EUROVISION 2009 MOSCOW

Hey everyone :)

I think lot of people is looking forward to watch Eurovision song contest 2009.. thanks to Dima Bilan and his song "Believe" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjGNdotSgDY or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bawnwSYOCFU) Eurovision 2009 will be in Moscow (Russia)..

all necessary information u can find on the official Eurovision website: http://www.eurovision.tv/ 

now let's share.. what you think, who has more chances to win? or at least what you think abt participant from your own country?..

this year Russia is represented by Anastasia Prihod'ko with a song "Mamo" ("mom" in ukranian).. actually i think she doesn't have any chances to win.. let's hope she'll get a place within top-10 =P

im not sure everyone does know abt new rules of voting at Eurovision..

The new voting system for the Final

For the first time in Eurovision history, the scores given by each country are calculated by 50% viewers tele-voting and 50% by a national jury, as follows:

After all songs have been performed, viewers in all 42 participating countries can vote by making a phone call. You cannot vote for your own country.

Once the tele-voting results and the jury results are combined, points are given out in the usual way. Twelve points to the most popular, 10 to the second most popular, then 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point.

Spokespersons in all 42 countries will reveal the combined results.

The country with the highest number of points wins the 54th Eurovision Song Contest.

Semi-final voting From each of the two semi-finals, nine acts will be chosen by tele-votes and one from the votes of the national juries.  

this article is also good.. it tells ppl why organizers of Eurovision decided to change rules

For about a decade, Eastern European Eurovision fans have voted in blocs, ensuring that five of the past nine song contests have been in cities like Belgrade, Kiev and Tallinn. Organizers say they will now add a jury—and reduce the value of viewer voting by half.

Few television events in Europe are as popular as the Eurovision Song Contest, the annual music competition with close to 300 million viewers around the world which has launched the careers of international pop acts like Abba and Celine Dion. In recent years, though, the event has been reduced to an uninspired self-parody populated by drag queens, circus sideshow freaks and washed-up pop acts looking to revive their careers (see T.a.T.u. and Las Ketchup).

In recent years a viewer televoting system has also helped five Eastern European countries dominate the contest. Audience voting has always been regional and patriotic, but recent voting patterns have kept the contest's location from moving outside the former Eastern Bloc.

It now looks like the contest's organizers are taking note. On Thursday, an official with a public television station responsible for broadcasting the show in Germany said the organizers of Eurovision had agreed to change the voting system for 2009. Under new rules agreed to this week at a meeting in Moscow, half of the votes cast in each nation will come from a jury.

Each country's a five-member jury will consist of people "with a professional musical background," said Ralf Quibeldey, an executive at Hamburg-based broadcaster NDR, according to the German news agency DPA.

NDR hosts an annual televised contest to determine the German entry to the main Eurovision competition. Television viewers will still be able to vote, but they will lose half of their power.

"It's a good thing," Quibeldey told DPA. "I believe that the quality of the music will improve."

The next Eurovision final will be staged in Moscow on May 16.

Spiegel 12.12.2008 

Good luck to all countries in tonight's semi final!

My predictions for tonight's results - Turkey, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Armenia, Montenegro, Bosnia Hercegovina and Belgium.

The quality of entries in the last few years has improved enormously – my theory – because the songs from the East are so fantastic, the Western countries have been shaken up a bit and have to improve!

Of course, the voting is very predictable. I don't think the new voting system will change this much, because we used to have juries and they will probably be accused of bias in the same way as the public.

But I don't think it is entirely political! For example, people in Bosnia are more likely to vote for Serbia, etc, because they speak the same language and culturally are very similar – they will have the same tastes. Just like Denmark votes for Sweden and Norway, and the UK votes for Ireland!

What makes me angry is people somehow thinking it is unfair that the Eastern countries are winning all the time. The UK won in 1997 and before that 1981, so when you think there are over 40 countries taking part now, we've won more than the average. I don't like the UK's attitude towards this at the moment. The UK song lyrics this year really annoy me – makes our country sound arrogant in my opinion. And as for countries like the Netherlands – sorry but in my opinion their songs are always among my least favourite – especially this year!

Well that's me being really undiplomatic and outspoken for today!!!! sorry!

ok guys, let's talk abt 1st semifinal, which we watched yesterday..

first of all.. CONGRATULATIONS

Sweden

Armenia

Turkey

Israel

Iceland

Romania

Finland

Portugal

Malta

Bosnia&Herzegovina

and now about each of the mentioned winners (only my subjective opinion)..

