Eurovision 2012: The Voting Order

  Eurovision 2012 – The EBU has just released the order in which the 52 participating countries will vote tonight. The order was arranged according to the jury’s votes last night in order to create the biggest possible suspense. First conclusions can be drawn from this order. We think Sweden did quite well, as almost all of its friends vote in the second part (to create suspense in the beginning). The results will be announced by some former competitors and hosts such as Paula Seling for Romania, Safura for Azerbaijan, Amaury Vassili for France, Getter

The Top 250 Eurovision Songs of 2011

  Eurovision – The users at the best Eurovision Radio on the web, ESCRadio, have voted for their favourite Eurovision songs in 2011. The winner was the 2004 Serbian entry “Lane moje” by Željko Joksimović, who will represent Serbia again this year. His win may be a good New Years omen. Alexander Rybaks winning entry of 2009 “Fairytale” came second  followed by Helena Paparizou’s “My Number One“. The highest entry of the 2011 edition was Eric Saade’s “Popular” in 5th place. Here is the entire list:

Your Eurovision Moment 2011: Lena’s Return

  Eurovision 2011 – You nominated your favourite Eurovision moment and then voted for the ten most named moments.Over 6500 people cast their vote and this is the result: The runaway winner of our year-end poll is Germany’s representative Lena who returned to the Eurovision stage after her win in the previous contest in Oslo. She thus became the first winner after 1958 to return. She achieved a respectable 10th place on home ground with her entry “Taken by a Stranger”.

Poll: Your Eurovision Moment 2011

  Eurovision 2011 – Two days ago we asked you to nominate your favourite Eurovision moment of the 2011 season. We have revceived almost 200 submissions! Thank you for your participation! The ten moments that were named most frequently were added to our poll. Now you can vote: What is the most memorable moment the Eurovision season in 2011 has produced?

Nominate Your Favourite Eurovision Moment 2011

  Eurovision 2011 – As the year is about to come to an end, we want to find out what your favourite Eurovision moment of 2011 is. 2011 saw many great Eurovision moments: Italy’s return, Germany hosting for the first time in 28 years and for the first time as a unified country, Azerbaijan winning, Sweden finding its way back into the Top 5, great entries and national final songs. The most named moments will be the answers of a poll (which will start soon). You can nominate your favourite here:

Eurovision 2011 Voting Analysis: The Balkan League in the Semi-Finals

Editorial – As with every year, the cries of “bloc voting” called loudly as the winners Ell & Nikki from Azerbaijan were announced the winner of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. After receiving votes from thirty countries, nineteen at the level of 8-points or higher, it seemed clear to the roaring fans of Sweden, Italy, Denmark, or Ukraine that if bloc voting hadn’t existed, their entry would have easily overcome the first place entry and taken the crown for itself.

Congratiulations Azerbaijan And The Aftermath

  Azerbaijan – Eldar and Nigar from Azerbaijan have won the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 ahead of Italy and Sweden. The song “Running Scared” impressed both juries and televoters all over Europe the most. The voting was closer than in previous years and the new algorithm used by the EBU ensured a breathtaking voting till the very end. I predicted Azerbaijan to be the winner because of 3 things: Only few ballads this year, the song was modern and catchy and Turkey was not in the final and I’m sure Azerbaijan profited from the Turkish diaspora. I

Eurovision 2011: And The Winner Is…

  Eurovision 2011 – The 56th Eurovision Song Contest has just ended or will end soon and the next winner will have been determined. As other sites may have server problems, we want to give you the opportunity to discuss the result in this post. A detailed article about the outcome will follow tomorrow!

Eurovision 2011 – The Finalists

  Eurovision 2011 – The Second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 has just ended in Düsseldorf and the Final line-up of the Eurovision Final is now known. The biggest let down for me is that Bulgaria, Latvia and the Netherlands haven’t made it and that Ukraine and Ireland did. I don’t like the Ukrainian song at all, but I think many people were too fascinated by the great sand art, that they forgot to listen to the song. Dana didn’t deserve to win KDAM and she didn’t deserve to qualify for the final..so I’m happy about that. I loved the idea to invite the qualifiers from Semi 1 and the Big5 to the show! Would’ve liked to see their reactions to the songs.

EBU: The End of Internal Selections?

