:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

1FLTV, the new television station for Liechtenstein, began broadcasting on the 15th August 2008. It is the world's first ever television station based in Liechtenstein. It is stated clearly in the rules that any country wishing to enter the Eurovision Song Contest must have a national broadcaster that is an active member of the European Broadcasting Union. For Liechtenstein, a tiny Alpine microstate nestled between Austria & Switzerland, this has prevented them from entering in the past, until now. If Liechtenstein do apply to join the contest, it won't be the first time. Liechtenstein wanted to participate in the 1969 contest, and got as far as choosing the song Un beau matin ("A Beautiful Morning") to represent it. Unfortunately, the country – having no broadcasting company of its own and thus not being a member of the EBU – was not allowed to participate. Liechtenstein once again attempted to submit an entry to the contest in 1976, but as they still had n...

It has been reported today in Estonian media that Georgia has decided not to participate at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Russia. The decision comes during the current political situation between Russia and Georgia. According to the reports, the CEO of GPB, Georgia's public broadcaster, states that whilst respecting that the competition is non-political, he believes Russia should not be allowed to host the competition and that it cannot guarantee the safety of it's representatives. Estonian media reports that the Georgian public broadcaster has announced they will withdraw from the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in protest against Russian politics. The Chief Executive Officer of the broadcaster Levan Kubaneichvili said that "Eurovision cannot be held in a country which violates human rights and international law and does not respect democratic values". The Georgian broadcaster is also not sure that Russia can guarantee the safety of all participants according to t...

Many websites including esctoday.com are today reporting that the Estonia's Minister of Culture, Laine Jänes is now discussing a possible boycott of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow, due to the latest developments between Russia and Georgia, following a proposal made by Sulev Valner, editor-in-chief of Maaleht, one of Estonia's largest weekly newspapers. esctoday.com also reports that Ms Jänes seems to be taking a balanced approach to the issue. Whereas, on one hand she suggests that a common boycott strategy with Latvia and Lithuania could be a possibility, she also made it clear that it is a matter that should be thoroughly discussed and many factors are to be taken into consideration. One of those being the viewpoints of local artists: " Some might ask whether it is right to punish the artists, as the contest is very important to them", she said. Ms Jänes also emphasised that culture should be like a bridge between countries and pe...

In an exclusive interview with the Radio Times, The BBC's Eurovision commentator, Terry Wogan has confirmed that he is stepping down as the BBC's Eurovision host after 37 years. The 70-year-old presenter is tired of the "political voting" which determines the outcome. Russia won the contest in Belgrade this year, while the UK's Andy Abrahams scraped just 14 points. "I was considering giving up before Belgrade, and now I have to say I'm very doubtful about ever wanting to do Eurovision again. I've had so much fun, but I think it's time for someone else to take over," he said. READ THE FULL REPORT FROM THE TELEGRADH (UK)

As the Olympics are well underway, The governing body of the Olympics told all members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that no audio or video material gathered inside the accredited area could be streamed outside their home country. The EBU disputed the restrictions earlier this year but was not successful. While it is common to restrict worldwide streaming of actual sporting events, the depth of these restrictions are highly unusual. For instance, if an Irish presenter was to interview an Irish person via a mobile phone and they happened to be in an official Olympic car, the IOC requires that interview is blocked. As such, live streams of all news programmes will not be accessible outside any EBU broadcasting country. 'This is an unfortunate policy given the size of the Irish Diaspora,' says RTÉ.ie News Editor Joe Zefran. '45% of our users come from outside of Ireland which means almost half of our audience will be underserved during the Olympics.' Source: RTE...

You will remember at the beginning of July, we reported of rumours of the results of the Turkish back up jury, that showed up some interesting reading. As we all know, each country must have a back-up jury whose votes are used in the event of problems with televoting. However, this year the votes of each jury were used to determine one qualifier from each of the semifinals. Yakur Mutla was a member of the Turkish jury, and has passed on a copy of the votes to oikotimes.com that were given all each of the jurors after the event. These are the official results: SEMIFINAL 1 Turkey was not entitled to vote. SEMIFINAL 2 12 pts Ukraine 10 pts Portugal 08 pts Denmark 07 pts Iceland 06 pts Croatia 05 pts Bulgaria 04 pts Switzerland 03 pts Lithuania 02 pts Hungary 01 pts Sweden FINAL 12 pts Ukraine 10 pts Portugal 08 pts United Kingdom 07 pts Iceland 06 pts Croatia 05 pts Denmark 04 pts Serbia 03 pts Sweden 02 pts Azerbaijan 01 pts Poland The official televoting results given that night fro...

Soon after the contest ended back in May 2008, I started a poll for a month just to see the reaction from our visitors to the blog. The question was how did they felt that Russia won the contest and how was the contest in general. More than 350 people voted and 31% felt that Western Europe should start their own contest. I presume most of those 31% were visitors from Western Europe.

