| Dates | |
| Final | Thursday 19 May 2005 |
| Host | |
| Venue |  Palace of Sports, Kiev, Ukraine |
| Presenter(s) | Maria Efrosinina & Pavlo Shylko |
| Directed by | Sven Stojanovic |
| Executive supervisor | Svante Stockselius |
| Executive producer | Pavlo Grytsak |
| Host broadcaster | National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) |
| Opening Act | The Song and Dance Company of Ukraine Military Forces, A-6 Ballet and Diezel DJ Power (Freak show) |
| Interval act | Irina Mazur’s Ballet „Life“ |
| Qualifiers | Moldova Latvia Israel Norway Romania Hungary F.Y.R. Macedonia Switzerland Croatia Denmark |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 24 in Final , 39 in Total |
| Debuting countries |  Bulgaria Moldova |
| Returning countries |  Hungary |
| Non-returning countries | None |
The 24th Eurovision Song Contest was held outside the geographical area of
Europe for the first time. Jerusalem played the proud host of the annual European event
The Israeli capital, Jerusalem, was this year’s host city that welcomed 19 different delegations. Turkey withdrew from the contest because it took place in Israel and many Arab countries put some pressure on Turkey not to go to Jerusalem. Lots of the artists were familiar – they had returned to the contest like Peter, Sue & Marc from Switzerland, Anne-Marie David, the 1973 winner for Luxembourg, now singing for France, and Anita Skorgan for Norway. Israel won for the second time in a row with the song Hallelujah which became a Europe-wide hit. Spain was the last country to cast its votes. At that moment Spain was in the lead with 1 point ahead of Israel, but the Spanish 10 points gave Israel its second victory. It was later rumoured Spain had deliberately given its points to Israel because they didn’t want to win themselves.
The German entry, performed by band Dschinghis Khan also went on to become a hit in several European countries, despite being heavily criticised in Germany itself. Germany’s neighbour Austria had a hard time though and came last. The entry, written by Josef Dermoser and avantgarde artist André Heller about Jerusalem didn’t prove to be popular with the national juries. The Swiss contestants Peter, Sue & Marc had difficulties getting into the country and had to explain to customs exactly why they needed so many watering cans, hoses, bin bags and bottle openers which were needed for their refreshing performance on the Jerusalem stage.
The Belgian singer Micha Marah was very unhappy with her song Hey Nana as this was selected against her will in the Belgian pre-selection. She refused to record the song and it remains one of the few songs in Eurovision Song Contest that don’t have a studio-version. Monaco decided to withdraw from the contest after their singer Laurent Vaguener only reached the 16th place and the principality would only return again 25 years later, in 2004.
Participants
| # | Representing country | Performer(s) | Song title, writer(s) and composer(s) | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Portugal RTP | Manuela Bravo | Sobe, Sobe, Balão Sobe | 064 | 09 |
| 02 | Italy RAI | Matia Bazar | Raggio Di Luna | 027 | 15 |
| 03 | Denmark DR | Tommy Seebach | Disco Tango | 076 | 06 |
| 04 | Ireland RTÉ | Cathal Dunne | Happy Man | 080 | 05 |
| 05 | Finland YLE | Katri-Helena | Katso Sineen Taivaan | 038 | 14 |
| 06 | Monaco TMC | Laurent Vaguener | Notre Vie, C’est La Musique | 012 | 16 |
| 07 | Greece ERT | Elpida | Socrates | 069 | 08 |
| 08 | Switzerland SSR SRG | Peter, Sue and Marc and Pfuri, Gorps and Kniri | Trödler Und Co. | 060 | 10 |
| 09 | Germany ARD | Dschinghis Khan | Dschinghis Khan | 086 | 04 |
| 10 | Israel IBA | Milk and Honey | Hallelujah | 125 | 01 |
| 11 | France TF1 | Anne-Marie David | Je Suis L’enfant-soleil | 106 | 03 |
| 12 | Belgium BRT | Micha Marah | Hey Nana | 005 | 18 |
| 13 | Luxembourg CLT | Jeane Manson | J’ai Déjà Vu ça Dans Tes Yeux | 044 | 13 |
| 14 | The Netherlands NOS | Xandra | Colorado | 051 | 12 |
| 15 | Sweden SR | Ted Gärdestad | Satellit | 008 | 17 |
| 16 | Norway NRK | Anita Skorgan | Oliver | 057 | 11 |
| 17 | United Kingdom BBC | Black Lace | Mary Ann | 073 | 07 |
| 18 | Austria ORF | Christina Simon | Heute In Jerusalem | 005 | 18 |
| 19 | Spain TVE | Betty Missiego | Su Canción | 116 | 02 |
Scoreboard
| Participant | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 7 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 64 | 9 | ||||||
| Italy | 8 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 27 | 15 | |||||||||||||||
| Denmark | 3 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 76 | 6 | |||||
| Ireland | 10 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 80 | 5 | ||||||
| Finland | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 38 | 14 | |||||||||||||
| Monaco | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 16 | ||||||||||||||
| Greece | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 69 | 8 | |||||
| Switzerland | 12 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 60 | 10 | |||||||||
| Germany | 4 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 86 | 4 | |||||
| Israel | 8 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 125 | 1 | |||
| France | 5 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 106 | 3 | ||||
| Belgium | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 18 | ||||||||||||||||
| Luxembourg | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 44 | 13 | |||||||||
| The Netherlands | 4 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 51 | 12 | |||||||||
| Sweden | 1 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 17 | ||||||||||||||||
| Norway | 1 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 57 | 11 | |||||||
| United Kingdom | 6 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 73 | 7 | |||||||
| Austria | 4 | 1 | 5 | 18 | |||||||||||||||||
| Spain | 10 | 12 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 116 | 2 |