:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

A Classic Opening!

Svante Stockselius has confirmed that there will be no change in the rules concerning who hosts the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. An article appearing on the Spanish website abc.es wrote that Mr. Stockselius had claimed that there would be two semi finals in 2008, the winning country would take part in the semi finals and would not have the advantage or obligation of performing in their own land. The news spread to several other sites. Mr. Stockselius said that "Of course we will keep the rule that the winner will also host next year. That is one of the basic elements in the format". It does seem certain, however, that a two-semi final system will be introduced after Helsinki, although no further discussions have taken place since the Head of Delegations meeting in Helsinki on March 12th-13th. Various ways of dividing participating countries into the two semi finals are being considered. This means that the 2008 host broadcaster will have to stage three live broadcasts as the

The first computer generated images of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest stage have been sent out to the Heads of Delegations in order for the 42 participating countries to begin planning their stage performances for Helsinki. The images show nothing more than a vague grey and white image. The stage appears to be relatively small compared to those of recent years, but exact measurements are not shown. Computer generated human outlines are positioned to give scalability. There will be a catwalk attached to the stage, but that will only be available to camera crews and used for the interval and opening of the show, and the competing acts will not be allowed to use it as part of their show. More indepth drawings will be available in the next few weeks, but the construction of the stage is still some way off, so do not expect any photographic images for some time yet

Television presenter Terry Wogan has apologised for accidentally announcing the wrong winner during a televised contest to select the UK Eurovision entry. There was confusion at the end of the 'Making Your Mind Up' show when Wogan and fellow presenter Fearne Cotton simultaneously announced different winners. Cotton then quickly confirmed that Scooch would be representing the UK at this year's Eurovision and not Cyndi, as Wogan had said. Speaking on his radio show the next morning, Wogan said: "I suppose I should make a little apology to Cyndi - although I'm not taking the blame for this - because I was the one who did say Cyndi had won." "And if she's listening, my apologies for raising your hopes at the last minute, which was inadvertent and I'm sorry." "I shall be cheering them on in Helsinki. Scooch were the clear winners. Just ignore what you hear old fools say," Wogan said. BBC director-general Mark Thompson said after the m

The words why oh why Delilah come to mind. I dont watch National Finals for the simple reason, all I want to know is who is representing their country and I dont want to watch songs that I will never hear again, but I had to watch the UK National Final, simple reason there was nothing on TV on a Saturday night so BBC One was staring at me. Anyway, I was really shocked by the winner but you can see what the BBC and public are trying to do. The Show "It's been 12 months since the British public sent the cock-eyed optimist Daz Sampson," Terry en tones and I think they will be waiting another 12 months. "Gone are the days when lyrics and a flash of the thigh is enough to win," Fearne explains. Spectacle, costumes and traditional dance help," she continues. "The gimmick is best when it works as a surprise with the song," Fearne tells us in an effort to create informed voters while clips from various performances are shown. I have a feeling there w

Interesting article by ESC Today about what role has the draw - the order of performance - played in determining who wins the Eurovision Song Contest? more at: http://www.esctoday.com/specials/read/8003

A more upbeat and cheerful song since the Late Late show debut in February. Good ending aswell.

Israel's controversial entry for this year's Eurovision has been approved by organisers despite apparent references to Iran's nuclear programme. Push The Button by the group Teapacks was deemed "generally appropriate", said Eurovision spokesman Kjell Ekholm. Two weeks ago, Mr Ekholm said the song, which refers to "demonic" rulers and "he's gonna blow us up to... kingdom come" could be banned. Teapacks deny the song is about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Contest supervisor Svante Stockselius said they do not comment on individual cases, "but a couple of songs caused some discussions".

The Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group approved all submissions of this year's competition. All participating songs, with the exception of the United Kingdom's entry, of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest were officially submitted to the organisers by the delegations at the meeting in Helsinki on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest has now reviewed the songs and confirm that they all meet the criteria as stipulated in the EBU Rules for the Eurovision Song Contest. These criteria include the lyrics and music, the duration of each song, the number of performers, and their minimum age. The Reference Group is a committee of experts established by the EBU Eurovision TV Committee to represent all the members of the European Broadcasting Union in the Eurovision Song Contest. "This year’s contest promises a diversity of songs and genres. That is one of the most exciting aspects of the contest, as we will see a large variety of cul

