Eurovision Oslo 2010:Juries will decide 50% of the Semifinal's votes

After the introduction of professional juries in the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, it was decided by the contest's Reference Group that music industry professionals will also get a 50 percent stake in the outcome of the Semi-Finals.

Participating EBU Member Broadcasters overwhelmingly reviewed the introduction of professional juries in the Final as a positive development. At the same time, viewers, journalists and dedicated fans welcomed the introduction of over 200 judges from the music industry, and sent the EBU letters and emails to ask for implementation of the format in the Semi-Finals as well.

To increase consistency in the format of the Eurovision Song Contest, juries will thus also get a 50 percent stake in the results of the Semi-Finals of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, as well as in the Final. Viewers decide upon the other 50 percent of the outcome. The top-10 of the combined result in each Semi-Final qualifies for the Final of Europe's favourite TV-show.

Strict rules were introduced last year to secure the integrity of jury voting. Those rules will remain in place.

source: eurovision.tv

Alexander Rybak - Roll with the wind - new videoclip

Alexander Rybak, this year's Eurovision Song Contest winner has released his latest videoclip Roll with the wind.

The videoclip has been filmed on the Norwegian island of Giske.

Alexander Rybak's official videoclip for "Fairytale"

Alexander Rybak won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with "Fairytale" that he wrote and composed himself.

Norway LIVE - 1st Semi Final - video

Maria performed "Hold on be strong" in the 1st Semi Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and she has qualified for the final.






Norway was drawn 25th in the Final.

First semi final results

The representatives of nineteen countries have presented their songs tonight in the First Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

After all songs had been presented, televoting started in all the participating countries as well as in Spain and Germany, who are already qualified for the Final, but were drawn to vote in the First Semi-Final.

Nine of the qualifying countries were decided by televoting. Furthermore, the highest placed song in the result of the national backup juries which was not yet qualified through televoting got a place in the Final as well. However, the TV public will only find out which country it was after the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday.


The following countries have qualified for the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest (in order of announcement):

Greece - video
Romania - video
Bosnia and Herzegovina - video
Finland - video
Russia - video
Israel - video
Azerbaijan - video
Armenia - video
Poland - video
Norway - video

eurovision.tv has an exclusive video with the reactions af all semi finalists right after their performance in front of the Eurovision.tv camera crew.

Norway rehearsal and press conference

Accompanied by three female backing singers and two guitar-players, Maria integrated a fitting cheorography into her number which worked well. The stage during Hold On Be Strong is filled with hundreds of lights on a predominantly blue background and it seemed that Maria and her team were already wearing their final clothes which are also bright blue.

Norway - Hold on, be strong



Press conference

In her press conference Maria treated the present media with her enormous vocal talent. She was also satisfied with the way her rehearsal went. When asked what was her favourite song in this year's contest, she answered that she liked the Danish song most.



sources:eurovision.tv; 12points.tv; esckaz.com

Norway launches search for 2008 entry

Norwegian broadcaster NRK has announced the launch of its campaign for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, with the call for entries for the Melodi Grand Prix 2008.

Entries are welcomed from outside of Norway, in addition, NRK will be inviting songwriters to submit songs and the broadcaster reserves the right to select artists for the selected entries.

Aside from the standard song rules, such as the song having to be 3 minutes or less in length, it is interesting to note that once again the Norwegian national final is open to composers of all nationalities - despite the annual controversy over the number of Swedes in the Norwegian final, with them sometimes even winning, for example in 2007 and 2004.

All entries must be received by NRK by the 1st September 2007. NRK will also once again directly invite some artists and composers, as they did in 2007. As yet there are no dates for the Norwegian national final. Norway will use the 3 semi-final and second chance system, as they have done in 2006 and 2007.

Whoever represents Norway will have to start in the semi final in Belgrade due to Guri Schanke's failure to qualify for the final in Helsinki. For interested songwriters, the form for entry is found in English here.

source:esctoday.com

Marija cancels trip after hospitalisation

from esctoday.com

Marija Serifovic has been forced to cancel her trip to Norway where she was supposed to be performing tomorrow night at the Eurovision Memory Lane concert in Oslo in front of an estimated 5,000 crowd tomorrow night. Marija is currently hospitalised after straining her vocal chords and will not be able to travel to Oslo.

