Albania: Won’t FiK winner be the country’s representative?

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In recent days, news has emerged that the winner of the Festivali i Këngës will not be the country’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam.

According to Eurovision Kosovo, there will be two winners at this year’s FiK. On the one hand, the winner of the festival, and on the other, the country’s representative in Eurovision.

Although there is still no official confirmation from the Albanian public broadcaster, RTSH, this will be the first time that the winner of the Festivali i Këngës will not represent the country in Eurovision if the news finally holds.

The two semifinals will take place on December 19 and 20, while the Grand Final will take place on December 22. Alketa Vejsiu will be the presenter of the festival.

Below you can hear all the entries competing in the 58th Festival i Këngës:

Source: Eurovision Kosovo

Israel: KAN changes the selection method from 2021 onwards

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An announcement of the production of “The Next Star” indicates that this year will be the last year in which Israel selects the artist to represent the country at the Eurovision contest through this talent show.

After 7 years, the decision on how to choose a representative for the country will be taken by KAN and that “The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa)” will no longer be associated with the competition.

Since 2015, “The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa)” has been the process of selecting his / her Israeli representative in the Eurovision contest, yielding very good results for the country, including a victory, after years of failures and exclusions.

The 7th season of “The Next Star” is already underway and it will select the country’s representative for Eurovision 2020 for the last year. An innovative change this season is the fact that the public will have the opportunity, beyond artist, to choose the song to be interpreted by the winner, which in recent years has been the exclusive decision of the responsible team of experts.

To date, there is no information on plans for the public broadcaster, which has announced that production companies may propose a new way to opt in for 2021.

Israel at Eurovision

Israel has been participating in the competition since 1973, and its first victory came a few years later, in 1978. Remarkably, it also won the contest in 1979, making it one of the few countries to win two. and / or more consecutive years.

Israel already have 4 wins, with the last one being in 2018, and it is the only non-European country to have won four times. The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa) has been the method of selecting his / her country representative for the last 6 years, bringing excellent results for the country in the competition – 5 consecutive Grand Final qualifiers, including one victory – after a series years with exclusions.

Below you can see Israel’s winning entry in 2018, with Netta Barzilai and “Toy” reaching the top of the table with 529 points, the most points the country has received in the institution.

Source: KAN

Eurovision 2020: Got your ticket?Make it personal

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The first wave of ticket sales for the upcoming Eurovision 2020 event in Rotterdam, The Netherlands began at noon yesterday, with Babet Verstappen, the PR manager of the contest, announcing that most of the tickets were purchased by Dutch and British.

Ticket availability began at 12:00 CET  yesterday, and within 20 minutes all tickets were sold, with the number reaching 23,000. As expected, the Dutch are in the first place, followed by the British and Belgians in the second and third place,respectively. The contest in the Netherlands seems to have prompted neighbors to secure tickets to watch the 65th Eurovision Song Contest.

These tickets included 9 total shows, both for the three live broadcast nights, as well as for the family shows and jury nights. But for the lucky ones who caught up and bought the coveted piece of paper to enjoy some of the shows at Ahoy Arena, the process doesn’t end there.

The organization committee of this year’s Eurovision, as it were reasonable, to avoid the “black market” of tickets, that is to say the sale of tickets at higher prices, initially restricts the maximum number of tickets available to 4 per person and in addition, demands another procedure: the personalisation of ticket.

Ticket personalization procedure

Upon payment of the ticket, each buyer receives a confirmation email at the same time receives another email requesting further personal information, such as the full name, e-mail address and date of birth of each attendee. Once someone has completed filling in these personal details, he will then receive his regular ticket. IMPORTANT: Ticket personalization runs from December 13th to December, 12:00 CET time to December 20th 23:59 CET time. If one fails to complete this procedure within the set deadline, then he loses his ticket and receives a refund.

Two more set of tickets

Of course, tickets for Europe’s biggest music contest weren’t sold out yesterday, but for those who didn’t get a ticket, there will be two more “wave” of tickets. According to the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, which is helping to organize the competition, there will be fewer tickets for the next two phases of ticket sales, estimated at around 20,000 at each stage.

The number of tickets for the third phase will come after the stage design and installation of the necessary equipment for the competition has been completed. It is estimated that in all three phases, about 65,000 tickets will be sold.

Tickets will go on sale again in late January, but also in mid-March. The exact dates will be announced at a later stage.

