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51st Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals Held In Athens

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  • 51st Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals Held In Athens

    51ST EUROVISION SONG CONTEST SEMI-FINALS HELD IN ATHENS

    Athens News Agency, Greece
    May 19 2006

    First-time contestant Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, FYROM,
    Ireland, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and Ukraine are the 10
    countries that qualified in the early hours of Friday for the 51st
    Eurovision song contest Final on Saturday night, following viewer
    voting late Thursday among the 23 contestants at the spectacular
    semi-final held in the indoor basketball venue at Athens' OAKA main
    Olympic complex.

    The 23 countries taking part in Thursday night's semi-final were:
    Armenia (which is taking part for the first time in the history of the
    competition), Bulgaria, Slovenia, Andora, Belarus, Albania, Belgium,
    Ireland, Cyprus, Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
    Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, The Netherlands, Lithuania,
    Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland.

    The ten best semi-finalists elected late Thursday night will now
    compete in Saturday's final with the 14 top songs of last year's
    Eurovision song contest: Switzerland, Moldova, Israel, Latvia, Norway,
    Malta, Denmark, Romania, Croatia (which was the first runner up and
    took the slot following the withdrawal of Serbia-Montenegro), the four
    major countries which traditionally participate in the competition
    -- Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom -- and 2006 host
    country Greece, which won the Eurovision song contest in 2005 with
    "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.

    Thursday night's qualifiers were Armenia, with "Without your Love"
    performed by Andre; Bosnia-Herzegovina, with "Lejla" performed by
    Hari Mata Hari and his band; Finland, with "Hard Rock Hallelujah"
    performed by the heavy metal band Lordi; FYROM, with "Ninanajna"
    performed by Elena Rusteska; Ireland, with the ballad "Every song
    is a cry for love" performed by Brian Kennedy; Lithuania, with "We
    are the Winners (of Eurovision)" performed by LT United; Russia,
    with "Never let you go" performed by Dima; Sweden, with "Invicible"
    performed by Carola; Turkey, with "Superstar" performed by Sibel Tuzun;
    and Ukraine, with "Show me your Love" performed by Tina Karol.

    The event was hosted by Greece's Eurovision 2004 third-place winner
    and pop heartthrob Sakis Rouvas ("Shake It") and Greek-American model,
    reporter and actress Maria Menounos, who will also host the Final on
    Saturday night.
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