Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Örnsköldsvik enters the race for the Eurovision song contest 2016 hosting alongside with Stockholm (with Globen area), Gothenburg, Sandviken and Linköping. The northern town of less than 30.000 (or less than 60.000 with the surrounding areas without counting the elk and foxes) souls would be the most northern host city ever. The city's name, very easy for foreigners to pronounce, translates to Eagle shield's bay . The arena they are offering is Fjällräven Arena with it's less than 10.000 seats and that translates to (besides being a wellknown cloathing brand) to Arctic fox . How suitable for a town that consists mostly of forests..... and a very ugly " skyscryper ". SVT surprised us last time with Malmö (that has now withdrawn its bid for 2016), maybe they will surprise again? 

Oops, things are not shaping up for Eurovision song contest 2016 in Sweden as most fans - and maybe organizers, too - were hoping for. Two major venues in Stockholm have said No, thanks after all, namely Tele2 Arena (apparently SVT's dream venue) and Friends Arena . The only option in Stockholm now remains Globen .... already host back in 2000 but Stockholm's chances are now getting slimmer and slimmer it seems.  Gothenburg , a previous host with Skandinavium is still in the running it seems and getting more determined to get it after Malmö has apparently said No as well. But then we have two newcomers: Saab Arena (ex-Cloetta) in Linköping and Göranssons Arena in Sandviken with the support of City of Gävle - both smaller but around 10.000.  SVT has sent these candidates its list od demands, which is of course mostly done by EBU, concerning all sort of obvious practical matters from number of hotel rooms to travel connections bu air, and the locations of press ce...

Another sad - or maybe not so much so - news from Sweden. Gothenburg is out of the run for the Eurovision 2013 leaving us Solna and Malmö. Skandinavium is booked for another events already and would be free for Eurovision too late, as well as city's hotel rooms. So, Friend's Arena in Solna it's going to be unless SVT will go with the crazy idea of giving Malmö the semifinals, but then there's no gain but pain only as no time is saved and only more expenses to everyone.... Solna it is. 

SVT has a new idea: semifinals in Malmö and Göteborg, the final in Sweden so everybody is happy. As we know the Swedes are so politically correct they never wish to upset anyone. I could find several reasons why this isn't a good idea but thinking better I realize it's bad news only to fans who want to follow all the rehearsals and such...  Of course they should also have three crews, three stages, three pairs of hosts.... but maybe that in the big picture isn't the biggest expense? This way they could even have the semifinals on Wednesday and Thursday and the final on Saturday as usual and skip the first week of rehearsals altogether! It would be the Eurovision week again, like the good old days. All to gain for EBU, SVT and all the delegations who have expressed a will to stay in shorter time and would probably make up for the cost of three of everything method. The ones losing in this game are the fans and journalists who would have to choose between the semifinals ...

Christer Björkman is one happy man. Sp happy that he jumped to the pool fully cloathed after the final. Loreen went to bed instead, btw. As you can read in Blogilkar's exclusive interview with the man here Eurovision means a lot to him and I have a feeling he won't retire. At least for a year!  Meanwhile the Swedish delegation is expected back home tonight 22.25 at Arlanda airport while already today there's a meeting in SVT to start preparing the Eurovision 2013. Three cities seem to be fighting over the right to organize the contest: Stockholm, Malmö and Göteborg