 EBU – If what Thomas Schreiber, entertainment coordinator of ARD (German host channel), has told the german newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”  is true, the Eurovision Song Contest might see another groundbreaking revolution next year. According to Schreiber internal selections may not be allowed during next year’s selection period. “The ESC only has a real future, if you ask me, if it is taken seriously on a musical level. It can become the biggest show in the world. But only if the respective countries, and also those, which are important for pop music, take the competition seriously. Included in

Germany: See The Stage Construction

  Düsseldorf – The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 is less than a month away and construction is already well underway in the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf. The stage is circular and includes a 20 meter catwalk to a smaller “satellite” stage that extents into the audience, which will thus play a crucial role in the show. Here you can see a video of some of the constructions:

Editorial: OGAE Votes For Camp! What Else Is New?

OGAE – The traditional annual OGAE vote has started again. OGAEs from every country imaginable will announce their votes in the coming weeks. One thing is clear already: Camp will rule and the actual final result on May 14 will be as close to the OGAE result as Moscow is to Lisbon and as Dana International is to winning Eurovision again. Already in the lead: Sweden. What a surprise! Who would have thought that hundreds of  Eurovision dance-lovers would vote for a handsome guy dancing to campy music and singing about getting popul… oh wait…. Of course they vote for that!, they always do! Last

EBU: Changes In The Voting Procedure To Be Announced

EBU – According to oikotimes.com, the EBU will reveal an innovative change to the voting procedure of the Eurovision Song Contest by Friday this week. Rumors about the possible changes have circulated on the internet for quite some time now, as the voting order had not been drawn (as usual) at the Heads of Delegation Meeting. Several possible scenarios for a change in the voting system have been considered:

Voting Draw 2011: Changes Ahead?

Eurovision 2011 – The Heads of Delegation Meeting in Düsseldorf has passed now but we still have no idea in which order the countries will announce their votes on the night of the final. Usually a draw was held during the Delegation Meeting but this year something seems to be up. It might just be that the organizers have pushed the draw back a few days or have already carried it out without publishing the result. According to rumors, however, the EBU might completely change the way the votes are announced during the final.

Special: Your Eurovision 2011

Special - Last week one of our readers inspired us to a new interactive subpage of this blog called “Your Eurovision 2011″. On this page of “The Eurovision Times” you can read the assessments of the 2011 Eurovision entries by our contributors and readers. If you want your own opinion about the songs to appear there, just send them to eurovisiontimes@live.com A big thank you goes to everyone who has already submitted an article: Read them here

Eight More Official Preview Videos

Preview Videos – Another 8 countries have revealed their official preview videos for their respective entries. Bulgaria, Austria, Armenia and Denmark used the performances from the national finals, while Croatia, the United Kingdom, Macedonia and Cyprus shot new videos. Here you can watch all of them:

English Versions of Poland and Macedonia, New Preview Videos

Preview Videos – More countries have released their official preview videos, others versions in different languages. Vlatko Illievski has released English, Serbo-Croatian and Russian versions of his entry “Rusinka”. Magdalena Tul has released an English version of her song “Jestem” which is called “First class ticket to heaven” which has spured discussions on the internet about the language the song will be performed in. Magdalena Tul has today clarified the situation on her YouTube channel saying that she will “respect the decision of the Polish

Eurovision 2011: See The Running Order

Düsseldorf – Today the draw of the running order for the two semi-finals and the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was held in Düsseldorf. Judith Rakers, who will be one of the hosts in May as well, hosted the event, while Sabine Heinrich (host of the German NF) drew the countries. EBU supervisor Jan Ola Sand was present to observe the proceedings. The countries that have to compete in the semi-finals had already been allocated to one of the semi-finals and also already knew in which part of the semi-final they would perform. Today their exact starting positions were drawn.

Eurovision 2011: Jan Delay as Interval Act + More Details About The Shows

Düsseldorf – The Heads of Delegation meeting has started in Düsseldorf today. Details about the stage, the post cards and the interval act have been revealed. The stage will include a huge LED screen in the back part and a “Satellite” approximately 40 meters in front of the stage. The floor of the stage will also include LED strips and two ramps. According to officials, the stage was intentionally kept small to keep the concentration on the center of attention. The Opening Act will be a rocky performance of last year’s winning song “Satellite” by the big band “The Heavytones”. Lena won’t be able to sing her song again, as she will represent Germany again this year. The interval act will be

