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Andy Abraham |
Dustin |
Zeljko Joksimovic |
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24/08/08 |
Sir Terry quits Eurovision - it seems to be true
Legendary UK commentator and 1998 co-host Sir Terry
Wogan hinted a couple of weeks ago in a Radio Times
interview that he would no longer commentate at the
contest, and now that appears to be true - most
certainly the end of an era. The first concrete
effect of the European Broadcasting Union's
head in the sand approach to the
scandalous voting that is destroying the contest.
It's a great shame if it's true, but well done Sir for
taking a stand. Latest reports suggest that
fellow Irishman Graham Norton will take over the role,
but this has not yet been confirmed.
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24/05/08 |
Serbia hands victory to the
Russian mafia as Eurovision dives into the gutter
It's contest night and all our worst fears are confirmed
as the Russia operation to win Eurovision bears fruit.
Both the semi-final and the final draw were fixed to
ensure the perfect draw for Russia and the amazing
disappearance of the Greek vote tonight just confirmed
our worst fears as any threat to the Russian operation
was systematically removed. Putin, EBU chief Svante
Stockselius and the rest of the organizers have a
vested interest in Russian success.
Russia have sent some fantastic songs to the contest
since their 1994 debut but this wasn't one of them, and
this "victory" is a total scandal, that might just
kill off the contest forever. We won't shut up on this
one.
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20/05/08 |
Semi 1 Results Finalists are: Israel,
Azerbaijan, Poland, Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia,
Finland, Romania, Russia and Greece. Biggest
losers Ireland (although there is a rumour that they
were disqualified due to seven people being on stage).
More soon.
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06/05/08 |
Oooh La La La.... was Sir Cliff
robbed in 1968? The build-up to this years contest
has already been enhanced with it's fair amount of media
coverage, courtesy of Ireland's bolshy turkey Dustin and
France's groovy entry sung in English. Today we got an
unexpected extra shot of publicity with the revelation
in a Spanish TV documentary that Spain's General Franco
"bought" the 1968 contest by bribing other countries to
ensure victory for Spain. This whole idea seems
somewhat silly on closer examination, for which please
see the blog.
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17/03/08 |
The 2008 Draw Takes Place The draw for each
semi-final took place today in Belgrade. Details on the
2008 page. As last year,
the first countries drawn out got to choose their place
in the draw. The final draw also took place, in as
much as the direct qualifiers place in the draw was
decided. One direct finalist got to choose their
spot, and to no-one's surprise that was host nation
Serbia.
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16/03/08 |
2008 Line-Up Complete
With San Marino unveiling it's entry and the Swedish
final on Saturday the forty-three songs competing for
the 2008 Grand Prix are now known. The next couple of
days will see the international heads of delegation
meeting in Belgrade and the draws for the semi-finals
and final. More details are here.
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04/03/08 |
Hosts Revealed For Contest Final 2008 Host
broadcaster has revealed that the presenters of the 53rd
Eurovision Song Contest will be Jovana Jankovic and
Zeljko Joksimovic. The latter was runner up in the
2004 contest for Serbia & Montenegro, and is also the
composer of the Serbian entry this year, an arrangement
that has caused some dismay.
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02/03/08 |
Andy Abraham to represent the
UK in Belgrade
Despite the BBC's best efforts, 2005 X-Factor runner-up
Andy Abraham has been selected to sing for the United
Kingdom in the 2008 contest. The six songs were
presented in pairs and it was left to a panel to select
three for the super final. The panel consisted of
casting show staple Carrie Grant and John Barrowman,
still fondly remembered (not) for his support for Scooch
last year. To the chagrin of some fans in the
studio Barrowman proceeded to dismiss LoveShy's song as
"pop but not a Eurovision song" and then Rob McVeigh as
"ballads don't work at Eurovision" - and
this is a self-proclaimed expert(!). Andy Abraham
was also dismissed for similar reasons, but we must be
grateful that Sir Terry Wogan was able to bring one act
back, and he plumped for Andy. Then thankfully it was
down to the British public and Andy completed the
perfect comeback by pipping Michelle Gayle for the win.
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24/02/08 |
UK Participants Revealed The BBC have at long
last revealed the line-up for the UK selection for 2008.
It's been renamed "Eurovision: Your Decision" and
will be held on Saturday March 1st. The
performance order has not been confirmed but the artists
are as below. The six songs have been put into
pairs. The judging panel (of three including Terry Wogan!)
will choose the best of each pair, and these, plus a
"lucky loser" wildcard will go to a public vote.
| Soloists |
Woo (U Make Me) |
Michelle Gayle |
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Even If |
Andy Abraham |
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| Groups |
Mr Gorgeous |
LoveShy |
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It's You |
The Revelations |
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| Joseph v Maria |
I Owe It All To You |
Rob McVeigh |
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Changes |
Simona Armstrong |
More news when available.
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03/02/08 |
Ireland's Puppet In The Frame for Belgrade The
finalists in the Irish selection for 2008 were revealed
today and all the rumours about a puppet in the final
were true!. Dustin the turkey, former sidekick of
Zig and Zag, and with a string of hit records in the
Emerald Isle is hot favourite to secure the Irish ticket
to Belgrade with "Irlande Douze Points"!
