:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

Russia Today reports that the first set of tickets for Eurovision 2009 were sold out on the day sales were launched. Massive queues began forming on Sunday night outside the ticket offices of the Olympiisky Arena in Moscow, despite the fact that nothing would be sold until the morning. By 11.30am on Monday, more than 500 people were waiting in line. The cheapest tickets were sold out by midday. Soon after, movement in the queues stopped. Because of the organisers’ policy to sell no more than 8 tickets per person, touts blocked the entrance to try and make quick deals with those in line to buy their tickets from them. Upset people in the crowd had to call the police to get them cleared away. The situation proved concerns that limiting the number of tickets sold to one person would fail to stop the touts. The release date for when the next batch of tickets goes on sale is being kept under wraps – and organisers are afraid of the touts resurfacing. Many of those planning to attend the Eu...

According to ESC Today , Russian TV presenter Andrey Malahov and Alsou, the runnerup of the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest will be the hosts of the 2009 contest semi finals. The host of the final has not been confirmed yet but it is being heavily tipped that Holywood superstar Milla Jovovich has been approached by Channel One and is close to an agreement. -

Webcast: The show can be watched here The pots look like this: Semi final 1: Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. Semi Final 2: Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine. Final: France, Germany, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom Semifinal 1 Wildcards: First semi final: Malta receives first wild card and decides their position and that will be to perform 17th. Bulgaria received the second and decides to perform eleventh. Portugal gets the 3rd wild card and will perform 16th. Running Order 01 - Montenegro 02 - Czech Republic 03 - Belgium 04 - Belarus 05 - Sweden 06 - Armenia 07 - Andorra 08 - Switzerland 09 - Turkey 10 - Israel 11 - Bulgaria 12 - Iceland 13 - FYR Macedonia 14 - Romania 15 - Finland 16 - P...

Russian Channel One confirmed that tickets for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will be available Monday, March 16 – 8:00 – 21:00 CET. There will be tickets for twelve shows (that would be nine rehearsals, two semifinals and the final). Tickets for the dress rehearsals will cost between 450 and 1.500 roubles (EUR 10 - 33); Tickets for the semifinals will cost between 800 and 20.000 roubles (EUR 17,50 - 435); Tickets for the final will cost between 1.000 and 30.000 roubles (EUR 21 - 655). Only to OGAE members the tickets costs 53 Euros (each semifinal) and 100 Euros (final). Tickets sales through Channel One website , or by telephone: +74953636060. Eurovision shows schedule: May 11 First Rehearsal of First Semifinal (12:00 CET) Second Rehearsal of First Semifinal (18:00 CET) May 12 Dress Rehearsal of First Semifinal (15:00 CET) Eurovision Song Contest: First Semifinal (21:00 CET) May 13 First Rehearsal of Second Semifinal (12:00 CET) Second Rehearsal of Second Semifinal (18:00 CET) May ...

The Russian national final for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest was held on Saturday 7th March. 16 acts competed and in the end, it was decided that Anastasiya Prikhodko will represent the host country with the song Mama. -

UPDATE: CLICK HERE. Although originally scheduled for the 12th March, ticket release for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will probably be postponed for the 16th March 2009 according to ESC Today . Unlike in recent years, there will be no packages but tickets can be purchased individually. Prices, for those who have been following the contest these past years, are back to Helsinki levels. This year's contest will be held at the Olympiinski Arena in Moscow, which after the modifications for the stage will be able to accommodate about 15.000 spectators per show. There will be ten different pricing categories for the tickets of the 2009 according to the location of the seats. Prices will range from about €20 for the semi final dress rehearsals to up about €650 for the VIP tickets to the final. An average price for the semi final dress rehearsals will be about €15, the final dress rehearsal €25, €95 for each of the semi finals and €150 for the final. Tickets will be sold online through...

Real tickets to the music competition Eurovision 2009 to be held in Moscow are still under development, so the tickets, which are already available, are surely counterfeit, the contest organizers warn. In spite of the fact that tickets to the Eurovision 2009 contest concerts have not been printed and developed yet, various websites, some of them claiming to be the competition’s official sites, already offer to book tickets in advance. The organizers report that for the time being Eurovision 2009 tickets are unavailable neither for booking nor for buying. All the currently existing offers to book tickets to Eurovision are fake. All information regarding the purchase of tickets will be made available on the official sites of the Eurovision Song Contest in early March. Those being the EBU's eurovision.tv and the host broadcaster's website eurovision.1tv.ru Source: rian.ru Source: Russia IC -

