Eurovision Song Contest 2006

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of a semi-final on 18 May and a final on 20 May 2006, held at the O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece, and presented by Maria Menounos and Sakis Rouvas. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), who staged the event after winning the 2005 contest for Greece with the song "My Number One" by Helena Paparizou. Rouvas had also represented Greece in 2004.

Broadcasters from thirty-seven countries participated in the contest. Armenia took part for the first time. Meanwhile, Austria, Hungary, and Serbia and Montenegro announced their non-participation in the contest. Serbian-Montenegrin broadcaster Udruženje javnih radija i televizija (UJRT) had intended to participate, but due to a scandal in its national selection, the tensions between its members, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) and Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), forced its withdrawal. Despite this, they did retain voting rights for the contest.

The winner was Finland with the heavy metal-song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", performed by Lordi and written by lead singer Mr. Lordi. This was Finland's first victory in the contest - and first top five placing - in 45 years of participation, the longest time a country had competed without a win at that point. It was also the first ever hard rock song to win the contest, as well as the first band to win since 1997. Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, and Sweden rounded out the top five. Bosnia and Herzegovina achieved their best result in their Eurovision history. Further down the table, Lithuania also achieved their best result to date, finishing sixth. Of the "Big Four" countries Germany placed the highest, finishing joint fourteenth (with Norway).

The contest saw the 1,000th song performed in the contest, when "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" was performed by Brian Kennedy for Ireland in the semi-final.

The contest took place in Athens, Greece, following the country's victory at the 2005 edition. It was the first time Greece hosted the contest. The venue that was chosen as the host venue was the O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor Hall, which is located in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, in the capital city of Greece. Completed in 1995, it was the largest indoor venue used at the 2004 Summer Olympics when hosted gymnastics and the basketball finals and the 2004 Summer Paralympics when hosted the wheelchair basketball.

When Greece won the 2005 contest, the Head of the Greek Delegation, Fotini Yiannoulatou, said that the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) was ready to host the event in Athens the next year. However, multiple cities bid to host the 2006 contest, including Thessaloniki and Patras, the second and the third largest city in Greece, respectively. The majors of the three cities (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras) were said that their cities were ready to host the event. The venues that were rumored for each city were: the Olympic Indoor Hall for Athens, Pylea Sports Hall for Thessaloniki and Dimitris Tofalos Arena for Patras.

A few days after Greece's win, the Greek public broadcaster stated that "ERT intends to hold the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, taking into account EBU's already expressed wish for the event to be combined with the Olympic facilities and amenities that the city of Athens has to offer". Mr. Panaghiotis Psomiadis, the Prefect of Thessaloniki stated the city will fight for the hosting of the contest. As the city of Patras seemed not to be available to host the contest, at the end it was a two-horse race between Athens and Thessaloniki.

Finally, on June 30, 2005, ERT and European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that Athens will be the host city of the 2006 contest, despite the opposition of some Greek politicians, stated that Athens already had its promotion during the 2004 Summer Olympics and that it's "another city's turn now". The joint decision of the EBU and ERT is to host the 51st Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, which has several modern Olympic venues, infrastructure and a proven ability to host events of this size.