Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Here's a little round up what's going in Ukraine lately around Eurovision song contest 2017 preparations.... All more in detail here . This blogger is sure everything will be fine in the end and yes, there's light in the end of the Tunnel of love, a place everyone going to Ukraine should go and experience. After Zurab Alasiania, Head of NTU resigned from his job last week and Eurovision 2017 preparations as a protest of budget cuts, the Mayor of Kyiv appeals to Cabinet of ministers to appoint a new Head as soon as possible.  EBU stated this has no effect on the preparations. Apparently also Victoria Romanova submitted resignation letter but Alasania refused to sign it so she's stuck with it. Instead the people working on ESC will get an extra 5000 euros/month bonuses, a trick to keep them working? Previous Eurovision winner Ruslana stepped out and gave a speech full of fire and states nothing can stop Ukraine having and organizing the contest next May and of...

The open selection process that was ment to be something new and exciting and turned out to be a near farce is over. Kyiv has been announced as the host city. At this point it is worth remembering this was the first time the bidding and selection process was this open, an initiative by NTU.  I suppose someone is now feeling sorry and probably we won't see this much openness in the future. Speculating fans can se such annoying thing at times.... This said, NTU should also have a long look at the mirror and process what went wrong with false starts, promised dates and all the rest. Instead of an exciting weeks to follow the selection process we got... well, a bit of a farce that made some even doubt if they can handle it at all. But if things went like the previous years, we would have only gotten the bids without too much information at the start, and then one day the chosen one and that's it. No hard feelings, no useless rumors, no misinformation, failed promises and dea...

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Culture in Ukraine, Yulia Datsenko, confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine that EBU has approved all the three bids in the running; Kiev, Dnipro and Odessa. She also noted the representatives of EBU were pleased with the high level of the organisations preparing for the contest in each city. So, now we just have to wait NTU's decision alone - due next Wednesday according plans -  as EBU is happy with any of them, as long as the contest does take place in Ukraine as planned. Read more about the Ukraine-Russia situation here . In an interview with Podrobnosti director general of NTU Zurab Alasania spoke about the 15 million fee that has been spoken about in the media and the budget. "The budget of the upcoming contest is not yet calculated. The figure of 15 million Euro did not come from the budget. This is the financial guarantee. The European Broadcasting Union admits that in our country can happen something (and we know this can happen), that m...

Tomorrow, Wednesday July 20, 2016 the battle of the cities will start big time. In a live broadcast of the public work meeting hosted and co-produced by Tim Miroshnychenko that will air from 17.30 CET on radio and television as well as here and on Youtube, possibly with an English commentator. The six candidate cities - Kiev, Lviv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson and Odessa - will present their bids, in most cases by their mayors, and press, experts and viewers may comment and participate in the process. Live links will be taken to the cities in question and all sort of things like that.  When Kiev hosted the Eurovision song contest 2005 following Ruslana's win in Istanbul, it was the only option. In 12 years Ukraine has grown and developed, and hosted various international big scale events over the years and thus has more to choose from.  But the fun won't end with this broadcast. The Ukrainian Eurovision 2017 project will continue its open and public work with live broadc...

(Lviv) NTU has received six bids to host the Eurovision song contest 2017 in Ukraine, altogether six different cities and seven arenas. The NTU working group will now review the proposals and ideas before they will be officially presented, and by July 22 they should have picked up two cities and venues for the final selection and the announcement where it will be should be done in a press conference on August 1 after the committee, NTU and EBU have carefully considered both the final bids. (Dnipro) Official bids where and how by Dnipro , Kherson  and Odessa  are yet to be made public, but Kharkiv comes forward with Metalist Oblast Sports Comples (capacity of 40.000), but it lacks the roof that must be constructed before it is usable for the Eurovision.  (Kiev) Kiev proposes Palace of Sports (capacity 10.000), the very venue of 2005 Eurovision song contest. Their problem is it is now considered dated and too small, plus it will be hosting part of the Ic...

The bidding for the host city for the Eurovision song contest 2017 in Ukraine has officially started. The cities have time until July 8 to submit their entry. The next week NTU will have a look at the submissions and showcase the best ones to the Organizing committee that will pick up to finalists by July 22 that will be then presented to EBU. After visits to the finalist we will know on August 1 , 2016 the next host city. Ukrainians voted in a poll Lviv as their favorite followed by Kiev, that would be most likely NTU's and EBU's favorite unless the others come up with something very interesting and spectacular.  Besides beforementioned Kiev and Lviv also Odessa, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Kherson and Vinnytsia have expressed their interest.... This blogger still wants Lviv.....  And what doess it take to host Eurovision? Below are some numbers to consider: Arena with a capacity of at least 7000 Official hotels of European standards within easy reach from the arena pro...

The Kiev Pride 2016 starts tomorrow under slogan Security of a person - development of the country! The program includes exhibitions, films, discussion forums, seminars and all the usual Pride things and topics. There's of course also the Opening party, Pride Party on Friday night and most visibly the Equality March on Sunday. And this march has been threated by bloodbath by local Neo-Nazis and the narrow minded local Orthodoc Church isn't very amused either. Earlier this year a LBGT right conference in Lviv was shut down after an attack with rocks and fireworks. Police was called on the spot, yet no one was arrested and the conference was shut down instead.  Let's see how this ends. The NTU and EBU meeting about the 2017 Eurovision song contest takes place in Geneva right after, JUne 13-14..... UPDATE: The march went reasonable well. There were 700-1500 marchers (dependig on source) and some 5500 policemen to secure it. Apparently 57 people have been detaine...

NTU and EBU met in Kiev earlier this week with the first official meeting about the organisation of the 2017 Eurovision song contest. EBU gave their requirements and key factors to NTU and Ukraine now have some time to come up with a suitable venue and idea for the next contest. Meanwhile they have set the organizing committee and it has some big guns to make sure Ukraine has what it takes to make it a success: the Minister of Culture Yevhen Nischuk, the Prime Minister Volodymor Groysman and the Vice Prime Minister Vyascheslav Kyrylenko. The next meeting will be in Geneve June 13-14, 2016 and maybe after that we will know already a bit more. NTU has promised to let us know the city and venue during this summer, and the prelimary dates for the 2017 Eurovision are May 16, 18 and 20, meaning the rehearsal would start May 8. 

Ok, today's newsbomb comes from the director general of NTU Zurab Alasania, after he posted on social media: "If the winner is a man named Lazarev,  I think next year Ukraine would again refuse to participate" However, it wouldn't be the first time political matters would make someone stay home instead of participating in the contest held in a certain country. Only four years ago Armenia wihdraw from the contest in Azerbaijan. Georgia stayed home from Moscow 2009. And in 1975-76 Greece and Turkey played cat and mouse and took turns in withdrawing just not to be on same stage. Then we have Israel's whose presence has caused problems for Turkey, Lebanon and Tunisia, both eager to debut. Curiously also Morocco paeticipated the one and only time when Israel was absent.  But back to this Russia Vs Ukraine drama. The even more interesting fact is that those two are the most credible winner candidates. Will we see a real points fight tomorrow? Imagine, say...