Georgia launches Junior Eurovision Song Contest official site

After the withdrawal of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia first time in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest have launched the official site to inform the public of the process for the selection of their representantives to the contest.

The site is both in Georgian and English and it can be accessed here.

Mihai Traistariu at Grammy Awards 2008?

Mihai Traistariu the Romanian representative of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 is now closer to an American career more than ever, especially because his manager is negotiating with Harord Wellington, a very well known American manager, for Mihai to perform live at the Grammy Awards 2008.

The chances are high because the Americans have already shown interested in Mihai’s voice and performance as the artist himself stated in a recent interview:

“It is very possible to see me in the Grammy Awards in February next year. My manager Mr. Catalin Moraru discussed about this with Mr Harold Wellington. Harold is a manager from Portugal, very famous all over the world having connections with the international music business. Travelling throughout Europe, he just made a stop in Bucharest and talked about it with Catalin, my manager.”

The Grammy Awards will take place on the 10th of February in the Staples Center stadium in Los Angeles California.

The nominations will be announced 2 months before the Awards and Mihai is very possible to be in the “Newcomer” category. If Mihai does participate, he will be the only Romanian artist that will have the chance to sing with Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.

Mihai is now in Jurmala, Latvia representing Romania at the International Competition New Wave 2007.

Sources: Atac ; eurovisionnews

The order of contestants' performance at New Wave festival

Watch the video

On 21 July was held the first casting of lots in one of Latvian golf-clubs "Venturi" where the order of contestants' performances on the second day of the contest program was determined.

According to the rules of the casting of lots, every contestant had to hit a ball into a hole on the golf course.

A ball with a number that signifies the index number of performance was hidden inside of each hole.

Alessandro from Italy began the game accompanied by a storm of applause by those watching the spectacular sight and hit the ball into a hole where number 7 was hidden.

The casting of lots marathon was afterwards continued by other contestants with incredible excitement: some of them could hit the ball into a hole only after striking seven or eight times, whereas others were especially good at learning to master a club.

For instance, Anastasia Kochetkva from Russia, Kate from the Czech Republic and Kostas Martakis from Greece could get their balls with numbers in three strokes!

A photo gallery you can see here

After the impromptu game of golf was over, the contestants were invited to an open-air buffet-dinner.

Igor Malyshkov, the owner of the golf club delivered the 18 contestants presents and souvenirs on behalf of the club.According to the results of the casting of lots, the order of contestants' performances on the second day of the competition is as follows:

1 - "Rin`Go" (Kazakhstan)

2 - Issa Samer (Czech Republic)

3- Polina Smolova (Belarus - Eurovision 2006, semifinal)

4- Eleonora (Georgia)

5 - Vasiliy Lazarovich (Ukraine)

6 - Chioma (USA)

7 - Alessandro (Italy)

8 - "Barselona" duo - Vladimir Tkachenko and Galina Gavrilko (Ukraine)

9 - Erglis (Latvia -Eurovision 2007 - Bonaparti.lv)

10 - Francisca (Germany)

11- Marina - (Poland)

12- Anastasia Kochetkova (Russia)

13- Kate (Czech Republic)

14- Kostas Martakis (Greece)

15- Natalia Gordienko (Moldova - Eurovision 2006, duo with Arsenium)

16- Masha Novikova (Russia)

17- Natalia Vinokurova (Russia)

18 - Mihai Traistariu (Roumania - Eurovision 2006)

photo:Dinara Nikiforova/meeting.lv

Source of news: New Wave 2007

Greta Koçi says she wants to bid for Belgrade's Eurovision

oikotimes.com reports:

Frederic Nodci might came 17th in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest Semifinal last May in Helsinki but for sure Eurovision seem to attract big local names for the next edition of the Eurovision contest due to take place in Belgrade on May 2008.

Greta Koçi said to Revista Albaniac that she would be more than interested to enter for Albania in Eurovision. She said she will bid for the upcoming contest for sure.

Read more HERE

UK:Bill Bailey to enter Eurovision

Musical stand-up Bill Bailey is to put himself forward for the United Kingdom's next entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

"What the public wants, the public gets. And it seems that the question on the lips of the nation at the moment is: "Will Bill be entering Eurovision?" - Bill Bailey

Interest arose from several internet petitions, asking Bailey to enter the contest.

One attracted over 300 signatures. As a result, apparently Bailey has decided to put himself forward for the 2008 contest.

He is also going to let his fans decide which song he will use.

Bailey has always had a love of music. He used to be part of a band called, The Famous Five, which consisted of only four members. Later, he formed a musical double-act with Martin Stubbs called The Rubber Bishops. Stubbs later quit the act, and Bailey teamed up with Sean Lock in an Edinburgh show called Rock in 1994.

A year later, he went solo with his show Cosmic Jam.Apart from his stand-up tours, Bailey is now best known for being a team captain on the musical panel game Never Mind the Buzzcocks, as a regular panellist on QI and for playing Manny Bianco in the sitcom Black Books.

The 2007 UK Eurovision entry was decided by a TV phone vote. The chosen band, Scooch, finished 23rd out of 24 entries.

source: The British Sitcom Guide

Elitsa and Stoyan join African duo in an ethnic project

Bulgarian representatives at this year's Eurovision final Elitsa and Stoyan and an African drum duo presented their new joint ethno project in the framework of July Jazz Fest in the town of Smolyan.

"The composition, called "Meeting on Three Continents", combines Bulgarian folklore motifs with typical African ones", the soloist of the Bulgarian duo Elitsa explained.

There have been used several unknown for the Bulgarian audience percussion instruments - balafon, skin covered hand drum, called djembe and ngoni.

"We hope that we will be given the opportunity to promote the project before the tribe of our African colleagues in Burkina Faso," Elitsa said.

Some of the ethno project's compositions are planned to be included in an album.

source:Sofia News Agency

UK: Making Your Mind Up, also in 2008

belgovision.com reports:

More than four months after the final of Making Your Mind Up 2007 took place, BBC has revealed the complete results of the British Eurovision Song Contest selections for Helsinki. Meanwhile, the British broadcaster also announced to us the Making Your Mind Up format at least until 2009.

Dominic Smith, head of Entertainment at the BBC, revealed the complete results of this years Making Your Mind Up in a reaction to Esctoday.com. In the second televoting round, Scooch received 53% of the televotes while French-born Cyndi, who was first announced as the winner by Terry Wogan by mistake, got 47%. In the first round of voting, Big Brovaz came third, Hawkins & Brown fourth, Liz McClarnon fifth and Brian Harvey sixth.

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