covered her winning song, "My Number One". The interval act of the semi-final began with the English cover of the song "S'eho Erotefthi", performed as "I'm In Love With You" from the host Sakis Rouvas. A folkloric ballet followed, using traditional Greek music and dances, with the pan flute as a conducting element. This ballet was composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos, while for the grand final, Helena Paparizou performed her song "Mambo!", already a hit in Greece. The interval act closed with a contemporary ballet entitled 4000 Years of Greek Song and which traced the history of the musical culture of the host country. This ballet was also composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos. The voting lines for both shows opened by three special guests: for the semi-final the lines opened by Emilia Tsoulfa (gold medalist in Athens 2004 at 470 class sailing representing Greece) and Dimosthenis Tampakos (Greek gymnast and Olympic gold medalist) and for the grand final the lines opened from the Luxembourgish entrant at the 1963 contest, Nana Mouskouri. Participating countries All participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU. It was initially announced on 16 January 2006 that thirty-eight countries would participate in the contest, with Austria opting not to participate due to the bad result at the previous contest and Hungary also deciding not to participate due to financial reasons. Armenia participated for the very first time in the history of the contest. announced its withdrawal on 15 March 2006, reducing the participants number from 38 to 37. Despite its withdrawal, Serbia and Montenegro still regained their rights to vote in the contest. Returning artists Bold indicates a previous winner. Additionally, Hari Mata Hari were selected to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1999 contest, but their entry was disqualified. Ireland's Brian Kennedy performed in Lumen, the interval act of the 1995 contest. Host Sakis Rouvas previously represented Greece at the 2004 contest. If No Name had been permitted to represent Serbia and Montenegro, they would have done so for the second consecutive year. Semi-final The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET). 23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia and Montenegro voted. Final The finalists were: the four automatic qualifiers , , and the ; the top 10 countries from the 2005 final (other than the