Yesterday, Norway has won the 54th Eurovision Song Contest with a phenomenal majority of votes and also hit the taste of the European music taste. Congratulation! At last, the crown of the greatest international music contest comes back to Western Europe.

Honestly, Russia has produced far the best show, Eurovision has ever had before. In the final there has not been one really bad song – rather many songs surprised with good quality. The good shape up of Azerbaijan, France and the United Kingdom has heralded a trend reversal – from picturing on stage to an artwork for eyes and ears.

Norway is such an artwork! No needless bells and whistles, clear lines, simple costumes and a clear message – having fun and not the absolute pressure of winning. Alexander Rybak has been coquetting with the TV spectators, dancers and likewise with having fun.

His entry is not convincing by first time hearing, it needs a while to enjoy the complexity of the song and to appreciate it. The majority of the TV spectators don’t have this facility, but why did 16 countries have been voting for Norway with their highest votes?

This year the EBU has re-established the jury voting again. The results from the juries and televoters run in the final result 50/50 equally. The aspired goal has obviously been reached – Western European countries have a chance of winning again. I have my doubts, if this solution will meet the taste of the European music taste. The juries consist of experts with particular know how in art and culture. But, do these people know the general taste of music from the participating countries?

There should not be run the risk to adapt the rules year by year. Otherwise the contest could be held behind closed doors and to announce the winner – determined by the Grace of God of some few beneficiaries.

What counts, is having fun. Don’t draw of the fun with new rules every year, but get involved that the TV spectators and fans will don’t lose interest in the contest.

In this spirit I am looking forward to Norway!

Torsten Berg
Publisher eurovisionlive.com

Europe has decided, Norway has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest! “Fairytale” is the winning song, sung and composed by Alexander Rybak. The enthusiastic and sympathetic singer has received a record number of points: 387! Almost every country has given points to Norway. And there was a gap of 169 points to the second place Iceland, winning with such a big prominence is a real victory.

These are the final results :

1. Norway (387p)
2. Iceland (218p)
3. Azerbaijan (207p)
4. Turkey (177p)
5. United Kingdom (173p)
6. Estonia (129p)
7. Greece (120p)
8. France (107p)
9. Bosnia & Herzegovina (106p)
10. Armenia (92p)
11. Russia (91p)
12. Ukraine (76p)
13. Denmark (74p)
14. Moldova (69p)
15. Portugal (57p)
16. Israel (53p)
17. Albania (48p)
18. Croatia (45p)
19. Romania (40p)
20. Germany (35p)
21. Sweden (33p)
22. Malta (31p)
23. Lithuania (23p)
24. Spain (23p)
25. Finland (22p)

A disappointing result for countries with high expectations: Spain, Sweden, Germany and Malta. Good to know that France and the UK did both shape up in the top 10 and this is probably due to the juries and the good quality of the songs. Sakis from Greece made at least a 7th place, a good rank for Greece, and surprisingly the host country Russia made it to the 11th rank! The show itself has set a new milestone in the Eurovision history, a spectacular evening of music and entertainment.
It’s going to be a hard job for Norway to follow this year’s technical achievements.
So, Norway is going to host the next contest, the 55th Eurovision Song Contest, maybe from Oslo, Bergen or somewhere else in the land of the Midnight Sun.

Congratulations from the eurovisionlive.com team!

The time has come for the big final tonight. At exactly 9pm (CET) the biggest live TV show of the world is going fill the living rooms with entertainment and excitement. 25 countries from all over Europe from Iceland to Azerbaijan and from Portugal to Israel will take part in the unique TV spectacular. Almost two weeks of rehearsals, press conferences, parties and two thrilling semi finals are coming to an end tonight in Moscow. For Russia and Moscow it’s the once in a lifetime opportunity to attract about 100 million TV spectators and 16.000 people in the Olympinsky Arena with the best Russian image, which is possible, the biggest stage ever. Everybody is interested how the Russians will handle this mega event. 25 countries compete against each other in a friendly and exciting competition. For the first time since years, the juries will be back and determine 50% of the result. There will be plenty of Eurovision parties not only in Europe, also Australia, New Zealand and Qatar are going to broadcast the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Due to the fact, that there is not a clear favorite this year anymore, it’s going to be very exciting. Is it Norway, Azerbaijan, United Kingdom or Bosnia & Herzegovina? It will probably be one country, which nobody had on it’s list.

