:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

The billboards of this year's Eurovision Song Contest will be mounted on the streets of Moscow tonight. More than a thousand of them will promote the 42 countries taking part in the Contest. Each with a national flag and depiction of a beautiful girl looking typical for every country. All the images images feature Miss World 2008, the Russian beauty Ksenia Sukhinova. -

Just as Terry Wogan closes the door, another opens. Australia has stepped up their Eurovision coverage and this year they will send two commentators to Moscow!!! Last year’s host of the show, Julia Zemiro will be accompanied by Triple R radio personality Sam Pang for coverage of all three shows. Source: ESC Time. -

Portugal will participate in the forthcoming Eurovision Dance Contest, in Azerbaijan in September – RTP has confirmed. Portugal took part in the two editions of the Eurovision Dance Contest – in 2007 and 2008. In 2007 representing the country were Sónia Araújo, a TV host, and Ricardo Silva, a ballroom dancer. Portugal came fifth after receiving 74 points from 12 countries. In 2008, the singer Raquel Tavares and the professional dancer João Tiago represented the country, finishing 8th with 61 points. Source: Oikotimes -

The Eurovision Song Contest will be making a return to New Zealand’s entertainment scene and it will be the first time in thirty years that the Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast on Kiwi television. The 2009 edition will be broadcast on Triangle Television’s satellite channel, Stratos on 17th May. Australian broadcaster SBS have confirmed that they’ll broadcast all three shows, Triangle Television will only broadcast the final. Source: ESC Time. -

The European Broadcasting Union has released a video animation of what would be the Eurovision 2009 stage in Moscow. The stage, designed by John Casey, will feature a series of mobile elements and LED screens which will create the impression of a glittering cascade. -

The European Broadcasting Union will publish the results of the juries that are voting in the final this year, according to their latest press release. A detailed PDF document sets out the rules and guidelines for the juries, and includes the following, that: ''The results of the national juries will be published by the EBU’s Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest through www.eurovision.tv''. In summary of the rules, five jurors will judge the entries for the final during the second dress rehearsal, which takes place on Friday May 15. Each national jury will be monitored by an independent auditor, and must consist of a variety of members in terms of age, gender and background. The jurors must also be citizens of the country in which they are sitting. Further to concerns about the impartiallity, the EBU has ruled that ''None of the jury members must be connected with any of the participating songs/artists in such a way that they cannot vote independ

The Austrian national broadcaster,ORF, has decided to issue the next edition of the Eurovision and therefore the two semi-finals, but will deferred. According to the reports of our fellow-austria.com eurovision, the public channel sent to a Moscow commentator, Benny Hörtnagl and only plans to show live coverage of the final votes. This is the time of issuance of the Eurovision ORF: May 13th: 1st Semifinal at 00:40 pm. May 15th: Semifinal 2nd at 00:20 pm. May 16th: Issue of video clips of the songs at 20:15 pm. May 16th: Connecting directly with the votes at 23:00 May 17th: Emission of the entire end to 00:20 pm. The director of the Austrian chain criticized the voting system and demanded changes to the EBU to strengthen the festival and make it more credible. Despite the change that the EBU had made in the voting process with the return of the juries, Austria decided not to participate in this edition. As the head of the delegation of this country in Eurovision, Edgar B

According to Belgovision.com, the European Broadcasting Union have decided that they will drop the tour this year as they cannot organise or fund the tour in 2009. This conclusion was made as the tour was found to be not beneficial to the contest and the costs outweighted the benefits. Therefore this years winner will have to fund their own tour if they plan to do so. -