Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest Greece won for the first time in 2005 with Elena Paparizou singing "My Number One", which at the time tied for the record for the most number of "twelve points" allocated to a song (ten in total) along with Katrina and the Waves' 1997 "Love Shine A Light". The song also made Greece the first country not a member of Big Four to win the contest without going through a semifinal. After Eurovision, the song topped the charts in Greece, Cyprus and Sweden and entered the top ten in Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, as well as the American "Billboard"
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 Italy was represented by Enrico Ruggeri, with the song '"Sole d'Europa", at the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 15 May in Millstreet, Ireland. The song was chosen internally by broadcaster RAI; Ruggeri was the winner of the 1993 Sanremo Music Festival, but RAI decided against sending his winning song "Mistero" to Eurovision. Following the 1993 contest, RAI withdrew from Eurovision for the following three years. They made a brief reappearance in 1997, but then withdrew again until 2011. On the night of the final Ruggeri performed first in the running