1. Sweden ..well, i liked her dress so damn much =P.. ok ok, abt song.. i think that she has a wonderful voice, and that probably her other songs sound even better than eurovision one.. i can't say i really liked the song, but at least i liked the artist :)

2. Armenia .. 2 sisters, whom Russia already met before Eurovision.. they started showing up at all possible music programms here maybe a month before the contest.. and moreover the outfits and the performance on stage were/was made by Russian stylist group called Fresh Art, so we knew sisters already :) the song.. i liked folk sounds in it, armenian "features")) and they looked pretty confident on the stage..

3. Turkey .. Hadise :) first thing i wanna say abt her are my dad's words when he saw her: "She is damn sex-eh"))) the song.. i think that in original, i mean on a tape/cd it sounds better.. cause when she sang it live, i didn't like the sound.. maybe she was nervous, maybe smth else.. and also, whatta hell that dude in green outfit was doing on a stage? =P.. he sooooo didn't fit their cool red otfits :D .. anyway, song is good, i bet many turks shake their asses as hell under it))

4. Israel .. 2 good singing women in goth dresses)) hmmm, i still can't find the words for describing their performance.. maybe only this -heartfelt/soulful :) .. i always like high voice singing.. it's so fascinating..

5. Iceland .. this sweet girl is my favorite so far :) .. God, she was just beautiful and gorgeous with everything she was doing.. from outfit till singing.. i so wanted her to go through semifinal, so imagine when only one country was left in the "envelope", and they opened it, and there was "Iceland".. God, how i was happy for her)) good luck in Finals, girl, my vote is for you))

6. Romania .. sex-eeeeh)) our commentators did say that many ppl consider her as the sexiest girl on Eurovision 2009.. maybe they're right =P.. i liked her dancers.. they looked like fairies)) or small elfs.. outfits were beautiful.. the song was good as well..

7. Finland .. only one thing i didn't like in their performance was fire show behind the artists.. i don't mean fireshow sucks, i mean that finnish organazires didn't work better to "mark" the poisters.. i so love to watch fireshows, but finnish didn't make it "fascinating".. and i think the problem was in wrong lighting.. they should have put the poisters in darker place, so they would look cool with fire in darkness.. and the way they did it, they lost all "magic" of fireshow.. anyway, good song..

8. Portugal .. nice group :) they looked so "folk" and sweet.. even i didn't like the song much, they amazed me with their personalities)) that guitar at the beginning.. nice)) good luck guys!!

9. Malta .. the singer who participates 3d time already in Eurovision)) hand on my heart, she was amazing.. just came on a stage, sang a song.. no dancers.. no back vocalists.. only her in stars around)) i think her performance was one of the best on this Eurovision.. she was just perfect..

10. Bosnia&Herzegovina .. guys, maybe i don't understand smth in this life.. but.. who the hell voted for them o_O? but ok, it's my personal subjective opinion.. im not gonna offend anyone.. but honestly, i didn't like neither song, nor artist..

ok.. i said couple of words abt each of those who went through semifinals..

and last words abt those who stayed "out board".. i so liked Switzerland, that rock band.. have no idea why ppl didn't vote for them.. they reminded me on another similar band "30 seconds to Mars".. i really wanted them to be in Finals.. but seems like it wasn't their lucky day..

I didn’t like Belarus :( .. i expected smth better..
i liked him more when he played in KVN..

elena1

c'mon)) he played for РУДН (Russian University of Nations Friendship) .. and also for БГУ (Belorusian State University)

HI EVERYBODY WHAT THE DEVIL I M GLAD AND PLEASED THE SONG CONTEST TO BE IN MOSCOW JUST TO RECEIVE ALL THE SINGERS FROM ALL EUROPE WELL DONE RUSSIA LET IT BE ON A TOP LEVEL FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE RUSSIAN SOUL)))BUT I SUPPOUSE WE R NOT ATTRACTED IN THE WICTORY SO AS THERE S A SONG NOT DESERVING A HIGH PLACE ON PURPOSE THATS VERY FUSSY TO PREPARE SUCH LEVEL MEASURE DURING THE GLOBAL CRISIS )))

tinna288
u know why?.. first of all, try to compare 2 countries: Serbia and Russia.. who has bigger territory and more opportunities to make a “show”.. of course we do.. and also.. every year the technical stuff is developed with fast speed.. for example if u couldn’t use some “effects” last year, u already can use them in this one.. we don’t know which country is gonna win this year..and what they will “create” next year.. so now we can’t say will the “russian show” stay as best one or not :)

Елфимов играл в КВН???? вот это новость :)

I think the song of Belarus was nice,and much better  than songs of some participants, who got into final…...... For example Portugal!! i think their song was absolutely not interesting…...

I liked  the songs of Turkey and F.Y.R, Macedonia :))

elenochka
народ, да вы че??)) ну РУДН.. пел там постоянно))) вот и допелся =Р