Eurovision Song Contest 2004

About

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted —for the first time— of a semi-final on 12 May and a final on 15 May 2004, held at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, and presented by Korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), who staged the event after winning the 2003 contest for Turkey with the song "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. It was also the first time since the 1998 contest in Birmingham that it was not hosted in the host country's capital city.

Broadcasters from thirty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-six in the previous edition. Albania, Andorra, Belarus, and Serbia and Montenegro took part for the first time this year. The old relegation system was replaced with a semi-final format. This was done in order to accommodate the increasing number of countries who wished to participate. The new format allowed all countries to participate every year, rather than being forced to sit out per the relegation rules, which had been the standard since 1994. Because of this, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Monaco, and Switzerland all returned to the contest, Monaco not having competed since 1979.