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 (EBU) 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.

Eurovision Dance Contest 2007
Dates
Final	1 September 2007
Host
Venue	BBC Television Centre, London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Graham Norton Claudia Winkleman
Executive producer	Jane Lush Fenia Vardanis
Director	Nikki Parsons
Executive supervisor	Tal Barnea
Host broadcaster	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Participants
Number of entries	16
Debuting countries	Austria  Denmark  Finland  Germany  Greece  Ireland  Lithuania  Netherlands  Poland  Portugal  Russia  Spain  Sweden   Switzerland  Ukraine  United Kingdom
Participation map frameless}}      Participating countries
Vote
Voting system	Each country awards 1–8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite acts.
Winning dancers	Finland Katja Koukkula and Jussi Väänänen
Eurovision Dance Contest → 2008

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. Enrique Iglesias performed a medley of "Tired of Being Sorry" and "Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)" during the interval.

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

Further information on the host city: London

BBC Television Centre, London - host venue of the 2007 contest.

Alongside the announcement as host broadcaster, the host city, venue and presenters for the contest were announced by the BBC on 13 April 2007.^[1]

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.^[2] In September 2017, BBC Studioworks re-opened the three studios at Television Centre, alongside a range of post-production facilities and ancillary areas.^[3]

Television Centre previously hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 after France, which won the year before, declined to host it due to financial shortcomings, also having hosted the competition in 1959 and 1961.^[4] The last time the United Kingdom hosted one of the Eurovision's network Family of Events was the Eurovision Young Dancers 2001, which was also held in London.^[5]

Format

Host broadcaster

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.^[6]

The contest was broadcast in English and French languages, although France did not take part.^[7] Each broadcaster also had the option of providing its own commentators at the event.

Visual design

The logo of 2007 Contest features the word Eurovision written in the same way as it is on the Eurovision Song Contest logos without the heart but included the silhouette of a dancing couple in front of a star that contains the flag of the host country, the United Kingdom.^[8]

Running order

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.^[9]

Interval act

Enrique Iglesias performed as the interval act.

Singer Enrique Iglesias, son of Spain's 1970 Eurovision entrant Julio Iglesias, performed a medley of "Tired of Being Sorry" and "Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)" as the interval act.^[10][11] The performance was pre-recorded before the live show.^[12]

Participants

On 18 January 2007, the EBU officially announced the creation of this new dance contest. At the time, fourteen countries had already expressed their interest in taking part, with a production meeting taking place the day before in London.^[13] On 13 April, BBC News Online incorrectly reported that thirteen countries would compete in the upcoming inaugural contest that autumn; these being Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and United Kingdom.^[14] Greece, Lithuania and Poland were not included in the list despite being confirmed as participants. The Croatian broadcaster HRT was one of the 14 countries that had initially expressed an interest in taking part (alongside Ukraine),^[15] but pulled out due to costs and scheduling problems.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[16]

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.

R/O	Country	Dancers[17]	Dance Styles[17]		Place[18]	Points[18]
			Dance 1	Dance 2
01	Switzerland	Denise Biellmann and Sven Ninnemann [de]	Paso Doble	Swing	16	0
02	Russia	Mariya Sittel and Vladislav Borodinov	Rumba	Paso Doble	7	72
03	Netherlands	Alexandra Matteman and Redmond Valk	Cha-Cha-Cha	Rumba	12	34
04	United Kingdom	Camilla Dallerup and Brendan Cole	Rumba	Freestyle	15	18
05	Austria	Kelly [de] and Andy Kainz [de]	Jive	Paso Doble	5	74
06	Germany	Wolke Hegenbarth and Oliver Seefeldt [de]	Samba dance	Freestyle	8	59
07	Greece	Ourania Kolliou and Spiros Pavlidis	Jive	Sirtaki	13	31
08	Lithuania	Gabrielė Valiukaitė and Gintaras Svistunavičius	Paso Doble	Traditional Lithuanian Folk Dance	11	35
09	Spain	Amagoya Benlloch and Abraham Martinez	Cha-Cha-Cha	Paso Doble	10	38
10	Ireland	Nicola Byrne and Mick Donegan	Jive	Fandango	3	95
11	Poland	Katarzyna Cichopek and Marcin Hakiel [pl]	Cha-Cha-Cha	Showdance	4	84
12	Denmark	Mette Skou Elkjær and David Jørgensen	Rumba	Showdance	9	38
13	Portugal	Sónia Araújo and Ricardo Silva	Jive	Tango	6	74
14	Ukraine	Yulia Okropiridze and Illya Sydorenko	Quickstep	Showdance	2	121
15	Sweden	Cecilia Ehrling and Martin Lidberg	Paso Doble	Disco Fusion	14	23
16	Finland	Katja Koukkula and Jussi Väänänen	Rumba	Paso Doble	1	132

Scoreboard

The following 16 countries took part,^[7] and received the scores shown below.

