CyBC's team for the 2008 edition of JESC

sources:oikotimesc.com; Eurovision Cyprus

CyBC has just begun the preparations for the Junior Eurovision 2008, where it is going to take place in Cyprus. The Junior Eurovision 2008 it is going to be the biggest event that CyBC host in the history and wants the help of professional companies around the Europe. In the upcoming days, CyBC it is going to reveal the names of companies who it will collaborate.

Mr. Kleitos Kleitou (director of CyBC, and also director of Cypriot Entry in Helsinki this year) it will be the director for the Cypriot National Final for the selection of the Cypriot Entry for Rotterdam.

Mr. Kleitou it will be also the director for the Junior Eurovision 2008. Ms. Despo Karpi it will be the producer of the show and Mr. Munro Forbes, collaborator of CyBC for 2 years now, will be the executive producer. These titles have been approved by the EBU who it has watched works of team, from previous competitions in Cyprus and it agrees that they can undertake this big project.

Sarbel in Australia - Photos

Eurovision Nominated at NTA Awards

esctoday.com reports:

The Eurovision Song Contest and the United Kingdom's presenter, Terry Wogan have been put on the nomination shortlist for the United Kingdom's National Television Awards shortlist. Sir Terry's copresenter at Making your mind up, the country's national final, Fern Cotton is also nominated.

The Eurovision Song Contest has won a place on the shortlist for 'Most Popular Entertainment Programme' for the second year running. Although it did not reach the final shortlist last time, the show's ratings increased this year and it stands a chance of success.

Terry Wogan is shortlisted for 'Most Entertainment Presenter', against Fern Cotton, his co-presenter at the national final, Making your mind up. Paddy O'Connell and his cohost Sarah Cawood on the British broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest semi final miss out. One other Eurovision name competing for the award is popular chatshow host and host of the upcoming Eurovision Dance Contest, Graham Norton.

The public are invited to vote for their favourites across 11 categories and the finalists will be shown during the NTA Awards show on October 31st and to be broadcast on ITV.

You can vote here

Sarbel concludes concerts in Australia

oikotimes.com reports:

Greece's 2007 representative Sarbel's Australian tour, the tour in Australia has now reached an end. Sarbel and Natasa put on four excellent shows for fans and the large Greek-Australian community, who responded greatly to their appearances. Their four shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide were described as 'spectacular' and 'brilliant' by Greek fans who can not wait for future shows from the megastars.

Also, rumors have surfaced that another Eurovision star, Anna Vissi, who put on concerts January 2007 in Australia, will once return to Australia for more concerts in 2008.

However, Eurovision Megastar Sakis Rouvas will be the next Greek singer to definitely come to Australia's shores next April with another famous Greek singer Antonis Remos.

Verka's song gets commercial release

esctoday.com reports:

Verka Serduchka, the Ukrainian participant and runner-up at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, will release her song Danzing in France at the end of this month.

Verka finished second at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki earlier this year and her Album simply untitled Verka, the Album will be released in France with the mention “Number 1 in Ukraine” on the cover, but no mention of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The last Eurovision Song Contest winner to be released commercially in France was Sertab Erener's Every way that I can back in 2003. The country is considered 'closed to Eurovision' with relatively low viewing figures and public interest, although that seems to be slowly changing thanks to music producer and Head of Delegation, Bruno Berberes.

Many believe that the country is not yet ready to support the release of the songs from the Eurovision Song Contest in their market.

This year’s French entry, L’amour à la française by les Fatals Picards was not released.

Can Verka change French musical attitudes?

The song was a shock chart entry in the United Kingdom, another country notorious for poor record sales for Eurovision Song Contest entries. She became the first entrant for 34 years to score a chart hit without singing for the United Kingdom or winning the competition when the song reached 28th place on the official top 40 chart despite only being available through downloads and not having a CD release.

Listen Dancing Lasa Tumbai -Lullaby version

Verka Serduchka runs for Parliament

Help OGAE Israel pick their entry for the OGAE Song Contest 2007

Source:OGAE Malta

OGAE Israel is happy to invite you to help them choose their entry for OGESC 2007.