The readers of eurovisionlive.com have decided as follows:

Sweden 1p
Bosnia & Herzegovina 2p
Romania 3p
Malta 4p
Denmark 5p
Spain 6p
Germany 7p
Norway 8p
Greece 10p
and finally Turkey 12p!

Let’s see and enjoy this special night!

The Final will broadcast on www.eurovision.tv (live stream without commentary) --->

It has been announced for a while, but nobody could really believe that this is going to happen. The gay community tried to take advantage of the media event in Moscow and has organized a CSD for today. Unfortunately, the city of Moscow has forbidden this parade and has arrested several people and furthermore destroyed the peaceful parade for equal rights of homosexuals. It’s more than a pity that the police interacted and did not let them go. Especially when all the European media is around, all from countries where gay rights are respected by the governments and even protected. We cannot accept such a ignorance of the Russian government, when they want to be open, modern and liberal tonight on the one hand, but on the other hand arrest people who just want to be accepted as they are.

The team of eurovisionlive.com does not support this ignorance and condemns this kind of behaviour. We do see once more that Russia is not a democracy and people’s rights are not respected. Several artists have uttered their commitments and are unhappy with this situation.

Last night was the second round of 19 participating countries for entering the big final on Saturday. The show was professional and cheerful, the Russian TV Channel 1 has made a mega step in terms of technology and modernity, remember the illuminated matroshkas. For the impressive stage there is usage of 10% of the world's LED technique only in this contest! The postcards are original and funny, the little Russian lessons is a good idea and the interval act has shown a lot of Russian folklore, which was quite suitable for such an event. It was a joy to watch both semi finals so far, so it's going to be exciting, what the organizers have in store for the final on Saturday night.

The ten lucky qualifiers are: Lithuania (1.), Croatia (2.), Greece (8.), Azerbaijan (11.), Moldova (13.), Estonia (15.), Denmark (16.), Albania (19.), Norway (20.) and the Ukraine (21.). So it's going to be an interesting mix of songs in the final. There can always be a great difference between video clips, rehearals and performance during the live broadcast, some countries loose and some countries win. Unfortunately, Poland could neither convince the TV spectators nor the juries, the voice of Lidia was not constantly hitting the right tones. Also bad luck for girls from Ireland, despite a strong performance, this did not persuade. The weakest contributions were Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Hungary and the Netherlands, it was almost for sure that those will not qualify. Especially the Toppers from the Netherlands were really close to embarrassment. It's also interesting to see that there were more Eastern European qualifiers than in semi final 1. Now we can expect a very diversified final, there no real bad entry anymore!

The Final will broadcast on www.eurovision.tv (live stream without commentary) --->

At exactly 9 pm (Central European Time) tonight, the Eurovision Anthem will sound in millions of homes, as the second edition of the semi finals is going to start. There will be 19 countries from which only ten will qualify for Saturday. Nine delegations can pack their bags and fly home. After an exciting first semi final, it’s now time for the second one. The quality of the music was very good on TV and the colourful stage was impressive, probably better than in the arena itself. Now you can judge for yourself, which is the best country for the final. Tonight there will not only be the participating countries of the 2nd semi final voting, furthermore France, Spain and Russia have the right to vote, too.

Our readers from eurovisionlive.com have do want these ten countries to be in the final: Greece, Norway, Poland, Denmark, Azerbaijan, Albania, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia and Serbia. Among these countries there is also the general favourite of this year: Alexander Rybak from Norway. How he and also his competitors shape up, how the stage looks like and who will got to the final, it’s all in the hands of the TV spectators and juries. Is Sakis Rouvas going to convince the audience with his portable illuminated catwalk? Watch out in your local newspaper or TV magazine, which TV station is going to broadcast this semi final.

The Semi Final will broadcast on www.eurovision.tv (live stream without commentary) --->

The general interest in the Eurovision Song Contest varies from country to country. Due to the fact that so many countries would like to take part in the contest, it was necessary to change the format. Indeed, having two semi finals makes it all more exciting.

