ESC 2007
A huge 42 countries took part in the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest. 28 of them in the semi-final vying for only 10 places in the final. Austria and Hungary returned after missing the 2006 contest. Serbia and Montenegro also returned, this time as two seperate countries. Georgia and the Czech Republic made their debuts. Monaco withdrew from the contest having failed to make it out of the Semi-Final since their return in 2004. Karolina Goceva returned for Macedonia, 5 years after her first appearance. Eirikur Hauksson was back for a 3rd attempt this time as a soloist having previously been a member of Icy in 1986 and Just4Fun in 1991. Evridiki was back for the 3rd time for Cyprus hoping not to finish 11th again. She didn't as she finished 15th. Edsilia Rombley was back for the Netherlands hoping to emulate her high finish of 1998, but it wasn't to be as she trailed in 21st. Olivia Lewis finally made it to the ESC after years of trying to win the Maltese National Final. Unfortunately for her her perseverance didn't pay off as she finished 25th. The Czech Repulic's debut was saved from an ignominous start by a single point received from the Estonian televoters. The 10 qualifiers were Belarus, Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Moldova.
Full Semi-Final Results
1.(15) 298 points - Serbia - Molitva - Marija Serifovic
2.(22) 224 points - Hungary - Unsubstantial Blues - Madgi Ruzsa
3.(26) 197 points - Turkey - Shake It Up Shekerim - Kenan Dogulu
4.(4) 176 points - Belarus - Work Your Magic - Koldun
5.(28 ) 168 points - Latvia - Questa Notte - Bonaparti.lv
6.(1) 146 points - Bulgaria - Water - Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov
7.(25) 140 points - Slovenia - Cvet z juka - Alenka Gotar
8.(6) 123 points - Georgia - Visionary Dream - Sopho
9.(18 ) 97 points - Macedonia - Mojot svet - Karolina
10.(9) 91 points - Moldova - Fight - Natalia Barbu
11.(17) 88 points - Portugal - Dança comigo (Vem ser feliz) - Sabrina
12.(21) 80 points - Andorra - Salvem el mon - Anonymous
13.(5) 77 points - Iceland - Valentine Lost - Eirikur Hauksson
14.(14) 74 points - Poland - Time To Party - The Jet Set
15.(3) 65 points - Cyprus - Comme ci, comme ça - Evridiki
16.(13) 54 points - Croatia - Vjerujem u ljubav - Dragonfly feat Dado Topic
17.(11) 49 points - Albania - Hear My Plea - Frederik Ndoci
18.(19) 48 points - Norway - Ven a bailar conmigo - Guri Schanke
19.(12) 45 points - Denmark - Drama Queen - DQ
20.(8 ) 40 points - Switzerland - Vampires Are Alive - DJ BoBo
21.(10) 38 points - Netherlands - On Top Of The World - Edsilia Rombley
22.(7) 33 points - Montenegro - 'Ajde kro?i - Stevan Faddy
(23) 33 points - Estonia - Partners In Crime - Gerli Padar
24.(2) 17 points - Israel - Push The Button - Teapacks
25.(20) 15 points - Malta - Vertigo - Olivia Lewis
26.(24) 14 points - Belgium - Love Power - The KMGs
27.(27) 4 points - Austria - Get A Life...Get Alive - Eric Papilaya
28.(16) 1 point - Czech Republic - Mala Dama - Kabat
The final was held again 2 days after the semi-final. Newcomers to the final were Georgia (making their debut in the contest), Belarus (at their 4th attempt), Bulgaria (at their 3rd attempt) and Serbia (making their debut as an independant country). Macedonia, having qualified for the final for the 4th consecutive time, were the only country in the final with a returning artist, Karolina Gocheva. Slovenia on the other hand finally made the final on their 4th attempt. Ukraine had the main talking point of the contest with the drag act Verka Serduchka. The Big 4 all wanted to improve their poor finishes of recent years. Once again Germany faired best but still finished a distant 19th. Spain avoided finishing in the bottom 4 for the 3rd consecutive year by finishing 20th. France weren't so lucky finishing 22nd for the 2nd consecutive year (as they had finished 23rd in 2005 it has been a bad few years for France). It looked for a long time that the United Kingdom would finish on 0 points again, but 7 points from Ireland and a truly bizarre 12 from Malta saved them from it, but not from finishing in the bottom 3 again. For the 2nd year running the Albanian votes saved a country from scoring 0 points. This time the lucky recipients were Ireland. The voting was fairly close but Serbia were never really challenged greatly. Serbia officially won on their debut but the question remains - was it really their debut having appeared before with Montenegro.
Results
1.(17) 268 points - Serbia - Molitva - Marija Serifovic
2.(18 ) 235 points - Ukraine - Dancing Lasha Tumbai - Verka Serduchka
3.(15) 207 points - Russia - Song #1 - Serebro
4.(22) 163 points - Turkey - Shake It Up Shekerim - Kenan Dogulu
5.(21) 157 points - Bulgaria - Water - Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankulov
6.(3) 145 points - Belarus - Work Your Magic - Koldun
7.(10) 139 points - Greece - Yassou Maria - Sarbel
8.(23) 138 points - Armenia - Anytime You Need - Hayko
9.(8 ) 128 points - Hungary - Unsubstantial Blues - Madgi Ruzsa
10.(24) 109 points - Moldova - Fight - Natalia Barbu
11.(1) 106 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Rijeka bez imena - Marija Sestic
12.(11) 97 points - Georgia - Visionary Dream - Sopho
13.(20) 84 points - Romania - Liubi, Liubi, I Love You - Todomondo
14.(6) 73 points - Macedonia - Mojot Svet - Karolina
15.(7) 66 points - Slovenia - Cvet z juga - Alenka Gotar
16.(14) 54 points - Latvia - Questa Notte - Bonaparti.lv
17.(5) 53 points - Finland - Leave Me Alone - Hanna Pakarinen
18.(12) 51 points - Sweden - The Worrying Kind - The Ark
19.(16) 49 points - Germany - Frauen regier'n die welt - Roger Cicero
20.(2) 43 points - Spain - I Love You Mi Vida - DNash
21.(9) 28 points - Lithuania - Love Or Leave - 4Fun
22.(13) 19 points - France - L'amour à la française - Les Fatals Picards
(19) 19 points - United Kingdom - Flying The Flag (For You) - Scooch
24.(4) 5 points - Ireland - They Can't Stop The Spring - Dervish