Serebro - "What`s Your Problem?" - VIDEO

Dima Bilan and Serebro awarded in MTV Russia Music Awards

Dima Bilan and Serebro have been awarded with "Best debut" (Serebro), "Best song", "Best Artist" and "Artist" of the year (Dima Bilan) in MTV Russia Music Awards .

Koldun, who represented Belarus on Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, was also nominated for "Best Artist" but lost the award to Bilan.

Dima Bilan -Nevozmozhnoe Vozmozhno


Lady Flame - english version

Belgrade received Helsinki city keys

On 14 september Belgrade recived Helsinki city keys.

Under great interest of the Serbian press, the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest and the city delegates from Helsinki and Belgrade gathered at the City Hall of Belgrade for the official handover of the honour to host the competition.

source and photo:eurovision.tv

Eurovision 2008: The stage design and the sublogo

Seventy stage designs were submitted to RTS in the open competition proclaimed in June. The winner is the Confluence design which won first prize and 10.000 euros.



For the logo, 455 designs were submitted in the open competition held by RTS and the winner is "Mama" -first prize:10 000 Euro.


autor "Mama"

Svante Stockselius explains the new format

Eurovision.tv reports:

Svante STOCKSELIUS, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), gives more details about the revised format. Before the weekend, Eurovision.tv announced that two Semi-Finals will take place to find the Finalists of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

You might ask yourself, when are those two Semi-Finals taking place? "The details are yet to be decided upon, but the proposal is based on the idea that the two Semi-Finals of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest will be aired simultaneously on Thursday, 22nd of May from Belgrade, Serbia. If the two Semi-Finals will both be recorded, whereas only the results will be broadcast live, or if one of the Semi-Finals will be aired live and the other one recorded, is unknown yet," Svante STOCKSELIUS explains.

"Each Semi-Final is only being aired in the countries that are taking part, and only viewers from countries that take part in each respective Semi-Final can vote," he adds. All participating broadcasters can broadcast the Semi-Final(s) they are not taking part in later as well, and the Semi-Finals will be webcasted live through Eurovision.tv. To serve the fans, both Semi-Finals will also be made available on-demand the next day. "To produce the two Semi-Finals live on different nights will result in high extra costs for both the Host Broadcaster and the participating Members," STOCKSELIUS explained.

To qualify for the Final

Another possible change that is currently being considered is that From each Semi-Final, the top-9 ranked countries of the tele-voting qualify for the Final, to be aired live from Belgrade on the 24th of May. In each Semi-Final, the highest ranked country of the back-up juries that it not in the top-9 yet will receive a wildcard to the Final as well. In total, 10 countries per Semi-Final qualify for the Final, bringing the total amount of Finalists to 25. "Usually, the results from the tele-voters and the back-up juries are not very different. However, this procedure, if it should be decided upon, adds extra excitement to the show and gives the back-up jury a more prominent meaning. It is also an answer to the many requests we received to use a mixed tele-voting/jury system," STOCKSELIUS says.

More details about the final decisions of new format and the draw for the running order of each Semi-Final will be revealed later.

source and photo:eurovision.tv

Two semifinals to qualify for 2008 final in Belgrade

Eurovision.TV reports:

At the 50th meeting of the TV Committee of the European Broadcasting Union, today in Verona, it was decided to approve the proposal of hosting two Semi-Finals for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The proposal was forwarded by the Reference Group of the contest. Only the Host Country, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom are automatically qualified for the Final. All other participants will be grouped into two Semi-Finals.

Stable future

"We are convinced that the introduction of a second Semi-Final contributes to a more stable future for the Eurovision Song Contest," Executive Supervisor Svante STOCKSELIUS says to Eurovision.tv from Verona. "We carefully listened to the suggestions of Members and fans and we took notice of the critical remarks in the press. After evaluating several scenarios, it was decided to introduce a second Semi-Final already in 2008. This increases the fairness of the competition, opens doors to a more interesting Final and production-wise, it is the most flexible solution," he underlined.

Details later this year

The Reference Group and the producers of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest are currently finalizing the details of the revised format. Details on when the two Semi-Finals will take place, the draw procedure and the conditions for qualification to the Final will be announced later this year.

Juries are back

The nine of the the ten qualifiers of the Eurovision Final from those two semifinals will come out of the televoting results.The tenth country to qualify will be the highest ranked country from the back-up jury that has not already qualified through the televote.

Luciano Pavarotti dies at 71

reuters.com:

Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti has died after a long battle with cancer.

The great tenor known as "Big Luciano" helped bring opera to the masses and performed to vast stadium audiences round the world.