Greece wins the 50th Eurovision contest

Helena Paparizou, former member of the Greek band Antique has won the 50th Eurovision Contest in Kiev, performing the song "My number one".
The Ukrainean president Viktor Yushchenko handed the pure gold trophy to the greek singer. Thousands of people partied on the streets in Athens, as the Greek capital will therefore be the organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest next year.

The 50th Eurovision Song Contest was overall a great show. Over 300,000 people gathered in Independence Square from Kiev, waving orange flags, and almost Europe's 120 million television viewers tuned in to watch the show. The contest attracted 39 entries, the most ever, from as far afield as Iceland and Israel.

The televoting brought some surprises, like the 12 points given by Turkey to Greece or the fact that Monaco dind't get any point from France.
The "Big Four" of the Eurovision Song Contest, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom (five times winner so far) and France, who pay the highest participation fee, took the bottom places this year.
Ukraine who has won the last edition with Ruslana's performance now only ranked 20.

Moldovans "Zdob si Zdub", came as a great suprise as the band's performance alongside a woman pensioner's presence on stage (impersonating "Grandma" - the character "who plays drum " in their song) brought Moldova the 5th place, at its first presence in the contest, and qualified the country for the next finale.

Romania came 3rd with "Let Me Try", performed by Luminita Anghel and the band Sistem, the highest position for Romania so far.

Final results:
Greece, Malta, Romania, Israel, Latvia, Moldova, Serbia and Muntenegro, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Russia, Albania, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Cyprus, Sweden, Ukraine, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany.