The Boxen arena in Herning, the favourite to host the event, was fully booked the following Saturday. The 17th May is also Norwegian national day which may have had an impact also.
Copenhagen announced as host city of Eurovision 2014
Copenhagen announced as host city of Eurovision 2014 B&W Hallerne will be the arena for the 2014 contest.
Copenhagen has been chosen as host city of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, Danish public broadcaster DR announced this morning. The event will be held at the B&W Hallerne at the Refshaleøen, under the slogan 'Join Us'.
The former shipyard will undergo all necessary improvements to be able to host three state-of-the-art television shows in May next year.
It's an interesting decision by DR. I for one am delighted that the contest will be staged in the Copenhagen area but undoubtably I do have reservations about the B&W Hallerne being a suitable venue. It will take one hell of an effort to convert the arena and the surrounding area into a first class arena by early May next year.
The decision to overlook Herning seems to be the death knell as far as smaller towns ever hosting the contest again. The EBU's comments suggest that the contest is now too big for any smaller towns to host.
The talk about modernising the show is interesting. It's as if DR haven't saw the contest over the past few years. They talk about no postcards, well there were no postcards in Oslo in 2010. They also talk about profiling the artists themselves, well that's what happened this year.
I look forward to attending again in 2014. Copenhagen has a tough act to follow Malmo!
Yes - interesting comments seeming to ignore previous significant developments. But let's face it - the Nordic countries know how to do this stuff. In recent years the Oslo and Malmö contests have been much more fun and watchable shows than some of the other, larger and more OTT contests.
After this year's Dansk Melodi Grand Prix - which surprised a few people in being really, really good - the contest is in good hands.
I think the reality for smaller locations is that whilst they may have a venue suitable for the actual contest, the amount of accommodation for delegations, fans etc. is lacking.
Following the accusations of some irregularities in the Jury votes of this year's contest, the EBU have announced changes to the way the Jury will operate from next year.
The Names of all the Jury members will be made public no later that 1st May of each year, all of their individual votes will be released after the contest ends and critically to some of the allegations, no juror can be reappointed to the jury until three years have elapsed. A 2013 juror therefore cannot be on the jury again until 2016 at the earliest.
Enquiries are continuing, according to the EBU, into the 2013 contest.
A shame they didn't take the opportunity to scrap the juries again - they're not needed as the political argument simply isn't valid.
Yes because Azerbaijan residents being interrogated by the police for voting for Armenia's song is a perfectly normal reaction.
There are major issues with voting in Eurovision and they are nearly all politically motivated. Whether via jury tampering or iffy phone votes the theory of having both is that it is tricker to tamper with both the votes.
Whilst this is an issue with the countries themselves rather than the direct fault of the EBU (who can't really do anything except expel those countries with a record of vote rigging) it is incredibly arrogant to decree that the political argument simply "isn't valid." It exists, it always has, and whilst its manifestations vary in their execution and effectiveness it is unlikely to ever go away.
A shame they didn't take the opportunity to scrap the juries again - they're not needed as the political argument simply isn't valid.
Do you really think that the tele voting and in particular app/SMS voting is that secure? I'm still amazed that the EBU continue with SMS (the BBC absolutely refuse to use it - much to the EBU's apparent annoyance) It has been demonstrably proven to be so unreliable in the UK - are we unique? (The app voting on some platforms just sent an SMS...)
I think it's bloc voting rather than political voting that caused the juries to return. There's nothing political about Sweden/Norway/Denmark voting for each other - they just have more common cultural references.