Eurovision Chat

Yesterday, at a special ceremony in Moscow’s GUM shopping mall, the mayor of Belgrade Dragan Dilas handed over the symbolic keys to the «Eurovision» Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov. “Heavy burden!”, Mr. Luzhkov said assessing the weight of the Eurovision symbol. “But, we will keep it!

The mayor of the Serbian capital, Dragan Dilas handed Moscow’s mayor the symbolic key emphasising that he was pleased to bring the key to a congenial city, which Moscow is. The ceremony of handing over the key first took place in Belgrade, and was initiated by Helsinki, the 2007 host city.

The final of one of the oldest European music contests will take place from 12 to 16 May in the capital’s Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex. The Russian government already assured the city of Moscow that it will make sure to fix the potholes on the roads in the capital till May next year. Twenty-two hotels in Russia’s main city have already been booked for the Eurovision week.

On December 6th, the German city of Essen welcomed the 2008 Eurovision winner Dima Bilan for a second time, and saw his biggest concert in Germany so far. The Grugahalle concert venue was crowded during a one-night concert – more than 8 thousand people came to see the Eurovision star. The great demand of tickets was also the reason why the concert was rescheduled earlier to the day of St. Nicolas.

Not only due to the concert, but for all his merit, Bilan’s popularity grows greater and greater. So much so that he was nominated in two categories of the third edition of ESC Radio Awards and got the two trophies, as expected. Now Dima can bring home the Best Song and Best Male Artist Awards for Eurovision 2008. Would you agree that he deserves these awards?

The complete list of the 2008 ESC Radio Award winners is as follows:

Dima Bilan (Russia) – Best Song, Best Male Artist
Ani Lorak (Ukraine) – Best Female Artist
Euroband (Iceland) – Best Group

Just a week ago the Macedonian Radio Television announced the start of its national Eurovision campaign, called Festival “Skopje 2009”. The festival will be held on 19, 20 and 21 February 2009 in the Universal Hall in Skopje, Macedonia.

Fresh changes have been introduced this year: two Semifinal and a Great Final shows will decide the fate of the Macedonian song, which will participate in the 54th ESC, in May 2009. A professional jury will pick up 32 songs to compete in the two Semifinals (16 in each). Only 8 entries from each Semifinal will survive to see the Great Final on 21 February 2009. The winner will be decided by a blend of jury/televoting procedure.

It’s fascinating how the rules of the local selection suggest that all the songs have to be performed in the Macedonian language. Over Christmas, to be precise 25 December, is the deadline for submission of entries. The 32 songs to compete for the ticket to Moscow will be announced in January next year.

Special thanks to Gordana Andrasevska, MKRTV HOD ESC 2009 for this piece of news

After 10 years of Eurovision break, the Slovak TV finally announced that the country will take part in the 2009 Eurovision Grand Prix. Representatives of the national television said that Slovenia boasts many talented composers, writers and singers, and is absolute ready to compete at Eurovision with great chances of success.

March 8 next year will see the Slovak national final, but until then, the best will have to be selected among many candidates. As for candidates, absolutely everyone is free to join in – this will be an open competition for all national talents. During the final, a professional jury panel will pick up the Slovak winner for the 54th Eurovision Song Contest.

“If you feel capable of imitating Massiel, Karina or Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, and want once and for all to bring Eurovision to Spain, this is your chance.” This is how the Spanish broadcaster TVE has decided to select its 2009 ESC representative – via an online announcement on Myspace.

This year they are not only looking for the most capable, talented, attractive, and charismatic representative of Spain at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, but also for one of the five jurors who will help select them. 50 songs qualifying for the semi-final will be selected in a mixed jury and audience vote.

This is not the first time TVE has turned to online applications to pick its Eurovision entrant, remember? Last year they had the same process, which they reckon proved successful and sent Rodolfo to Serbia. The deadline is December 19, so if you feel like joining the extravaganza, be quick!

After the great show on Saturday, get down to Planet Earth and start thinking about the next JESC.

As you might already know, but lets remind you again, next year the Junior ESC 2009 will take place in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, or Kiev. The month when the contest will be held is November, 2009, and the exact date will be announced pretty soon. The exact place will become clear next year, perhaps some time after the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

Lets go Ukraine! but before this, we are going to Moscow, right

Here are the complete results from the 2008 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on Saturday, 22 November in Lemesos, Cyprus. A unique multimedia event, bringing together kids from across Europe.

Congratulations, Georgia!

1. Georgia — Bzikebi, Bzz… 154 points
2. Ukraine — Victoria Petryk, Matrosy 135 p.
3. Lithuania — Egle Jurgaityte, Laiminga diena 103 p.
4. Malta — Daniel Testa, Junior swing 100 p.
5. FYR Macedonia — Bobi Andonov, Prati mi SMS 93 p.
6. Belarus — Alina & Karina, Sertse Belarusi 86 p.
7. Russia — Mihail Puntov, Spit angel 73 p.
8. Armenia — Monika Manucharova, Im ergi hnchyune 59 p.
9. Romania — Madalina & Andrada, Salvati planeta 58 p.
10. Cyprus — Elena Mannouri & Charis Savva, Gioupi gia! 46 p.
11. Belgium — Oliver, Shut up 45 p.
12. Serbia — Maja Mazic, Uvek kad u nebo pogledam 37 p.
13. Netherlands — Marissa, Een dag 27 p.
14. Greece — Niki Yiannouchu, Kapoia nychta 19 p.
15. Bulgaria — Krestiana Kresteva, Edna mechta 15 p.

The Georgian bee trio Bzikebi (The Wasps) won the sixth Junior Eurovision Song Contest minutes ago. With 154 points they bzzzed the competition away. The bees were magnificent on stage, in yellow and black, they performed a lovely typically childish yet very complex song. And the lyrics consists of a single word only – “bzzz”, performed with immaculate mixture of tones and melodies.

Congratulations, Georgia!

The show in Cyprus began minutes ago. As the hosts said, tonight, for one night only the island of Aphrodite is the centre of Europe! Viewers from 15 countries from across Europe, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Azerbaijan and even Australia will enjoy the show. Talented young people from 15 European countries will be on stage performing for YOU!

A quarter of an hour before the show in Lemesos you can cut the air with a knife – the hall is almost full, the performers are already backstage, with their make-up and stage constumes on, eager to start.

Who are you going to vote for? And who do you think will the winner be? I love the Georgian track, and Oliver from Belgium has a lovely song too! Ukraine has a great lively, pically children’s song, combined with a nice kids’ show… Well, I keep my fingers crossed for all the kids to be happy with what they will have done tonight!