 

Beware of ticket purchases

Particularly cautious must be those who intend to buy tickets to view the contest closely, with the official Eurovision channel urging buyers to visit only the official ticket sales pages (Paylogic and Ticketswap).

Source/Image: songfestival.be/eurovision.tv

Why did Bilan withdraw?

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Some days ago it was announced that the winner of Eurovision 2008, Dima Bilan, withdrew from HET GROTE SONGFESTIVALFEEST 2019 which will take place on December 15th. Event organizers explained to oikotimes.com  the reason why Dima Bilan came up with this decision:

“Hi, unfortunately, we must inform you that Dima Bilan has broken the contract and will not attend the concert for two reasons: First, he because he wasn’t the only Russian artist in the show and second because his name was not sufficiently big in the poster.”

 

After all the drama caused by this announcement, Dima Bilan explained himself his version of the story in his Instagram account. Here’s what he said:

“In the first person I want to write about some slight agitations, about my refusal to go to Holland for a big, popular concert with Eurovision stars! A concert that may not be related to the official concerts of Eurovision itself! The organizer of this event came to me with a list of Eurovision winners and I agreed, having on mind my frequent performances, for example, in London with Graham Norton, an excellent show that was broadcast on British channels. Then, I realized that it’s about a mass concert and it doesn’t have the “all Eurovision winners” stamp in it. The atmosphere and status of the concert itself changed, and we, to put it mildly, stayed in the delusion of the previous list. Being organized and in advance, on November 15, I proposed to the organizers, in civilized manner, to discuss the termination of the contract with the agreement of the parties. Moreover, even then, on the scales was a charity evening on December 15th, in favor of which I took this decision.

I don’t understand the reason why, to cheat with posters. The organizers sent me a specific one, but in social media they shared a different one. I don’t care about it, I don’t suffer from underestimation syndrome, this for kids’ amusement. But there are unspoken rules, if you see the least swindle in organization, then the trust immediately disappears! I have been working for a long time with international companies and I know how it has to be done. And the affair with the posters became one more reason for my insistent request to discuss the termination of the contract. It’s absolutely wrong, that organizers decided to inform people now, they might have bought tickets for me too! Why now this hype, 3 days before the concert?

The hype that rises in this moment makes me think, that someone, with this supposed scandal, wants to raise the sales of the tickets. It seems like for someone this isn’t a strange thing to do. It’s strange to put my words and my desires under any doubt, as long as I am absolutely an adherent of Eurovision, and I simply cannot be ungrateful to the contest! And of course there is definitely no antagonism in the fact that artists from Russia participate there, and especially about Sergey Lazarev, with whom we often meet at various venues. But I can’t take part to the concert, because due to my proposal to discuss about this situation, organizers just handed over tickets and requested compensation.

I was little surprised at this kind of request, so I agreed with a great fund to take part in a charity concert in 15th of December, they’re doing great things in sphere of charity.

I appeal to my favorite fans, that I’m ready to be and live on the stage even with broken legs for them: If you want to meet me and see my show, next year I’ll go on tour to Germany!

I’ll be happy to see you!”

View this post on Instagram

От первого лица хочу написать про легкие волнения,по поводу моего отказа ехать в Голландию на кассовый концерт звёзд Евровидения ! Концерт, который, возможно, не имеет отношения к официальным концертам самого евровидения @eurovision ! На меня вышел организатор этого мероприятия со списком участников- победителей Евровидения и я согласился ,проведя параллель с моими нередкими выступлениями, например, в Лондоне с грэммом Нортон @thegrahamnortonshowofficial – отличным шоу, которое транслировалось на британских каналах. В этом же случае, я понял, что концерт, все-таки, абсолютно сборный и в нем нет грифа «все победители Евровидения», некая атмосфера и статус самого концерта поменялся, а нас, мягко говоря, ввели в заблуждение первичным списком. Я в организованном порядке , заблаговременно, 15 ноября цивилизованно предложил организаторам ,обсудить вопрос расторжения договора по согласию сторон. Тем более уже тогда на чаше весов был благотворительный вечер 15 го декабря, в пользу которого в конечном итоге пал мой выбор. ПРОДОЛЖЕНИЕ ТЕКСТА В ПУБЛИКАЦИИ! ЛИСТАЙТЕ! #билан #димабилан #биланперезагрузка !

A post shared by Dima Bilan (@bilanofficial) on

 

Austria: Decision was taken: Vincent Bueno at Eurovision 2020

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Shortly before, through the ORF morning radio broadcast, the Austrian representative at the 65th Eurovision Song Contest was unveiled .