The producer of the memory lane event told Gaysir website "this is very sad, especially for a young talent such as Marija. She has promised to come to Norway this autumn but until then, she has to rest her voice". He went on to wish Marija a speedy recovery to the problem which is most likely down to her gruelling schedule since winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki. Marija played at the Budva festival on Sunday before seeking medical help after pain in her throat.

Although the contest winner will not be travelling to Norway, this year's home entrant, Guri Schanke has stepped in to fill the breach and will be performing tomorrow night.

We are also promised some surprise appearances in what is expected to be the largest Eurovision Memory Lane event so far.

Eurovision Rock back in UK

from esctoday.com

Wig Wam return to UK...with The Poodles

2005 Eurovision Song Contest favourites, Wig Wam have confirmed that they will return to Nottingham's Rock City to perform this summer headlining the Thunderground Festival. The band, who provided Norway with an automatic qualification for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest final will be bringing some special guests with a Eurovision connection of their own.

Wig Wam return to the venue where they performed their first British gig last year. Back in October, they were the surprise of the night as they took the crowd by storm, winning the best audience responce of the night. There are likely to be additional dates added for the UK, where Wig Wam still plan to tour later this year.

Read more here

The Ark perform in Norway

Yesterday the Swedish representatives in Helsinki performed in Oslo, Norway. They performed at the 'VG lista showet 2007'. An annual event organised by the newspaper. The show was broadcast yesterday on NRK. In previous years artists such as Wig Wam and Lordi have performed at the event.

The Ark - The Worrying Kind - promo video



source:oikotimes.com

Marija and Bobbysocks head Eurovision Memory Lane

from esctoday.com

This year's Eurovision Song Contest winner, Marija Serifovic, will be appearing in the third edition of Eurovision Memory lane in Oslo together with many more past winners and participants such as Bobbysocks, Katrina and Mihai Traistariu among others.

For the third year running the Oslo Pride Festival are organising the Eurovision Memory lane show, on June 28, in Oslo.

The event will feature Norway's first Eurovision Song Contest winners, Bobbysocks, 1997 winner Katrina (without the Waves), Mihai Traistariu, Jostein Hasselgård, Wenche Myhre, Kirsten Siggard and many more. Marija Serifovic will be performing this year's winner song Molitva on the outdoor stage at the City Hall Square.
Elisabeth Andreasen and Hanne Krogh will perform both solo and together as Bobbysocks. Elisabeth Andreasens other duet partner, Kikki Danielsson will also sing, both together with Elisabeth and solo, or together with a chorus of 6 dancers.

Mihai Traistariu- the 2006 Romanian entrant will also be there to sing his Tornero. Danish "Queen of Eurovision" Kirsten Siggard, will sing all her Eurovision songs, and Jenny Jensen, Måns Zelmerløw and Andres Esteche from Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix and Swedish Melodifestivalen will perform as well. There will also be some great surprises from the stage.

The event will be hosted by another famous Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest name, the enigmatic Norwegian King of Eurovision, Mr. Jostein Pedersen.

Exclusive competition: Win 3 double invitations


For more information about the show and tickets go to www.esctoday.com

Euro HIT 40 -June

Demonstrating once again just how some musical styles no longer have any boundaries, two countries at this year's song contest (the 52nd, as it happens, and held in Helsinki) quite independently chose similar songs with similar titles. Unfortunately, neither song managed to obtain enough popular support to make it through from the semi-final to the final of the competition on Saturday, 12 May.

Scandinavian Latin
The first of these Eurovision songs comes from Norway, and - as the Latin music makes you anticipate - has a Spanish title, although the bulk of the lyric is in English. Ven a bailar conmigo (Come and dance with me) was performed at the contest by Norwegian actress and singer star Guri Schanke. After the viewing public voted, her song came in 18th out of 28, with only the top ten songs going through to the final.

Lusitanian Latin
The second Latin song came from a Latin nation, Portugal, though it too had more of a Spanish feel than anything else. Sung by newcomer Sabrina, Dança comigo (Dance with me) fared better than the song from Norway, coming in 11th and just missing a place in the Eurovision final.

Heard on stations all over the world, the Euro Hit 40 is Europe's No.1 chart show.

source:radionetherlands.nl