Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Alessandro Capicchioni, Sammarinese hesd of delegation, tells eurofestivalnews EBU's Executive Supervisor has apologized how they have handled the proposed voting changes by San Marino ( or rather not considering them at all ). He says EBU and SMRTV are now talking and when both sides know what the other one thinks and expects some solution will be found in the end. The talks will continue in Kyiv and EBU has provised to consult and inform SMRTV for eventual changes in the future.  San Marino also candidated itself for the Reference group to look after the other small nations but as we know the three big ones were revoted in for another period. San Marino would have also stressed the economical side of the contest. The big countries and broadcasters manage but the small ones struggle and in the recent years the absenses have been caused just because of the economical problems. Small stations close while the big ones just adjust and make some cuts and survive...... Capicchio...

The Heads of Delegations and other bosses have met in Kyiv and handed over the entries for EBU, that includes the Armenian one we common mortals are yet to hear, as well as the 3 minute version of Italy's Occidentali's Karma . Among other things. Italy's Nicola Caligiore along with Alexander Radic (Slovenia) and Emilie Sickinghe (The Netherlands) were re-elected in the Reference Group.    Euroclub will be situated in the Parkovy Convemtion and Exhibition Center The Eurovision Village will be on Khreschatyk street The Red Carpet will take place on Sunday May 7 at Mariyinski Palace and streamed live on Youtube, while the Opening Party will be at Euroclub Pavlo Hrytsak is confirmed as the new Executive producer, He did this already back in 2005. He replaced Victoria Romanova and Olexandr Kharebin who resigned with several other team members earlier this year.  Ukraine was drawn  to perform at 22nd in the final, where also Jamala and ...

Following the accusations and attention seeking by Tony Maiello San Marino's broadcaster has reacted to the "news" and denied it all, as Head of Delegation Alessandro Capicchioni states in a press release : "We have not had any contact with Mr. Maiello, nor we charged anyone to contact him on our behalf. We do not exclude the false pretenses - because our names are public and easily available on the web ". Meanwhile Maiello attacks eurovisionnews only making a fool of himself by not having a clue how Eurovision works and what it's all about these days. He should stop before more damage is done and all the free PR for his new album turns sour. 

Switzerland is finally getting rid of that insane selection with various internet portals and language slots and all that has made their selection a bit if a mad one the past years. And help them score two last places in the semifinal in a row. Beat that! Anyways, with the help of a new guy in charge, Reto Peritz the new and at least on paper highly improved selection process goes like this: Between September 26 and October 24 there will be only one portal to submit songs. No more same songs in various language and broadcaster based selection portals, and no more a certain number of slots in the final for various languages. And guess what? We can't see and hear the wannabes but ony the 20 member strong jury made of musicians etc that will pick up 20 songs and artists for the live chech up to be held on December 4, 2016.  At least one member of the team (artist, composer, author) must be a Swiss or have a residence there.  The nationa final will take place in tv-stud...

One of the burning questions in this edition of the Eurovision song contest was the new voting system, and while the new way of showing the votes turned out to an exciting success, one thing was forgotten after the initial anger and protests from San Marino RTV: How was the San Marino televote made up?  With the population of less than 32.000 and most using the Italian mobil phone companies the tiny ccountry never had televote before, and is unable to deliver valid one so EBU decided to made it up "using 5-6 unnamed country's scores to make up one", yet refusing to tell which countries were used. Certainly not the neighbouring countries that would have been maybe logical, as Italy scored null points in this "televote", something that is very unlikely would have happened if Sammarinese people would have voted, despite their historical dislike of Italians. History and differences apart, music united and music is the same. That may have cost Italy a place or ...

The HoDs or Head of delegations are meeting in Vienna and handing in their entries and deciding on some things, and most of all getting to know each other's entries, visiting the venue Wiener Stadthalle and the Euroclub venue Ottakringer Brauerei (opens only May 17 but before that there will be six theme parties in six different venues) and talking about their stage shows with ORF. It has been also revealed the basketball pitch will be the press conference area, and the handball pitch the press center. The Vienna transport and museums will be for free if you have an accreditation.  Some things have been decided: The 2016 contest should take place on May 10, 12 and 14, wherever it will be. The date won't be confirmed until the new host is known etc. This year for example the dates were changed by ORF. Austria has been drawn to perform at number 14 in the final. The other countries in the final will be sorted out by the producers after they have drawn their first or ...

We are now entering the apparently slow month between the national finals and start of the contest in Copenhagen in the end of April with rehearsals and all the rest. Instead behind the scenes it's all crazy for the delegations with preparations, rehearsals, promotion, interviews, recording albums, mixes..... And soon there will be the two important promotion events as well, Eurovision in Concert and London Eurovision.... But back to Copenhagen: The head of delegation meeting was earlier this week in Copenhagen and finally the last entries were presented, too. As for the offcial news the premilinary dates for the Eurovision number 60 in 2015 have been set to May 12, 14 and 16 . The host country draw its position in the final and picked up a very nice 23 out of 26. The positions for the semifinals will be revealed by DR later this month. The HoDs also got a sneak peek of the stage and some described it huge, ”Moscow huge”, so good bye to the intimacy of Malmö 2013...