Eurovision 2011 - 10/12/14 May 2011

I think the rules are what the EBU committee that runs the contest decides they are. And they can change them each year at a number of meetings. That is how the various relegation systems were developed, and then the single and two semi-finals developed.

At the end of the day it's a huge entertainment show, it's not an EU treaty on free trade...

According to the NDR site, Hamburg and Hannover have already expressed an interest in hosting the 2011 Event.

The reason it was held in Munich was that at the time, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) took care of the ESC for Germany. BR are headquartered in Munich, so it was natural to host the competition there. This is also the reason why all the German qualification broadcasts in the 80s were held in Bavaria.

In 1992, the ESC representation was taken over by MDR, and since 1996 it has been NDR. Hence most of the recent qualifications have been held in NDR's area, although they have occasionally gone outside of this area and hosted contests in Bremen and Berlin.

It should also be noted that Germany is a much more federalist state in nature and by design. Hence the capital doesn't have the dominant status that we see in more "nationalist" countries. There are lots a major cities in Germany, and Berlin is just one of many.

Interesting, how come it's changed company over the years? Have they been concious decisions to share it round or is it that the various broadcasters just have enough and give up?

Does anyone remember Cory Spedding who represented the UK in the 2004 Junior Eurovision Song Contest? Here's her performance and she finished 2nd that year.

She must be old enough now to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. How about she represent the UK at ESC 2011 - write her own song next year, and sing it whilst playing the grand piano.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest that is a joke and a half, now adays you can see that being the last year for it, there only 8 countries entered.

No, she can of course try and convince us to give her a chance but she anit going to be given a free rain, that the problem in the first place, plus Junior one has FAR different tastes to the main event

Why?

Surely we'd be better off doing what other countries do - selecting a decent, credible, non-cheesy pop song with excellent production earlier enough to get it European radio play, and so that our artist can do the round of European chat shows, appear in other countries' pre-selection shows, and get some buzz generated.

I fail to see why selecting a former-child winner of a contest that has none of the popularity of Eurovision makes any sense. I doubt anyone in Europe - apart from a small bunch of JESC fans (and that bunch must be very small) - could even name Cory - and surely that defeats the point.

From this afternoon's press conference

Four Cities

Hamburg
Hanover
Berlin
and
Koln (Cologne)

have currently expressed an interest.

There are venue issues in both Hamburg and Koln where the two biggest venues (O2 World in Hamburg and the Laxness Arena in Koln) are already booked with events on the previously announced preliminary dates.

NDR have announced that they will discuss the venue issues with ARD (the grouping of German Television companies that NDR are part of) and the EBU.

So coming to Germany next year - we'll be flying the flag all over Hamburg (or wherever its being held lol)

Munich, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen have joined the interested city hosts list today. However there's a spanner with the EBU's dates. The Saturday evening coincides with the German Cup Final which ARD Das Erste have rights to show. Something needs to shift and I suspect it'll be the ESC that moves.

Can someone explain (or post a link) to explain what the BBBC's involvement in ESC is?

I heard somewhere that 'we' distribute the signals around europe, but that could be poppycock...

be as technical as you wish

Ash

The BBC may well have a co-ordination role when it comes to the voting feeds - and TVC may well still be a down-link and re-uplink location.