:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

Oikotimes reports that from the 20th September 2008, Israeli passport holders will not need to obtain a visa if they wish to visit Russia for a stay up till 3 months. The Internal affairs committee of the Knesset decided yesterday to remove Israelis from the necessity to obtain VISA to Russia and vice versa. This decision will enhance the tourism between Russia and Israel and they are expecting that the number of tourists coming from Russia to Israel will expand to 400,000 tourists annually. This is a big information for the Israeli eurovision fans in planning their trip to Moscow next year. Take in into consideration that the average price of an an airline ticket cost around $500 and the visa cost $100. Following this decision the expenses will be cut down in 20% before entering Russia.

With just 33 days gone since the 2008 contest was held in Belgrade, Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, met with 2009 organizers in Moscow for the first time. Traditionally, the Executive Supervisor introduced the outlines of the project to Host Broadcaster Channel One and discussed the road ahead. "The Eurovision Song Contest is an extremely challenging project, but I am confident that Channel One will put together a production of the highest level," Stockselius said after his Moscow visit. Preliminary dates for the 54th Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals are Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14th of May, while the Final is scheduled to take place on Saturday 16th of May, 2009. Channel One proposed the EBU to host next year's Eurovision Song Contest at the Olimpiisky indoor arena in Russia's capital Moscow (See picture above). The venue was built for the 1980 Summer Olympics and hosted the basketball and boxing events. The venue can hos

Unsurprisely, The Eurovision Semi Final 1 on Tuesday 20th May featuring the Irish contestant Dustin the Turkey, was the most watched programme on RTE Two that week with over 691,000 viewers watching Ireland failing to qualify for the final. The figures released by RTE, show that the Eurovision Final on Saturday was watched by 377,000, a low fugure compared to other years, due to Ireland not competing that night. Although the second semi final was shown on RTE, the show failed to reach the top ten of the most watched programmes for the week ending 25th May 2008.

I am one of those fans who was disappointed when the new rule came in 1999, that any country can sing in any language that they wish, but Turkey, who won the contest in 2003 with a song in English may sing their future songs in their native language. A new study commission has been formed in Turkish Parliament with the aim of conserving and developing Tukish Language. The topics in the draft report prepared by the commission also includes the language in which the country should be represented in Eurovision Song Contest. The final proposal has not been submitted yet and it will be up to the Turkish Parliament to decide whether this rule will be included in the project. Since taking part in the contest for the first time in 1975, Turkey has competed 3 times entirely in English. In 2003, Sertab won the Eurovision Song Contest with Everyway that I can, in 2004, Athena came 4th with For real and in 2007 Kenan Doğulu came 4th again with Shake it up şekerim. Turkey also competed 4 times

ESC Today reports that Andorran broadcaster RTVA has not taken a decision on the country's participation at Eurovision 2009 yet, after this year's disappointing results. Creu Rosell, Head of Delegation of Andorra, said that the public broadcaster RTVA has not decided whether the Principality will participate or not at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Russia. Andorran Eurovision plans are now in stand-by and will remain like this until September, when RTVA is expected to announce Andorra's involvement or withdrawal from Eurovision 2009. Since Andorra joined Eurovision Song Contest back in 2004, the country has never been able to make it to the final. Their best result came in 2007, when Anonymous placed 12th in the semifinal. This year, despite the ambitious plans and big promotion that Gisela enjoyed across Europe, Andorra could not either manage to qualify for the final.

One of the founder nations of the Eurovision Song Contest, Luxembourg, will not return to the contest in 2009, 16 years after they last participated in the competition. Radio-Télé Letzebuerg has confirmed to Esctoday.com that they have absolutely no interest in taking part in the contest again at present. This follows a statement from the company in 2005 that they would 'never' return to the contest, after originally applying to take part in 2004 but withdrawing before the final deadline due to the costs involved. Luxembourg has won outright 5 times, making them the second most successful country in the contest in terms of number of wins. Their last entry was in 1993, when "Donne-moi une chance de te dire" by Modern Times received just 11 points and 20th place. One comment by a visitor claimed that " As far as I remember RTL (and Luxembourg) withdrew from the ESC when the control over RTL was transferred to private hands and hence they had no incentive to