"Sabress" is the name of our pre-selection for the Ogae song contest 2007 & it's the second year of that format. From a total entries of 30 and after 3 semi-finals OGAE Israel got to the final stage: the BIG FINAL!

Below is the link to the final in which you can watch the competing entries via youtube and cast your votes!Please be kind enough to forward this message to your friends.
http://forums.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=499797

OGAE Israel thanks you for your co-operation and may the best song win!

TV's greatest ever scams - Scooch used backing singers

UK Eurovision song contest entrants Scooch scammed viewers, and voters, when they used backing singers to boost their performance in the preliminary run up to the contest.

They had hidden the singers from view, singing away on stage with the public unaware that they were getting help from the two singers.

Other entrants involved in the bid to be the UK’s representative in the contest were outraged when news of the sham broke.

Former East 17 star Brian said: "I was p***** off with the whole Scooch thing. I thought one of the singers was mouthing something and nothing came out. The public have been conned."

Big Brovaz star Randy, who also lost out, added: "It seems they were miming as the backstage girls were really loud most of the time.

"Also the microphones Scooch used were for miming. We entered Eurovision because we thought it was about credible acts, but it isn't."

The act went on to represent the UK in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, they finished 23rd out of 24 acts. Karma eh?

source:The Sun

Diana Mnatsakanyan speaks about high TV ratings and more

source:oikotimes.com

When Armenia joined the Eurovision family in 2006 very few people would have expected them to have done so well in their first pair of participations. Two years on, and the Caucasian country has made the final twice, finishing 8th both times, and scoring huge totals in the process. But behind every success is a hard-working Head of Delegation- oikotimes.com spoke to Armenia's Diana Mnatsakanyan:

1) What made AMPTV decide to enter Eurovision in the first place?

We have been broadcasting the shows live from Turkey and Ukraine and our viewers have been very insisting to take part in ESC whatever it takes. I have received thousands of e-mails and telephone calls with the same request and question ''why don't WE take part if we broadcast it?'' We became an active member of EBU, then asked for a favor to participate in the contest and luckily became a small part of the show twice already.

2) Armenia has now entered Eurovision twice, was in the final both times, had a top ten finish twice, and both of the entries have scored over 120 points- did you ever think that something like this would happen?

To tell the truth - never :) Can you imagine how happy I am to state that we are twice in the final from the first attempt? .... Read more....

Liliane Saint-Pierre number 1 in Gay Eurovision Top 10

oikotimes.com reports:

From 12. 'till 15. July Eurogames took place in Antwerp. Due to this occasion eurosong.be organized a poll to discover the ten eurovision entries with the highest gay factor. Liliane Saint-Pierre was chosen with Soldiers of love (ESC 87 for Belgium) on the top spot. Dana International (ESC 98) ended as runner up. Kate Ryan (ESC 06) reached the third place.

Liliane Saint-Pierre's victory was surprising. She has beaten the main favourite Dana International. In Flanders, Liliane is a gay-icon since the release of the single Sasha, back in 1989. The single is a statement for acceptance of gay people. Liliane's Eurovision entry Soldiers of love is exactly twenty years old. The singer is planning to make a new version of the song on her next album.

By coincidence Liliane was performing last Saturday at Eurovision@Eurogames, a Eurovision-show in Antwerp, during which the results of the poll were announced. She was totally surprised when she was asked on stage for the celebration of her number one. This is the complete result:

01. Liliane Saint-Pierre - Soldiers of love - Belgium 1987

02. Dana International - Diva - Israel 1998

03. Kate Ryan - Je t'adore - Belgium 2006

04. Verka Serduchka - Dancing lasha tumbai - Ukraine 2007

05. Deen - In the disco - Bosnia & Herzegovina 2004

06. Carola - Invincible - Sweden 2006

07. Baccara - Parlez-vous français - Luxembourg 1978

08. ABBA - Waterloo - Sweden 1974

09. DQ - Dramaqueen - Denmark 2007

10. Lena Philipsson - It hurts - Sweden 2004