The big problem is that the semi finals are not broadcasted in every participating country, or the time of broadcasting is uncomfortable, when there is a time delayed show. Who would like to watch the two hours show starting at 23:00 during the week? Even if people are interested in the contest and would like to watch it, sometime they can’t due to technical issues and there is no promotion at all, for example in Germany. Almost nobody knows about the semi final system and people wonder why certain singers don’t appear on a Saturday night, because they failed in the semi final. It is absolutely incomprehensive why the TV stations are complaining about declining viewing figures, if they are not able and willing to show all three shows. Furthermore, broadcasting the two semi finals would increase the enthusiasm in of the TV spectators a lot. Why do the TV stations waste such precious promotion for this event? In a perfect world, both semi finals would have been shown by all TV station, enthuse the TV spectators in the Eurovision week with raising tension until the big final on a Saturday night. The TV stations have no right to complain, if they behave like this.

On Tuesday night, Europe has decided which countries should go to the big final on Saturday: Israel, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Malta, Turkey, Romania and Finland. Most of the countries have already been high in the bets before. Surprisingly Portugal, Romania and Finland made it into the final, and Switzerland. Of course, all countries which did not make it are disappointed. Ralph Siegel’s contribution for Montenegro has also not convinced as well as the pop song from Andorra and the rock song from Macedonia. Their starting slots for the final have been determined by a draw in the winner’s press conference as follows: Israel (2.), Sweden (4.), Portugal (6.), Iceland (7.), Armenia (9.), Bosnia & Herzegovina (12.), Malta (14.), Turkey (18.), Romania (22.) and Finland (24.).

Tonight there will be the first Semi Final in Moscow 2009. The tension is growing from hour to hour and the big question will be: who is going to qualify for the big final on Saturday? Our readers from eurovisionlive.com have voted for the following countries to qualify: Turkey, Iceland, Malta, Portugal, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Armenia, Sweden, Romania, Switzerland and Montenegro. This all depends on the televoters and the juries tonight. As last year the juries will determine the 10th qualifier, the first nine countries will only be the televoting results. Good luck to all of them!

The Semi Final will broadcast on www.eurovision.tv (live stream without commentary) --->

The week of individual rehearsals is over. From now on there will be three complete last “run trough’s” for each the Semi Final 1 as for the Semi Final 2. These dress rehearsals will also show the original opening act as well as the postcards, in other words it’s the complete show from Semi Final 1. It will also be a kind of fictive result, where the ten qualifiers will be named. Not every country is broadcasting every semi final, it depends where the country is determined to start. You must check you local TV magazine for more details. For example for Germany there will be Phoenix TV who will broadcast the first semi final and furthermore there will be special shows before and after the live broadcast from Moscow.

11. May 09 | Opening ceremony with lots of start

Yesterday it was the official day for opening the 54th Eurovision Song Contest. Therefore a welcome reception took place in the Euroclub which was broadcasted in the Russian Television as well as via webcast. This years’ host Alsou co hosted this night and also appeared on stage with her 2000 entry “Solo”. Furthermore there were Philipp Kirkorov – the pretended king of Russian pop music - who sang “Your disco needs you”, Lys Assia (first winner of the ESC in 1956) with a new version of her winning entry “Refrain”, Carola from Sweden, who won the contest in 1991 and tried it a second time in 2006 with “Invincible”, Teach in from the Netherlands with “Dinge Dong”, the real grown and adult t.A.T.u with their “Ne veira, ne boisa”, Marija Serifovic with “Molitba”, German contestants from 1979 Dshinghis Khan with “Dshinghis Khan” and a finally their Russian styled Ralph Siegel song “Moscow” live in Moscow. The atmosphere was superb and even the stage in the Euroclub is bigger than some stage in recent years. So we can expect that the ESC stage will be offering technical highlight, we have never seen before in Eurovision history.

During the rehearsal of Azerbaijan a surprise visitor came into the arena: Vladimir Putin. He wanted to get his own impression of the setting. Why he extra visited the Azerbaijan’s rehearsal? This might be the potential winner of this year and so his appearance was probably well chosen. Statesmanlike he also shaked hands with Aysel & Arash. The apostate ex Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is independent since 1991. If Azerbaijan should win, the next Eurovision Song Contest is going to be held in Baku. The other ex Soviet Republic Georgia has been disqualified from the contest due to the political content of the song “We don’t wanna put in”. It was a cool song, but the denoted guns in their singer’s hands were quite provocative. It was far too obvious.

As already mentioned several times, but always worth to emphasise is how each entry will be appearing on stage. Will there be a big show or just a microphone on stage? There is no general recipe, it all depends if it a slow or fast song. Many people complaint in recent years that there is too much action on stage, it’s not about the song anymore. Sometimes the contrasts are really immense if you remember Lordi’s show with horror masks and fireworks and one year later Marija Serifovic with the simple and plain performance.

