This year, the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will be organised by the Ukrainian Television (NTU), as a result to last year's victory of Ruslana with her "Wild Dances" for Ukraine. The Qualifier Round will take place on Thursday 19th of May while the Grand Final will take place on Saturday 21st of May, 2005. This year's venue is Kyiv's Sport Palace (Palats Sportu), which is currently being renovated. It can host an audience of approximately 10,000 people. The hosts of the evening will be last year's winner Ruslana, boxing Olympic gold medallist Volodymyr Klytschko and national radio and TV star DJ Pasha.

39 countries are participating this year in the Eurovision Song Contest. Bulgaria and Moldova are making their debut, while Hungary is returning to the Eurovision after 6 years of absence. Lebanon was about to participate in this year's contest also, but decided to withdraw a few days ago, for political reasons.

Here is a full list of the participating countries. By clicking on the country you can see the Special Page of the country, which includes the lyrics of the song, a small biography of the artist, some photos, and other interesting info, such as links to the audio and video files of the song. By clicking on the artist you can visit their official websites (where available).