BBC News reports..... Ireland's EU treaty No campaigners have recruited the country's most famous turkey to help secure crucial votes in Thursday's referendum. Dustin the Turkey crashed out of this year's Eurovision Song Contest at the semi-final stage. Now he appears on posters with the slogan: "They didn't vote for us. Get them back. Vote No to Lisbon." The glove puppet's song Irelande Douze Pointe received too few points from Europeans in the Belgrade contest. No campaigners say that result last month should be avenged by rejection of the EU's Lisbon Treaty. Ireland is the only member state to hold a referendum on the treaty and the country has seen a frenzied poster campaign from both sides. The turkey joins the already widespread No posters that feature three monkeys with the slogan: "The new EU won't see you, won't hear you, won't speak for you." Dustin's name has surfaced a number of times in the campaign, with Sin

Azerbaijani-native Belarus singer Gunash Abbasova is going to represent Belarus in the Eurovision-2009 contest. Abbasova confirmed her intentions to join the national qualifying tour, APA reports .

German Broadcaster NDR have announced on its official website that Germany will participate in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. There were concerns about Germany’s participation due to declining viewing figures and the disappointing 23rd place finish for the German participants No Angles with the song Disappear in this year’s contest. Viewing figures have dropped from 7.5 million in 2006 to 6.38 million for this year’s contest. However, this years contest achieved a strong marked share of 27.9% making the Eurovision Song Contest the most watched show in Germany on 24th May. NDR will need to make some changes in the Germany national selection show for the 2009 contest .Thomas Herrmanns has confirmed that he will no longer host the Grand-Prix-Vorentscheid, the highly entertaining German national final show. In light of this it is understood that NDR may look to introduce changes to its selection process for 2009. Germany's recent best placing was 3rd in 1999 with Sürpriz singing &q

At this year's Eurovision National Final, Little Tony was a key part of the jury that decided on who to represent San Marino at Eurovision. Now Little Tony would like to celebrate 50 years in the music industry by representing San Marino at Eurovision 2009. When talking to SMTV, Little Tony said that he would be happy to represent San Marino in Russia and has already asked artists to submit songs for him to represent. With a career spanning almost 50 years, Little Tony has released 29 albums and been a star in many films. His greatest hit was "Un Cuore Matto" in 1967. He marked his comeback by competing in this year's San Remo contest. Commenting on the presentation of his calendar he was quoted as saying "I am very happy. I will celebrate 50 years in music by having a great song for me that will represent San Marino". Source: Oikotimes

Will the SVT financial crisis jeopardize next years Melodifestivalen? 400 jobs is in danger when more than 250 million Swedish crowns must be cut in the budget for 2009. SVT is in a middle of a financial crisis. For sure Sweden´s disappointing results in the last years ESC would not have any influence on the national and very popular selection Melodifestivalen. The final has been the most popular tv-show in the country for years. 4 million watched MF-final 2008, compared to 2.8 million watching the Eurovision final in Belgrade. Source: Oikotimes

Not surprised, but Malta will continue to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, Culture Minister Dolores Cristina said last night. There had been many calls for Malta to withdraw from the contest after its disappointing results in the last three years. If there is one country I always want desperately to win, its Malta. Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1971. In the first few years they did not do well and withdrew after the 1975 edition. Since they returned in 1991 however things went a lot better. Despite not having won so far, Malta has come fairly close on several occasions. They came 2nd in 2002 and 2005, but since 2007 they have failed to come out of the Semi Final. Source

As Austria prepares to co-host the Euro 2008 Soccer Championships with Switzerland, ESC Today exclusively reported that they got confirmation from ORF, The Austrian Broadcaster, that it has no definite plans to return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009, but that a proper decision would be made in the Autumn. Austria withdrew in 2006 citing that the country has poor chances to do well in the competition, before returning in 2007, only to end 2nd last in the semi final and withdrew again in 2008 for the same reasons, but ORF did however broadcast the 2008 contest, prompting that it may return in 2009. Austria have won the contest only once, back in 1966.

Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, who represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Conest 2008, will disappear from the TV screens tomorrow. Rodolfo will make his very last appearance on the Buenafuente show, the programme that gave birth to him, tomorrow evening. Rodolfo Chikilicuatre shot to fame back in February, when he applied to enter the Spanish preselection Salvemos Eurovisión, aired on TVE on March 8th. Rodolfo managed to win the majority of votes online via Myspace.com as well as the telephone votes the evening of the national final. Thus, Rodolfo Chikilicuatre won the right to represent Spain in Belgrade with the song Baila el chiki chiki. His comical act finished 16th on May 24th, the best result for Spain since 2004. Before his performance in Eurovision, Rodolfo had a very busy agenda, full of TV appearances and other gigs. It seems now that Rodolfo Chikilicuatre has accomplished his mission. God how I will missed that black Elvis hair, so long Rodolfo! Source: ESC Today

Yes folks, its that time of the year again, where the EBU deny everything, that there is no bloc voting or fraud going on in the voting system for the contest. They should make this an annual event, what is this the 4th one now? With over a week gone since the Eurovision Song Contest in Serbia, many media reports and spectators around Europe have criticised the Eurovision Song Contest for the apparent neighbourly and diaspora voting affecting the outcome of the contest, but Director of Eurovision TV, Bjørn Erichsen, speaking on behalf of the EBU, spoke to respond to such allogations. He said that "if a viewer likes the song from a neighbouring country, they can vote for it, and if a Polish girl lives in Ireland she can vote for Poland. You cannot vote for your own country, from your own country. But the EBU and its partners do not - and should not have - any possibility of controlling the nationality, identity or preferences of the individual voter. If somebody were to seek to inf

The EBU will not give audience totals for the Contest (wonder why!) but according to El Pais, the contest was followed by 9.3 million people in Spain, 9.3 million in the UK, 6.4 million in Germany, 4.5 million in Serbia, 3.1 million in France and 1.7 million in Portugal. In total the amount of people who followed Eurovision was 90 million, an increase of 16% on last year. Regarding the amount of votes cast, the total stands at 6 million according to the EBU who had both Deutsche Telecom and Digame monitoring the recount and an audit check by Price Waterhouse who say that "there has never been any question of vote fraud". As far as the monopoly by Eastern countries towards voting, the EBU remains confident that "the vote by neighbouring countries does not signify victory. The statistics show that a song can only win if all the countries vote for it". Source

You will remember earlier, we reported that the EBU confirmed that Scotland can enter their own Eurovision entry, if they want to. Well now The Times news online reports that Paul Gambaccini, the broadcaster and pop historian, is supporting Scotland’s bid to have its own Eurovision song contest entry. The veteran DJ claims Scotland would stand a better chance of success than the UK because England’s sneering approach to the competition has made it unpopular with other European countries. Gambaccini claims Scotland would be able to draw on a wide range of talent, including established artists, as opposed to the “lightweight” English entries in recent years. He argues that splitting the UK into its constituent countries would also allow Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to vote for each other — counteracting the block voting of the former Soviet bloc countries — and guaranteeing an end to the dreaded “nul points”. Jemini, the artist representing the UK in 2003, received no

A week on, Terry Wogan, Eurovision presenter for the BBC, is still complaining. He has now blamed racism in eastern Europe for the UK's poor showing during last week’s Eurovision Song Contest. Read full story

TVP has also expressed its disappointment after this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. There is no doubt that the first ever qualification of Polish entry to the final, Isis Gee ’s song and performance are described as a success. However the political voting procedure is a completely different story. Polish newspapers like Super Express, Rzeczpospolita, Fakt, Metro were full of criticism as concern the voting system. Many well known artists and journalists even called for withdrawal from the contest or withdrawal in case of unchanged voting procedures in the future. Just after The Opole Song Festival TVP is going to discuss whether to participate in the next year’s ESC or not. The final decision is expected in October, but first step of Polish broadcaster will be a submission of its remarks on the exiting voting procedures to EBU. Source