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| 29/01/08 |
The 2008 Semi Final Draw After much fevered
speculation the semi-finals for 2008 have been drawn
(although the order of performance of each semi will be
determined later):
Semi 1 (20 May, Germany and Spain will
broadcast and vote)
Montenegro, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Poland,
Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia, Netherlands,
Romania, Moldova, San Marino, Slovenia, Norway, Belgium,
Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia.
Semi 2 (22 May, France, the UK and
Serbia will broadcast and vote)
Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Portugal, Ukraine,
Switzerland, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Cyprus, Latvia,
Belarus, Hungary, Albania, Sweden, Turkey, Lithuania,
Georgia, Czech Rep, Malta.
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| 27/01/08 |
EBU Reveal "Seedings" For The 2008 Semis The
European Broadcasting Union will make the draw for the
2008 semi-finals next week. It was previously reported
that an effort would be made to keep apart countries
where one has religiously voted for the other in recent
years, in an attempt to limit the effects of the
neighbour/ex-pat voting that has so blighted the
contest. However it seems that they have lost their
nerve and caved in to vested interests, as all they have
done is draw countries into six "pots" where half of
each pot will go in one semi and half in the other.
It does split the ex-Yugoslav republics and a lot of the
ex-Soviet ones, but there is still a fair chance that
Armenia and Turkey will be drawn with most of their
ex-pat countries and even Greece and Cyprus drawn
together. For what it's worth the pots are as
follows:
- Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR
Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia.
- Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway,
Sweden.
- Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Netherlands,
Turkey.
- Andorra, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal,
Romania.
- Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Moldova,
Russia, Ukraine.
- Azerbaijan, Czech Rep, Hungary, Malta, Poland,
San Marino, Switzerland.
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| 25/11/07 |
San Marino in Eurovision? It could happen next year!
Respected Eurovision fansites are reporting that 2008
will see the Eurovision debut of not just the umpteenth
ex-Soviet republic in Azerbaijan, but also the second smallest
country (population wise) ever to dip its toe in the
Eurovision pool, San Marino. Reports suggest that
the national TV station has applied to compete.
Here at Nul Points, sceptics as we are, we'll wait a
while until we add it to the 2008 page.
update 22/12 ........ list of countries
confirmed, and San Marino are indeed in!.
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| 20/11/07 |
Austria pulls out of 2008 contest The Austrian
broadcaster ORF today withdrew from next years
Eurovision in Belgrade. They cited disillusionment
with the direction of the contest in recent years.
Austria withdrew for similar reasons from the 2006
contest. Details on the contenders for 2008 are
here.
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| 18/11/07 |
More details on the 2008 semi-finals The EBU
have confirmed that there will be two semi-finals on the
Tuesday and Thursday of contest week, and that in each
case only those countries participating will be able to
vote (with one proviso). Reports also suggest that
the semis will be "seeded" to try and remove as much
diaspora/neighbour voting as possible by arranging the
composition of each one based on recent voting patterns.
The proviso concerns the automatic finalists, ie Serbia,
France, Germany, Spain and the UK, who will reportedly
be split and each allocated to a semi-final to broadcast
and vote on.
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| 25/10/07 |
Azerbaijan set to join the party? Azeri
television have confirmed this week that their nation
will debut at Eurovision in the 2008 contest in
Belgrade. More details when available.
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| 17/10/07 |
Macedonian superstar Tose Proeski killed in car crash
Eurovision has been with us for fifty-two years and so
it is sadly inevitable that we hear of the passing of
former contest singers. They are usually of a good
age and have seen their potential realized whether big
or small. It is shocking when we have to report the
passing of a talented 26 year old who had a full career
before him. Earlier today Tose Proeski died in a
horrific car crash in Croatia. He represented Macedonia
in the 2004 Eurovision where he finished a very
respectable 14th and was extremely popular throughout
former Yugoslavia. Rest In Peace.
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| 02/10/07 |
Ronnie Hazlehurst passes away The United
Kingdom yesterday lost it's greatest Eurovision
conductor (remember those?) when Ronnie Hazlehurst
passed away aged 79 a few days after suffering a stroke.
Ronnie was host-orchestra conductor in 1974, 1977 and
1982 and will always be remembered for taking up an
umbrella to conduct the UK's entry "Rock Bottom" in the
1977 contest. Watch the video
here.
You were a credit to Eurovision Mr Hazlehurst, Rest In
Peace.
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28/09/07 |
Two semi-finals next year! Quite out of the
blue, the committees at the European Broadcasting Union
suddenly sound like they've been listening to the chorus
of derision after the 2007 contest. It was previously
mooted that two semi-finals (for all but the host and
the big four countries) would come into play for 2009
but today it was confirmed that this arrangement will
apply from the next contest. The countries who
finished from second to tenth in 2007 are now therefore
not guaranteed a place in the contest final. How
the two semis are composed is yet to be revealed (a
geographical split or a random draw has been discussed)
as is which countries will vote on each semi.
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