2005 will be a year with not one, but two Eurovision Song Contests! The annual show hosted by the last winner nation and the 50th anniversary programme which will take place on October 15, October being the month the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) took the final decition to create the long-lasting contest.

EBU underscores that “this programme will not supplant the annual Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, which will still be hosted by the winner of the 2004 competition”. The final decition on what content the birthday extravaganza will feature, does still belong to the future, but several ideas have been proposed and are now under consideration at the EBU headquarter in Geneve, Switzerland. These proposals range from an event where lots of former Eurovision participants will take part till a “World Song Contest”, without giving further details.

In the meantime, EBU confirms that Albania, Andorra, Australia and Kosovo will be passive participants in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, in addition to the not qualified nations from last year's edition, Serbia and Montenegro, and Belarus. All passive participants have to broadcast the event live. This means that Italy, in contrary to what Israeli media has stated earlier, will not take part in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest!