Kosovo: EBU is positive on RTK’s Festivali i Këngës!

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The Director of the first Festivali i Këngës in Kosovo, has stated that they have received a positive response from the EBU, regarding their music festival. Read more

EBU: Proposal to abolish the Big 5 privilege from the contest!

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The Swedish radio commentator for Eurovision , Carolina Norén , was invited as a guest on The Euro Trip Podcast. Norén shared her discussion with the Eurovision Executive Supervisor, Martin Österdahl, about a change on the Big 5 status in the contest.

The Swedish commentator, speaking to the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, suggested that the EBU should not guarantee the Big 5 a direct place in the finals. Instead, the Big-5 ( France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain ) shall be put to compete in the Semi-Finals, for a fairer result.

I think you should take away the Big Five. Let just the winner be qualified directly to the final and let everybody compete in the same way through the Semi Finals to the Final.

Although Martin Österdahl, seemed to be processing this idea, as it would be a special and big change, he nevertheless replied that at the moment there is no such possibility.

As it is known, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain constitute the Big 5. The Big 5 are the most important financial contributors to the contest as well as countries with a big Eurovision background. In addition, they pay the highest participation fees to the EBU, so they do not have to compete in the Semi-Finals to earn a place in the Grand Final.

Do you agree on abolishing the Big 5 privilege? Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all news!

Source: The Euro Trip

Romania: TVR on the country’s participation or not in the contest!

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In the last few days, rumours have been circulating on the internet which claim that Romania will withdraw from the upcoming edition in Malmö, but this has never been confirmed by the responsible officials.

According to internet users, the main reasons why Romania will not participate are a lack of budget on the part of TVR and a general disappointment after last year’s result.

With the application period closing on 15 September, the only public response from the Romanian broadcaster was that “the matter is still under discussion”. Of course, broadcasters are not obliged to publicly declare their decision, as the EBU regulations allow them to withdraw their application without penalty until 11 October, after which date we will be in the clear of all participating countries.

Earlier today, members of the Romanian website Spectacola contacted TVR to understand the station’s intentions regarding the European Contest.

According to them, “TVR’s leaders are in discussions with the EBU, but the Eurovision issue has not been sufficiently examined to allow a definitive decision to be taken”.

It is therefore understood that a final decision on Romania’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 has not yet been made, with TVR highlighting:

“At the moment, we are in contact with the organisers (EBU) and all options remain open!”

Do you think that the Romanian delegation will after all be in Malmö? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Spectacola

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the latest updates on Romania’s participation in Eurovision 2024!

The steering group of Junior Eurovision 2023!

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The Junior Eurovision Song Contest steering group’s membership list was updated earlier today.

What role does the group act out?

Modernizing and promoting the contest is one of its primary responsibilities, as stated on the contest’s official website. The group participants are also expected to supervise the host broadcaster’s annual preparation. The JESC Steering group meets on behalf of all participating broadcasters, four or five times a year.

The following members make up the JESC Steering Group:

  • The chairman;
  • Two elected members of the heads of delegation;
  • The executive producer of the previous host country, the executive producer of the current year’s host broadcaster and the executive producer of the next host broadcaster;
  • The EBU Junior Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor.

Each year, the group’s composition is altered to ensure that all participating broadcasters’ interests are represented.

The recent modifications

After the most recent revisions were made, the team was joined by Anna Maria Bordas, a representative of the Spanish national channel RTVE.

As a result, the group is made up of the following eight individuals:

  • Ana Maria Bordas (RTVE – Spain)
  • Mariangela Borneo (RAI – Italy)
  • Carla Bugalho (RTP – Portugal)
  • Melissa Hardinge (BBC – United Kingdom)
  • Marta Piekarska (TVP, Chairperson – Portugal )
  • Alexandra Redde (France TV – France)
  • David Tserunyan (AMPTV – Armenia)
  • Anja Zegwaard (AVROTROS – The Netherlands)
  • Martin Österdahl (EBU)

After Lissandros‘ triumph in Yereval last year with the song “Oh Maman!” the 21st Junior Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to take place on November 26 in Nice, France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dgVbV1rRxs

Stay tuned on eurovisionfun to stay up to date on all the latest Junior Eurovision 2023 news.

Source : EBU 

Junior Eurovision 2023: 16 countries will participate with Estonia making their debut!

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The European Broadcaster Union has confirmed the number of participants for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023.  The junior version of the Eurovision Contest will welcome 16 countries all over Europe to Nice, France.  Estonia will make their debut in the contest.

Partipating Countries

This is the list of the countries taking part in the Junior Eurovision 2023:

  • 🇦🇱 Albania (RTSH)
  • 🇦🇲 Armenia (AMPTV)
  • 🇪🇪 Estonia (ERR)
  • 🇫🇷 France (France Télévisions – Host Broadcaster)
  • 🇬🇪 Georgia (GPB)
  • 🇩🇪 Germany (NDR)
  • 🇮🇪 Ireland (TG4)
  • 🇮🇹 Italy (Rai)
  • 🇲🇹 Malta (PBS)
  • 🇳🇱 Netherlands (AVROTROS)
  • 🇲🇰 North Macedonia (MKRTV)
  • 🇵🇱 Poland (TVP)
  • 🇵🇹 Portugal (RTP)
  • 🇪🇸 Spain (RTVE)
  • 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (BBC)
  • 🇺🇦 Ukraine (UA:PBC)

Heroes

Heroes is the motto of this year’s competition.  The slogan “heroes” wants to convey a sense of strength and inspiration for the children competing with a “street art” look in the logo aiming to bring modernity and speak to all generations.  The art work also includes splashes using the colors of all the competing countries’ flags.

Talking about France preparations as a host country, Executive Producer for the Junior Eurovision, Martin Österdahl says:

It’s exciting to be returning to France so soon, to a new host city as well as welcoming a new country (Estonia) to the competition. Our colleagues at France TV have once again put together a great creative team to give us all a spectacular show and make the young artists feel like the Heroes they are.’

Lissandro won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song Oh Maman! giving France their second victory in the contest only two years after their first victory.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place at the Palais Nikaïa in Nice on Sunday 26 November at 16:00 CET.

Source: EBU

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for more news about the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023!

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EBU: Eurovision Organizers debate on the A.I. exclusion from the Contest!

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The banning of the Artificial Intelligence from the Eurovision Song Contest is on the table.

The organisers of the biggest music show in the world have just started discussing the possibility of excluding A.I. produced content from Eurovision.

Jean-Philip de Tender, Deputy Director General of the European Broadcasting Union, on an interview to Bloomberg at the Edinburgh TV Festival commented that:

“What if at the Eurovision Song Contest we suddenly get an AI-created song?”

The EBU is “reflecting on how we need this in the rulebook, that the creativity should come from humans and not from machines.”

“The competition should reward “people on stage, who have achieved
something in writing a song and performing a song.”

However, in the past, the Eurovision Song Contest inspired the A.I. experiments. In 2019, partially produced by Oracle Corp. algorithms analyzed numerous past participation in order to produce the lyrics and the melody of “Blue Jeans and Bloody Tears” a duet between the 1978 Israeli winner Izhar Cohen and a pink robot.

Has the Artificial Intelligence a place in the Contest or should it be banned from it? Let us know your thought in the comments below.

Source: Bloomberg

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!

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Liechtenstein: The channel 1 FL TV rules out debuting in Eurovision 2024!

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As we can see, Liechtenstein will not be making its Eurovision Song Contest debut, not even in 2024, in Malmo, Sweden.

The country’s public broadcaster, 1 FL TV, confirmed a while ago to ESC Today, that they will not be participating this year either. Liechtenstein faces more problems than other countries in joining the Contest, as the channel must first become a member of the EBU.

The rules of the competition, as they currently stand, only allow members of the European Broadcasting Union to participate. As joining the Union would add additional costs to its participation, especially for a small country, Liechtenstein has not participated in the Contest so far.

In the early 2010s, Liechtenstein had shown interest in taking part in the Contest, as the then director of 1 FL TV, Peter Kolbel, wanted his country to join Eurovision. However, the whole process stopped when Kolbel passed away four years ago.

Managing Director of the Liechtenstein’s broadcaster Sandra Woldt has confirmed back in 2022, that they are no longer interested in joining the European Broadcasting Union and so competing in Eurovision, as one of their aims. Sandra Woldt said in a statement that:

“We are no longer pursuing this goal, we are concentrating on our reporting in and for Liechtenstein.”

This means that, based on the information we have so far, we will not see a new country making its debut in the competition this year either. The last country to debut was Australia, back in 2015.

Source: esctoday.com

ERT Vs RIK: The Eurovision controversy continues | RIK’s response to EBU!

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The “civil war” that has broken out between ERT and RIK on the occasion of the Fame Story, which will be broadcast on STAR Channel in Greece and through which Cyprus intends to choose its representative for Eurovision 2024 continues, without defusing the crisis at least so far.

What has happened.

RIK’s decision to collaborate with Nikos Koklonis’ Barking Well Media, STAR Channel and PANIK Records for the production of Fame Story, which will be broadcast simultaneously in Greece (by STAR) and Cyprus (by RIK), has brought the two public broadcasters into conflict.

The trailer of the talent show, which although the word Eurovision is not mentioned as a trophy, but Europe’s biggest music competition, was the straw that broke the camel’s back for ERT, which believes that the exclusive rights to exploit the contest, which it has in Greece, are being violated.

Thus, according to what is reported today in the newspaper PARON, the EBU, at the request of ERT’s administration and Mr. Constantinos Zoulas, the EBU has proceeded to update the Eurovision 2024 regulations, sending them to all its members.

Fame Story controversy?

These new regulations, which seem to have been introduced by the EBU, after ERT’s intervention, bring obstacles to the talent show, at least having as its trophy the representation of Cyprus in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, as it is implied in the relevant trailer, which continues to play on STAR’s frequency.

The new Eurovision 2024 rules

The new regulations state the following:

The organisation of the national selection of each EBU member must not violate the exclusivity of the rights of the participants of the other participating broadcasters of the other countries. Each national selection of a representative for Eurovision should be undertaken and organised under the exclusive control of each participating broadcaster. The organisation and production may not be subcontracted, except with the prior approval of the EBU. The national selections must be organised and televised nationally in the participating broadcaster’s country and on the participating broadcaster’s own EBU member channel.

EBU intervention

Following the publication of the trailer, the EBU wrote to RIK asking it to clarify the details of Fame Story and whether the production of this show in Greece by a private TV station violates the above mentioned regulations of the upcoming music competition.

This intervention was of course not at all accidental, as was the revision of the contest’s regulations, but came after ERT complained that it was violating its exclusive TV and commercial exploitation of Eurovision in Greece, an exclusivity for which it spends around 360,000 euros per year.

The letter from RIK to the EBU

According to information available to Eurovisionfun, RIK has sent a letter of reply to the EBU in which it claims that Fame Story is not a national final, but a talent show which will be included in its entertainment programme.

It is also stated that for Eurovision 2024, RIK will select its representative for Eurovision 2024 by direct award, as it has done in recent years. The artist will be selected from new talent that will emerge from both Fame Story and other young and talented artists.

Finally, it is emphasized in this letter that the final selection will take place in January 2024 through a TV show, which will be held in Nicosia. All of this of course as you can understand is contrary to what Nikos Koklonis (producer of Fame Story) revealed on air, in various interviews, and also included in the promo trailer of Fame Story.

Pending the EBU’s final decision

We now await with interest the final settlement of the issue by the EBU and whether or not it will finally allow, after the explanations of RIK, to be used as a method of selecting the artist that will represent Cyprus in Eurovision 2024. However, according to what has seen the light of publicity in the previous days, in any case, the people of RIK have prepared an alternative plan, since in no case they do not wish to disturb their relations with the EBU, but also to endanger the Cypriot participation in the contest.

Stay tuned to Eurovision for all the latest news!

Sources: Eurovisionfun, Paron, Real News

Eurovision 2024: Netta predicts the host city wrong for yet another time!

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A few hours ago, Malmö was crowned the host city of Eurovision Song Contest 2024, through the social media accounts of the contest

The final decision was made between four cities, alongside Stockholm and Gothenburg, both of them previous host cities.

Of course, the winner of Eurovision 2018, Netta, couldn’t miss on commenting on the selection of the city. We could say that it’s now become a tradition for Netta to predict (wrong) the host city of the next contest. Netta’s previous predictions are:

  • For 2019 she predicted Jerusalem, but in the the host city was Tel Aviv
  • For 2021 she predicted Amsterdam , but in the the host city was Rotterdam
  • For 2022 she predicted Rome, but in the the host city was Turin
  • For 2023 she predicted Manchester but in the the host city was Liverpool

Just some time after the announcement of Malmö as the host city, a short video that shows Netta, moments after her performance on the Grand Final, predicting the host city of Eurovision 2024, was posted on Twitter.

As we can all guess, Netta of course didn’t predict Malmö. Instead she put her bet on Stockholm.

As we can see, Netta predicted the host city wrong for the fifth time in a row. Will she be able to turn the tables next year?

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Eurovision 2024: The renewed Reference Group of the contest!

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EBU has announced the new Reference Group for the Eurovision Song Contest. There are several changes with departures as well as new appointments.

The tasks of the Reference Group are to approve the development and future format of the contest, to secure its funding, to modernize the contest’s brand and attract the public, to oversee the annual preperation ofthe country where the competition will take place.

All of the above takes place at meeting of the Reference Group, where on behalf of all Participating National Broadcasting Services they are called upon to take decisions for the general interest of the competition. Meetings do not exceed five per year.

As we reported in a previous article, Bakel Walden is the new Chairman of the Reference Group on the contest, where he stated that he is excited to participate in this iconic event.

The remaining members are divided into following categories:

  • Three elected members from among the Heads of Delegations of the countries
  • Two Executive Producers from countries that have hosted the contest in the past, as well as the Executive Producer of the current Host Broadcaster
  • Up to two invited members based on competence and experience
  • The EBU Executive Supervisor for the contest

Therefore, the new Reference Group consists of:

  • Bakel Walden (SSR SRG, Chair)
  • Ebba Adielsson (SVT)
  • Rachel Ashdown (BBC)
  • Felix Bergsson (RÚV)
  • Ana Maria Bordas (RTVE)
  • Carla Bugalho (RTP)
  • Claudio Fasulo (RAI)
  • Simona Martorelli (RAI)
  • Alexandra Wolfslast (NDR)
  • Martin Österdahl (EBU)

Ebba Adielsson and Ana Maria Bordas are new appointmets, while the following have left the Reference Group:

  • Sietse Bakker (NPO)
  • Yuval Cohen (KAN)
  • Astrid Dutrenit (NPO)
  • David Tserunyan (AMPTV)

Sweden has won the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, marking its seventh victory in the contest with 583 points. Below you can watch the performance after Loreen’s victory was announced:

Source: EBU

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