Mihai Traistariu wants to do Eurovision again

Mihai Traistariu, the artist who represented Romania in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest given an exclusive interview to esctoday.com about his plans, about his new album and its final release date, about the trip to USA for the L.A. Awards and of course about his possible participation in a future Eurovision Song Contest.

Mihai Traistariu definitely wants to walk on Eurovision stage once more, the contest has changed his entire life and he would happily participate again but only when the right song comes along.

In his interview, exclusively for the esctoday.com readers, he spoke about Love is... his forthcoming album about to be released sometime around Christmas, and about the charity concert with Marija Serifovic in Serbia.

Mihai will soon be travelling to the USA for the LA Awards ceremony where he hopes to walk away with one of the awards and a record deal with an American label.
You can read the full interview here

Europe prepares for Belgrade

eurovision.tv reports:

With still more than five months on the count down counter towards the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Europe is looking ahead with the following question in mind: Who do we send to Belgrade?

In Iceland and Bulgaria, the respective national public broadcasters already kicked off with their national selections. After numerous semi-finals, national finals should then decide who will represent Iceland and Bulgaria in Belgrade.

More than 3,000 entries in Sweden

Several other countries already announced details about their selection methods for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

In Sweden, more than 3,000 songs were submitted to broadcaster SVT, out of which a selection committee hand-picked the 28 songs for Melodifestivalen 2008.

After four semi-finals, a second-chance heat and a grand final at Stockholm's Globen Arena, Europe will know Sweden's representative for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

For those who can't wait to find out, we have disappointing news; The Swedish final takes place on 15th March, which leaves plenty of time to speculate about the performers of the songs and the potential finalists.

On the 14th and 15th of December, the national semi-finals in Albania take place. On the 16th, we will know who will succeed Frederik NDOCI and his wife Aida. They represented Albania at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, Finland.

Selections underway across Europe

Several other broadcasters announced how and when they will pick their country's representative for Belgrade. From Finland to Malta and from Estonia to Denmark, preparations for the national selections are underway. The Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, Flanders, is looking forward to the Eurosong 2008 semi-finals, while Dutch broadcaster NOS has announced that the artist representing the Netherlands will be picked internally.

What to expect

Eurovision.tv will keep you posted about the national selections on a regular basis.

In January, Eurovision.tv will unveil the website for Belgrade 2008. Between January and mid-March, we will extensively cover the national heats and the preparations in Belgrade. The second half of March and April are completely dedicated to the upcoming contest and the preparations of the participating singers.

Maximum 45 countries at Eurovision Song Contest 2008

belgovision.com reports:

Maximum 45 countries will be allowed to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade. That means that no more than 20 countries will compete in each of the two semifinals.

Five countries are directly qualified for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008: host country Serbia and the Big Four countries Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Since the maximum number of countries allowed to take part in next year's festival is 45, maximum 40 countries will be allowed to compete in the heats, consisting of two semifinals.

Until 15th November, all interested broadcasters can subscribe for participation. Until 14th December tey can withdraw without any cost. At the end of 2007, the participant list for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 can be expected.

Elitsa and Stoyan win the Crystal Lyre Award 2007

An annual award ceremony "The Crystal Lyre 2007" held earlier this month brought a victory to Elitsa & Stoyan, who represented Bulgaria in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki.

The duet won in the category "Pop & Rock". This award is one of many received throughout the year by the duet, but many consider it the most important .

A week ago, Elitsa and Stoyan returned from their tour in Japan where they successfully presented their new single Earth together with a comic book entitled "The Elements", written by Daniel Atanasov. Both the the song and the comic book are part of the duo's environmental project which aims to raise awareness for the preservation of the planet.

You can download the song here

Elitsa & Stoyan EARTH

sources:esctoday.com;elitsatodorova.com;stoyankoulov.com
photo:elitsatodorova.com

JESC 2007:AVRO provides Sinterklaas, ice ring and museum visit

Like at the Eurovision Song Contest, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest is joined by a varied social programme, however on a child's level. Dutch broadcaster AVRO and the city of Rotterdam joined forces to offer the candidates of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 a splendid time in Rotterdam.

To start with, the seventeen delegations taking part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 will be welcomed by Ivo Opstelten, the Mayor of Rotterdam, and a special junior mayor of the city.

Furthermore the kids will visit the Maritime Museum of Rotterdam, make a boat trip and go ice skating on an ice skating ring in the centre of the city.

On Wednesday 5th December, the European kids will be introduced to Sinterklaas, the friend of all children who is world famous in the Netherlands and Flanders for bringing sweets and toys.

On Thursday, a party is scheduled in a local disco.

On Friday 7th and Saturday 8th, the serious jobs have to be done: the dress rehearsals and the live broadcast of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

source:belgovision.com