Finland was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 by Geir Rönning and the song "Why?". The song was written by Mika Toivanen and Steven Stewart.
Euroviisut 2005 was the national final that selected Finland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The competition consisted of five shows that commenced with the first of four semi-finals on 14 January 2005 and concluded with a final on 19 February 2005. The five shows took place in different cities across Finland and hosted by Heikki Paasonen and Jaana Pelkonen.
Format[]
The format of the competition consisted of five shows: four semi-finals and a final. Six songs competed in each semi-final and the top three entries from each semi-final qualified to complete the twelve-song lineup in the final. The results for the semi-finals were determined exclusively by a public vote, while the results in the final were determined by public voting and regional jury voting. Public voting included the options of telephone and SMS voting.
Competing entries[]
A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 2 August 2004 and 1 October 2004. Artists had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete.[1] A panel of experts appointed by Yle selected sixteen entries for the competition from a record of 503 received submissions, with an additional eight entries being selected from submissions by composers directly invited by Yle to compete.[1][2] The competing entries were presented on 1 December 2004.[3]
Kristian Maukonen, Milla Alftan, Cheka Kalupala, Sengi Lukangu
Wäinötär
"Kihlaus"
Petri Savolainen, Mirka Sirkkanen
Semi-finals[]
Four semi-finals took place on 14 January, 21 January, 4 February and 11 February 2005. Each semi-final was held in a different Finnish city, with semi-final 1 held at the Sibelius Talo in Lahti, semi-final 2 at the Paviljonki in Jyväskylä, semi-final 3 at the Caribia Hall in Turku, and semi-final 4 at the Kulttuurikeskus in Imatra. Six entries competed in each show and the top three songs based on the results from the public vote qualified to the final.
The final took place on 19 February 2005 at the Tampere-talo in Tampere where the twelve entries that qualified from the preceding two semi-finals competed. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top six entries were selected to proceed to the second round based on the votes of six regional juries. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 points. In the second round, "Why?" performed by Geir Rönning was selected as the winner based on the results from the public vote.
Because Finland failed to qualify in 2004 Geir was forced to compete in the Eurovision semi-final, Finland started in 16th position after Hungary and before Macedonia. He came 18th with 50 points failing to qualify to the Grand Final.[4]
The spokesperson who revealed Finland's votes for other countries was Finland's 2004 entrant Jari Sillanpää.[5]
Finland
Monaco
Germany
Andorra
Netherlands
