Eurovision Dance Contest 2007
The Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 was the inaugural edition of the Eurovision Dance Contest, a dance competition co-production between the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster BBC. The first ever pan-European dance competition was held on 1 September 2007 in London, United Kingdom with the participation of 16 countries.
Viewers cast their votes by telephone and SMS text message voting on each couple's two dances - the first being ballroom or Latin with the second being freestyle, with a "national" flavour. Professional dance couples were allowed to enter the competition. Comedian Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman presented the 2007 contest from the BBC Television Centre in London.
The first ever winners of the contest were Katja Koukkula and Jussi Väänänen of Finland who received a total of 132 points. 2nd place went to Ukraine, 3rd to Ireland, 4th to Poland and 5th place to Austria following a tie with Portugal, who also received 74 points.
Location
The host venue was the BBC Television Centre, White City, London, which opened in 1960. It is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type having appeared as the backdrop for many BBC programmes. It remained to be one of the largest such facilities in the world until it closed in March 2013.Production
The contest was hosted by the BBC, and was a co-production by Splash Media - run by the developers of its successful Strictly Come Dancing format - and sports production house Sunset + Vine - with help from the International DanceSport Federation and in association with the European Broadcasting Union.The contest was broadcast in English and French languages, although France did not take part. Each broadcaster also had the option of providing its own commentators at the event. UK commentators were Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.
Participants
The Croatian broadcaster HRT had expressed an interest in taking part, but pulled out due to costs and scheduling problems.As well as those countries that took part, Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Iceland, Israel and Macedonia also broadcast the contest despite not taking part in it, with possibility to join it in 2008.
The running order for the 16 participants was announced on 6 August 2007 and had been determined in two steps. In the first round, the participating countries were drawn into groups, under supervision of an auditor. In the second round, the producers of the contest determined the final running order within the drawn groups to assure variety in the live show.
Due to the forest fires in Greece, the Greek national broadcaster ERT did not air the show live and therefore used a back-up jury instead of televoting.
Austria and Portugal both finished with the same number of points, however, Austria received points from every other participating nation thus receiving points from more countries than Portugal, hence Austria took 5th place.
Scoreboard
The following 16 countries took part, and received the scores shown below.12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points in the contest:N. | Contestant | Nation giving 12 points |
5 | Ukraine | Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom |
3 | Finland | Austria, Netherlands, Sweden |
2 | Portugal | Spain, Switzerland |
1 | Ireland | Denmark |
1 | Lithuania | Ireland |
1 | Netherlands | Greece |
1 | Poland | Germany |
1 | Russia | Ukraine |
1 | Spain | Portugal |
International broadcasts and voting
Voting and spokespersons
The order in which each country announced their votes was done in order of performance. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.- - :de:Cécile Bähler|Cécile Bähler
- - :ru:Кремер, Лика Гидоновна|Like Kremer
- - :nl:Marcus van Teijlingen|Marcus van Teijlingen
- - Kirsty Gallagher
- - :de:Peter L. Eppinger|Peter L. Eppinger
- - Alice Kessler and Ellen Kessler
- - George Amyras
- - :lt:Lavija Šurnaitė-Kairienė|Lavija Šurnaitė-Kairienė
- - :es:Jesús Álvarez Cervantes|Jesús Álvarez
- - Pamela Flood
- - :pl:Ewelina Kopic|Ewelina Kopic
- - :da:Louise Wolff|Louise Wolff
- - :pt:Marta Leite de Castro|Marta Leite de Castro
- - Svetoslav Vlokh
- - :sv:Ulrica Bengtsson|Ulrica Bengtsson
- - :fi:Johanna Pirttilahti|Johanna Pirttilahti
Commentators
Participating countries
- - Sascha Ruefer and Daniela Berger, Sandy Altermatt and Ruggero Sindico
- - Anastasia Zavorotnyuk and Stanislav Popov
- - :nl:Lucille Werner|Lucille Werner and :nl:Cor van de Stroet|Cor van de Stroet
- - Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli
- - Andi Knoll and Nicole Burns-Hansen
- - Peter Urban and Markus Sonyi
- - Maria Kozakou and Iordanis Pavlidis
- - Beata Nicholson and Virginijus Visockas
- - Beatriz Pécker and Joana Subirana
- - Marty Whelan and Michelle Alonzi
- - Artur Orzech and Zbigniew St. Zasada
- - Sisse Fisker and Claus Larsen
- - Isabel Angelino, Alberto Rodrigues and Marco de Camillis
- - Timur Miroshnychenko and Oleksandra Myshko
- - David Hellenius and Tony Irving
- - Sirpa Suutari-Jääskö and Jaana Pelkonen
Non-participating countries
- – Leon Menkshi
- – Felix Khacatryan and Hrachuhi Utmazyan
- - Dmitry Karas and Vladimir Parakhnevich
- - Dejan Kukrić
- – Melina Karageorgiou
- - Sylvie Guillem and Julien Lepers
- - Eva Maria Jonsdottir
- – No commentator
- – Milanka Rašić