Hosted by Katrina Leskanich and Renārs Kaupers, the event took place at Forum, in Copenhagen on 22 October 2005.

[4] To coincide with the event, the EBU released two double album CDs featuring Eurovision songs from the previous fifty years.

[5] In November 2002, Jürgen Meier-Beer from the Reference Group of the EBU announced plans to organize a special jubilee programme in 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest.

[7] The Royal Albert Hall was reportedly unavailable, so in August 2004 the EBU announced that DR would stage the event instead.

[8] 1998 Eurovision winner Dana International, who appeared at the event, later went to suggest that the reason behind the change of host country was also due to the fact that the BBC wanted to present the show "with humour" as though to poke fun at the Contest, an idea that proved to be less popular with the EBU.

The programme featured archive footage and highlights of past contests, along with a performance of that year's UK entry by Daz Sampson and was hosted by Terry Wogan.

[21] The full scoreboard is as follows:[22][23][better source needed] Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded in the first round: Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded in the second round: The show started with the traditional Eurovision "Te Deum" theme followed by a message from Cliff Richard.

"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (Israel 1978), "Le dernier qui a parlé..." (France 1991), and "Dschinghis Khan" (Germany 1979) was also played and accompanied by choreography, which was then followed by "Love Shine a Light" (UK 1997) sung by the co-host, Katrina Leskanich, who came out with flag holders of all the countries that have participated in Eurovision up to that point.

Throughout the telecast, a number of highlights segments were presented which showed montages of various Eurovision performances which were either interesting, notable or unorthodox.

There were 6 assortments, which were under the categories described by the hosts as 'past winners', 'political, daring, larger than life', 'cute men', 'unforgettable interpretation of dance', 'girlpower' and 'close/narrow second-place finishers'.

A number of former Eurovision artists returned to help introduce and present the show, including Carola Häggkvist, Massiel, Dana International, Birthe Wilke, Anne-Marie David, Sandra Kim, Elisabeth Andreassen, Hanne Krogh, Olsen Brothers, Emilija Kokić, Marie Myriam, Sertab Erener, Helena Paparizou, Nicole and Hugo, Cheryl Baker and Lys Assia.

These consisted of the Finnish shouting choir Mieskuoro Huutajat, Riverdance (the 1994 interval act), Ronan Keating (the 1997 co-host), and Johnny Logan, singing his new single "When a Woman Loves a Man", as well as an appearance by the Belgian duo of 1973, Nicole and Hugo.

[17] To coincide with the broadcast of the programme, an official compilation album for the 50th anniversary titled The Very Best of the Eurovision Song Contest (also known as Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest),[57] was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by CMC International on 21 October 2005.