HOW many countries?!

This week, it was announced that Georgia (where?), a country just sitting south of Russia (oh…), intends to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Yes, it seems that Eurovision is so popular that everyone wants to join! Indeed, that’s why the Semi-Final and the 40 countries limit was introduced.

However, the way things are going the maximum 40 countries limit is going to be exceeded leaving quite a big problem for Mr Svante Stockselius, the Eurovision scrutineer – if you like he’s the Prime Minister of Eurovision (see the picture, he doesn't always look this happy), and a lot of the fans are questioning just how Eurovision can accommodate so many countries. Because at the moment there are up to FORTY-FOUR countries interested in entering the Eurovision (think of the length of the voting)! And they are…

- The 37 countries that participated last year…
(Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, FYR Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom)

- 4 possible returning countries…
(Austria, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia)

- And 3 possible debut countries…
(Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Georgia)

So what are the options? Well it seems that one option is to stop the influx of new countries, although this seems a little unfair on those that want to join. So therefore, it seems that the relegation rule, that was prominent in 90s Eurovision, will come back into play where the each country will be assessed on its performance over the last five years, and the worst performing will be relegated. But of course the idea of the Semi Final was to get rid of the relegation process...

So a limit of 40+ countries, or the return of the relegation rule? All will be revealed very soon...

Democracy rules! Austria return!

Thanks to an online petition from Eurovision fans, the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest will see the return of Austria after they sat out of the 2006 contest in a sulk. After only scoring 9 points at the 2004 contest with the drab boy-band ballad (understatment) Du Bist, they were relegated into the 2005 semi final. The band that were chosen to try and restore Austrian spirits were a traditional Alpen-pop group called Global.Kryner, with the song Y Asi, a genre breaking latino/alpen song about 'a girl from Cuba', surprisingly... Oddly, it worked very well.

It was rather well received by the fans and had the privilige of opening the 2005 semi-final. However, it was a rather long evening with a lot of better performances, and in the end it only managed to scrape 30 points, and 21st place out of 25. The Austrians were not happy. A statement released by their national broadcaster ORF announced that Eurovision could no longer help spread the joy of Austrian pop music and so they sat out last year.

But what about the Austrian eurofans? Well, devestated they were and rightly so. It was rather a case of sour grapes their sitting out (however, not so much as France's absence in 1982. Just five years after winning the contest for the fifth time, they sat out claiming that the contest was a 'monument to drivel' - they were just bitter because their big 'chanson' the year before had come in 3rd to the fun-loving skirt-ripping Eurocheese champions Buck's Fizz). Poor results can happen to anyone, and, although I loved Y Asi, its absence from the final did not surprise me.

So what did the Austria eurofans do? Set up an online petition, demanding Austria's return to the Eurovision fold. And guess what... ORF were so moved by this outporing of love for Austria's Eurovision return that they said hey, let's give it another try. And so, the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final will see the presence of Austria, as they aim to sing their way to the final, and maybe to victory.

Victory, of course, that would come 41 years after their first and only victory. Yes, Austria have a bad Eurovision record. It's no wonder that they thought Europe were against them after the poo-pooing of Austrian favourites Global.Kryner. After all, in the last 20 years, they've only finished above 10th twice. But, their excuse for sitting out last year was because of Eurovision's lack of interest to traditional Austrian music. Yet, the their two highest results since '86 were with Nur Ein Lied (5th in 1989), a song owing more to the synthesizers of the 80s than to the Alps and their entry in 2003, Weil der Mensch Zahlt by a certain Alf Poier. You can see his picture here. You may remember his song - silly nursery rhyme, stupid rapping, mental heavy metal, stuffed and cardboard animals, nonsense of the highest order... how very traditionally Austrian. I didn't hear them complaining when they scored 101 points with this...

Eurovision 2007: the lowdown

I thought I best post a few facts about the next contest, so that if you're a random outsider who's happened to stumble across this very blog and haven't got the faintest clue what this Eurothingy is, you'll soon be able to amaze/delight/bore your friends with these slightly tedious, but very essential facts.

- The 2007 Eurovision Song Contest will take place on Saturday 12th May next year in Helsinki, Finland (for the first time!) thanks to Lordi's runaway win with 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' last year.

- The Grand Final will consist of 24 countries made up of the following:

• The ten countries that finished with the highest scores last year (Finland, Russia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania, Sweden, Lithuania, Ukraine, Armenia, Greece and Ireland)
• The four countries who financially contribute the most to the contest, formally known as 'The Big 4' (Germany, Spain, France, UK)
• Ten qualifiers from the semi final...

- The 2007 Eurovision Semi-Final will take place on Thursday 10th May next year, also in Helsinki. There can be up to 26 countries taking part in the semi final (although this may change, watch this space...). For now though, those 26 countries will be made up of:

• The ten countries that finished with the lowest scores last year, excluding the Big 4 (Turkey, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, Latvia, Denmark, Moldova, Israel, Malta)
• Any other country that wishes to take part, either any of the 13 countries that didn't qualify from the semi-final last year, any returning countries or any debut countries.

This is where it all gets a bit confusing. At the moment, there is supposedly a rule that says that only 40 countries are allowed to take part in the Eurovision. But with the influx of new countries, old ones returning, and some countries dropping out, it's hard to know if a) the limit will be kept to 40, and b) who the heck will take part! Still, a definitive list is meant to appear in November, which should clarify matters.

Another few tit-bits for you...

• All songs have to be under three minutes long.
• There can be no more than six performers on stage.

And a question I'm always asked about...

• You don't have to be an unknown artist to represent your country! In many European countries, they send some of their most established artists. Anyone can enter from the UK, even the Scissor Sisters if they wished...

But they're not British, I hear you cry!

• Ah, well likewise, you don't have to be from a country to be able to represent that country. Gina G (Australian) and Katrina & The Waves (yanks) were both able to represent the UK because of the British writers of their songs. It can be the other way round to - national artist, foreign writers. As long as there's some link somewhere to that country, anyone can take part. Elton John could fobb off Bernie Taupin and exchange him for popular Balkan songwriter Zeljko Joksimovic allowing him to represent Serbia if he wished...

Well, I think that's pretty much it for now. Lots of tedious rules, but all vital to one's Eurovision knowledge.

Welcome

Hello.

Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Chris, I am a student at the University of Sheffield, and you may or may not have guessed that I am obsessed/infatuated/addicted to Europe's finest musical competition, the Eurovision Song Contest (or to quote the 1992 male co-host Harald Treutiger, "The greatest gameshow in all the world").

So it's late October - why am I writing a blog about a competition that takes place in May? Well, there is a lot of preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest and so much happens that sometimes I forget about the things that happened along the way. So this little blog is a sort of diary for me, writing up the trials and tribulations of the next contest which will take place in seven months time. For you, you can see what it's like to be obsessed with something. And maybe I might educated you along the way about the world of Eurovision. There's more to this contest than Lordi, Daz Sampson and "We Are The Winners" you know...

So my first major post will appear soon. In the meantime... :-)