France Shoots to #2 At The Bookies

France – The presentation of the French entry “Sognu” this Monday seems to have impressed a lot of people, as France finds itself somewhere where it has not been since 2002: In the Top 2 of the bookies. Just behind Norway’s “Haba Haba”, Amaury Vassili’s opera song has emerged as one of the top favourites to win the Eurovision Song Contest. France’s biggest competitors, at least according to the bookies, are Getter Jaani from Estonia in third and Lena from Germany in fourth place. Russia’s announcement that their song would be written by Lady Gaga’s

The Running Order Draw on Monday

Düsseldorf – The Heads of Delegation of the 43 participating countries at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 will meet in Düsseldorf next week to discuss the last details before thousands of fans will arrive and the rehearsals will begin in May. On March 15 the running order of the semi-finals and the big final will be determined by (almost) random draw. Why almost? In each semi-final two countries, one from the first half of the show and one of the second half, are allowed to choose their position in the running order. The draw which countries will perform in

Bookies: Norway Will Win, Estonia Second

Bookies – I know…I know! We still have a long way to go until the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 will be decided by points given by one of the 43 spokespeople from all over Europe. We haven’t even heard all entries yet… Nevertheless I always find it very interesting to see what other people think will do well at Eurovision. The bookies have predicted the Eurovision winner in the last three years so why would they be any less reliable this year? They

Eurovision: Summary of This Week

Eurovision – This week 11 entries for the Eurovision Song Contest were chosen so far. Tonight another two will be selected in Slovenia and Macedonia. This post is supposed to give you an overview of all the participants chosen this week and a place to discuss the entries in general. You can see all songs selected until yesterday here (will be updated today)

Summary Of This Evening’s Eurovision Blast

Eurovision week – Tonight will be the busiest Eurovision Saturday of the entire season! 6 countries (Moldova,Latvia Ukraine, Denmark, Estonia,Serbia will choose their entries tonight and 2 more (Croatia, Sweden) will hold selection rounds! To make it easier for you to organize your Eurovision evening (as sadly we won’t be able to watch all shows) we prepared a summary of tonight’s shows:

Summary: 6 New Entries Selected!

Summary – Tonight and yesterday a total of six countries chose their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011: Iceland, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Malta and Ireland. Azerbaijan choose its artists and another six countries held qualification rounds or semi-finals. In order to make it easier for you to keep track of what happened we will give you a short summary of the “events”. It will also give you the chance to post your current ranking of the selected entries and discuss them in general. Obviously each of the shows also has its own detailed blog entry, if you want to know more about the artist, entry e.t.c.

Düsseldorf: The semi-final draw

Düsseldorf – The city at the Rhine is now officially the capital of Eurovision. Today the insignia exchange from Oslo to Düsseldorf took place in the Apollo Theater. Right after, the 38 countries having to qualify from the semi-finals were allocated to one of them. They were drawn from 6 pots divided by voting patterns. Slovakia has now confirmed that they won’t withdraw (see article) and thus the total number of participants stands at 43. These are the line-ups of the two semi-finals:

Iceland: Second semi-final songs out

Iceland – Week 2 for the early Scandinavian NF brings us more songs in Iceland. They have released the 5 songs to participate in the second semi-final, to be held on January 22.  Only three of them will qualify to a final. All songs had to be in Icelandic. This week sees the return of 2009 winner Yohanna which scored Iceland’s best esc result ever coming second to… Norway !

Düsseldorf: Insignia exchange and semi-final draw

Düsseldorf - Today at 15:00 the traditional insignia exchange from Oslo to Düsseldorf will take place in the Apollo Theater in Düsseldorf. Following the exchange, the allocation draw for the two semi-finals will take place. Apparently Slovakia will be drawn for one of the semi-finals, despite their confirmation of withdrawing a week ago. Hopefully tomorrow we will finally have a confirmation of either their participation or their withdrawal. The 38 countries have been divided into 6 pots, that were put together according to voting patterns.

Eurovision 2011: Feel your heart beat!

Eurovision 2011 - “Feel your heart beat“  is the slogan of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf. Today, the organizing broadcaster NDR revealed the slogan and the logo of this year’s edition. ” The motto alludes to the feelings that music can evoke and that are typical of the Eurovision Song Contest: excitement, enthusiasm, your heart beating, love, passion. These feelings know no borders or language barriers,” eurovision.de explaines. The fans will see the logo on merchandise and it will be omnipresent in Düsseldorf.