Participating Countries
Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song ContestDue to the EBU's relegation rule of the lowest ranked countries from the contest had to miss the follow year's contest, meant several countries had to withdraw, while relegated countries from the 1999 contest were able to return this year. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Slovenia returned, while Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Macedonia, Romania, and Switzerland withdrew, as they were the lowest ranking countries from the 2000 contest. This brought the total number of participating countries to twenty-three.
Read more about this topic: Eurovision Song Contest 2001
Famous quotes containing the word countries:
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)