D'NASH release new videoclip

D'NASH will be releasing their forthcoming album, including their latest single, on 4th December, titled Todo Va A Cambiar.
This is Spanish version of Amanda the videoclip of their latest song.

sources:esctoday.com;youtube.com

No Eurovision for Austria

Austrian broadcaster ORF will not be sending a representative to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. ORF say political voting and an unclear concept for the two semifinal concept are the reasons for their withdrawal. As long as politics rule the Eurovision Song Contest, ORF won't return to the competition.

ORF programme director Wolfgang Lorenz states that the Eurovision Song Contest is a clear sign of the complicated nature of a united Europe. "We have already seen in 2007 that it's not the quality of the song, but the country of origin that determines the decision," Lorenz says. "As long as the Eurovision Song Contest is a political parade and not an international entertainment programme, ORF has no desire to send more Austrian talent to a competition in which they have no chances. Should the situation change, we will be happy to take part again," Lorenz concludes.

read more on belgovision.com

ESC 2008:Two semifinals to be broadcast live

esctoday.com reports:

Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest, confirmed in an email to esctoday.com that the proposal put forwards for approval is for both semi finals to be broadcast live. Each country will broadcast the semi final in which they participate in and can vote in that semi final.

With both shows being broadcast live on Tuesday 20th May and Thursday 22nd May, broadcasters will be able to broadcast both shows live if they wish to do so. esctoday.com has also learned that the provisional list of countries that have applied to participate at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest will be announced in December, although no date has yet been decided upon.

More informations on esctoday.com

Marija Serifovic meets with Azerbaijani officials

esctoday.com reports:

Marija Serifovic, the Serbian 2007 Eurovision Song Contest winner, met with Azerbaijani officials on a state visit to Serbia. Marija was presented with a traditional Azerbaijani scarf especially embroidered for her by the members of her newly-found fan club in the country.

read more on esctoday.com

Sakis Rouvas: New CD and DVD soon

Towards the end of the month, Sakis Rouvas will be releasing his live CD and DVD, called This is my Live. Both were recorded during his live concert at the Lycabetus theatre in Athens, Greece, last September. The album will also contain Sakis’ latest track Stous 31 dromous, soundtrack of the homonymous TV series filmed in Astoria, NY, USA.

Sakis Rouvas - Stous 31 Dromous


sources:esctoday.com;youtube.com

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.