Ukraine wins 49th Eurovision Song Contest

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Eurovision Fans Website) - Ukraine has won the 2004 Eurovision song contest in Istanbul, Turkey - only the second time the country has taken part in the competition.
Ruslana, a successful singer, producer, dancer and composer in her home country, won for her song Wild Dance. Ruslana had a similar performance that is inspired by her cultural background -folk music and wild dancing of highlanders in the Carpathian mountains.

Greece's Sakis Rouvas sung a ditty called Shake It and his routine included two female dancers who slide under his legs and take his top off.
Last year, Turkey's Sertab Erener won the contest with her belly-dancing-inspired routine, but quickly she disappeared off the musical landscape.

Ruslan (the winner) said: "I love life so much that I cannot help but show this love in my dancing and singing. I took this energy from the mountains, where I spent a lot of my time."

For the first time, this year's Eurovision was divided into two nights, with the first night a semi-final stage with lowly ranked countries from the year before. It was no wonder that Cyprus voted best Greece; Germany gave 12 points to Turkey who has a strong Turkish community in Germany; Denmark gave full points to neighbouring Sweden; Finland gave 12 points to Sweden, and Belarus gave 12 points to neighbouring Russia.

49th Eurovision 2004 voting results (points):
1 Ukraine - 280
2 Serbia & Montenegro - 263
3 Greece - 252
4 Turkey - 195
5 Cyprus - 170
6 Sweden - 170
7 Albania - 106
8 Germany - 93
9 Bosnia & Herzegovina - 91
10 Spain - 87
11 Russia - 67
12 Malta - 50
13 Croatia - 50
14 FYR Macedonia - 47
15 France - 40
16 United Kingdom - 29
17 Poland - 27
18 Romania - 18
19 Iceland - 16
20 The Netherlands - 11
21 Austria - 9
22 Belgium - 7
23 Ireland - 7
24 Norway - 3

More than 100 million viewers were expected to tune in to watch contestants from 24 countries participating in the finals.
The win means that Ukraine (Kiev) will host the contest next year.