The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the fiftieth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which was held at the Palace of Sports, Kiev, Ukraine. The winner was Greece's My Number One, performed by popular singer Elena Paparizou, who scored 230 points, while Malta's Angel performed by Chiara was the runner up with 192 points. The contest took place on 19 May 2005 for the semifinal and 21 May 2005 for the final. Organizers hoped that this event would boost Ukraine's image abroad and increase tourism, while the country's new government hoped that it would also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring European Union membership.

The official logo of the contest remained the same from the 2004 contest with the country's flag in the heart being changed. Following Istanbul's 'Under The Same Sky' the slogan for the 2005 show was 'Awakening', which symbolised the awakening of the country and city ready to present itself to Europe. The postcards (short clips shown between performances) for the 2005 show illustrated Ukraine’s culture and heritage along with a more modern and industrial side to the country.

The hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev were television presenter Maria "Masha" Efrosinina and DJ Pavlo "Pasha" Shylko. Previous winner Ruslana returned to the stage in Kiev to perform in the interval act and interview the contestants backstage in the 'green room'. The famous Ukrainian boxers Vitali & Wladimir Klitschko opened the televoting, while a special trophy was presented to the winner by Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko. An official CD and DVD was released and a new introduction was an official pin set, which contains heart-shaped pins with the flags of all thirty-nine participating countries. The EBU also commissioned a book The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History by British/American author John Kennedy O'Connor to celebrate the contest's fiftieth anniversary. . The book was presented on screen during the break between songs 12 and 13 (Serbia-Montenegro and Denmark). The book was published in English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Finnish.

The newcomers to the Contest were Bulgaria and Moldova, while Hungary returned after a hiatus since their last entry in the 1998 contest. Lebanon was also expected to make a début show appearance but was forced to withdraw after announcing they would show commercials over the Israeli entry. Had they participated, their entry would have been Quand Tout S'Enfuit, performed by Aline Lahoud. Many of the favourites with bookmakers; notably Iceland, Belarus, and the Netherlands; failed to qualify from the semifinal in perhaps the biggest shock of the year's contest. It is also notable that Ireland, the only seven-time Eurovision winner, failed to qualify for the final. In the final itself, the host Ukraine along with the so-called 'Big 4' (Spain, United Kingdom, France, and Germany - the biggest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union, who automatically qualify) occupied the bottom five places of the scoreboard.

This year was no exception for scandals regarding the representatives from the countries participating.Germany's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest has rejected calls to quit after her producer admitted manipulating the country's pop charts with mass purchases of her single. Gracia Baur, has defended her producer David Brandes, also behind Swiss entry Vanilla Ninja, and said she would go to the finals in Kiev despite complaints from other German singers.As a result of this scandal,the German song finished last in the contest.Bulgaria's debut was oversheadowed by a scandal. The song Lorrain by Kaffe has been accused of plagiarism. The song would sound too similar to Don't go, released by Ruslan Mainov in 2001.There were also a problem in Malta electricity during the contest,so the TV viewers were unable to watch their national selection from the very beginning.In Greece,the internally selected singer Helena Paparizou had trouble choosing her song,which led to a live webcast collapse from the Greek Broadcaster ERT.There was also a controversy regarding the Turkish entry:TRT got a false jury which led to a victory of Gulseren song,which the 2003 winner Sertab Erener said was not the best choice.And there were similar controversies in Republic of Macedonia which led to an eventual victory for Martin Vucic.The Ukrainian song had to be changed because it bring a political message to the people,and therefore EBU stated no politics to be involved in the contest.Serbia and Montenegro entry was also oversheadowed by scandal,and with an accusation of plagiarisms.