Dates: Semi-final 12 May 2004 - Final 15 May 2004
Host Venue: Abdi İpekçi Arena, Istanbul, Turkey
Presenters: Korhan Abay, Meltem Cumbul
Directed by Sven Stojanovic
Executive supervisor: Svante Stockselius
Executive producer: Bülent Osma
Host broadcaster. Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT)
Opening act: Sertab Erener
Interval act: Semi-final: ABBA: The Last Video
Final: Fire of Anatolia

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following Sertab Erener's win at the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia with the song "Everyway That I Can" – marking the country's first victory in the contest. The national broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), staged the event at the Abdi İpekçi Arena on 12 and 15 May 2004.

Ukrainian singer Ruslana won the contest with "Wild Dances". It is notable that this was only Ukraine's second participation in the contest. This was also the third year in a row in which the contest was won by a woman, performing a song composed at least partially by herself (being the previous two Marie N and Sertab Erener, who co-wrote their winning songs for the 2002 and 2003 contests).

To accommodate the increasing number of countries who wished to participate, a semi-final was introduced. The countries which did not qualify for the final are normally calculate like participating countries, as well semi-finals are a part of the competition. For the second consecutive year, no returning acts were present – only the sixth time (including 1956) in the history of the contest that this happened and it was the first time this had happened in two consecutive years.

The semi-final was held on 12 May 2004 at 21:00 (CET). 22 countries performed and all participants voted except France, Poland and Russia. This was the first ever semi-final in Eurovision history.


Draw Country Artist Song Language Place Points
01 Finland Jari Sillanpää "Takes 2 to Tango" English 14 51
02 Belarus Aleksandra and Konstantin "My Galileo" English 19 10
03 Switzerland Piero Esteriore & The MusicStars "Celebrate" English 22 0
04 Latvia Fomins and Kleins "Dziesma par laimi" Latvian 17 23
05 Israel David D'Or "Leha'amin" (להאמין) Hebrew, English 11 57
06 Andorra Marta Roure "Jugarem a estimar-nos" Catalan 18 12
07 Portugal Sofia Vitória "Foi magia" Portuguese 15 38
08 Malta Julie and Ludwig "On Again... Off Again" English 8 74
09 Monaco Maryon "Notre planète" French 19 10
10 Greece Sakis Rouvas "Shake It" English 3 238
11 Ukraine Ruslana "Wild Dances" English, Ukrainian 2 256
12 Lithuania Linas and Simona "What's Happened to Your Love?" English 16 26
13 Albania Anjeza Shahini "The Image of You" English 4 167
14 Cyprus Lisa Andreas "Stronger Every Minute" English 5 149
15 Macedonia Toše Proeski "Life" English 10 71
16 Slovenia Platin "Stay Forever" English 21 5
17 Estonia Neiokõsõ "Tii" Võro 11 57
18 Croatia Ivan Mikulić "You Are the Only One" English 9 72
19 Denmark Tomas Thordarson "Shame on You" English 13 56
20 Serbia and Montenegro Željko Joksimović & Ad-Hoc Orchestra "Lane moje" (Лане моје) Serbian 1 263
21 Bosnia and Herzegovina Deen "In the Disco" English 7 133
22 Netherlands Re-Union "Without You" English 6 146

A new ABBA video was shown in the semi-final, briefly outlining how ABBA started and what the response was of the first record company they approached. It featured small puppets of the band performing snippets of their songs (the voices being the ones of the band) and featured Rik Mayall as the record company manager. This was cut from the Eurovision Song Contest DVD and released separately. References to the video that were made running up to the showing of it were also cut.

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