An Abba tribute band says it has performed a private concert for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Bjorn Again says it was paid £20,000 to play the gig 200 miles (320km) north of Moscow on 22 January. Bjorn Again's manager Rod Stephen and other band members said Mr Putin danced to Abba hits and shouted "Bravo!" The PM's spokesman denied the claim. Mr Putin - a former KGB spy who has a black belt in judo - is known in Russia and the West for his macho image. Russia is hosting the 54th Eurovision Song Contest. Source: BBC News -

Here it is, the sub-logo for the 54th Eurovision Song Contest. it is just me or is this sub-logo similar colourwise to what RTS (Serbia) released the first time last year before they improved the logo to what was shown in the end? The colorful design was made by The Red Square, the production company Channel One picked to work with for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The main design element has the shape of a ‘fantasy bird’. It can be applied on various colors and surfaces, both in its totality as well as in parts. It accompanies the generic Eurovision Song Contest logo, this year carrying the Russian flag. In the next couple weeks, Eurovision.tv will be slightly rebranded, featuring the new look. Channel One Russia also presented an updated version of their concept for the so-called postcards, that will introduce each song. The 35-second clips will be produced in the next couple of months. -

The ticket sale is planned to take part in the second half of February. C1R had announced that tickets will be sold separately, and not in packages. There will be ten different categories and the range of prices will be about 20 Euros for the dress rehearsals of the Semi-finals, up to 650 Euros for the final night's VIP tickets. Tickets will be sold through the internet and OGAE members will be able to get front-row tickets from the local fan club. Source: EBU -

Belgrade Mayor Dragan Dilas handed over a giant key ring with Perspex symbols of each city that has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest to Luzhkov at a ceremony to kick off Moscow's preparations for the contest, which will be held at Olimpiisky Stadium and culminate with finals in the Luzhniki Stadium on May 16. READ MORE FROM THE MOSCOW TIMES

Although we are not big fans of this "passing over" new tradition, it has been announced that on the 10th December the passing of the Eurovision ring will take place in Moscow. The mayor of Belgrade will travel to Moscow and during a special ceremony he will hand the keys of Eurovision to his counterpart. The passing over event was created in 2007 in Finland and involves the creation of a key for the host city which is then added to the current keys and kept at the host city for 12 months until the process is recreated once again. We always think here that once a country wins the contest, thats it! its been passed over straight away to the new host country. I loved it when things were so much easier!

Found this on Russia Today . Do they know something we don't know?

The costs for preparing and holding Eurovision 2009 in Moscow will amount to over EUR29 million, Russia’s Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov announced . Zhukov heads the Organization Committee on Eurovision Preparation. The funds have been laid aside in the federal budget, Zhukov said. Moscow will inject some money in addition, the vice premier specified, reminding that the contest will be held May 9 through to May 16 in Olympiisky Sport Complex and Channel One will broadcast the event. Russia will spend over double the amount Finland paid in 2007 (€12.4 million) due to the fact they are hosting 3 shows. I cant find the figure for the 2008 Contest but will add it when I do find it.

More news from meetings in Moscow today have confirmed that France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom will not lose their 'Big Four' privilege of an automatic place in the Eurovision Song Contest final. Are we surprised? no. I get the sudden feeling that if they lost that "privilege" of their place in the final, then I would not be surprised if one or two countries withdrew. We must admit though, they do finance about 40% of the contest. Following another year of poor results for the Eurovision Song Contest 'Big Four', many media speculated that the four countries would surrender their automatic place in the final of the competition. As the four large financial contributors to the competition, their entries have been automatically qualified for the final since the introduction of a semi final in 2004. There will be no change in that status in Moscow. In Belgrade, Spain finished in 16th place and France could only manage 19th position, despite having two of...

The Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest has been in Moscow since yesterday discussing issues ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Channel One Russia, Host Broadcaster in charge of the contest next May has been noted for been muted since winning the contest in May. It is no surprise that today, the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest has officially approved Moscow as the Host City of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, as proposed by Channel One. The governing body of the song contest also approved the Olympiski Arena as the venue of the event in May 2009. Svante Stockselius, EBU's Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, said to Eurovision.tv: "Moscow is an impressive city and the proposed venue gives us the fantastic possibility to put everything under one roof. We are confident that Channel One Russia will organize a fantastic 54th Eurovision Song Contest." Today, the Reference Group is discussing another much debated issue - the vo...

Although not confirmed yet, Oikotimes is reporting that Philipp Kirkorov is close to signing a deal with Channel One Russia to become the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest host. The news is soon to be officially confirmed, according to Oikotimes sources. Kirkorov has had a long history with the Eurovision Song Contest. He represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 held in Dublin with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" and finished in 17th place. He co-wrote the Belarusian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 , "Work Your Magic" for Dmitry Koldun , and wrote the 2008 Ukrainian entry "Shady Lady" , performed by Ani Lorak . He was also a judge in the second season of Music Idol in Bulgaria.

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!

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...