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Decade of turmoil
Wikileaks, the Arab Spring, the eruption of an Icelandic volcano that put European air traffic on hold for days, the earthquake in Haiti and the aftermath of a near-collapse of the financial system in 2008.
From 2010, the same way of combining televotes and jury scores was also introduced in the Semi-Finals.
In 2011, Italy re-joined the Eurovision Song Contest after 13 years of absence and the 2012 Winner Loreen turns her song Euphoria into a hit in over 20 countries, becoming one of the biggest Eurovision Song Contest hits in the history of the show.
During the Eurovision Song Contest Final of 2013, more than 2 million tweets were posted with the hashtag #eurovision, peaking within minutes after the start of the live broadcast.
For the first time this millennium, the Eurovision Song Contest was held in the capital of Norway, Oslo.
39 countries took part this year, with Georgia returning after a one year hiatus, and Andorra, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Montenegro withdrawing. Lithuania originally announced its withdrawal, but was later confirmed by the EBU. A global financial crisis affected how the event was run when several countries elected not to compete due to budget cuts.
The interval act involved a number of live public outdoor dance events from across Europe, done in the style of a series of spontaneous flash-mobs. The outdoor footage was intercut with webcam footage from individual households.
Although she had been the favourite to win for months, the victory of Lena for Germany with her song Satellite still came as a total surprise for many.
Her simple performance gathered votes across Europe and became one of the biggest hits ever in the history of the contest.
She went on to defend her title the year after and managed to gain another a top 10 position with her entry Taken By A Stranger.
A total of forty-three countries took part in the contest held in the German city of Düsseldorf.
While initially several cities had been in the running to host the contest, it was Düsseldorf that emerged as the winner.
The biggest news at this contest was the return of Italy, after more than a decade. They went on to take second place in the final result with the jazz entry Madness Of Love by Raphael Gualazzi.
One Germany's most famous comediennes, Anke Engelke, TV anchor Judith Rakers and all-round showman Stefan Raab hosted the event. Raab had also been in Lena's winning team the year before.
After all 43 countries had awarded their points, the country with the highest total won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.
Azerbaijan's Ell/Nikki triumphed, followed by Italy's Raphael Gualazzi and Sweden's Eric Saade. It was the very first victory for Azerbaijan and meant that the contest would go to its most eastern location ever the following year.
The duo didn't stay together for long and broke up just months after their triumph in Copenhagen.
The Baku edition introduced Europe to one of the biggest stars and hits in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.
This year's edition had amazing pop songs and grannies encouraging everybody to dance. What a year to remember!
There was a buzz ahead of the Contest when several big names were rumoured to be taking part. The rumours of the Spice Girls and The Hoff singing for the UK turned out to be unfounded but a multimillion selling artist did end up representing the UK in the shape of The Hump or Engelbert Humperdinck.
Humperdinck was 76 when he sang at Eurovision but he wasn't the oldest participant that year as Russia sent a granny-band to Baku. They had already beaten the Russian 2008 Eurovision Song Contest winner Dima Bilan at their national selection and were ready to take on Europe.
Loreen had been the main favourite ever since she appeared in the wildly popular Swedish selection show, Melodifestivalen earlier that year.
Her mystically staged song Euphoria caught Europe by storm and ended up handing Sweden the trophy of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
The singer went on to become a global superstar with performances all over the world, from Berlin to China, Morocco to Japan. Her winning song became the number one European hit that year and a worldwide phenomenon.
The 2013 contest was held in the Malmö Arena in… Malmö, Sweden for the second time.
26 countries qualified for the Grand Final and took to the stage in front of a live audience and more than 170 million viewers watching at home.
The opening act of the Grand Final started with a Eurovision Song Contest anthem called We Write The Story composed by Benny and Björn from ABBA and the Swedish worldwide sensation Aviccii. As the host - the Swedish comedienne Petra Mede - put it: "We couldn't get ABBA but we got.. ABB!"
It was one of the very rare times in the past few decades when a single person was put in charge of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.
In the end, after all the excitement and millions of votes, it was Emmelie de Forest who took home the trophy from Malmö with her song Only Teardrops!
It was the second time that Denmark had won a contest hosted in Sweden. The first time was in 2001.
The first was in 2001. Emmelie had been the main favourite among fans and bookmakers in the months leading up to the Contest. She was also one of very few winners to have performed barefoot.
The 2014 Eurovision Song Contest will always be known as one of the events that went far beyond its usual borders.
From the huge audience input into the shows, the winner becoming a global sensation to some of the highest viewer numbers in the past decade, the Copenhagen contest became a landmark one.
It all started in the summer of 2013 when DR, the Danish broadcaster, took on the hosting challenge and promised to 'modernise the contest'. They took the event to another level, when the show's producers announced that audience input through social media would be used for the shows in May.
Conchita Wurst had competed in the Austrian national selection final in 2012 but in September 2013, the Austrian broadcaster announced she would carry their flag in Copenhagen.
No song was revealed for the drag artist and in fact, was one of the last of the 2014 songs to be announced.. There was no stopping Rise Like A Phoenix and the self-anointed 'bearded lady' won the contest with a huge 290 poin.
Immediately after her victory, she became a worldwide phenomenon with the support of show business royalty, from Cher and Elton John to Jean-Paul Gaultier.
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Sietse Bakker
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