大象传媒

Coverage of the forty-ninth annual Eurovision Song Contest broadcast from Abdi Ipekci Arena in Istanbul, Turkey.Ukraine hit the jackpot on what was only their second entry in the contest with Ruslana Lyzhichko singing "Wild Dances."It was the first year that the contest was held over two days with a semi-final held midweek before the final on Saturday. The Big Four were given an automatic pass into the final as were the top ten finishers from 2003. All competing countries could vote in both the semis and the final even if they did not appear, this was done by a public phone vote.The new system allowed Andorra, Albania, Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro to make their debuts in the competition and Monaco was able to return after a twenty five year absence.As well as the official CD, for the first time the entire contest was released on DVD.The Cyprians were offended when no map of their island was shown before they presented their votes, despite this being the standard format used for all other countries. The reason for the omission was that Turkey recognised northern Cyprus as a separate republic despite it not being recognised anywhere else. They would therefore have risked angering the community by only showing the southern part of the island on the map. Despite this hiccup both Cyprus and Turkey awarded each other the full 12 points.There were some snags in the production, including the fact that just as the Slovenian entry was about to start the Turkish broadcaster accidentally cut to a commercial break meaning this performance was not seen by Turkish viewers and so no votes were given.In another break the Turkish hosts tried to go live to several parties going on around Europe, however a technical glitch meant they could only get through to Germany. Other than this the show ran smoothly although last year's winner Sertab Erener did get her shoes stuck in a speaker grill as she made her way on stage to present the trophy!