Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting. Sweden is the only country to have hosted the event in five different decades, three times in Stockholm, twice in Malmö and once in Gothenburg. Sweden is one of the most successful competing nations at the Eurovision Song Contest, with a total of six victories, second only to Ireland's seven wins, has the most top five results of the 21st century, with thirteen. In total, Sweden has achieved 24 top five results in the contest. After finishing second with Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson in 1966, Sweden went on to achieve its six victories with ABBA, Carola, Charlotte Nilsson, Loreen and Måns Zelmerlöw. Sweden's first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, placed fourth.
This remained the country's best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson were second. Sweden's first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song "Waterloo", performed by ABBA. Thanks to their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to gain worldwide success and become one of the best-selling pop groups of all time. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three successive top three results. After Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley". Kikki Danielsson finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, to give the Swedes their third win with "Fångad av en stormvind", defeating France in a tie-break. Charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with "Take Me to Your Heaven"; the 1990s saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996. In the 2000s, the best Swedish result was fifth place, which they achieved four times, with Friends in 2001, Fame in 2003, Lena Philipsson in 2004 and Carola, who in 2006, became the only Swedish performer to achieve three top five results.
Together with Croatia and Malta, Sweden was one of only three countries never to have been relegated under the pre 2004 rules of the contest. Sweden was the first country to win 3 semifinals. In 2010, Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to make it to the final, finishing 11th in the semifinal, only five points from qualification. Since the country has been successful, finishing in the top five in six of the last seven contests, including victories for Loreen, who gave Sweden its fifth victory in 2012 with the song "Euphoria", making Sweden one of only two countries to have Eurovision victories in four different decades, winning for the sixth time with Måns Zelmerlöw's "Heroes" in 2015. Sweden is one of only two countries - along with Ukraine in 2004 and 2016 with Ruslana and Jamala - to win twice since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, performing the feat in both 2012 and 2015 with 372 and 365 points making Sweden additionally the first country to have scored 300 points or more twice.
They finished third in 2011 with Eric Saade and "Popular", third in 2014 with Sanna Nielsen and "Undo", fifth with Frans and the song "If I Were Sorry" in 2016, fifth with Robin Bengtsson and "I Can't Go On" in 2017. Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio, it has chosen the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is Sweden's most popular television shows, it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually; every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen. Only Sweden's first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service. Table key NOTES: a. ^ In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection. B. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year.
If, for example and France placed inside the top ten, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following year's grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries. In 2005 to celebrate 50 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, Denmark hosted a special one-off contest on behalf of the EBU to find Europe's favourite Eurovision song of the first 50 years. Tipped as the favourite from the start, ABBA won the contest by a landslide with "Waterloo" coming first in the semi-final with a record 331 points and going on to win the contest with 329 points in the final. Alongside other Eurovision stars, Carola Häggkvist and Elisabeth Andreassen helped introduce and present small parts of the show. Table key As of 2018, Sweden's voting history is as follows: Artistic award Voted by previous winners Voted by commentators Composer award Over the years SVT commentary has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Jacob Dahlin, Ulf Elfving, Harald Treutiger, Pekka Heino, Kristian Luuk and Fredrik Belfrage.
From 2009 to 2018, Edward af Sillén provided the SVT commentary alongside various dual commentators. All conductors are Swedish except those marked with a flag. No restriction on the nation
Karolina Gočeva
Karolina Gočeva credited as Karolina Gocheva, is a Macedonian recording artist. She represented Macedonia in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contests, ranking 19th and 14th. Gočeva got her first break at the age of 10 when she performed at the children's festival "Si-Do" in Bitola and the annual festival "Makfest 91" in Štip with the song "Mamo, pušti me", her career was just starting, so she used the national festivals to promote her voice and talent. She became a regular participant in SkopjeFest, debuting in 1994 with a performance of the song "Koj da ti kaže". In the following years she participated especially at SkopjeFest where the Macedonian Eurovision song is chosen. In 1996, Gočeva reached 9th place. In 1998, she participated with "Ukradeni noќi" and was more successful, reaching 4th place with 10,454 televotes. In 2000, she joined the record label Avalon Production, on which her debut album "Jas imam pesna" was released. Gočeva released several singles off her first album, including "Sakaj me", "Bez ogled na se" and "Nemir", the latter of which she sang in a duet with Toše Proeski.