His name is Vincent Bueno, who has in recent days been the mainstay for traveling to Rotterdam.

Vincent is 34 years old, originally from the Philippines. He started his music career very early. At the age of 4 he began vocal and piano lessons. He has participated in various competitions and talent shows. Apart from his country of residence, Austria, he is well known and loved and in his country of origin the Philippines.

In 2016 he participated in the Austrian national final with the song you can see in the video below. In recent years he has been musically supporting R’n’B. His favorite artists are Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars.

The song that will travel to Rotterdam is titled “Alive “and will be released around the end of February or beginning of March.

Greece: ERT Working Group on Eurovision 2020 just revealed| All the names

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ERT’s  Eurovision 2020 Working Group announced! The five-member committee, headed by Dimitris Papadimitriou for a second consecutive year, has been tasked with delivering an opinion / proposal to the company’s board of directors for the artist who will represent Greece in May in Rotterdam!

The decision signed by the company’s CEO, Mr. Gabritsos Georgios, was announced at today’s meeting of ERT’s management with the reporters of the television reporting, consisting of:

1. PAPADIMITRIOU Dimitris – Composer, Member of the Board of Directors of ERT SA (Chairman)
2. ADAM Petros – Music Producer (Member)
3. MARKAKIS George – Journalist (Member)
4. PETRIDIS Giannis – Music Producer (Member).
5. KOUFOPOULOU Maria – ERT SA International Relations Manager (Member)

It is worth noting that ERT is moving much faster than last year, since the corresponding committee for Eurovision 2019 was set up on 10 January! This announcement also fully confirms the EurovisionFun report on the non-completion of a national final in 2020.

According to the announcements, ERT wants to choose its participation before the holidays so that it has the right time to prepare as best as possible, with the aim of returning Greece to the top ten. The selection for 2020 will also be made by direct assignment.

 

Greece: The extroversion is the goal of ERT

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New administration of ERT presented today its plans and “vision”  to reporters covering television reporting. The main purpose of the next television season is to win the television bet, even after many years of betting on entertainment. Of course, the presentation could not miss the reference to Eurovision, which remains the strongest paper on Greek public broadcaster.

The ERT administration has committed to prepare a program (in the full sense of the word, as we refer to television and radio stations) that will have content that will appeal to the majority of the television audience.

The evidence presented by ERT CEO George Gabritsos in his speech is many, interesting and ambitious we would say! But what has been said many times is that ERT intends to become an extrovert, which means that it will give its viewers more attention. The main objective of ERT is to increase the viewership.

So for the next season, in 2020-21, ERT will have a full schedule focusing on entertainment. So ERT1 will be a channel that will not only have information but also entertainment. It is no coincidence that series (such as the one that will bring Victoria Hyslop’s signature) are on the air next season, and new releases.

For the current season, as the CEO said, few new productions were planned by the previous administration. A sample is expected to be received in the coming days, as we have informed you, and what mechanism will be used by ERT to choose our participation in the upcoming Eurovision Contest. The days that for some people in ERT, the competition was faced with disgust and disgust, have gone irreversibly and hold on to what we are told, the new administration has taken it very patriotic and wants nothing more than to bring Greece back to the top 10 in the standings. So it may be late, as some say in the official announcements … but many are already being prepared!

So with our wish, ERT will win the position it deserves among viewers and society!

 

Albania: Elvana Gjata and “Me tana” sweeps on YouTube trends in Europe

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With the air of the favorite it looks like Elvana Gjata will be competing at the 2019 Festivali i Këngës 2019 with “Me Tana”, the song to compete with, having already surpassed 900,000 views on YouTube and it is only a matter of hours before it reaches 1,000 .000.

The song as it is reasonable and the number of views has not only made sense in Albania. In fact, ethnic-pop “Me tana” is currently at # 28 on Greek YouTube trends with a steady rise since it was at # 37 just hours ago.

The song is also featured at # 9 in Trends in Northern Macedonia, at # 23 in Switzerland, at # 44 in Germany while at # 35 in Turkey.

Second in the “battle” of the projections is Arilena Ara’s “Shaj” ballad with about 600,000 fewer views than Elvana while third is Kanita and “Ankth” with about 110,000 views.

Will Elvana Gjata be Albania’s spokesperson in Rotterdam, The Netherlands?

