Eurovision Song Contest 2000

The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, and presented by Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), who staged the event after winning the 1999 contest for Sweden with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson. With an audience of 13,000 people present, the 2000 contest was the largest seen in its history until that point.

Broadcasters from twenty-four countries participated in the contest. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia, which had participated in the 1999 contest, were relegated after achieving the lowest average points totals over the preceding five contests. These countries were replaced by Latvia in its first contest appearance, Finland, Macedonia, Romania and Switzerland which were relegated from the previous year's event, and Russia which returned after a two-year absence.

The winner was Denmark with the song "Fly on the Wings of Love", written by Jørgen Olsen [da] and performed by the Olsen Brothers. Although Denmark was not a pre-contest favourite to win the title, "Fly on the Wings of Love" received the third-highest points total yet seen in the contest, gaining 195 points, and the song went on to become a success in singles charts across Europe. Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and Germany rounded out the top five, with Russia and Estonia achieving their best ever results, and Latvia achieving one of the highest placings for a début entry in the contest's history. The 2000 contest was the first to be broadcast over the internet, with a webcast of the live show available in Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia through Microsoft's MSN portals.

The 2000 contest took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 1999 edition with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven", performed by Charlotte Nilsson. It was the fourth time that Sweden had staged the contest, following the 1975, 1985 and 1992 contests held in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, respectively. The selected venue was the Globe Arena, also known as Globen in Swedish, an indoor arena first opened in 1989 and the world's largest hemispherical building. With capacity for over 16,000 people, which was reduced slightly to 13,000 for the contest, the Globe Arena was the largest venue the Eurovision Song Contest had ever seen at that point.

Host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) approached venues in three cities – namely Gothenburg, Malmö and Stockholm – to establish a suitable host city and venue for the contest. The venues chosen following this initial round of discussions were the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, which had previously hosted the 1985 contest; Malmömässan in Malmö; and Globen in Stockholm. Malmö was subsequently eliminated as a potential host city, due to high costs required to complete a suitable arena within the Malmömässan area and which would still have a relatively small audience capacity compared to the other venues on offer. Of the remaining options, Stockholm and Globen were ultimately chosen by SVT managing director Sam Nilsson [sv] to host the event. Stockholm's bid won out over Gothenburg due to the lower costs of producing the event in the capital as well as with Stockholm having not hosted the event since 1975.

Per the rules of the contest twenty-four countries were allowed to participate in the 2000 contest, one more than the twenty-three countries that participated in the 1999 event. Latvia entered the contest for the first time, and Finland, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, and Switzerland returned after being absent from the previous year's event. 1999 participants Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia did not participate in this year's contest.

Several of the performing artists had previously competed as lead artists in past editions. Serafín Zubiri competed in the contest for a second time, having previously participated for Spain in 1992. Roger Pontare competed as a solo artist in this year's edition, following his appearance for Sweden in 1994 where he competed alongside Marie Bergman. The two members of the Cypriot duo Voice [it], Alexandros Panayi and Christina Argyri, had also both participated in Eurovision before, with Panayi having previously represented Cyprus in 1995, while Argyri had been a backing performer at the same contest. A number of former participating artists also returned to perform as backing vocalists for some of the competing entries: Eyjólfur Kristjánsson [is], having previously represented Iceland in 1991 alongside Stefán Hilmarsson [is], returned to support the Icelandic duo August and Telma [is] as a backing singer; Albano Carrisi, who twice represented Italy in 1976 and 1985 with Romina Power as Al Bano and Romina Power, supported Switzerland's Jane Bogaert [de] on stage; and Gabriel Forss [sv], a member of the group Blond [sv] that represented Sweden in 1997, was a backing singer for Malta's Claudette Pace in this year's event. Additionally, Eamonn Toal [fr] competed for Ireland in this year's contest, having previously served as backing vocalist for Ireland in 1995.

Due to the high number of countries wishing to enter the contest, a relegation system was introduced in 1993 in order to reduce the number of countries which could compete in each year's contest. Any relegated countries would be able to return the following year, thus allowing all countries the opportunity to compete in at least one in every two editions. The relegation rules introduced for the 1997 contest were again utilised ahead of the 2000 contest, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. However the rules were modified for 2000 to ensure that the four participating countries which provide the largest financial contribution towards the organisation of the contest would be given an automatic place in the contest every year. This group – comprising France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom – was subsequently dubbed the "Big Four" group of countries. Alongside the previous year's winning country and the Big Four, the remaining places in the 2000 contest were given to any eligible countries which had not competed in the 1999 contest, and the countries which had competed in 1999 that had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests. In cases where the average was identical between two or more countries, the total number of points scored in the most recent contest determined the final order.