As well as in the recent years, the team of eurovisionlive.com will be covering this year’s edition of the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. Our team will be in the middle of the European hot spot from May 17th until May 25th providing you with a copious reportage including interviews, background information, photos, special features and the latest news.

Due to the fact that there are 43 countries in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the qualification system was in need to be changed. To avoid upcoming rumours about an unfair voting system, the draw of the running order has been made in a different way. The allotment has been controlled in advance that a country which likes to vote for certain countries will not be in the same pot. Actually there are three shows for the first time: two Semi-Finals and one Grand Final. The first Semi-Final will be broadcasted on Tuesday 20th and the second on Thursday 22nd.
In each Semi-Final there will be 19 participating countries and only 10 will qualify for the Grand Final. Only nine countries from each Semi-Final will be selected for the Grand Final, on the basis of the televoting results. A wild card is given to the country chosen by a jury not already qualified for the Grand Final. Should two or more songs receive exactly the same number of calls, the results of a stand up jury will be used. Only those countries are allowed to vote in the Semi-Finals which will be in the list of participating countries of that evening. Only the countries from the Big 4 and Serbia are allowed to vote in the Semi-Finals.
All other rules for the songs stay the same: a maximum duration of three minutes, a maximum of six people on stage, all artists must be aged at least 16 on the day of the Semi-Finals, free choice of language, live performance on stage, accompanied by a recorded backing-track which contains no vocals of any kind or vocal imitations.

This year’s Eurovision stage is probably going to top last year’s design from Helsinki. It’s incredibly important for the host country to have a unique and remarkable stage design. Later on videos and photos it can always be recognized as the “Belgrade stage”. Regarding to the new logo and the theme “Confluence of Sound” there is a high recognition value also be found in the stage design. There are two rivers the Danube and Save which flow together in Belgrade.

By now there are all video clips of the 43 participating countries are online and available to watch at our “All Preview Videos” section. So from now on you can judge yourself what entry is going to be your favourite. Some countries have made a real video clip, others just made the show of the pre decision available. A professionally made video clip is of course a good promotion, but the quality of the voice on stage can only be judged by live performance.

Almost all of the 42 participating countries have made their choice for Belgrade, there are only 11 countries left. Unlike former years all details kept secret. Nowadays it’s possible to listen and watch the songs from the pre-decisions via YouTube and internet live-streams from the TV channels, like the Swedish melodifestivalen. So it’s easy to follow the country’s choices from Azerbaijan to Iceland and so on. So far there are only a few big names: No Angels from Germany, Ani Lorak from the Ukraine and Kreisiraadio from Estonia. Hopefully there are more big names to come. Charlotte Pirelli (formerly Charlotte Nilsson) is taking part in the Swedish final with hero. She has won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 with “Tusen och en natt”. Her chances are quite high to qualify for Belgrade. There were six different pots based on the voting patterns of the past four years, to avoid voting disadvantages from last years. Now the discussion is open again, being in the first or second Semi-Final.

Today at 13.00 CET the EBU broadcasted the draw of which countries will participate in the Semi-Finals on Tuesday 20th May and Thursday 22nd May. The draw only shows which countries appear in which Semi-Final, not the running order of the shows:

Semi-Final 1 – Tuesday 20th May:
Montenegro, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia, Netherlands, Romania, Moldova, San Marino, Slovenia, Norway, Belgium, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.

Semi-Final 2 – Thursday 22nd May:
Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Portugal, Ukraine, Switzerland, Macedonia, Iceland, Cyprus, Latvia, Belarus, Hungary, Albania, Sweden, Turkey, Lithuania, Georgia, Czech Republic and Malta.

All participating countries are allowed to show both shows, but they can only vote for the show there are in. From the finalists (Big 4 and Serbia) the draw decided that Germany and Spain can vote in the Semi-Final 1 and France, Serbia and United Kingdom can vote in Semi-Final 2.
There were six different pots based on the voting patterns of the past four years, to avoid voting disadvantages from last years. Now the discussion is open again, being in the first or second Semi-Final.

Thanks to Marija Šerifoviæ, Belgrade and Serbia have the privilege to host the most exciting music show in the world. Every year more and more countries joining the Eurovision family, this year there is a record of 43 participating countries. Due to several reasons like the voting from last year, there will be two semi finals and one final. 19 countries will start in each semi-final, which will be broadcasted in the participating country. So the draw will decide which country will start in which semi-final. The Big Four countries like United Kingdom, Spain, France and Germany as well as the last years winner Serbia are directly qualified for the final on Saturday the 25th of May. This new system should avoid unfair voting. The participating countries are: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom. The running order will be taken by a draw on Monday 28th of January.