This year there are entries which have brought a whole theatre on stage, like the Ukraine. Svetlana is having over dimensionised “Wheels of hell”, furthermore she will also playing the percussions, that’s far too much for a three minute song. Sakis Rouvas from Greece is having an electric catwalk on stage, which is not too much and adequate for his song. In contract is Patricia Kaas from France, she only has her microphone and not even background singers, just her without any special effects. Or having a big name playing the piano like the UK with Andrew Lloyd Webber is a plus. Sometimes less is more!

Normally the names of the hosts are known quite early after the draw of the running order. The official announcement, who is going to welcome Europe in the night of the nights, is now confirmed. Nobody knows why, but this is probably due to make it more exciting. This year it’s going to be the first time in Eurovision history that we are having four hosts - two for the semi finals and two for the final. For the two semi finals there are Natalja Wodjanowa (a Russian top model) and Andrei Malachow (Russian TV star). For the final there are Alsou (singer, also in ESC 2000 with „Solo“, second rank) and the actor Iwan Urgant. Let’s hope that the TV spectators won’t get confused by so many faces.

Already since Sunday morning this year’s participants are scheduled for their rehearsals in the Olimpijski-Arena in Moscow. The system does remain as usual, for the first day the first half of the semi finalist are scheduled, on the second day the second half of the first semi finalist and so on. The complete flow with postcards and moderation will start on Monday next week. After each rehearsal there is a press conference to be held which includes a photo shooting at the end of each press conference.
The rehearsals are still ongoing and can be watched on eurovision.tv and youtube.com. Of course the quality of the sound and light does not reflect the view what is going to be broadcasted. It’s just for having a first impression, how the stage is being set up.
The stage is the largest ever in Eurovision. It seems that the Russians wanted to top everything from the past. We know from Copenhagen 2001, when the ESC was held in a football stadium was far too big and did not bring the right atmosphere. This year the singers seem to be lost on the big stage.

Due to the fact that the majority of the participating countries do use sophisticated choreographies as well as pyrotechnics and special effect, also Germany decided to tries something very new: striptease. The girl who should be the “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” is going to be Dita von Teese, an American burlesque dance professional. It’s still unclear how far she is going to undress herself, changing outfits during a performance is nothing new, Marie N has won with “I wanna” for Lativa in 2002. If this new feature will really upgrade the German entry we will see in this year’s final.

Unfortunately, the team of eurovisionlive.com will not be in Moscow this year. We have decided to make a break due to several reasons. eurovisionlive.com has always been a non profit website and does not make any money. Due to this fact we are unable to finance the costs for covering two weeks in one of the most expensive cities in the world regarding hotel prices. Furthermore, we won’t risk living far out of the city to prevent costs, as there is a high rate of criminality also for journalists. We will not support this. Of course we are unhappy not being there, but taking all these issues into consideration we came to this result. Next year we will back as usual.

It has been a great and sunny day for the 21 participating artists in the Netherlands last weekend. After arriving in the hotel the delegations have been brought to The Hague with shuttle busses. A welcome reception by the major of The Hague and The Toppers – this year’s Dutch participants took place in a church. The major emphasised that The Hague has been hosting the Eurovision Song Contest two times already – in 1976 and 1980 and he is proud to welcome this year’s participants in the Dutch Eurovision city.

As it’s getting popular doing individual promo tours, it’s probably more effective to assemble lots of singers in one city at a special date. There was a huge interest of the media as well as from the public. The delegations were driven with open busses through the centre of The Hague.

With a delay of more than half an hour the concert has been opened by two famous Dutch singers Maggie Mc Neal (“Amsterdam” in 1980) and Marsha (“Rechtop in de wind” in 1987) who have also been the hosts of the night. Every participant of the night received a bunch of tulips just after each performance; this has been a tradition in The Netherlands hosting the Eurovision.

