Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Only twice Eurovision song contest has managed to reach the record number of participants, 43, in 2008 and 2011. It seems every time since when 43 has been announced something has happened and it has dropped to 42. Be it Bosnia-Herzegovina wihdrawing or Romania being kicked out. This time it is Macedonia. It's pretty safe to assume Macedonia was in RTP's list of 43* they confirmed last week before EBU made public it has cut off MRT of its services including news, sports etc and of course Eurovision song contest due to a debt of 0,5-22 million euros depending on your source. This recalls the Romanian affair of 2016, only that it happens well ahead of the contest unlike then when Ovidiu Anton was already packing his bags to go to Vienna wheh he and Romania was stopped. This time Macedonia's participation in Junior Eurovision song contest 2017 goes on as planned but Eurovision 2018 itself is a no go, unless the debt is paid or solution found.  *It would be real su...

We all knew Bosnia-Herzegovina was in Stockholm on borrowed time when private sponsors and the artists themselves paid all the costs, and now BHRT has gotten an ultimatum from EBU for the unpaid debt of 16 million Swiss francs. The deadline is the end of May and they must pay part of it and come up with a valid plan for the further payments or EBU will withdraw their member services. That means Bosnians will have the same faith as Romanians and will not see Euro 2016 this summer, all the other news and sports events and eventually not be able to participate nor watch Eurovision song contest 2017.  There seems to be no solution coming up and time is running out, so it looks very likely BHRT will follow TVR and be banned from any EBU's services. TVR's deadline was extended several times by EBU until April 21, 2016 to secure their participation in the Eurovision song contest 2016 among other things. No payment was done, nor any plan given so they were withdrawn any EBU servic...