:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

It has been confirmed that Harel Skaat will represent Israel at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. This was announced at the Knesset committee of Culture, where it has been also confirmed that Channel 2 operator Reshet will conduct Kdam Eurovision to select the song for Harel Skaat. Yoav Ginai, head of entertainmet at IBA and IBA CEO Mordechai Shkaler have announced this morning at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, that Reshet operator of Channel 2 has been chosen to produce the Kdam Eurovision show, and therefore the Israeli representative for Eurovision 2010 will be Harel Skaat. -

The list was confirmed by the EBU earlier today, and means that any countries that withdraw from here on in will face a fine. Absentees from last year are Montenegro, Hungary, Andorra, and the Czech Republic. Georgia returns to the contest after being disqualified over their attempted 2009-entry “We don’t wanna put in”. From the total of 39, the “Big-4″ (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom) are directly qualified to the final, although with hosts Norway. That leaves 34 countries to contest two semifinals; seventeen in each, from which ten will qualify. The Eurovision final will run with 25 entries despite fewer participants this year. The full list of participating countries & broadcasters is as follows: Albania (RTVSH) Armenia (AMPTV) Azerbaijan (Ictimai TV) Belarus (BTRC) Belgium (VRT) Bosnia & Herzegovina (BHRT) Bulgaria (BNT) Croatia (HRT) Cyprus (CyBC) Denmark (DR) Estonia (ERR) Finland (YLE) France (FT3) FYR Macedonia (MKRTV) Georgia (GEGT) Germany (NDR/ARD) Gr