3 months ago

Date: Saturday, 13 May 2000 - Venue: Globen, Stockholm, Sweden
Presentation: Kattis Ahlström & Anders Lundin
Voting: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to its top 10 (by televote).
Number of countries: 24
Qualification: Winner of 1999 + passive countries of 1999 + big 4 + 13 other countries with the highest average score over the previous five years (excl. Italy).

The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 1999 contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson. It was the fourth time Sweden had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1975, 1985 and 1992. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), the contest was held at the Globe Arena, with the final on 13 May 2000. The live show was presented by Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin.

Twenty-four countries took part in the contest. Latvia participated for the first time, while Slovakia, Greece and Hungary decided not to compete, citing financial reasons. Finland, Macedonia, Romania and Switzerland returned after their relegation from the previous edition. Russia also returned, after their last participation in 1997. Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia were relegated due to having the lowest average scores over the previous five editions.

The winner was Denmark with the song "Fly on the Wings of Love", performed by the Olsen Brothers and written by the oldest brother Jørgen Olsen. This was Denmark's second victory in the contest, following their win in 1963. Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Germany rounded out the top five. Both Russia and Estonia achieved their best result in the contest up to this point, while Latvia achieved the best placing for a debuting country since Poland's second place finish in 1994. On the day of their victory, Jørgen Olsen was 50 years and 61 days of age, making him the oldest artist yet to win the contest. The combined ages of The Olsen Brothers make them the oldest aged act ever to win the contest.

Sponsored by Microsoft, the contest was also broadcast in Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States via the internet for the first time.

There were some controversies concerning some participating countries. Israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the group also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. The Russian delegation petitioned for the winning Olsen Brothers to be disqualified, after they had used a vocoder to give Jørgen Olsen an electronic sound to his voice, during one of the verses of their performance. (Even though Russia themselves awarded Denmark maximum 12 points.) This issue was rejected by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

In the Netherlands, NOS decided to take the Contest off air halfway through because of the Enschede fireworks disaster that happened earlier that day, so it could use the channel for continuous news broadcasts. Later, NOS declared that it was both for practical reasons as well as because they found it "inappropriate to broadcast a light entertainment programme on the night of such a catastrophic event". As a result, televoting had to be suspended and the Dutch votes were given by a stand-by jury instead. The contest was later rebroadcast in full.

Results
Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01 Israel PingPong "Sameach" (שמח) Hebrew 22 7
02 Netherlands Linda Wagenmakers "No Goodbyes" English 13 40
03 United Kingdom Nicki French "Don't Play That Song Again" English 16 28
04 Estonia Ines "Once in a Lifetime" English 4 98
05 France Sofia Mestari "On aura le ciel" French 23 5
06 Romania Taxi "The Moon" English 17 25
07 Malta Claudette Pace "Desire" English 8 73
08 Norway Charmed "My Heart Goes Boom" English 11 57
09 Russia Alsou "Solo" English 2 155
10 Belgium Nathalie Sorce "Envie de vivre" French 24 2
11 Cyprus Voice "Nomiza" (Νόμιζα) Greek, Italian 21 8
12 Iceland August & Telma "Tell Me!" English 12 45
13 Spain Serafín Zubiri "Colgado de un sueño" Spanish 18 18
14 Denmark Olsen Brothers "Fly on the Wings of Love" English 1 195
15 Germany Stefan Raab "Wadde hadde dudde da?" German, English 5 96
16 Switzerland Jane Bogaert "La vita cos'è?" Italian 20 14
17 Croatia Goran Karan "Kad zaspu anđeli" Croatian 9 70
18 Sweden Roger Pontare "When Spirits Are Calling My Name" English 7 88
19 Macedonia XXL "100% te ljubam" (100% те љубам) Macedonian, English 15 29
20 Finland Nina Åström "A Little Bit" English 18 18
21 Latvia Brainstorm "My Star" English 3 136
22 Turkey Pınar Ayhan & The SOS "Yorgunum Anla" Turkish, English 10 59
23 Ireland Eamonn Toal "Millennium of Love" English 6 92
24 Austria The Rounder Girls "All to You" English 14 34