Voting results^[19]

Voting procedure used:   100% televoting   100% jury vote		Total score	Switzerland	Russia	Netherlands	United Kingdom	Austria	Germany	Greece	Lithuania	Spain	Ireland	Poland	Denmark	Portugal	Ukraine	Sweden	Finland
Contestants	Switzerland	0
	Russia	72			3	10	3	7		6	4	5	4		8	12		10
	Netherlands	34	5				7	2	12			2	3					3
	United Kingdom	18							3	5		7		3
	Austria	74	7	3	5	2		10	2	3	3	4	6	8	5	5	4	7
	Germany	59	10	5	6		10				7		5	7	6	1	2
	Greece	31	2	4	1	5	4	5		4			2	1	2		1
	Lithuania	35		1		6			4			12	1		1	6	3	1
	Spain	38	6	2	2				7						12	4		5
	Ireland	95	1	10	7	8	6	3	1	8	5		10	12	3	8	7	6
	Poland	84	4	8	4	7	8	12		1	6	10		4		10	10
	Denmark	38					1	1	6	7	2	3			4	2	8	4
	Portugal	74	12	6	8	3	2	8	8	2	12			2		3	6	2
	Ukraine	121	3	12	10	12	5	6	5	12	8	6	12	6	7		5	12
	Sweden	23				1					1	1	7	5				8
	Finland	132	8	7	12	4	12	4	10	10	10	8	8	10	10	7	12

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points in the contest:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
5	Ukraine	Finland,  Lithuania,  Poland,  Russia,  United Kingdom
3	Finland	Austria,  Netherlands,  Sweden
2	Portugal	Spain,   Switzerland
1	Ireland	Denmark
	Lithuania	Ireland
	Netherlands	Greece
	Poland	Germany
	Russia	Ukraine
	Spain	Portugal

Spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was done in alphabetical order of each countries. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.^[17][16]

1.  Austria – Peter L. Eppinger [de]
2.  Denmark – Louise Wolff [dk]
3.  Finland – Johanna Pirttilahti [fi]
4.  Germany – Alice and Ellen Kessler
5.  Greece – George Amyras
6.  Ireland – Pamela Flood
7.  Lithuania – Lavija Šurnaitė-Kairienė [lt]
8.  Netherlands – Marcus van Teijlingen
9.  Poland – Ewelina Kopic [pl]
10.  Portugal – Marta Leite de Castro [pt]
11.  Russia – Like Kremer [ru]
12.  Spain – Jesús Álvarez Cervantes [es]
13.  Sweden – Ulrica Bengtsson [sv]
14.   Switzerland – Cécile Bähler [de]
15.  Ukraine – Svetoslav Vlokh
16.  United Kingdom – Kirsty Gallacher

Broadcasts

Most countries sent commentators to London or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, provide voting information.^[20] Among the countries that took part, Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Iceland, Israel and North Macedonia also broadcast the event without sending representatives.^[21]

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF 1	Andi Knoll and Nicole Burns-Hansen	[17][22]
Denmark	DR1	Sisse Fisker and Claus Larsen	[17][23]
Finland	Yle TV2	Sirpa Suutari-Jääskö and Jaana Pelkonen	[17][24]
Germany	Das Erste	Peter Urban and Markus Sonyi	[17][25]
Greece	NET, ERT World (delayed)	Maria Kozakou and Iordanis Pavlidis	[17]
Ireland	RTÉ One	Marty Whelan and Michelle Alonzi	[17][26]
Lithuania	LRT1	Beata Nicholson [lt] and Virginijus Visockas	[17][27]
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Lucille Werner and Cor van de Stroet [nl]	[17][28]
Poland	TVP2	Artur Orzech and Zbigniew St. Zasada	[17]
Portugal	RTP1, RTP Internacional, RTP África	Isabel Angelino [pt], Alberto Rodrigues and Marco de Camillis	[17][29]
Russia	Russia-1, RTR-Planeta	Anastasia Zavorotnyuk and Stanislav Popov	[17]
Spain	TVE1, TVE Internacional	Beatriz Pécker [es] and Joana Subirana	[17][30]
Sweden	TV4	David Hellenius and Tony Irving	[17][31]
Switzerland	SF 1	German: Sascha Ruefer [de] and Cécile Bähler [de]	[17]
	TSI 1	Italian: Sandy Altermatt [it] and Ruggero Sindico	[32][better source needed]
Ukraine	Pershyi Natsionalnyi	Timur Miroshnychenko and Oleksandra Myshko	[17][33]
United Kingdom	BBC One	Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli	[17][34]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Albania	RTSH	Leon Menkshi
Armenia	ARMTV	Felix Khacatryan and Hrachuhi Utmazyan
Belarus	BTRC	Dmitry Karas and Vladimir Parakhnevich	[35]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BHT 1	Dejan Kukrić	[36]
Cyprus	CyBC 1	Melina Karageorgiou
Iceland	RÚV (40 minutes delay)	Eva Maria Jonsdottir	[32]
Israel	Channel 1	No commentary
Macedonia	MKRTV	Milanka Rašić

Viewing figures

Estimated viewership by country (in millions)

Country	Viewership	Ref(s)
Austria	0.68	[32][37]
Denmark	0.51	[32]
Finland	0.38	[32]
Germany	3.1	[32][37]
Ireland	0.36	[32]
Israel	0.08	[32][37]
Lithuania	~0.65	[32]
Netherlands	0.76	[32][37]
Poland	4	[32]
Portugal	1.4	[32]
Russia	~2.4	[32]
Spain	2.2	[32][37]
Sweden	1.4	[32][37]
Switzerland	0.35 (SRF 1)	[32][37]
	~0.02 (TSI 1)
Ukraine	~0.3	[32]
United Kingdom	3.8	[32][37]
Total	~23	[32]

See also

• Eurovision Song Contest 2007
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007