The first Eurovision Song Contest took place in 1956 in Lugano (Switzerland). It grew out of the popular Italian Festival in San Remo, a favourite project of Frenchman Marcel Bezencon, who viewed the new contest as a way of uniting the nations of post-war Europe. The announced aim of the contest was to stimulate the creation of original songs in the area of popular music. 14 performers from 7 countries took part in the first contest (two songs/singers represented each country). Throughout the years more and more countries and artists became interested to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest that the organizers had to review the rules of the contest regularly. What has been kept unchanged is that the contest is held between countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). This explains participation of contestants from Israel and other countries outside Europe. Due to the fact that the number of potentially interested participants in the contest exceeded the total allowed number of contestants in the past years, a new selection procedure with a semi final and a final was introduced in 2004. Participants from UK, Germany, France and Spain are admitted automatically to the final. Apart from these countries, the 10 highest scoring countries of the last year proceed to the next year's contest final. In addition to that, the 10 highest scoring countries from the semi final proceed to the final to complete the total of 24 countries taking part in the final. Looking at the most successful countries of the past, Ireland is the all-time leader until now. Irishmen have won 15 times, while Luxemburg and France won 5 times each. Among the post-Soviet countries, the luckiest were representatives from Estonia in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest (Tanel Padar and Dave Benton won 1st place then) and Latvia in 2002 (Maria Naumova had also took 1st place). Russia takes part in the contest since 1994, and Alsou has been the biggest success until now (she took second place in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest). Ukraine took part in the contest for the first time in 2003 (Olexander Ponomaryov ranked 14th then). And after only the second participation in 2004, Ruslana gained victory for Ukraine with her song "Wild Dances". There is no restriction on the nationality of performers, as American-born Katrina Leskanich proved with British band The Waves in 1997. Another recent UK foreigner was Australian Gina G, while Greek icon Nana Mouskouri represented Luxembourg in 1963. By the way, in 1988 Switzerland won the contest, represented by Celine Dion, a singer from Canada whom no one knew at that time. Belgian Sandra Kim was only 15 years old when she won the contest in 1986 with the song "J'aime la vie". She will probably remain the youngest winner of Eurovision as according to the current rules participants must be aged at least 16 on the day of the corresponding contest final. Only in this case they are allowed to participate in the contest. There are strict rules for the Eurovision Song Contest Final. There should not be any amplifiers on the stage and drummers have to use a drum kit provided by the organizers of the contest. Only instrumental recorded backing-tracks are allowed. Moreover, any song exceeding the maximum duration (3 minutes) can be disqualified. The 2005 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Kiev from 19 May to 21 May. 39 countries will take part. 25 countries (Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, FYR Macedonia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland) will participate in the semi final. Out of these, the ten best participants chosen through a pan-European televoting will move on to the final to continue their quest for victory. It should also be mentioned that Bulgaria and Moldova will take part in the contest for the first time, and Hungary will return to it after a 7-year break. Fourteen of the 39 countries (namely, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Germany, France, Greece, Malta, Ukraine, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK) have already secured their place in the Final through their placing in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest According to previous events, up to 2000 journalists are expected to cover the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest and up to 100 million viewers across Europe and in countries further a field watch the live televised contest every year.