The two FiK semifinals will take place on December 19th and 20th, while the Grand Final, where we will also learn Albania’s 17th representative at the Eurovision Song Contest, will take place on December 22nd. Alketa Vejsiu will be the host of the Festivali i Kenges 58.

 

Eurovision 2020: Sietse Bakker: “Eurovision final may last less”

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An interesting interview was given by Eurovision 2020’s executive producer, Sietse Bakker. Speaking at singfestival.bg, he revealed several aspects of the Dutch organizers’ preparation, but also expressed his conviction that unlike his two semifinal contests, the big final lasts long, given that it is always a television program. At the end of the interview, Sietse Bakker said that while he had never been interested in the position of executive supervisor of the contest, he did not rule out the possibility of seeing him succeed Jon Ola Sand.

It was a complete cycle
Prior to taking over as executive producer of Eurovision 2020, Sietse, with his own website designing company, had worked with the EBU on numerous occasions and even served as Supervisor Event. In 2016 he decided to stop. “The first Eurovision Song Contest I attended was in Stockholm, so when it was in Stockholm again in 2016, it was a complete one for me. It was time to quit the competition and get more involved in my own business”.

It all started for one girl 
“It all started when I tried to impress a girl from another class who was a big fan of the competition,” Sietse said when asked where his interest in the competition came from. “I wanted to impress her by making a website mentioning the contest, ESCToday. After attending the Eurovision Song Contest in Riga for the first time in 2003, I was addicted and in the meantime our site had become very big. He didn’t work with the girl, but it was the beginning of my career. “

Proud Dutchman
The Netherlands had a hard time competing, so when asked how Sietse lived up to Duncan’s victory, he said: “AVROTROS has built this beautifully from 2013 onwards, from Anouk to Duncan now winning. Of course this makes us proud, but it’s also a weird feeling. I’m part of the team that has ultimate responsibility is a complete honor, but it’s a very difficult job”.

The final may last less
The most important news that comes out of the interview is Sietse Bakker’s phrase about the duration of the final: “The semifinals are relatively short, but it is true that the final takes a long time and can be less long”.

Does this mean that we will see a shorter broadcast of the Eurovision final, coming to Rotterdam in May? It is worth noting here that the duration of its final competition in recent years is approximately three and a half hours.

Happy with the hosts
“We didn’t find the presenters overnight. We’ve been working since July on who could present it. Everything came to mind: from presenters to singers, actors and dancers. After several meetings, this combination is the best result and we are very proud of this trio “.

More news about hotels coming soon
Sietse Bakker had, of course, to respond to the high hotel prices during the competition. High hotel prices are a problem for many Eurovision fans who would like to watch the event up close. “We have booked 3,000 rooms in the bidding phase, for which we will soon publish more news. Keep in mind that the Netherlands is a relatively small country and you should also look outside Rotterdam for accommodation”.

Successor to Jon Ola Sand?
Will he seek to replace Jon Ola Sand in the future? “I have never pursued this job and now I focus exclusively on the role I have. And for the story, I haven’t been called by the EBU yet”.

You can watch the entire interview below:

EBU: The Catalan broadcaster application to enter EBU was rejected

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TV3’s request to become a member of EBU was rejected. The local broadcaster had applied for membership in order to be able to participate in the European Song Contest as an independent broadcaster.

In a letter from the CCMA (Catalonian Corporation of Visual Media) to EBU Vice President Núria Llorach i Boladeras, was declared:

“As you know, the Board of Directors of May 2018 (as decided by the EBU General Assembly in June 2018) concluded that the CCMA does not meet the requirements to become a member of the EBU, since it is not neither a member of the International Telecommunication Union nor a member of the Council of Europe as defined in Article 3.3 of the EBU. The CCMA is a local Spanish broadcaster, failing to comply with Article 3.4, in relation to the “national character and importance” of the EBU Statute “

In its request, the Catalan broadcaster cites several reasons to be taken into account, including references to other broadcasters, such as RTBF (the Belgian-speaking broadcaster) and S4C (the UK-based broadcaster), in which the EBU replied:

“When a country has two or more linguistic areas, the EBU Regulation on detailed eligibility criteria refers to each region separately. The ARD in Germany, the SRG SSR in Switzerland, the VRT and RTBF in Belgium and the S4C in Wales support the territorial characteristics of their respective countries and all comply with the principles stated by the EBU “

EBU also added a number of arguments for each of the members mentioned and provided additional information on the political structure of Spain. In essence, Spain’s administrative division, which is not structured as federations / confederations, blocks the entry of the CCMA into the EBU.