With her first album released, she took part in the Macedonian Eurovision song selection. Gočeva nearly won, but missed out coming in 2nd place with the song "Za nas" from Darko Dimitrov, which managed to receive 916 points. After promotion through concerts and festivals, she released her second album "Zošto sonot ima kraj" in 2002, she gained more popularity in the former Yugoslavia, by performing at the Sunčane Skale festival with the song "Kaži mi". She "Ke bide se vo red" as singles in North Macedonia. On her album, she included three English versions of her songs titled "I'm looking for Jamaica", "You could", "Tell me"; the year 2002 became more successful for Gočeva because she was crowned the winner of "SkopjeFest 2002 with "Od nas zavisi", which allowed her to represent FYR Macedonia in front of a European audience. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, she ended up in 19th place, she was nominated for Miss Eurovision 2002 On March 2003 she released her third album "Znaeš kolku vredam".
She released music videos for her songs "Hipokrit", "Ljubov pod oblacite", "Sreščemo se opet". After 2003, her career expanded to include Serbia, Montenegro and Herzegovina, Slovenia, where her CDs are now released, she went into the studios and recorded all of her songs from her third album in the Serbian language so she could appeal to a wider market in those areas. Her first Serbian language album was titled "Kad zvezde nam se sklope...kao nekada". In 2005, Gočeva participated once again at Herceg Novi in the Sunčane Skale festival, her song "Ruža Ružica" became. She released her new song "Se lažam sebe", written by Kaliopi. At the end of 2005, she released the album "Vo zaborav". Karolina Gočeva participated in, won, the Skopje Fest competition with the song "Mojot svet", a song written by Grigor Koprov and composed by Ognen Nedelkovski; the competition took place on 24 February 2007 at the Universal Hall in Skopje. Gočeva obtained a total of 144 points with a maximum of twelve points from every voting district, procuring her a landslide victory.
She became the first artist to represent FYR Macedonia twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. She competed in the semi-final in Helsinki, Finland on 10 May 2007, performing at number 18, she qualified for the final and performed in the 6th slot on 12 May 2007, where she placed 14th in a field of 24 contestants with a score of 73 points. On 15 December 2007, she participated on Radijski festival with the song Kad te nema, finished on 2nd place, she won the award for the best composition. In June 2008 Gočeva released her fifth album, named "Makedonsko devojče”; this CD is made in cooperation with the composer Zlatko Origanski and it is different album. All songs are under the influence of the local traditional music and the first single “Ptico malečka” became a huge hit in North Macedonia. “Makedonsko devojče” is the best selling album in North Macedonia for 2008. In December 2008 the album was released in other ex-Yugoslav countries by City Records. Karolina announced her collaboration with the famous Serbian R&B/Hip-Hop star Wikluh Sky.