Representatives from all 42 participating countries, Eurovision Song Contest officials and media gathered at the Finlandia House in Helsinki to draw the running order for the Semi-Final and Final of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Apart from the order in which the Semi-Final and Final participants will perform on stage, the order in which spokespersons from all 42 participating countries will give their points during the Final was drawn as well. The new so called "exciting" wild card system brought us what we expected from the beginning of the draw . When Austria, Andorra, Latvia, Slovenia, Turkey from the Semi Final and Armenia, Ukraine and Germany from the Final were chosen as wild cards, they all decided as best they could to be located at the end of the running order. Germany wanted to remain near the middle so chose slot number 18. From an Irish point of view, early reaction by Irish fans suggest that the draw could not have been much worse for the hopes of Dervish

The team at eurovision.tv and YLE have been asked for an explanation as to why the international fans of the Eurovision Song Contest were denied the chance to watch the promised webcast today. The televised draw had been advertised and talked about back at the press conference in Bucharest in early December. Although no official word from the EBU or YLE has been given about why the webcast did not work, a simple examinanation shows that the link to the media player was dead. This may indicate either a capacity problem,technical or communications oversight. See also: http://www.eurovision.tv/content/view/619/262/

The ESC Executive Supervisor comments about the accusation about "TeaPacks". "We have been informed about the situation, but will take no actions of any kind with any of the songs until they are officially handed in, that is next Monday", says Mr. Svante Stockselius, ESC Executive Supervisor. "I have no idea Why the discussion about the Israeli song came up just now", wonders Stockselius. Anyhow, according to Stockselius, "On Monday we will go through all the 42 songs to see if they are following all aspects of our rules". The comment of Mr. Stockselius came after a lot of speculations about the official stand of the EBU, regarding the Israeli entry, and after reports made by the BBC in the United Kingdom and YLE in Finland. Eurovision fans from Israel and Europe started an online petition in favor of "Push the button". IBA 1 main news edition "Mabat" will broabcast tonight a special reports about all the political songs in th

Drag act Verka Serduchka has won the Ukrainian national final for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Danzing. Thanks to Tina Karol's 7th place in Athens with Show me your love, the singer is directly qualified for the final in 2007. You can watch the live performance below:

I actually cant believe its upon us but on the 12th and 13th March 2007, representatives from all participating countries will meet in Helsinki for the annual Heads of Delegation meeting, including the draw for the running order! It's a carefully protected tradition behind the scenes of the Eurovision Song Contest; A few weeks before the event, the delegation leaders from all participating countries meet each other in the host country to formally submit their entries to the organisers of the contest and exchange their songs for promotion. The webcast of the draw of the running order will be LIVE on www.eurovision.tv

Given that this will be Finland's first opportunity to host the event, after over forty years competing in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Helsinki venues started with an advantage, although a strong campaign by Turku included offering a suitable venue, free of charge. On June 21st, YLE announced the winning bid and Helsinki's Hartwell Areena , the widely speculated favourite was confirmed as the venue for the 2007 contest.The venue, which is a ten minute tram ride north of Helsinki's city centre was completed in 1996, and while it is used by a local ice hockey team and staged the World Championships of that sport in 1997, the Hartwell Areena is not primarily a sports venue. This is the first time since 2000 that the Eurovision Song Contest will not be staged in an arena which was primarily build for sport.The building which is elliptically shaped is 153 meters long and 123 meters wide. It has hosted concerts by some of the world's most popular musical acts over the pa

Svante Stockselius, the executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the EBU, has commented to IBA's Eurovision website about the controversy surrounding the Israeli entry. Svante Stockselius commented to IBA's Eurovision website, Eurovil , after the recent days turmoil regarding the Israeli entry to the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, Push the button, by Teapacks. "We have been informed about the situation, but will take no actions of any kind with any of the songs until they are officially handed in, that is next Monday", says Stockselius. "I have no idea why the discussion about the Israeli song came up just now. On Monday we will go through all the 42 songs to see if they are following all aspects of our rules". In the meantime, Eurovision fans have opened an online petition in favour of the Israeli entry, on Teapacks' website. You can find it at www.teapacks.coo.co.il . Full translation of the song is available here .

A number of websites today took an unguarded personal opinion voiced by a member of the EBU Reference Group as a suggestion that the Israeli entry to the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest could face disqualification. 'Push the Button' by the group TeaPacks has been interpreted by some to be a statement on Iranian nuclear ambitions and the Islamic republic's fiery president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, although he is never mentioned in the song. Mr Ahmadinejad has called for an end to the Israeli state, though Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful. Israeli news portal Haaretz, asked EBU Reference Group member Kjell Ekholm whether a song attacking Iranian nuclear policy would be allowed at Eurovision. He replied, "It's absolutely clear that this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition." These words were taken out of context and promptly (mis)interpreted to mean that the EBU was considering disqualification of the song.TeaPacks lead singer Kobi Oz spe