Contest year
- Host City
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Venue
- Abdi Ipekci Sport Center
- Final Date
- May 15, 2004
- Entries
- 36
- The 2004 contest introduced a major rule change with Eurovision’s first-ever semi-final, replacing the long-running relegation system and enabling a record 36 participating countries, including debutants Albania, Andorra, Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro, plus Monaco’s first appearance since 1979.
- It also debuted the event’s new generic logo and streamlined vote readouts to one language.
- Ukraine won on only its second participation, scoring a then-remarkable 280 points as the top three all surpassed 200.
- Notable incidents included Turkey missing Slovenia’s performance due to an accidental ad break, semi-final vote-counting errors in Monaco and Croatia, and Cyprus being omitted from the on-screen map during voting.
- via Wikipedia
Presenters
Meltem Cumbul, Korhan Abay
Ukraine – Wild Dances 