Her single "Kraj" was atop many charts in North Macedonia as well as in the other former Yugoslav republics. Karolina performed "Kraj" at the opening ceremony of Big Brother Serbia; the album, scheduled to be released in the early spring 2010 titled like the first single Kraj. The second single was released in December 2009, just couple of days before New Year's Eve; the song titled as "Za Godina, Dve" is a powerful ballad about ending a relationship. The song became an instant radio hit in North Macedonia and it was promoted on the Serbian TV show "Sve Za Ljubav" and on the semi-final of VIP Veliki Brat. Mamo, pušti me Jas Imam Pesna Zošto Sonot Ima Kraj Znaeš Kolku Vredam Kad zvezde nam se sklope...kao nekada Vo Zaborav U Zaboravu Makedonsko Devojče Kapka Pod Neboto Najubavi Pesni Makedonsko Devojče 2 1991: "Mamo, pušti me" 1992: "Srekjen pat" 1993: "Zamrznato srce" 1993: "Da nema su
Eurovision Song Contest 2018
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lisbon, following Salvador Sobral's win at the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine with the song "Amar pelos dois", it was the first time that the contest took place in Portugal – 53 years after the country made its debut. The contest was held at the Altice Arena, consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May, the final on 12 May 2018; the three live shows were hosted by Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado. Forty-three countries participated in the contest, equalling the record of the 2008 and 2011 editions. Russia returned after their absence from the previous edition, for the first time since 2011, no country withdrew from the contest; the winner was Israel with the song "Toy", performed by Netta, written by Doron Medalie and Stav Beger. This was Israel's fourth victory in the contest, following their wins in 1978, 1979, 1998, their first top five placing in more than a decade.
This edition saw Cyprus and the Czech Republic achieve the best placings in their Eurovision history, coming in second and sixth place, respectively. Portugal finished in the last place, making this the third time that the host country ranked in the bottom five since 2015. For the first time since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Azerbaijan and Russia all failed to qualify for the final. No countries in the Caucasus region participated in the final for the first time since 2005; the EBU reported that the contest had a worldwide audience of around 186 million viewers, surpassing the 2017 edition by over 4 million. The Altice Arena in Lisbon is a multi-purpose indoor arena built for the Expo'98 and has a capacity of 20,000 attendees, making it the largest indoor venue in Portugal and among the largest in Europe, it is located in the Parque das Nações riverside district in the northeast of Lisbon, renovated to host the 1998 world's fair. It is connected by metro to the nearby international airport and by train to the rest of the country and Europe.
On the day of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 final, it was reported that Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal would accept the challenge of organising the 2018 contest in case of a victory. Following Sobral's triumph, the European Broadcasting Union's Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Ola Sand, issued the hosting invitation to RTP during the winner's press conference; the following day, the director-general of RTP, Nuno Artur Silva, confirmed that the broadcaster would organise the contest in 2018 and mentioned MEO Arena in Lisbon as a venue to host the contest. On 15 May 2017, RTP appeared to have confirmed Lisbon as the host city, but clarified the following day that no final decision had been taken regarding both the host city and venue; the basic requirements to select a host city were set out in a document presented by the EBU to RTP following their win in Kiev: A suitable venue that can accommodate around 10,000 spectators. An international press centre for 1,500 journalists with adequate facilities for all the delegates.
A good distribution of hotel rooms, at different price categories, able to accommodate at least 2,000 delegates, accredited journalists and spectators. An efficient transport infrastructure, including a nearby international airport with available connections with the city and hotels. Besides Lisbon, other cities signalled their interest in bidding to host the 2018 contest: Braga, Faro, Guimarães, Santa Maria da Feira; the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, declared he would not be interested in "spending millions of euros" to host the contest, but he would support a bid from the Metropolitan Area of Porto. On 13 June 2017, RTP representatives met with the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group at the EBU headquarters in Geneva. During the meeting, RTP officials attended a workshop covering several topics related with hosting the Eurovision Song Contest and learned from the experience of the Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC, they had the opportunity to present their first plans for the 2018 contest, including multiple proposals for the host city and venue.
On 25 July 2017, the EBU and RTP announced that Lisbon had been selected as the host city, overcoming confirmed bids from Braga, Guimarães, Santa Maria da Feira. In addition, RTP indicated the Parque das Nações, where Altice Arena is located, as the site for the shows. Key: Host venue The Eurovision Village was the official Eurovision Song Contest fan and sponsors area during the event weeks, where it was possible to watch performances by contest participants and local artists, as well as the live shows broadcast from the main venue, it was located in Lisbon's downtown Praça do Comércio, a large central square open to the Tagus river. The EuroClub was the venue for the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. Unlike the Eurovision Village, access to the EuroClub was restricted to accredited fans and press, it was located at the "Ministerium" club, next to the Eurovision Village. The "Blue Carpet" event, where all the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place on 6 May 2018 at the Museum of Art and Technology in Lisbon's Belém district.
