() was a one-off music competition, held by the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) on 20 May 2006 in Hamburg, Germany, for ARD. Its aim was to determine the best song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest by means of an opinion poll.
Twenty songs were selected to participate in the competition through an online poll, which included all winners of the Eurovision Song Contest and all German Eurovision entries between 1956 and 2005 (103 in total). During the live broadcast on the television channel Das Erste, "Wild Dances" by Ruslana was chosen as the winner, ahead of well-known Eurovision classics such as "Waterloo" and "Ein bißchen Frieden". The programme was viewed by a television audience of approximately six million people in Germany.
Participants The top twenty Eurovision acts voted for in an online poll participated in the live show. None of the acts were performed live; videos of their original performances in their respective years were shown to the viewers instead. After all twenty songs had been shown, the German public could vote for their favourite song through televoting or via the online poll. All votes were combined to determine the final results. At the end of the show, "Wild Dances" by Ruslana was announced as the winner, having received a total of 71,209 votes.
Year Country Artist Song Language Place Votes1960Jacqueline Boyer "Tom Pillibi" French 19 6,2081972Mary Roos "Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben" German 11 8,4231972Vicky Leandros "Après toi" French 3 57,5141973Anne-Marie David "Tu te reconnaîtras" French 17 6,2781974ABBA "Waterloo" English 6 21,6591977Marie Myriam "L'oiseau et l'enfant" French 16 6,2871979Dschinghis Khan "Dschinghis Khan" German 15 7,3211981Lena Valaitis "Johnny Blue" German 9 13,5061981Bucks Fizz "Making Your Mind Up" English 8 15,0111982Nicole "Ein bißchen Frieden" German 12 8,0921985Wind "Für alle" German 13 7,8211985Bobbysocks "La det swinge" Norwegian 14 7,4201986Sandra Kim "J'aime la vie" French 18 6,2271993Münchner Freiheit "Viel zu weit" German 10 10,2251998Dana International "Diva" Hebrew 20 — 2003Sertab Erener "Every Way That I Can" English 2 63,9582004Max "Can't Wait Until Tonight" English, Turkish 5 24,0842004Ruslana "Wild Dances" English, Ukrainian 1 71,2092005Gracia "Run & Hide" English 7 19,1572005Helena Paparizou "My Number One" English 4 51,960
See also Songs of Europe (1981) Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest (2005) Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits (2015) Der kleine Song Contest (2020) Eurovision 2020 – das deutsche Finale (2020) Eurovision: Come Together (2020) Free European Song Contest (2020) Sveriges 12:a (2020)
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