VENUE Olympic Indoor Hall, Athens		ENTRIES 24
HOSTS Maria Menounos Sakis Rouvas		DEBUTS Armenia

The 2006 contest finally saw victory for Finland after four and a half decades of trying, as "death metal" band Lordi romped to victory in Athens.  They put together a killer publicity campaign garnering coverage all over the world, they "were" the face of Eurovision 2006 well before the contest, and a spectacular stage show cemented their victory. There was a thankful reduction in ethnic-lite songs after 2005 but they still proved quite popular with the voters as Ukraine and debutants Armenia made the lower reaches of the top ten. 

Athens audiences were hit with a series of gimmick entries which did predictably well with the viewers looking for quirky novelties. Lithuania sang "We Are The Winners Of Eurovision" and stormed to their best ever placing.  Ireland's honour was restored with a top ten finish thanks to their sending the very accomplished Brian Kennedy, with no gimmicks at all. 

The advantages of being in the semi-final were again apparent as the ten qualifiers filled all but two of the top twelve places, and once again the countries eliminated in the semi-final (and Serbia/Montenegro who weren't even in the contest) were allowed to vote, leading to another interminable voting sequence, which was made doubly tedious by the top three placings being well sorted way before the end. Neighbour and diaspora voting still played it's part, but the top nine songs were well ahead of the rest and widely supported across Europe.  There followed a huge drop-off in points as the songs from 14th to 21st wallowed in mediocre points return.  France and Spain finished in the bottom four for the second consecutive year, and Malta were only saved from "Nul Points" by the non-participating Albania.       

13 countries were eliminated in the "semi-final".

Voting

IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK:

The people of Montenegro vote narrowly to break up their federation with Serbia, bringing the final break-up of the six republics of former Yugoslavia.

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