Tag: Marija Šerifović

Eurovision 2008

This week the 53rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country’s victory at the 2007 contest with the song Molitva by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), the contest was held at the Belgrade Arena, and (for the first time) consisted of two semi-finals on 20 and 22 May, and a final on 24 May 2008. The three live shows were presented by Serbian television presenter Jovana Janković and musician Željko Joksimović.

Forty-three countries participated in the contest, the highest ever number of participants in the contest beating the record of forty-two set the year before. Azerbaijan and San Marino participated for the first time, while Austria did not participate, mainly due to questions on the semi-final organisation as well as the politicization of the contest.

At a press conference in Helsinki in May 2007, Svante Stockselius, executive supervisor of the contest for the EBU, announced that the competition’s format may be expanded to two semi-finals in 2008 or 2009. On 28 September 2007 it was announced that the EBU had approved the plan of hosting two semi-finals in 2008.

According to the executive supervisor of the contest Svante Stockselius, there were multiple ideas on how the two semi-finals would be organized, such as prerecording both semi-finals and airing them simultaneously on Thursday 22 May, with each broadcaster airing the semi-final their country competes or votes in; or prerecording one semi-final, while the other one is held live, and airing them simultaneously on Thursday 22 May, with each broadcaster airing the semi-final their country votes in. In both cases, the results sequences would be held live.

Although originally this option was not being considered due to the additional costs to such a production, it was later decided that the two semi-finals would be held on different days, both live, on Tuesday 20 May and 22 May 2008.

The winner was Russia with the song Believe, performed by Dima Bilan who wrote it with Jim Beanz. Ukraine, Greece, Armenia and Norway rounded out the top five. Armenia achieved their best result to date this year. Of the Big Four countries Spain placed the highest, finishing sixteenth, while the United Kingdom ended up in last place for the second time in their Eurovision history, after 2003.

The official website, eurovision.tv, streamed national finals for this year’s contest live on ESCTV for the first time. Furthermore, for the first time the winner has been awarded the perpetual glass microphone trophy of the Eurovision Song Contest. The trophy is a handmade piece of sandblasted glass in the shape of a 1950s microphone.

Eurovision 2007

This week the 52nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held in Helsinki, Finland, following the country’s victory at the 2006 contest with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Yleisradio (YLE), the contest was held at the Hartwall Areena, and consisted of a semi-final on 10 May, and a final on 12 May 2007. The two live shows were presented by Finnish television presenter Jaana Pelkonen and musician and TV-host Mikko Leppilampi. In addition, Krisse Salminen acted as guest host in the green room, and reported from the crowds at the Senate Square.

Forty-two countries participated in the contest – three more than the previous record of thirty-nine, that took part in 2005. The EBU decided to put aside its limit of 40 countries, which would have meant excluding some countries using a ranking order scheme. The Czech Republic and Georgia participated for the first time this year, with Montenegro and Serbia taking part as independent nations for the first time. Austria and Hungary both returned, after their absence from the previous edition. Meanwhile, Monaco decided not to participate, despite initially confirming participation. Monaco has not competed in Eurovision Song Contest ever since.

On 12 March 2007, the draws for the running order for the semi-final, final and voting procedure took place. A new feature allowed five wild-card countries from the semi-final and three countries from the final to choose their starting position. The heads of delegation went on stage and chose the number they would take. In the semi-final, Austria, Andorra, Turkey, Slovenia and Latvia were able to choose their positions. In the final, Armenia, Ukraine and Germany were able to exercise this privilege. All countries opted for spots in the second half of both evenings. Shortly after the draw, the entries were approved by the EBU, ending the possibility of disqualification for the Israeli song. The United Kingdom chose their entry after the deadline because they were granted special dispensation from the EBU.

The contest saw some minor changes to the voting time-frame. The compilation summary video of all entries including phone numbers was shown twice. The voting process was the same as 2006 except there was fifteen minutes to vote, an increase of five minutes on the 2006 contest. In the final, the results from each country were once again shown from one to seven points automatically on screen and only eight, ten and twelve were read by the spokespeople.

The winner was Serbia with the song Molitva, performed by Marija Šerifović and written by Vladimir Graić and Saša Milošević Mare. This was Serbia’s first victory in the contest, coincidentally the first year it competed as an independent nation. It was also the first winning song entirely performed in a country’s native language since Israel’s Diva in 1998. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and Bulgaria rounded out the top five. Further down the table, Belarus achieved their best placing to date, finishing sixth. Meanwhile, Ireland achieved its worst placing in the contest up until that point, finishing twenty-fourth (last place) in the final. Of the Big Four countries, Germany placed the highest, finishing nineteenth.