, only the winning entries in 1994 and 1997 had passed this mark. In this contest, the top 3 songs all got over 200 points. An official CD was released and, for the first time, the entire contest was released on DVD which included the semi-final and the final.
Results[]
Semi-finals[]
| Rank | Country | EBU member station | Artist(s) | Song | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serbia and Montenegro | UJRT | Željko Joksimović and Ad-Hoc Orchestra | "Lane moje" (Лане моје) | 263 |
| 2 | Ukraine | NTU | Ruslana | "Wild Dances" | 256 |
| 3 | Greece | ERT | Sakis Rouvas | "Shake It" | 238 |
| 4 | Albania | RTSH | Anjeza Shahini | "The Image of You" | 167 |
| 5 | Cyprus | CyBC | Lisa Andreas | "Stronger Every Minute" | 149 |
| 6 | Netherlands | NOS | Re-union | "Without You" | 146 |
| 7 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | PBSBiH | Deen | "In the Disco" | 133 |
| 8 | Malta | PBS | Julie and Ludwig | "On Again... Off Again" | 74 |
| 9 | Croatia | HRT | Ivan Mikulić | "You Are the Only One" | 72 |
| 10 | Macedonia | MRT | Toše Proeski | "Life" | 71 |
| 11 | Israel | IBA | David D'Or | "Leha'amin" (להאמין) | 57 |
| Estonia | ETV | Neiokõsõ | "Tii" | 57 | |
| 13 | Denmark | DR | Tomas Thordarson | "Shame on You" | 56 |
| 14 | Finland | YLE | Jari Sillanpää | "Takes 2 to Tango" | 51 |
| 15 | Portugal | RTP | Sofia Vitória | "Foi magia" | 38 |
| 16 | Lithuania | LRT | Linas and Simona | "What's Happened to Your Love" | 26 |
| 17 | Latvia | LTV | Fomins and Kleins | "Dziesma par laimi" | 23 |
| 18 | Andorra | RTVA | Marta Roure | "Jugarem a estimar-nos" | 12 |
| 19 | Belarus | BTRC | Aleksandra and Konstantin | "My Galileo" | 10 |
| Monaco | TMC | Maryon | "Notre planète" | 10 | |
| 21 | Slovenia | RTVSLO | Platin | "Stay Forever" | 5 |
| 22 | Switzerland | SRG SSR | Piero and the MusicStars | "Celebrate" | 0 |
Finals[]
Country in gold is the winning entry, the country in silver is the host country, the countries in lime are the "Big 4" countries and the countries in brown are the top 10 countries from the 2003 final (other than the Big 4) which are rewarded with automatic spots in the finals.
| Rank | Country | EBU member station | Artist | Song | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Ukraine | NTU | Ruslana | "Wild Dances" | 280 |
| 02 | Serbia and Montenegro | UJRT | Željko Joksimović and Ad-Hoc Orchestra | "Lane moje" (Лане моје) | 263 |
| 03 | Greece | ERT | Sakis Rouvas | "Shake It" | 252 |
| 04 | Turkey | TRT | Athena | "For Real" | 195 |
| 05 | Cyprus | CyBC | Lisa Andreas | "Stronger Every Minute" | 170 |
| Sweden | SVT | Lena Philipsson | "It Hurts" | 170 | |
| 07 | Albania | RTSH | Anjeza Shahani | "The Image of You" | 106 |
| 08 | Germany | ARD/NDR | Max | "Can't Wait Until Tonight" | 93 |
| 09 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | PBSBiH | Deen | "In the Disco" | 91 |
| 10 | Spain | TVE | Ramón | "Para llenarme de ti" | 87 |
| 11 | Russia | Channel One | Julia Savicheva | "Believe Me" | 67 |
| 12 | Malta | PBS | Julie and Ludwig | "On Again... Off Again" | 50 |
| Croatia | HRT | Ivan Mikulić | "You Are the Only One" | 50 | |
| 14 | Macedonia | MRT | Toše Proeski | "Life" | 47 |
| 15 | France | France Télévisions | Jonathan Cerrada | "À chaque pas" | 40 |
| 16 | United Kingdom | BBC | James Fox | "Hold On to Our Love" | 29 |
| 17 | Poland | TVP | Blue Café | "Love Song" | 27 |
| 18 | Romania | TVR | Sanda | "I Admit" | 18 |
| 19 | Iceland | RÚV | Jónsi | "Heaven" | 16 |
| 20 | Netherlands | NOS | Re-union | "Without You" | 11 |
| 21 | Austria | ORF | Tie Break | "Du bist" | 9 |
| 22 | Belgium | VRT | Xandee | "1 Life" | 7 |
| Ireland | RTÉ | Chris Doran | "If My World Stopped Turning" | 7 | |
| 24 | Norway | NRK | Knut Anders Sørum | "High" | 3 |
Awards[]
AP Awards[]
- Artist Award - "Life" by Toše Proeski (Macedonia)
- Composer Award - "Hold On to Our Love" by James Fox (United Kingdom)
- Performance Award - "Wild Dances" by Ruslana (Ukraine)
- Song Award - "Foi magia" by Sofia Vitória (Portugal)
Marcel Bezençon Awards[]
- Artistic Award - "Wild Dances" by Ruslana (Ukraine)
- Composers Award - "Stronger Every Minute" by Lisa Andreas (Cyprus)
- Press Award - "Lane moje" by Željko Joksimović (Serbia and Montenegro)
Barbara Dex Award[]
| Rank | Country | Artist(s) | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Romania | Sanda | "I Admit" |
