Bye Sevante. Good luck, but hopefully your replacement will have more luck in finding away to reduce the massive Elephant that is still smashing the place up in the block voting issue.
The changes made, have reduced it - but it still needs some serious work on try to eliminate it to only sporadic outbreaks by Greece and Cyprus and the Scandanavian nations.
I guess the post will probably go to one of the heads of delegation from one of the broadcasters who has been turning up for years and is now looking for a nice pre-retirement job based on the banks of Le Lac De Geneve..
The changes made, have reduced it - but it still needs some serious work on try to eliminate it to only sporadic outbreaks by Greece and Cyprus and the Scandanavian nations.
I don't think they'll ever break the habit of Greece and Cyprus awarding each other 12 points when both are present in the final. This year (2010) Greece and Cyprus were both in the final, and what did we get? Greece gave 12 points to Cyprus; Cyprus gave 12 points to Greece.
The morning of the 2010 ESC final I seriously considered popping down to a bookie to see if I could make a bet that Greece and Cyprus would award each other 12 points, but couldn't be bothered going.
Mark my words, if Greece and Cyprus both appear in the 2011 ESC final, they'll automatically give each other 12 points. Who else agrees with me on that?
Above: Düsseldorf 2011 After a long bid- and selection process, Düsseldorf has been chosen as Host City of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest! The final decision was taken only moments ago, and approved by the song contest's governing body, the Reference Group. While media believed the choice was made already last week, the selection was exciting until the very last moment..!
Geneva, Switzerland - The European Broadcasting Union announced today that Jon Ola Sand has been appointed Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest after a pan-European search. He will start in his new position on 1 January 2011. He succeeds Svante Stockselius, who resigned after almost eight years in the job. Some 40 people from more than 10 countries applied for this prestigious position.
Interesting - and not entirely unpredictably another Nordic appointment. Jon Ola Sand was the Exec for NRK (I think) who produced last year's contest from Norway. He also led the NRK delegation to the contest in the late 90s/early 00s.
Norway is another country that takes Eurovision very seriously with its Melodi Grand Prix programme (similar to Melodifestivalen in Sweden) - and usually produces a very high quality show - though not always on the scale of the Swedish show (and for that matter the Danish Melodi Grand Prix - which was huge this year)
Today is the day every Eurovision Song Contest fan has been waiting for; After 13 years of absence, Italian broadcaster RAI applied for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest!
If Jedward represent Ireland, it would be a greater shame in European eyes than national bankrupcty.
I wonder if the prospect of the "Big Four" treatment has restimulated RAI's interest - I'm sure the BBC, France Television, TVE and NDR may appreciate the lessening of the financial burden if Italy return to the contest as part of a "Big Five"...
If Jedward represent Ireland, it would be a greater shame in European eyes than national bankrupcty.
I wonder if the prospect of the "Big Four" treatment has restimulated RAI's interest - I'm sure the BBC, France Television, TVE and NDR may appreciate the lessening of the financial burden if Italy return to the contest as part of a "Big Five"...
According to this page on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest#Italy_and_the_.22Big_Five.22 Svantetold reporters that Italy would be in the "Big Five" if they returned to the contest. Whether this is because RAI contribute a similar amount of money to the EBU as the others or whether it's just an incentive to get them involved again isn't clear.
Italy's Eurovision Song Contest in 1991 was a bit chaotic as I recall - the male presenter in particular seemed to have little grasp of English or French and did as much as he could in Italian, leaving Terry Wogan to do his best to tell us all what was going on. The start of the contest wasn't exactly smooth as this video shows http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FROFk98UepQ and according to Wikipedia the show overran, with a few other technical problems during the show itself. The end of TX is brilliant too - with the singer thanking everyone on the planet without much of a clue of what else to do, a wide shot of people leaving the auditorium, and another pause before the RAI Eurovision logo finally apears!! Ho Ho! Exactly the reason I got so hooked on Eurovision in the first place!!!