The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), the contest was held at the Globe Arena on 13 May 2000. The contest was presented by Swedish television presenters Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin.
Twenty-four countries took part in the contest. Latvia participated for the first time, while , and decided not to compete, citing financial reasons. , , and returned after their relegation from the previous edition. also returned, after their last participation in 1997. Meanwhile, , , , and were relegated due to having the lowest average scores over the previous five editions.
The winner was Denmark with the song "Fly on the Wings of Love", performed by the Olsen Brothers and written by the oldest brother Jørgen Olsen. This was Denmark's second victory in the contest, following their win in 1963 almost 4 decades earlier. Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Germany rounded out the top five. Both Russia and Estonia achieved their best result in the contest up to this point, while Latvia achieved the best placing for a debuting country since Poland's second-place finish in 1994. On the day of their victory, Jørgen Olsen was 50 years and 61 days of age, making him the oldest artist yet to win the contest. The combined ages of the Olsen Brothers make them the oldest aged act ever to win the contest.
Sponsored by Microsoft, the contest was also broadcast in Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States, and via the Internet for the first time.
Location
The 2000 contest took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the 1999 edition with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven", performed by Charlotte Nilsson. It was the fourth time that Sweden had staged the contest, following the editions held in , and , held in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, respectively. It was the first time since 1996 that the contest was held on mainland Europe, having in the interim been held in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Israel.
Three cities were considered as host city of the contest: Stockholm, which named the Globe Arena as its venue; Gothenburg, which decided to bid with the venue of the 1985 contest, Scandinavium; and Malmö, which bid with the 1992 contest venue, the Isstadion. As on previous occasions, the decision was preceded by an analysis of the possibilities of arranging the event in different places in Sweden, with the organisers eliminating the possibility of hosting the contest in Malmö, due to the proposed venue being outdated and having a comparatively small audience capacity.
As Gothenburg and Stockholm progressed in the bidding phase, the selection of the host city was entrusted to television producer Sam Nilsson, who selected Stockholm for the role on 7 July 1999. It was said to be chosen due to the size of the Globe Arena, accommodating a record-breaking audience of 16,000 (although the capacity was reduced to 13,000 for the show), as well as due to Stockholm's last hosting being in 1975. It was also argued that it would be somewhat cheaper than the other options.
Participating countries
Per the rules of the contest twenty-four countries were allowed to participate in the event. , , , and returned after being relegated from the previous year's event. 1999 participants , , , and were absent from this edition. In addition to this, debuted in the contest this year. , and decided not to compete this year, citing financial reasons.
Qualification
Due to the high number of countries wishing to enter the contest a relegation system was introduced in 1993 in order to reduce the number of countries which could compete in each year's contest. Any relegated countries would be able to return the following year, thus allowing all countries the opportunity to compete in at least one in every two editions. The relegation rules introduced for the 1997 contest were again utilised ahead of the 2000 contest, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. The twenty-four participants were made up of the previous year's winning country, "Big Four" countries, the thirteen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1999 contest. In cases where the average was identical between two or more countries the total number of points scored in the most recent contest determined the final order.