:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

INDEPENDENT.IE REPORTS CASH-strapped RTE, faced with a €68m funding deficit, spent €182,000 on our disastrous 2009 Eurovision entry. The massive sum was splurged on selecting and sending an entourage to Russia during May for the 54th annual song contest. Despite being touted as a decent bet for glory, Sinead Mulvey and Black Daisy failed to even make it to the final. The €182,630 bill covered the cost of selecting the band, entry fees, hotel bills, flights, entertainment and visas. The hotel bill for the 15 member delegation amounted to €24,710, flights €6,761, food and entertainment €9,540, visas €1,400 and airport transfers €978. The information was provided to the Irish Independent under a Freedom of Information request. The bill was more than last year's tab for dispatching Dustin the Turkey, to Serbia, which cost €170,000. This year, the cost of staging a national competition on RTE's own 'Late Late Show' cost €83,879, while the Eurovision participation fee was mor

Last month, Norway won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in which NRK has become the host broadcaster for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Key positions have been filled by the host broadcaster in the running of the event next year. Jon Ola Sand (48), has been recently appointed as NRK's Executive Producer for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Hasse Lindmo (36) will be the Television Producer, while Stian Malme (39) the current NRK Head of Delgation for the Eurovision Song Contest is to become the Venue Manager. Evy Hauffen (56) was appointed Line Producer, she was involved in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 in Oslo as Production Manager. On Wednesday and Thursday last, the newly appointed production team met with organisers of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to be briefed about the task that's ahead. Discussions on various topics such as the technical aspects of the contest, the content of the three live shows, infrastructure, marketing, branding, new media, press facil

The Eurovision Semi Final 2 on Thursday 14th May featuring Ireland's entry Et Cetera performed by Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy, was the most watched programme on RTE Two that week with over 438,000 viewers watching Ireland failing to qualify for the final. This is down from 691,000 who watched Dustin the Turkey with his entry last year in Belgrade. The Semi Final 1 on Tuesday 12th May was watched by 208,000. The figures released by RTE , show that the Eurovision Final on Saturday was watched by 438,000, a low fugure compared to other years, due to Ireland not competing that night, but up from 377,000 watching last year . -

The following Link below is a roundup showing the evolution of the Eurovision Song Contest logo from 1956 (when the first contest was held) until now. Some logo's (especially in the early days) are nothing more than simple text. Later on, the logo became more complex, while some find their beauty in simplicity. I love the old days when things where simple!! look at the early 60's, nothing but text in different fonts. See Logos. -

This is how the UK jury voted in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009: UK JURY VOTE 12 Points - Germany 10 Points - Iceland 8 Points - Norway 7 Points - Malta 6 Points - Turkey 5 Points - Ukraine 4 Points - France 3 Points - Bosnia & Herzegovina 2 Points - Armenia 1 Point - Azerbaijan And now here's how the UK public cast their votes by telephone: UK PUBLIC TELEVOTE 12 Points - Turkey 10 Points - Greece 8 Points - Lithuania 7 Points - Norway 6 Points - Malta 5 Points - Iceland 4 Points - Azerbaijan 3 Points - Denmark 2 Points - Germany 1 Point - Portugal COMBINED JURY AND TELEVOTE 18 Points - Turkey 15 Points - Norway* 15 Points - Iceland 14 Points - Germany 13 Points - Malta 10 Points - Greece 8 Points - Lithuania 5 Points - Azerbaijan* 5 Points - Ukraine 4 Points - France 3 Points - Denmark 3 Points - Bosnia & Herzegovina 2 Points - Armenia 1 Point - Portugal *Where there were two countries on the same score, the act with the higher public phone vote is judged to