Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Eurovision Song Contest 2000" in English language version.
The Big Four (now Big Five) was introduced from this contest onwards - France, Germany, Spain and the UK (plus now Italy) became exempt from the relegation rules and automatically qualify for the final, due to the amount of financial backing they give the competition.
Ragnheiður Elín Clausen mun venju samkvæmt koma fram fyrir Íslands hönd og lesa niðurstöður íslensku símakosningarinnar – eða dómnefndarinnar ef því er að skipta[...][Ragnheiður Elín Clausen will, as usual, appear on behalf of Iceland and read the results of the Icelandic telephone election – or those of the jury if that is the case]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)The Big Four (now Big Five) was introduced from this contest onwards - France, Germany, Spain and the UK (plus now Italy) became exempt from the relegation rules and automatically qualify for the final, due to the amount of financial backing they give the competition.