In the six months since Moscow, there has been plenty of movement at the station - with five countries pulling out and one nation returning. BTW - Austria and Monaco still look like sitting ESC out for the time being.
Right Back Where We Started From (Returning Nation)
Georgia - They really do want to put in an entry!
The Pain of Withdrawal (Departing Nations)
July
Czech Republic - Fresh from a nul point for the Super Gypsies, ČT announced their withdrawal citing a mutual lack of interest between the Czech public and fans of the contest.
October
Hungary - MTV pulls out of 2010, citing financial limitations.
November
Montenegro - RTCG pulls out of 2010, citing financial limitations.
December
Andorra - Submitted an entry and then started looking for loose change under the sofa cushions. In December 2009 RTVA announced their withdrawal due to a lack of funding.
Lithuania - LRT pulls out of 2010, citing financial limitations. They are currently looking under the cushions of their sofas and if they find €90,000 they'll be back in.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Skaat. Skaat. Skaat.
The long interregnum comes to an end, as Albania conducts its semi-finals in order to pick a 7 minute long song in need of a pruning. But, what's this? Out of the blocks, without warning comes Israel - announcing their 2010 singer on Christmas Day.
Meet Harel Skaat who has been confirmed as the singer for Oslo by the Israeli public broadcaster IBA. He will sing four songs at a mini-Kdam later on with the public selecting his song for Norway.
But seriously, with six months to go - who cares. Wake me up in February.
Meet Harel Skaat who has been confirmed as the singer for Oslo by the Israeli public broadcaster IBA. He will sing four songs at a mini-Kdam later on with the public selecting his song for Norway.
But seriously, with six months to go - who cares. Wake me up in February.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Georgia on my Screen / Czech, please?
After a tumultuous year, domestically and Eurovisually, Georgia has confirmed it will be back at Eurovision 2010 in Oslo. After their brief war with Russia, Georgia pulled out of Eurovision, only to re-enter with a disco-dig at Vladimir Putin which saw them disqualified. In the meantime, they managed to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
CT, the Czech broadcaster, has pulled stumps on the failed experiment that is Czech music at ESC. The show was never all that popular in the Czech Republic, even though it has been a huge hit in Slovakia. None of the Czech acts made it past semi finals and only one of them got to double points in their semi finals (and that had more to do with the small pieces of tin foil covering the girls, rather than the thousands of missed notes).
Gypsy.cz's song 'Aven Romale' (Moscow, 09) scored the first nul pointe in ESC since Switzerland in 2004.
CT, the Czech broadcaster, has pulled stumps on the failed experiment that is Czech music at ESC. The show was never all that popular in the Czech Republic, even though it has been a huge hit in Slovakia. None of the Czech acts made it past semi finals and only one of them got to double points in their semi finals (and that had more to do with the small pieces of tin foil covering the girls, rather than the thousands of missed notes).
Gypsy.cz's song 'Aven Romale' (Moscow, 09) scored the first nul pointe in ESC since Switzerland in 2004.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Moscow 09 in Review: The Voting
There has been no talk of bloc voting this year. Given the size of Norway's victory and the consistency of it's voting-earning from all nations (everyone gave him points and apart from Turkey, Portugal and sections of Eastern Europe just about everyone had him in their top three) it is fair enough to say that everyone agrees the right person won.
Some of the old biases were in evidence - Cyprus giving 12 points to Greece, Andorra giving 12 to Spain - but generally we saw a return to votes being earned by good performances and publicity efforts. The UK scored its best result in seven years after Jade Ewen completed a 13 nation tour appearing on talk shows and variety shows across Europe - oh, and singing very, very well on the night.
After a closer contest (perhaps Oslo in 2010) we may be able to verify if the return of juries has finally slayed the Neighbourhood Watch scheme which has undermined several contests. One concern we have is that the juries make their scores after watching the dress rehearsal on the Friday night! This does seem very wrong - if a performer misses a note or has a sore throat on Friday, but nails it on Saturday at the Final, they will get marked down on 50% of their score for a sin committed off-camera.
Is it asking too much for the juries to watch the Final and make up their minds during the 15 minute interval? Like the rest of us.
Some of the old biases were in evidence - Cyprus giving 12 points to Greece, Andorra giving 12 to Spain - but generally we saw a return to votes being earned by good performances and publicity efforts. The UK scored its best result in seven years after Jade Ewen completed a 13 nation tour appearing on talk shows and variety shows across Europe - oh, and singing very, very well on the night.
After a closer contest (perhaps Oslo in 2010) we may be able to verify if the return of juries has finally slayed the Neighbourhood Watch scheme which has undermined several contests. One concern we have is that the juries make their scores after watching the dress rehearsal on the Friday night! This does seem very wrong - if a performer misses a note or has a sore throat on Friday, but nails it on Saturday at the Final, they will get marked down on 50% of their score for a sin committed off-camera.
Is it asking too much for the juries to watch the Final and make up their minds during the 15 minute interval? Like the rest of us.