We don't usually talk about the Eurovision Dance Contest here as we talk about the song contest but this story has caught my attention. It is reported that two countries, Greece and Azerbaijan, have caused controversy after selecting their participants . According to the EBU rules, the couples should be one professional dancer and one local celebrity. Both countries selected completely professional celebrities. The selection had to be made before July 11 and the two countries met difficulties in selecting the proper couple. EBU therefore seems to have granted them an exception from the rules. Other issues causing a headache to the EBU is Germany not participating, and also Spain and Bosnia & Herzegovina announcing they will not air the show live. If it wasn't bad enough, the date of the contest is on the same day all Europe plays football games. The Eurovision Song Contest does not have these issues as the soccer games i.e. Euro or World Cup, is always held in June, thus av...

I know not everyone lives in Ireland but I thought I would share this audio clip with everyone. The audio is about listeners to a radio show called "liveline" on RTE Radio One on trying to obtain visas who are experiencing major delays at the Russian Embassy in Dublin. This may be useful to Irish fans going to Moscow next year. audio source

This news of course will not go down well with fans planning to head to the contest next year but Moscow has topped the league of most expensive cities for expatriates to live in for the third year running. The research by human resources firm Mercer took account of expenses such as rent, eating out and petrol. Moscow has particularly expensive coffee, with a cup in a cafe costing $10.40 (€6.68) including service. Yikes! Some recent Eurovision host cities are in the top 50. Copenhagen came as nr. 7, Helsinki - 21, Istanbul - 23, Athens - 25, Kyiv - 42, and Riga - 44. My advice to you is bring a lot of flashs of tea, brings bottle of drink, your own tent, and only eat at McDonalds! sorted!

Many rumours are currently circulating in the fan world about possible withdrawals, one of the popular ones being the Czech Republic, who have so far come last and second last in their two participations at the contest. However, ČT has confirmed that they are still interested in the Eurovision Song Contest, and will be taking part in 2009 as well.

The possibility of Austria taking part in Eurovision 2009 still seems uncertain after Edgar Böhm, head of entertainment at ORF, mentioned that proposed changes had still not been made by the EBU according to Oikotimes . In 2008 Austria refused to take part in Eurovision due to what they felt was an unfair process that would automatically guarantee them low voting in the contest. ORF, the national television station who organises the Austrian selection process had stated that there was a strong possibility of participating in 2009 if the semifinal setup was defined more clearly. As this has, according to ORF, still not been dealt with, the chances of Austria taking part in Moscow appear minimal. the argument stems from the fact that although the EBU created a second semifinal, implemented in 2008, Austria are unhappy that this still incorporates a mix of countries who will be politically favoured in the voting process. According to ORF, Eurovision has become a big political showcase rat...

Interesting read on Boris Miljković, creator of the logo for the 53 rd Eurovision Song Contest and director of the promotional clips that announced participating countries in the May spectacle. Read more

He is back again! Sakis Rouvas will represent Greece in Russia next year. Dimitris Kontopoulos will be the composer of the song. Sakis Rouvas represented Greece in Eurovision 2004 with the song Skake it and reached third place. He also hosted the 2006 contest which took place in Athens. The Greek national broadcaster confirmed the news to oikotimes.com, on the 15th July. This makes Greece the first country, even before Albania, revealing its artist for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

Oikotimes is reporting that Monegasque broadcaster TMC are not planning on taking part in the Eurovision Song Conest 2009. Monaco were one of the earlier participants in Eurovision, before a lengthy absence between 1979 and 2004. The country's return in 2004, saw a run of poor results, despite songs that had some fan popularity. They did not participant in 2007 or last year. Monaco have won the contest once in Dublin in 1971 with " Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue " sung by Séverine .

ESC Today reports that the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Mr Vladimir Putin, declared in a meeting on the 21st July of the Presidium of the Russian Government that Moscow will be the city to hold the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Zhukov will be in charge of preparations. Moscow has been definitely elected as the host city for the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest. This is due to the higher development of Moscow's facilities, infrastructure and the possibility to minimize expenditures on the event. The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, cleared up the doubts on which city would host 2009 Eurovision during a meeting of the Presidium of the Federal Government. Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Zhukov has been instructed by Putin to develop a plan for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Zhukov also stated that the final of the 2009 event is scheduled to be held on May 16th and Olimpiiski Stadium is very likely t...

MRT, Macedonian Radio Television, the national television broadcaster of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , has been known for some time now to be facing severe financial problems having run into debt and suffering a lack of modern equipment. A recent amendment in the local law on radio diffusion has now opened the way for the broadcaster's liquidation causing uncertainty among the employees according to ESC Today . Although nothing is certain so far and the government of FYR Macedonia have not yet confirmed what it is going to happen with MRT, it is reported that a liquidation is already planned. This will be followed by the opening of a new station under a different name with the minimum personnel necessary to operate. The future of the country's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest looks uncertain.