Broadcast[]
Participating countries[]
| Country | Broadcaster(s) | Commentator(s) | Shows | Spokesperson |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | RTSH | Leon Menkshi | all shows | Zhani Ciko |
| Andorra | ATV | Meri Picart, Josep Lluís Trabal | all shows | Pati Molné |
| Austria | ORF 1 | Andi Knoll | all shows | Dodo Roscic |
| Belarus | BTRC | Ales Kruglyakov, Denis Dudinsky | all shows | Denis Kurian |
| Belgium (Dutch) | TV1 | André Vermeulen, Bart Peeters | all shows | Martine Prenen |
| Belgium (French) | La Une | Jean-Pierre Hautier | finals | |
| La Première | Unknown | |||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | BHTV1 | Dejan Kukrić | all shows | Mija Martina |
| Federalna TV | ||||
| Croatia | HRT | Unknown | all shows | Barbara Kolar |
| Cyprus | CyBC | Evi Papamichael | all shows | Loukas Hamatsos |
| Denmark | DR1 | Jørgen de Mylius | all shows | Camilla Ottesen |
| Estonia | ETV | Marko Reikop | all shows | Maarja-Liis Ilus |
| Raadio 2 | Mart Juur, Andrus Kivirähk | |||
| Finland (Finnish) | YLE TV2 | Markus Kajo, Asko Murtomäki | all shows | Anna Stenlund |
| YLE Radio Suomi | Sanna Kojo, Jorma Hietamäki | |||
| Finland (Swedish) | YLE FST, YLE Radio Vega | Thomas Lundin | ||
| YLE Radio Vega | Hans Johansson | finals | ||
| France | France 3 | Laurent Ruquier, Elsa Fayer | finals | Alex Taylor |
| France Bleu | Jean-Luc Delarue | |||
| Germany | NDR Fernsehen | Peter Urban | semi-finals | Thomas Anders |
| Das Erste | finals | |||
| Greece | ERT | Dafni Bokota | all shows | Alexis Kostalas |
| Iceland | Sjónvarpið, Rás 2 | Gísli Marteinn Baldursson | all shows | Sigrún Ósk Kristjánsdóttir |
| Ireland | N2 | Marty Whelan | semi-finals | Johnny Logan |
| RTÉ One | finals | |||
| Israel | IBA | No commentator | all shows | Merav Miller |
| Latvia | LTV1 | Kārlis Streips | all shows | Lauris Reiniks |
| Lithuania | LTV | Darius Užkuraitis | Unknown | Rolandas Vilkončius |
| Macedonia | MTV 1 | Unknown | all shows | Karolina Petkovska |
| Malta | TVM | Eileen Montesin | all shows | Claire Agius |
| Monaco | TMC Monte-Carlo | Bernard Montiel | all shows | Anne Allegrini |
| Netherlands | Nederland 2 | Willem van Beusekom, Cornald Maas | all shows | Esther Hart |
| Radio 2 | Unknown | |||
| Norway | NRK2 | Jostein Pedersen | semi-finals | Ingvild Helljesen |
| NRK1 | finals | |||
| NRK P1 | Unknown | |||
| Poland | TVP1 | Artur Orzech | all shows | Maciej Orłoś |
| Portugal | RTP | Eládio Clímaco | all shows | Isabel Angelino |
| Romania | TVR | Unknown | all shows | Andreea Marin |
| Russia | Channel One | Yuriy Aksyuta, Yelena Batinova | finals | Yana Churikova |
| Serbia and Montenegro | RTS1 | Unknown | semi-finals | Nataša Miljković |
| Duška Vučinić-Lučić, Stanko Crnobrnja | finals | |||
| Slovenia | SLO 2 | Andrea F | semi-finals | Peter Poles |
| SLO 1 | finals | |||
| Unknown RTVSLO radio station | Jernej Vene | all shows | ||
| Spain | La 2 | Beatriz Pécker | semi-finals | Anne Igartiburu |
| La Primera | finals | |||
| Sweden | SVT1 | Pekka Heino | all shows | Jovan Radomir |
| SR P4 | Björn Kjellman, Carolina Norén | |||
| Switzerland (German) | SF 2 | Marco Fritsche | semi-finals | Emel Aykanat |
| SF 1 | Sandra Studer | finals | ||
| Switzerland (French) | TSR 2 | Jean-Marc Richard, Alain Morisod | semi-finals | |
| TSR 1 | finals | |||
| Switzerland (Italian) | TSI 1 | Daniela Tami, Claudio Lazzarino | all shows | |
| Turkey | TRT 1, TRT Int | Unknown | all shows | Meltem Ersan Yazgan |
| Ukraine | Pershyi Natsionalnyi | Rodion Pryntsevsky | all shows | Pavlo Shylko |
| United Kingdom | BBC Three | Paddy O'Connell | semi-finals | Lorraine Kelly |
| BBC One, BBC Prime | Terry Wogan | finals | ||
| BBC Radio 2 | Ken Bruce |
Non-participating countries[]
| Country | Broadcaster(s) | Commentator(s) | Shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armenia | AMPTV | Unknown | Unknown |
| Australia | SBS TV | Des Mangan | all shows |
| Kosovo | RTK | Unknown | Unknown |
| Puerto Rico | MSN | Unknown | Unknown |
| United States | Israeli Network | Unknown | Unknown |
Broadcast notes[]
- Australia - SBS TV broadcast the semi-finals deferred on 14 May 2004 and the final deferred on 16 May 2004 at 19:30 AEST (09:30 UTC).
- Norway - NRK1 aired a deferred repeat broadcast of the semi-finals at 23:40 CEST (21:40 UTC).