The concert in the Marcanti Amsterdam was a music marathon, even if there were “only” 21 songs; the show has been scheduled into 7 show blocks with 15 minutes breaks. For the almost 2000 people in the audience it appeared a bit too lengthy, as there were only a small number of seats in the Marcanti. From 23 announced singers, 21 showed up - Chiara and Soraya were very late. The winners of the night judging by their performance and the applause of the audience were Ukraine, Spain, Moldova and Malta. Svetlana from the Ukraine probably had the best show act; with four minimal dressed male dancers she was presenting a very well choreographed and convincing performance. She was the big surprise of the night! Chiara from Malta also receive a big applause, as she is having many fans and participated twice for Malta already. Soraya from Spain as well as Nelly from Moldova enthused the audience with fast disco rhythms and folkloristic elements. Not all of the singers have been singing live, but the majority did.
The most disappointing entries were Germany, Serbia and Belgium. Finally, it was a good opportunity for all the singers to promote their songs. - See more --->

Due to the fact that the Netherlands celebrate their 50th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, there will be special concert Amsterdam this weekend. The team of eurovisionlive.com will be in Amsterdam to follow up the event. More than 23 participants from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow are expected on stage in the Marcanti concert hall in Amsterdam. Among the confirmed singers there are Chiara from Malta, Brinck from Denmark, Johanna from Iceland, Soraya from Spain and many more. There are more acts announce e.g. Mans Zelmerlöw and the Dutch Divas. There will also be a big after party later on.

There is also an official invitation for the delegations in The Hague in the afternoon, before heading back to the concert hall in Amsterdam. There are still tickets available http://www.eurovisioninconcert.com --->

Recently, all the songs for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest have been determined. There are now 42 countries taking part in the 54th edition of the contest. Due to negotiations with Latvia and Georgia, both countries wanted to take part. Unfortunately, the reference group of the EBU decided that the Georgian song “We don’t want to put in” disagrees with the rules. As there should not be any political statements – “put in” can also be realized as “Putin”. So the EBU asked Georgia to either change the lyrics or send another song. By mischance, Georgia has withdrawn ultimately for this year. Austria and Italy did not come back this year, but maybe there is a chance in 2010.
The line-up includes well known names like Patricia Kaas (France), Andrew Lloyd Webber as a composer for the United Kingdom, the opera singer Marlena Ermann (Sweden), Noa (Israel) and Chiara (Malta).

In the previous years there was a general displeasure about the voting. Especially when it comes to neighbour country and diaspora voting many people thought that the system seems to be unfair. The EBU has changed the rules once more and brought back the juries! So there will be a jury in each participating country and the votes will be running in the result by 50%. The excitement is still granted - the personal influence of every single TV spectator as well as the professional point of view from a jury. The juries will be assembled by different persons of age, sex, profession, etc. like in former years.
The online and offline ticket sale has already, the most expensive VIP tickets are up to 650 €. You should only book on the official website (www.eurovision.tv) to avoid fake ticket vendors.
There have been more details revealed: t.a.T.u. and also Cirque du Soleil will appear in the opening ceremonies and/or interval acts. The interval act of the final should transform the whole arena into a winter wonderland. The stage has been designed by John Casey, who was also responsible for this in 1994, 1995 and 1997. There will be a very contemporary stage style with straight elements and oversized LED screens.

The preparations for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2009 have already started - just immediately after the 2008 contest in Belgrade . After a long and intensive discussion whether it should be St. Petersburg or Moscow to host the 2009 contest, it became clear that Moscow is more suitable and representative choice for such a mega event. The organisation team will be supported by the highest Russian politicians to guarantee a unique and perfect show. The EBU reference group has already visited Moscow and is looking forward to 2009. The dates for the 54th Eurovision Song Contest have already been settled: Semi Final 1: Tuesday May,12; Semi Final 2: Thursday May 14. ; and the Final on Saturday, May 16.

The Olimpijski Sport Arena has been chosen as the venue. The building was constructed for the 1980 Olympic Games and can host up to 35.000 people and is still the largest indoor sport arena in Europe .

It is still unknown how many countries will take part in Moscow , due to the recent political situation Georgia has withdrawn, some other countries may follow. But there are also other reasons for not coming back: Austria does not feel very welcomed in the Eurovision family anymore due to the unfair voting system. In several countries the pre selections and have started already and possible names have been revealed. Even some participants have been confirmed already. For Greece Sakis Rouvas (Greece 2004 – 3rd rank) is going to give it another try. Sakis has also hosted the 2006 contest in Athens . Hadise Açikgöz has been chosen by the Turkish broadcaster TRT representing Turkey , Hadidse is well known in her home country and also in Belgium . For the Netherlands there will be The Toppers – a three guy’s trio, the most famous one is Gerald Joling (Netherlands 1988 – 9th rank). So the next months until March 2009 are going to be packed with pre selections and national finals all across Europe .