Moscow 09 in Review: Stankiest Performance
For the second year running, Ukraine made us want to have a hot shower.
Moscow 09 in Review: Raise the Double Standard
We always learn a little about the host nation from their presentation of Eurovision and 2009 was no different. Russia clearly wanted to make an impression on Europe and despite the GFC hitting them worse than most, forked out a staggering $55m on the stage and show. The stage was quite simply the most amazing thing ever! 2,000 square metres of LED (apparently 30% of the globe's LEDs were there) broken into wings, back drops and moveable circular pieces meant most contestants got live footage superior to their video clips.
But among the technical achievement were a few strange or worrying moments. As not mentioned by SBS, Georgia was forced to withdraw from the contest for having the words Put and In next to each other in their crappy disco track. The reference to Putin was clear and deliberate, but nothing in the song lyrics was political. It is safe to assume Russia put pressure on the EBU to ban it on the grounds of political comment. So what were we to make of the Russian military choir chanting "They're not gonna get us" along with tATu as the interval act at Semi #1?
And then we get to appropriate standards of dress and 'traditional values.' Germany scored a coup by enticing burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese to perform on stage as the titular Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. Unfortunately for them, she was a bit more titular than Russian authorities could handle at the dress rehearsal on Friday - her low-cut corset revealing most of a boob when side-on (though with pastie covering any nipple). Although Dita replaced her corset with one that covered more boob, the Russian broadcasters avoided putting her on screen until the very end of Germany's performance (apparently taking 2 and bit minutes to spot the new corset).
Standards are one thing - it's a family show after all, right? Well, boobs are banned, but apparently groins are great. We can recall at least two close ups of groins (Turkey and Ukraine) and plenty of up-panty angles. In the interests of accuracy we will go through all six hours and note all instances, maybe taking screen shots. How can one be OK and the other not?
To quote Dita herself: "What about the oiled up guys in loincloths?"
But among the technical achievement were a few strange or worrying moments. As not mentioned by SBS, Georgia was forced to withdraw from the contest for having the words Put and In next to each other in their crappy disco track. The reference to Putin was clear and deliberate, but nothing in the song lyrics was political. It is safe to assume Russia put pressure on the EBU to ban it on the grounds of political comment. So what were we to make of the Russian military choir chanting "They're not gonna get us" along with tATu as the interval act at Semi #1?
And then we get to appropriate standards of dress and 'traditional values.' Germany scored a coup by enticing burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese to perform on stage as the titular Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. Unfortunately for them, she was a bit more titular than Russian authorities could handle at the dress rehearsal on Friday - her low-cut corset revealing most of a boob when side-on (though with pastie covering any nipple). Although Dita replaced her corset with one that covered more boob, the Russian broadcasters avoided putting her on screen until the very end of Germany's performance (apparently taking 2 and bit minutes to spot the new corset).Standards are one thing - it's a family show after all, right? Well, boobs are banned, but apparently groins are great. We can recall at least two close ups of groins (Turkey and Ukraine) and plenty of up-panty angles. In the interests of accuracy we will go through all six hours and note all instances, maybe taking screen shots. How can one be OK and the other not?
To quote Dita herself: "What about the oiled up guys in loincloths?"
Moscow 09 in Review: The Hosts
It is not often the hosts from the Semi Finals have everyone talking - but it's safe to assume it's never going to be good when they do. Alsou and Ivan Urgant did a great job at the Final - polished, well-dressed, nothing silly. As Graham Norton said before they appeared on stage: "Unfortunately... they're quite good."
This was in contrast was the first Semi - hosted by model Natalia Vodyanova and journalist Andrey Malakhov. Natalia has not presented on TV before, which means throwing her before 30 million viewers with a week's training was a bit optimistic. Making her speak in French was inviting disaster. Clearly upset by her stumble on the French introduction when we next meet Natalia she's quite bubbly, the time after that she is clearly swaying (nice job Andrey, trying to make it look like you were both dancing side to side) and from there on she was a Whoo! girl punching her mike in the air and making some weird, substance affected comments. Like:
"The most political correct song of the Contest"
This was in contrast was the first Semi - hosted by model Natalia Vodyanova and journalist Andrey Malakhov. Natalia has not presented on TV before, which means throwing her before 30 million viewers with a week's training was a bit optimistic. Making her speak in French was inviting disaster. Clearly upset by her stumble on the French introduction when we next meet Natalia she's quite bubbly, the time after that she is clearly swaying (nice job Andrey, trying to make it look like you were both dancing side to side) and from there on she was a Whoo! girl punching her mike in the air and making some weird, substance affected comments. Like:
- "I don't push buttons on the catwalk, I push buttons off the catwalk"
- "Where are your buttons, Andrey?"
- "In the end, I am a lady"
- "Oh my god" (noteable for the number of times she yelled this out), and,
- "Stick with Andrey, he knows how to party" (so that's where you got the stuff!)
"The most political correct song of the Contest"
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