This preceded the official Opening Ceremony of the 2018 contest, which took place at the nearby Electricity Museum. The theme for the contest, All Aboard!, was unveiled on 7 November 2017 in a press conference held at the Lisbon Oceanarium. Its visual design featur
Greece
Greece the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of 11 million as of 2016. Athens is largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe and Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, Turkey to the northeast; the Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a large number of islands, of which 227 are inhabited. Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres; the country consists of nine geographic regions: Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace and the Ionian Islands.
Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilisation, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, Western drama and notably the Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as poleis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great conquering much of the ancient world, from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, in which Greek language and culture were dominant. Rooted in the first century A. D. the Greek Orthodox Church helped shape modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World. Falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence.
Greece's rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The sovereign state of Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, a high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the tenth member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001, it is a member of numerous other international institutions, including the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Greece's unique cultural heritage, large tourism industry, prominent shipping sector and geostrategic importance classify it as a middle power, it is the largest economy in the Balkans. The names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages and cultures.
The Greek name of the country is Hellas or Ellada, its official name is the Hellenic Republic. In English, the country is called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia and means'the land of the Greeks'; the earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the Greek province of Macedonia. All three stages of the stone age are represented for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe. Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilisation, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete, the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland; these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek.
The Mycenaeans absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse. This ushered from which written records are absent. Though the unearthed Linear B texts are too fragmentary for the reconstruction of the political landscape and can't support the existence of a larger state contemporary Hittite and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a "Great King" based in mainland Greece; the end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to the year of the first Olympic Games. The Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Black Sea, So
Eurovision Song Contest 2007
The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, following Lordi's win at the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah"; the contest was held at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland from 10 May to 12 May, staged by host broadcaster Yle. A budget of €13 million was presented for arranging the contest. Other bids to host the contest came from Espoo and Tampere; the hosts were Finnish television personality Jaana Pelkonen and Finnish musician, stage performer and actor Mikko Leppilampi. Krisse Salminen acted as guest host in the green room, reported from the crowds at the Senate Square. A record number of 42 countries participated; the European Broadcasting Union put aside its limit of 40 countries, which would have meant excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme. The winner was Serbia. After Lordi scored the first Eurovision victory with a hard rock song, several countries sent rock songs to the Contest rather than the soft pop and schlager styles more associated with Eurovision.
This trend continued at the 2009 Contests. Cyprus and Latvia entered songs in languages other than English. Although this happened with the Belgium 2003 entry, this was the first time the contest featured countries doing this with actual languages as opposed to an imaginary one. On 12 March 2007, the draws for the running order for the semi-final and voting procedure took place. A new feature allowed five wild-card countries from the semi-final and three countries from the final to choose their starting position; the heads of delegation chose the number they would take. In the semi-final, Andorra, Turkey and Latvia were able to choose their positions. In the final, Armenia and Germany were able to exercise this privilege. All countries opted for spots in the second half of both evenings. Shortly after the draw, the entries were approved by the EBU, ending the possibility of disqualification for the Israeli song; the United Kingdom chose their entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU.
The contest saw some minor changes to the voting time-frame. The compilation summary video of all entries including phone numbers was shown twice; the voting process was the same as 2006 except there was fifteen minutes to vote, an increase of five minutes on the 2006 Contest. In the final, the results from each country were once again shown from one to seven points automatically on screen and only eight and twelve were read by the spokespeople. For the first time, the winner was awarded a promotion tour around Europe, visiting Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany; the tour was held between 21 May. The event was sponsored by European communications group TeliaSonera, — as with several previous contests — Nobel Biocare. Apocalyptica were the interval act, played a medley of songs: Worlds Collide and Life Burns!, but without the usual lyrics. The official logo of the contest remained the same as 2006; the European Broadcasting Union and YLE announced that the theme for the 2007 contest would be "True Fantasy", which embraced Finland and "Finnishness" in terms of the polarities associated with the country.
