Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Odessa beach Today the announcement of the host city got cancelled and postponed again. The fourth time I suppose, but who's counting? Anyways, until the fat lady aka EBU sings there's no official date or whatever but after today's failure to provide the news has angered the mayor of Dnipro first, and Kiev next. Odessa stays silent so far... Anyways, the time is running out. That has been said loud and clear by both mayors in the past 24 hours to prepare and make it work as they want it. Later today we also found out that Dnipro shouldn't worry about that as apparently they are out of the race that is now between Kiev and Odessa alone. NTU director Alasania has stated it takes another week to value the bids of Odessa and Kiev and then we will have the final decision.  This makes me think my initial idea from long ago that EBU wants it in Odessa, and now they are trying to make it work despite the missing roof and the tent city solution. Kiev came up with a bett...

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...

Ukrainian troops are in high alert again following the events of the past few days when Russia accused Ukraine is carrying out armed incursions into Crimea, that was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. The spice up the soup is the 25th anniversary of Independence of Ukraine on August 24, and Russia's parliamentary elections on September 18.  Meanwhile Russia has announced they are moving new air defence missiles to Crimea, that are designed to hit airborne target at the range up to 400 kms, and ballistic missiles at the range of 60 kms. Ukraine also claims some 40.000 Russian troops are massed on the Crimea-Ukraine border.  On the other hand Russian UN representative Vitaly Churkin said “There is chaos in Kiev. They don’t know what to do with Donetsk. The Minsk agreements are quite clear, but they have no political will to implement them. Instead of doing this, Kiev “distracts attention to other things,” he added. "Events in Donbass in 2014-15 showed that t...

First it was late July, then August 1.... there were supposed to be two final cities to choose from but we still have three, each with their strong points and some weaknesses and none being the ideal host. NTU and the cities are working on to better their bids and the final decision will be made next week, and announced to the people of Ukraine (and the rest of us) on their Independence Day on August 24. Symbolism anyone?  It is also now known the Ukrainian government is ready with 15 million euro of financial guarantee demanded by EBU. EBU has learned their lesson from Kiev 2005 preparations and this sum will be returned to state treasury afterwards and not used for the preparations. Each bidding city has also guaranteed 5 million euros for the contest's budget in case they are chosen, the rest coming from sponsors, advertising and the participating countries. On top of that the government is to budget additional 5-10 million euros for the contest.  It will be interest...

Back to the original plan. Or rather the original date as the original plan was to have two finalists but instead we have three. First the chosen one was ment to be out today, after EBU had inspected the plans and venues, but no. This blogger thinks it's more due to the fact that none of the bids is strong enough rather than they are all so great it's hard to choose. Don't get me wrong, I totally back the Ukrainian hosting and believe they can host a wonderful event, but each bid seems to have something wrong or at least not quite there. If only we could take the best parts of each of them ... UPDATE: Surprise! The date hasn't been confirmed. The decision could take still a week or two. That only indicates there are valid problems to be solved in all three bids. Infrastructure and security are among main issues to be solved. Plus arenas in ALL cities....   Dnipro seems to have it all right for the venue and the rest; arena, press center and Euroclub all to...

Surprise! Instead of two finalists we have three! EBU will check out these three and the final decision will be announced noon on July 27. Kyiv Palace of Sports (capacity 9800). Hosted ESC 2005 and JESC 2009. Needs major renovation. Needs to deal with the World Ice Hockey championships who are not planning to move away. Let's see how this ends. NSC Olympiyskiy stadium will host the EuroClub and the press center. Eurovision Village will feature all regions of Ukraine and be in Troiska Square near the NSC Olympiyskiy. All these three locations are very close. The Red Carpet will take place at Sofiyska Square , that will be also one of the fan zone with Kontraktova, Mikhailivieska, Poshtova and beforementioned Troiska square. Closing party at the museum complex Mystetskyi Arsenal . Dnipro The most political bid with motto "Dnipro, a city that stopped the Russian spring". DniproEuroArena aka Meteor (capacity of 9.500) Press center and Euroclub ...

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...

Three cities in Ukraine have candidated for the Eurovision song contest 2017. It seems though NTU and EBU are settling for Kiev for all obvious reasons as other candidates Lviv and Odessa may be up to requirements from suitabel venue to hotel capacity and international trave connections. The work in Ukraine has already started and Viktoria Romanova, Head of delegation in Stockholm, hopes the people's fear of not having enough money to organize it will soon turn into joy and source of pride but the fact is they need some additional funding, and that's the main problem to be resolved. We can expect the decision where the contest will head to next May within a couple of months, before the end of summer at latest.  "With regard to the budget there are no restrictions, but we have a moral feeling within ourselves that we should avoid luxury and sparkles purely for moral reasons, since after all the country is still in a war state" - NTU's General Director Alasania ...