Ictimai TV's people that will produce the next Eurovision song contest together with EBU next May in Baku have visited EBU's headquarters in Geneva to learn all there is to know about the happening. Special point was made of security guarantees and freedom of expression for all participants, fans and accredited journalists and the individual citizens than will come to Baku for the event, as well as the entry visa issues. Also the usage of the official logo will be strongly monitored by EBU as it can be only used by EBU, Ictimai TV and the official partners bien sur.
No change for the dates, it seems, and it will be May 22 and 24 for the semifinals, 26 for the final.
Still nothing sure on the arena but that will be decided at latest in the next reference group meeting in Baku in August. At this point it seems the time for building a brand new arena is running out...
Another piece of news is EBU restores the televoting window only after the last song has been heard, which this blogger welcomes with a big Hooray! Those phone numbers during the performances were rather annoying. I never understood in the first place why delegations spend weeks to polish their stage act and then we have hours of rehearsals on spot for camera angles and stuff - only to be partly hidden by numbers and voting info for 1/3 of the duration of the song? Besides, who really votes before the songs have been heard (except those who vote for a country, not a song of course...) and the statistics seem to prove hardly no one (except the before mentioned group perhaps...)
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