The 45th Eurovision Song Contest was held on May 13, 2000 in the Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The presenters were Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin. The contest was won by the Olsen Brothers who were representing Denmark with the song “Fly on the Wings of Love” (originally: Smuk som et stjerneskud).

This year the contest entered a new era in which the production of the show was more exuberant and extravagant. The Globen Arena was, by that time, the largest venue chosen to host the contest with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The popularity of the contest also excelled throughout Europe because of the tele-voting procedure, introduced in 1998, that was becoming more common in other nations. The postcards used to introduce each country participating involved Swedish themes that incorporated each nation in some respect.

There was a new introduction of a CD compilation containing all the songs of the participating nations, which would be available everywhere in Europe. The fans would no longer have to search for their favourite singles containing the individual song. The big favourite in this year’s contest was Estonia, who was also declared the fan favourite and praised by the press. Russia and Latvia also anticipated good results. As expected, Ireland reached a respectable result of 6th place with their traditional ballad but, when the voting came, Denmark immediately took control of the scoreboard, with only a minor challenge from second placed Russia. Latvia was very successful in their debut, reaching 3rd place.

There were some controversies concerning some participating countries. Israel, who opened the contest, entered a group who waved Israeli and Syrian flags advocating peace between the two nations. The two male singers in the group also ran up to each other and kissed for a brief moment. Another striking contribution came from Germany’s Stefan Raab who pursued Europe’s comedic vote. Sweden offered an ode to the Native Americans in their unusual song and performance. The Russian delegation petitioned for the Olsen Brothers to be disqualified, after they had used a vocoder to give Jorgen Olsen an electronic sound to his voice during one of the verses of their performance. This issue was turned down by the EBU.

See you in Copenhagen for the 46th Eurovision Song Contest in 2001