The design agency Dog Design was responsible for the design of the visual theme of the contest which incorporated vibrant kaleidoscopic patterns formed from various symbols including exclamation marks and the letter F. The stage was in the shape of a traditional Finnish instrument. On 20 February 2007 a reworked official website for the contest was launched marking the first public exhibition of this year's theme. An official CD and DVD were released. An official fan book was released; the themes of the postcards were short stories happening in different Finnish places. Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU. 42 countries submitted preliminary applications. Although in previous years the maximum number of participating countries was 40, the EBU allowed all 42 to participate in 2007; the Czech Republic, Serbia and Georgia all entered the contest for the first time in 2007. Monaco announced its withdrawal on 12 December 2006, the EBU announced the final lineup of 42 countries on 15 December 2006.
Evridiki returned to represent Cyprus, having represented the nation in 1992 and 1994. Eiríkur Hauksson represented Iceland in 1986 as part of the vocal trio ICY and he represented Norway in 1991 as part of the group Just 4 Fun. Karolina Gočeva represented Macedonia in 2002. Edsilia Rombley represented the Netherlands in 1998; the semi-final was held on 10 May 2007 at 21:00. 28 countries performed and all 42 participants voted. Countries qualified. Notes 1.^ Contained some words in French and Spanish. 2.^ Although the song was performed in English, the title and sentence in the lyrics "Ven a bailar conmigo" is in Spanish. The finalists were: the four automatic qualifiers France, Germany and the United Kingdom; the final was won by Serbia. Notes 3.^ Contained some words in English. 4.^ Song is in english but the title is in Greek. All countries participating in the contest were required to use televoting and/or S
Athens
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence starting somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennium BC. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state that emerged in conjunction with the seagoing development of the port of Piraeus, a distinct city prior to its 5th century BC incorporation with Athens. A center for the arts and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, it is referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy because of its cultural and political impact on the European continent, in particular the Romans. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, industrial, maritime and cultural life in Greece. In 2012, Athens was ranked the world's 39th richest city by purchasing power and the 67th most expensive in a UBS study. Athens is a global one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe.
It has a large financial sector, its port Piraeus is both the largest passenger port in Europe, the second largest in the world. While at the same time being the sixth busiest passenger port in Europe; the Municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its administrative limits, a land area of 38.96 km2. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 over an area of 412 km2. According to Eurostat in 2011, the functional urban area of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, with a population of 3.8 million people. Athens is the southernmost capital on the European mainland; the heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery.
Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so-called "architectural trilogy of Athens", consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens. Athens is home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, 108 years it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of only a handful of cities to have hosted the Olympics more than once. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural. In earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη, it was rendered in the plural on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι.
The root of the word is not of Greek or Indo-European origin, is a remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica. In antiquity, it was debated whether Athens took its name from its patron goddess Athena or Athena took her name from the city. Modern scholars now agree that the goddess takes her name from the city, because the ending -ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names. During the medieval period, the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα. However, after the establishment of the modern Greek state, due to the conservatism of the written language, Ἀθῆναι became again the official name of the city and remained so until the abandonment of Katharevousa in the 1970s, when Ἀθήνα, Athína, became the official name. According to the ancient Athenian founding myth, the goddess of wisdom, competed against Poseidon, the god of the seas, for patronage of the yet-unnamed city. According to the account given by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up.
In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's Georgics, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse. In both versions, Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning "flower", to denote Athens as the "flowering city". Ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was sometimes referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindar's ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι, or as τὸ κλεινὸν ἄστυ. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines and Astines, all derivations involving false splitting of p
For the most recent participation see
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North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest