They have been already passed 10 years, it looks like it was just yesterday in 2006 when Athens was adorned with her brightest colours to welcome the 51th anniversary of Eurovision Song Contest, after the victory of Elena Paparizou in Kiev, Ukraine with the song My Number One. The contest wore its blue and white and came for the first time in Athens giving us the Eurovision Song Contest Athens 2006.
    The public broadcaster ERT was the official host of the event. The competition was conducted in two parts that year, in the semi-final held in 18 May and the Final on May 20, respectively. The two shows hosted at the Indoor Olympic Hall (OAKA) capacity of approximately 19 000 positions in Maroussi, Athens. For the presentation of the two show ERT manned the potential of the superstars of Greek discography, Sakis Rouvas and glamorous Greek-American television presenter and actress Maria Menounos.
    The Contest of 2006 had the thousandth song that presented ever at the Eurovision Song Contest and was "Every Song Is a Cry for Love" by the Irishman artist Brian Kennedy who competed in the semi-final. It was also the first time that Armenia participated with the song "Without Your Love" of André (Andrey Hovnanian), who also open the semi-final.
    One of the innovations in the 2006 contest was the official Fan Book printed for the first time and which included details and information for each contestant country. As the official CD & DVD became tradition, so the Fan Book became the most necessary knowledge through the competition each year.
    But, perhaps, the biggest innovation and most unsurpassed, brought it by the Lordi’s winning song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" who represented Finland. It was the first song from the genre of Hard Rock music scene who won the contest, thus opening the doors to a difficult genre and joint a portion of audience that the contest failed so far to reach.
    Following the tradition of the slogan launched in 2002, Athens was invited thousands of people to join the pace of celebrating and the opening of another decade in the institution of Eurovision with a simple phrase, "Feel The Rhythm". The slogan accompanied by a logo based on the Phaistos disk, designed by Karamela company, which was "inspired by the wind and the sea, the golden light of the sun and the glow of the sand," as ERT said. While the main logo created for the competition of Istanbul 2004 remained the same, the word Eurovision with the heart flag of each winning country exactly in the middle.
    In the spirit of the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens, the contest organizers deeply influenced by the culture and history of the Greeks brought to the Eurovision stage a climactic cultural, historical and artistic effect.
    The scene was inspired by the ancient Greek amphitheatres, with the main floor of the main stage in a circular with internal lighting. The scene is enriched by the amphitheatre bleachers broken into 6 pieces which moved vertically depending the needs of each song. The scenery complemented lighting and visual effects.
      The start of the semi-final was inspired by the history and unique culture of the ancient Greeks as well marry mythology with Eurovision, the scene went Gods of Olympus singing classic hits of the competition, while the presenters of the evening sang the winning UK song of 1997 "Love Shine a Light" of Katrina and the Waves.
    The final was even more impressive with the Sun God entrance accompanied by the melodious voice of Fotini Dara which interpreted the song "Song Of Life", while at the same time mythological figures parade through the scene. Culmination of the opening was impressive entrance presenters who literally entered flying from both ends of the stage, their entrance is still the most impressive of all time during the competition. Following the tradition of the ceremony appeared the winner of the country Elena Paparizou singing the song that brought the contest in Greece, "My Number One."
    During the interval (main break in the middle of each show) Sakis Rouvas sang in the semi-final the song "I'm in love with you" (English version of the song "Se eho erotefti"), and in the final Elena Paparizou appeared interpreting the huge success of "Mambo."
    Huge impressions made the tribute "4000 Years Of Greek Song", a feast of music and dance written by Phocas Evangelinos and Dimitri Papadimitriou. This magnificent creature travelled the viewers in a few minutes in the history of Greece, from antiquity to our days through colors, sounds, costumes and songs.
    For the proper management of transmission time the contest factors decided on a substantial change in voting performance. While by 2005 the representatives of each country announcing all the points from 1 to 8, 10 and 12, in 2006 the points 1-7 appear immediately on the screen and each representative announced the last three, 8, 10 and 12 .
     In the semi-final of May 18 took part 23 countries, of which only 10 will be passed through the Final and competed with the top 10 countries of the last year’s competition (2005), the Big 4 (France, Spain, Germany, England) and the host country (Greece).
    The 23 countries in the semi-final were: Armenia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Andorra, Belarus, Albania, Belgium, Ireland, Cyprus, Monaco, FYR Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland.
    The final was formed as follows: Switzerland, Moldova, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Spain, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Russia, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Greece, Finland, Ukraine, France, Croatia, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey and Armenia.
    The competition won the group Lori with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” and gaining 292 points. Second place came Russia with Dima Bilan and “Never Let You Go” with 248 points and third was Bosnia and Herzegovina with the song “Lejla” and 172 points respectively. Lordi took the 12 Points from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Poland, United Kingdom, Iceland and Greece, while Armenia, Monaco and Albania gave them 0 points.
    In the category of the Awards Marcel Bezençon the Artists Award was taken by Sweden with Carola in the song "Invincible", the prize of Composers was taken by Bosnia and Herzegovina with the song "Lejla" of Hari Mata Hari, and finally the Journalists award took Finland with Lordi and Hard Rock Hallelujah.
    What probably you don’t know is that in the Eurovision Song Contest there is one more prize, with very humorous character, called the Barbara Dex Award, and they giving it every year since 1997 in the country with the worst costume look from the Eurovision fan website House. The award is inspired by the Belgian participation in 1993 and the representative of the country Barbara Dex, which wore a dress designed by her, it was really awful! In 2006 the prize was given to Portugal and Nonstop for their dress design appearance in the song "Coisas de nada."
    Ten years ago it looks like it was already yesterday, since then the competition continues to travel and change countries and colours but yet remains faithful to the original idea, to unite people, nations, states and people under a great music festival, immortal idea that continues to remind us the core of its existence even when everything around us tend to make us forget about it.