Eurovision

Following the breaking news that Eurostars announced earlier this evening that juries are to return for Eurovision 2009, let’s have a look at further details to the proposed changes.

– There will be a mix of jury and televoting to determine the result of the FINAL of Eurovision 2009
– There will be no changes to the Semi-Finals: televoting alone will select the Top 9 places, with the highest non-qualifying song of the back up juries also making it through (as happened with Sweden in Belgrade)
– The balance between jury and televoting for the finals is still to be announced
– A survey amongst delegation heads from represented countries revealed that a majority is in favor of such mixed model
– Svante Stockselius has commented on the changes, saying: “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”
– It’s unclear yet whether all non qualifiers will vote in the final.

So, what do you think? Do you think the changes will make a difference to counter accusations of political and diaspora voting? Let us know your opinions!

Jennifer Lopez concert in Athens takes place on September 20th at the OAKA Indoor Arena. Today it was announced that Kostas Martakis will be the only singer for the opening act of this concert. The team of the singer watched the video clips of Kostas and they were thrilled especially with the new song Fila Me (Kiss Me) which is closer to the tunes which Jennifer Lopez sings. Kostas participated in the 2008 Greek national final with the song Always & Forever and ranked 2nd.

Eurovision Dance Contest: averaged 4.7 million viewers. Photograph: BBC

Couples swinging on the dancefloor proved more appealing than a monster swinging on the Empire State Building in the primetime clash on Saturday, September 6.

BBC1’s Eurovision Dance Contest, hosted by Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman, averaged 4.7 million viewers between 8pm and 10.15pm, a 22% share of the audience, according to unofficial overnights.

ITV1’s terrestrial movie premiere King Kong, which stretched to more than three hours between 7.50pm and 11.15pm, had 4.4 million viewers, a 22% share.

The Peter Jackson movie followed another strong performance by ITV1’s The X Factor.

Featuring highlights from the Glasgow auditions, the Simon Cowell talent hunt averaged 9 million viewers, a 43% share at 6.50pm.

The X Factor was up on last week’s audience of 8.2 million, but could not match the highs of the first two episodes of the new series.

ITV1’s durable reality hit opened with 10.2 million viewers on August 16, with another 9.4 million on August 23.

But The X Factor easily had the better of a Weakest Link repeat on BBC1, which could only manage 3.3 million viewers.

A 31-year-old Dad’s Army repeat was BBC2’s most popular show of the night. The Miser’s Hoard averaged 2.3 million viewers, a 10% share at 8pm.

Dad’s Army beat Channel Five’s NCIS repeat, with 1.3 million, and the opening of Channel 4’s Tommy Lee Jones disaster movie Volcano, which averaged 1.2 million between 8pm and 9.55pm. Another 84,000 saw Volcano on Channel 4 +1.

Earlier, the opening ceremony of the Paralympics from Beijing averaged 2.2 million viewers, a 22% share, between 12.50pm and 4.30pm on BBC1. The network’s coverage peaked with 2.7 million viewers at 4pm.

Over on ITV1, an Inspector Morse repeat had 1.1 million viewers between 2.35pm and 4.35pm.

Η Πολωνία μεγάλη νικήτρια του Eurovision Dance

Με επιτυχία ολοκληρώθηκε το βράδυ του Σαββάτου η μεγάλη βραδιά του 2ου διαγωνισμού Eurovision Dance, που φέτος πραγματοποιήθηκε στο Scottish Exhibition and Conference Center, στη Γλασκόβη της Σκοτίας. Νικητές αναδείχθηκαν ανάμεσα σε 14 χορευτικά ζευγάρια οι Μάρσιν Μρότσεκ και Εντιτα Χέρμπους από την Πολωνία. Η Ελλάδα με τους Jason Ροδίτης και Tonia Kosovich κατέλαβαν την 7η θέση. Οι υπόλοιπες χώρες που συμμετείχαν στο νέο αυτό θεσμό είναι: Αζερμπαϊτζάν, Αυστρία, Δανία, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο, Ιρλανδία, Ισπανία, Λιθουανία, Ολλανδία, Ουκρανία, Πορτογαλία, Ρωσία, Σουηδία, Φινλανδία. Πολλές χώρες όμως έχουν ήδη εκδηλώσει το ενδιαφέρον τους να συμμετάσχουν σε επόμενες διοργανώσεις.

Ο διαγωνισμός Eurovision Dance αποτελεί πρόσφατη δράση της EBU και σκοπό έχει την ανάδειξη του καλύτερου χορευτικού ζευγαριού από τα κράτη που συμμετέχουν. Παρουσιαστές της βραδιάς, από την Γλασκόβη ήταν ο Γκράχαμ Νόρτον, γνωστός παρουσιαστής της αγγλικής τηλεόρασης, και η Κλόντια Γουίνκλεμαν, παρουσιάστρια χορευτικών σόου με πολυετή εμπειρία στον χώρο.

Η ψηφοφορία για την ανάδειξη του καλύτερου ζευγαριού έγινε μέσω televoting αλλά και κριτικής επιτροπής. Η τελική κατάταξη διαμορφώθηκε ανάλογα με την ψήφο του κοινού αλλά και της επιτροπής. Δικαίωμα ψήφου είχαν μόνο οι χώρες που συμμετείχαν.

Σειρά κατάταξης και βαθμολογία

1. Πολωνία 154
2. Ρωσία 121
3. Ουκρανία 119
4. Λιθουανία 110
5. Αζερμπαϊτζάν 106
6. Δανία 102
7. Ελλάδα 71
8. Πορτογαλία 61
9. Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο 47
10. Φινλανδία 44
11. Ιρλανδία 40
12. Σουηδία 38
13. Αυστρία 29
14. Ολλανδία 1

We had a little delay into posting this report as the flights back to our bases were the reason for posting this item so late. So let’s see what happened. After the show, the winners came to the press room and gave their press conference. The rest of the delegations went accross the street of the venue, crossed the river bridge and started drinking, eating and dancing at the BBC Scotland headquarters. The dancing was extreme. Why is that? But it is simple: we had 14 participating pairs from all over Europe who invaded the dancefloor and danced even more passionate than on the stage of the contest. The Danish, Swedish, Ukrainian and Azeri dancers gave the best of themselves. At some point even the hostess, Claudia, entered the dancefloor.