Eurovision 2017

You can't take part in a competition you are not broadcasting! I'm pretty sure that rule remains. You're confusing the "must broadcast previous year" rule - that has indeed gone.

And yes, I think the onus is now on NTU not to f**k this up, even though SVT are once again effectively producing. What punishment the EBU will deliver, if any, will probably follow that. I think it's unlikely they'll win again, and if they do, there's no way they're going to be able or indeed allowed to host two on the trot.

The EBU had a lot of chances to take the show out of Ukraine. I can't see them ever being that lenient again!

I really hate the fact that SVT produce the show most years now. Half the charm of the contest was seeing the different production styles of each country.

I'm pretty much sure that the EBU would have taken the contest away from Ukraine had Russia chosen Yulia at the beginning of the selection process and not near the end.......

That'll still be there. I don't expect Love Love Peace Peace II or a funny mocumentary for example. And as for gay jokes, forget it.

To be honest they had to bring in Bjorkman, Melzig and Co. given the level of chaos up to that point. You forget this has been a rocky affair since well before Russiagate.

Yes - this isn't SVT producing the show. It's the recent teams who recently produced the shows - both creatively and practically - being called back to rescue it. (Independently - not via SVT AIUI)

Indeed, hence my use of the word "effectively" - but Ola Melzig in particular has been involved on quite a few of the shows in the last ten years. He's done Moscow, Oslo and both of Sweden's shows.

The German company Brainpool effectively produced the Baku show for example.

Fun graphic

Interval acts confirmed:

http://bit.ly/2o8rKrb

So Jamala and an "experimental music act."

God, I've never wanted the BBC to show adverts so badly. It sounds horrendous.

Ruslana is the interval act for SF2. Thankfully the BBC will opt out of it. For once I wish they'd opt out of the final too, it sounds like it's going to be awful.

ONUKA is actually quite talented.

Ruslana *did* deserve to win in '04, though. And her song wasn't political, either.

It was, probably, the most memorable performance of the night and scanning the list of songs on Wikipedia I think it's the only one apart from Shake It from Greece that I can remember. It's not in my list of Eurovision classics though!