The 52nd edition of Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was held at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland on May 10 (for the semi-final) and May 12 (for the final). The hosting broadcaster of the contest was the YLE. Finland earned the right to host the event thanks to the rock band Lordi winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 as Finland's representatives. The victory in Athens, Greece on the May 20, 2006 was Finland's first in their history of competing in the Eurovision Song Contest. It also meant that the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Finland. Serbia won both the semi-final and the final with a slow but powerful ballad sung by Marija Serifovic, whose only ace was her great voice. She was definitely not the top-model kind of girl, she did not have to dance and she sung her song in her national language. After many years of impossible choreographies and stupid English lyrics seeming to be the only way of winning the contest, Marija's victory came to prove that Eurovision was and still is a song contest. Had anybody forgotten it? Ukraine though was about to prove the opposite with one of the weirdest performances ever by Ukrainian transformer Verka Serdyuchka. The song was good fun but had to content with a second position. They never seemed to threat the Serbian singer's deserved victory. Russia was third.