The 2001 contest saw a new era dawn in the history of the contest with a country from the so-called "new school" winning for the first time. Estonia's victory could not have been more surprising. A rank 50-1 outsider with the bookmakers pre-contest it was considered a no hoper. It just goes to show that bookmakers should stick to horses and dogs. Greece returned to the contest after a 2 year break with their biggest success to date. Using a group who were based in Scandinavia was a clever ploy as Greece finished 3rd even without their biggest ally, Cyprus. Half of Antique, Helena Papaprizou, returned 4 years later to claim Greece's first victory. Also returning, this time 5 years later, would be Malta's Fabrizio Faniello with a great deal less success than Helena. The Dutch entry could have caused confusion. Called "Out On My Own" it was similar to the Norwegian entry called "On My Own". To add to the confusion both the Dutch and German entrants were called Michelle. There was something familiar about the Swedish entry this year. It was later revealed to be a possible plagiarism of the Belgian entry from 1996. It has never been officially called as such but many ESC fans consider it to be a blatant rip off of the earlier entry. That's not to say all ESC fans. There are some who just don't see the similarities at all. The voting was again one sided as Estonia took an early lead. Denmark did have the lead for a while but 4 consecutive 12 points to Estonia meant victory was theirs. Having had the oldest winners the previous years Dave Benton took that record from Jorgen Olsen by a matter of months.

Results
1.(20) 198 points - Estonia - Everybody - Tanel Padar & Dave Benton
2.(23) 177 points - Denmark - Never Ever Let You Go - Rollo & King
3.(22) 147 points - Greece - Die For You - Antique
4.(14) 142 points - France - Je n'ai que mon âme - Natasha St Pier
5.(7) 100 points - Sweden - Listen To Your Heartbeat - Friends
6.(13) 76 points - Spain - Dile que la quiero - David Civera
7.(17) 70 points - Slovenia - Energy - Nusa Derenda
8.(19) 66 points - Germany - Wer Liebe lebt - Michelle
9.(21) 48 points - Malta - Another Summer Night - Fabrizio Fannielo
10.(10) 42 points - Croatia - Strings Of My Heart - Vanna
11.(15) 41 points - Turkey - Sevgiliye Son - Sedat Yüce
12.(6) 37 points - Russia - Lady Alpine Blue - Mumiy Troll
13.(8 ) 35 points - Lithuania - You Got Style - Skamp
14.(3) 29 points - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Hano - Nino Prses
15.(16) 28 points - United Kingdom - No Dream Impossible - Lindsay
16.(5) 25 points - Israel - En Davar - Tal Sondak
17.(11) 18 points - Portugal - Só sei ser feliz assim - MTM
18.(1) 16 points - Netherlands - Out On My Own - Michelle
(9) 16 points - Latvia - Too Much - Arnis Mednis
20.(18) 11 points - Poland - 2 Long - Piasek
21.(12) 6 points - Ireland - Without Your Love - Gary O'Shaughnessey
22.(2) 3 points - Iceland - Angel - 2Tricky
(4) 3 points - Norway - On My Own - Haldor Lægreid