Bulgaria: 45 songs, nine heats

On Thursday 2nd October, the first heat of "Be a star in Bulgaria" will open the national finals and preselections season for Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

Every month (October, November and December) will have 4 shows. In the first 3, 5 of the participating songs will be presented, and in the 4th one the televoting results will be presented. The top three songs from each month will qualify for the semifinal.

In the semifinal, to be held in January, 18 songs will take part - nine that qualified from the heats, and another nine that will be chosen by a committee. Nine of those songs will be sent to the final by a jury where they will be joined by three wildcards, commissioned by BNT.

read more on esctoday.com

Slovakia back to the Eurovision Song Contest

Slovakian public broadcaster STV announced that it will bring Slovakia back to the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow next year. It will be the first time that the country participates in eleven years.

Slovakia has entered the competition three times in the past, with poor results on each occasion.
They entered for the first time in 1994 with Martin Durinda and Tublatanka singing Nekonečná pieseň, winning just 15 points. In total, they have picked up only 42 points.




source:esctoday.com

Dima Bilan special guest star at Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Dima Bilan, winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, will be the special guest star at the 6th Junior Eurovision Song Contest on the 22nd November in Lemesos, Cyprus!



He will also meet all this year’s participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to offer them some last-minute advice after Friday night's dress rehearsal. During the live final on the Saturday night, Dima will also perform his winning song Believe on the stage of the Spyros Kyrianou Arena.


source:eurovision.tv

First ever Asiavision Song Contest in mid-2009

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU)announce that the Eurovision Song Contest format was purchased by Asiavision Pte. Ltd., to hold the first ever Asiavision Song Contest in mid-2009!

The plan is to organize the first ever Asiavision Song Contest in mid-2009, with 15 represented countries, including China and India. It will be based on the highly popular Eurovision Song Contest, which is an annual competition for active Members of the EBU, represented by the public broadcasters in their respective countries.

The annual song contest is planned to be a six-month regional and national tournament culminating in the Grand Final. The song contest will be distributed in the following countries: China, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Targeting the most populous region in the world with more than three billion people the show has a potential audience of over 500 million viewers. A number of broadcasters have indicated their desire to be the Host Broadcaster for the first ever Asiavision Song Contest.

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Estonia decided to participate in ESC 2009

ETV, Estonian national broadcaster, decided to take part in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
The country won’t boycott the festival. The decision was based on a poll organized by the national broadcasting association, where 66% of the public voted YES to the Estonian participation.

Margus Allikmaa, ERR Chairman of the board, is still not convinced Estonia should participate in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

"Eurovision was never free of politics", every country has used the contest for political reasons and so will Russia!. It is very naive to believe that singing and politics can be kept apart. But as our poll showed that the majority of Estonians wish our country to participate, I have to respect that", said M.Allikmaa.



sources:esctoday.com;oikotimes.com

Natalia Barbu and Natalia Gordienko in Greece

Natalia Barbu, who represented Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with the song Fight, composed by Alexandru Brasoveanu and Natalia Gordienko, who also represented Moldova in Athens in 2006 with the song Loca, duet with Arsenium, will visit Greece for a big promotion of their new songs and albums that will be released soon.

The two female pop idols were invited by a Greek manager to promote their new work in Greece. They have a huge and busy program including TV shows, Radio interviews and meetings with Greek Eurovision stars and composers as both of them want to represent their country again next year looking for new ideas and styles.

Natalia Barbu is working on her new album that will be released soon and she also thinks of participating again in the next Eurovision while Natalia Gordienko is preparing already her Eurovision entry song for the upcoming Moldovan national final.

Natalia Gordienko won last year the New Wave 2007 Festival. In the same contest Mihai Traistariu (ESC 2006) and Kostas Martakis (NF 2008) also participated, qualifing in the first 10.

Natalia Barbu and Natalia Gordienko are working with Alexandru Brasoveanu, the well known Moldovan composer who is also going to be with them during their promo tour in Greece and they will also be accompanied by a profesional dancer and new singer, Sergyo.

All the four of them are going to arrive in Greece next week and they are also willing to attend Madonna's concert that will take place in Athens on the 27th of September.

For more information about the artists you can visit their personal sites:
www.nataliabarbu.com
www.sergyo.co.nr


sources:esctoday.com;eurovisionnews.blogspot.com

The jury is back for ESC 2009 Final

eurovision.tv reports:

During a meeting in Moscow, the EBU Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest decided to introduce a voting model of a mix between televoting and jury votes in the 2009 Final.

No change will be made in the voting during the Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Details on the balance between jury and televoting outcome are still to be determined in the months to come.

A survey amongst delegation heads from represented countries revealed that a majority is in favor of such mixed model.
A mixed voting system also has great support amongst the fans of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Svante Stockselius, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest said:

"Nothing is more democratic than the vote of the public. But a jury takes the opportunity to listen to the songs several times, before they make up their minds. In Belgrade, we saw a difference in judgment of the public and the back-up juries, and we believe a combination will make the show more interesting."

In its next meeting, later this year, the Reference Group will decide upon the exact way the jury has to be composed, and to discuss rules to assure a fair jury vote.

The Semi-Finals will not see any changes in the voting procedure. As at the 2008 contest, televoters will again decide upon the nine songs that qualify in each of the two Semi-Finals, while the highest ranked entry of the back-up juries that didn't qualify yet through televoting will also qualify.


read also: Eurovision 'Big Four' final spots confirmed