07 Boden

Welcome to Boden
"Mountains and Moose"

Boden is a locality and the seat of Boden Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 18,277 inhabitants in 2010. It is part of the larger area around coastal city Luleå some 36km southeast. The town of Boden started as a railway junction where the Northern Line met with the Ore Line from the rich iron ore fields in northern Sweden. The town experienced increased growth when the Boden Fortress was constructed in the beginning of the 20th century. The purpose of the fortress was to defend Sweden from a possible attack from the east, where Russia was considered the most dangerous threat. The first official writings about Boden, was in a 16th century tax paper, where the mention of "Boden village" with 7 homes. Boden got the title of city in 1919. This title became obsolete in 1971 and Boden is now the seat of Boden Municipality. Today Boden is still a military stronghold, and houses the largest garrison of the Swedish Army. The army and the municipality are the two largest employers in Boden. As the military is continuously disarming, with the five regiments united into one garrison, the population has decreased by 2,000 people over the past ten years. The famous Fällkniven knives are from Boden.

Host City / Boden, Sweden
Venue / Boden Arena
Hosts / Gladys del Pilar and Ulrika Jonsson

Participating countries / 27
Debuting countries / Iceland, Monaco and Uzbekistan
Returning countries / Belgium and Germany
Withdrawing countries / Albania and Norway

Debuting players / Benny for Uzbekistan, Brynja for Iceland, Peter for Belgium and Rémy for Germany

Returning Artists

Natalija Verboten / for Slovenia / Bronze Medallist

The Result

Countries receiving most 12 points / Iceland, 4
Countries giving 12 points to the winner / Slovenia and Macedonia
Countries receiving points from most juries / Spain, 16
Highest placing country not scoring a top mark / United States in 8th place with 10 points from Australia, Slovenia and Morocco as highest marks
Lowest placing country scoring a top mark / France in 21st place getting 12 points from Monaco

Though debuting Uzbekistan took the first top mark, it quickly became a battle between Monaco and Greece, and halfway through the voting, Greece pulled ahead and kept the lead until the end. In the end, though they only finished 1 point ahead of Spain, with debuting Iceland taking home the bronze medal. Uzbekistan and Sweden rounded out the top 5.

Greece was one of the founding members of the contest, but only competed in every other edition for the first 5 editions. This is thus their 5th participation, and in the first 4, they finished in the top 10 three times, though never higher than 9th place until now. Well done Greece, Antique and Vasilis!