First winner, Lys Assia wishes for another chance at Eurovision

The after show party is considered to be the big send off for the artists after two weeks of hard work, one place where everyone can congregate for one last time, say their goodbyes and celebrate or comiserate depending on their results.

A large number of artists turned up to the party, including some of the beaten Semi-Finalists and this is what some of them had to say.

Josh Dubovie, United Kingdom 25th place 

"I entered the competition with the hope of winning, but I also realised that there was a chance of losing. I had the best time though, I gave my best performance and did everything I could have. We had a great show and team, but unfortunately tonight Europe wasn't behind us. Hopefully next year the United Kingdom will get a better result. I'm looking to see what happens, hopefully the result won't be a reflection on me, I intend to continue to follow my passion which is music."

Pamela Ramljak (Feminnem), Croatia eliminated Second Semi-Final

"We were shocked initially not to qualify for the Final. But when we look back and see which countries were in our Semi-Final, it's not so shocking, in fact it was obvious we would go out as Slovenia was the only one of our neighbours voting. It was refreshing to see some countries giving points that we never imagined. We're really happy that Germany won, they have done very badly in recent years. This was a big hit before the contest, and I heard it on MTV some months ago. Lena definitely deserved to win, In Croatia, in general people are disappointed as everyone was expecting a lot from the song. This was the first year that Croatia had enthusiasm for Eurovision in a long time. The public and our fans though have been very supportive, saying that we made them proud, and that's the real victory for us. We are off to Montenegro next to a song festival, and have 26 gigs lined up in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and we will release our English album in a few countries, so we have a lot of work ahead."

Lys Assia, first ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 for Switzerland

"Over the past years, the Eurovision Song Contest has become a lot bigger. This year, it has been more about the song than the show. There were more good singers this year. Nobody would have thought that after 55 years, this great competition would still be going. It is the best show in the World. I am still keenly interested in the competition, and I think that Switzerland should take me with a good song, good backing, good lighting, I can still do it. I have the experience, I have the charisma and I know what people like. I think I could get Switzerland back in to the Final with a nice, well arranged ballad with good music."

Aisha, Latvia eliminated First Semi-Final

"I had big support from my friends, family and fans, but I have also had a lot of bad and negative press in Latvia. It keeps me stronger though, I feel that we did a very good job, i'm proud of the girls, we sang with emotion from our hearts. I was also very depressed for Sweden, it was such a big surprise to me that Anna Bergendahl didn't qualify. It's still my favourite song. She did a very good job. Going forward, on 19th June I will be taking part in a big show called Diva's night in Latvia. That will be very good, and I also hope to start work soon on a new album."

maNga, choreographer and cyber girl, Turkey  2nd place

Choreographer Genevieve Cleary "I was contacted by maNga's producers first of all and they then sent me the track. They wanted me to listen to the song, and come up with some stage ideas, bearing in mind the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest. I listened to the track back to back for around six hours while I was formulating ideas, and analysing the lyrics. I woke up at 4am one morning with the bright idea, that the theme should be that everyone goes through life like robots, not focusing on emotions, and that a robot cyber girl wants to become human, and be the same as us. maNga are modern, young, agressive, outspoken and edgy. I think I understood them from their lyrics"

Cyber girl Natalie Marrable "I work with the company of the choreographer, I was free at the time they needed someone, and I very much liked the style of the band. We worked very hard, and practiced many times. We had around five different ways of the presentation which we tried in the dress rehearsals until we came up with the one we liked best. I think 15 seconds was the fastest time I managed to get the whole robot costume off!"

maNga "First of all we would like to thank all of the guys who helped us to get here. They are the ones who made this possible. We are all very very proud of what we have achieved tonight. We would have liked more than three points from Norway though!. This is a big step for us, after winning at the MTV European Music Awards, we will now make new English songs and try to take our music further outside of Turkey. This Eurovision Song Contest has been the most professionally organised event we have ever been involved in. Our designer actually desgned our band logo, and there is no reason in particular why the N is capitalised, it has no special meaning but just looked great with the art work."

Jessy Matador, France 12th place

"We had a great time on stage, we are very proud of what we did tonight. The feeling in the hall during our song was great, so many people dancing along and clapping and cheering. There was real excitement in the hall which for an artist gives you a great feeling."