Terminal 3.... The Eurovision Blog

Its been 42 years now since Austria lifted the Eurovision crown with the song "Merci Cherie" which was sung by Udo Jurgens and now it would seem that ORF the Austrian Broadcaster will be making it 43 years as they have announced that they will not be sending a song to Moscow in 2009. Austria have not been a regular attendant over the past couple of years and even when they have been there they have not worried the judges too much even if they have sent a couple of corkers. In my opinion "Y'Asi" which was in the 2005 Contest sung by Global Kryner was one of the most original songs in the contest and also one of the best vocals and should have qualified and it was this lack of qualification with this song that made the Austrians decide not to compete in Athens. A bad result in Helsinki then made the Austrians again withdraw from Belgrade with a statement "that the voting needed to be looked at and changed dramatically". Even with this change to the Eu

It is with great sadness that we announce that Monaco have announced their intention not to have a performer in Moscow at the Eurovision Song Contest and I for one am very sad about it. Over the years Monaco have sent some absolute classics to Eurovision, but in their last 3 attempts could never manage to pass the Semi Finals and decided not to take part again since 2007. Lets remember Monaco at their very best when they won in 1971:-

Over the past few weeks Dutch Eurovision fans have been voting for who they would like to see representing their country in Moscow at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Anouk is a 33 year old singer who has been a star in The Netherlands since 1997 having had 5 number 1 albums she is a popular singer who has become the fans favourite to represent them in Moscow. The full list included previous Dutch Eurovision contestants Glennis Grace and Gerard Joling. It is believed that the list of the votes will be given to NOS the Dutch Broadcasting Company to help them with their decision. Here is one of Anouks videos and she can prove that she can sing live too!

53 days after the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest Greece National Broadcaster ERT have announced and confirmed that Sakis Rouvas who represented them in 2004 with "Shake It" in Istanbul and was the co-host in 2006 in Athens will be representing them again at the 54th Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow in 2009. ERT are believed to be preparing for a Press Conference possibly being held in September to officially confirm Sakis Rouvas as their representative. So thats it the first Singer for 2009..............welcome to Eurovision once again Sakis Rouvas.......... It's now official I will be in Moscow next year!!!!! hehehehe!!!!! Maybe Athens 2010 then..........................

OGAE UK have organised the annual get together for all members and friends of OGAE (UK). The event will be held on Saturday 4th October 2008 at The Jurys Inn Hotel, Broad Street, Birmingham. In the evening there is a "Euro Disco" starting at 9pm and finishing very late which will cost everyone that wants to attend £5. Now I have been given the job of organising the tickets and promotion for the "Euro Disco" so if anyone is interested in attending for one of the best Eurovision nights out please get in touch and let me know. The cost will be £5 and is payable prior to attendance and tickets will be sent out by myself via email, so I will require email addresses. You can email me direct at paul__35@msn.com (please note that it is a double _) Look forward to seeing you all there.

Well I wonder what the EBU have up their sleeves regarding the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow? Personally I think they are trialing the 50/50 voting at the JESC to see what happens. In my opinion (and this is only my opinion) I think that to bring back a partial jury vote is the best idea..........unfortunately I'm not sure that allowing total televoting is the way forward. After watching the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest I think that a lot of the good quality songs were lost in the semi finals and should have qualified - I mean what happened to Netherlands (again)? The final is another good one to look at too............ There were several very good vocal performances in the final and I believe that they lost out to "neighbourly" or "diaspora" televoting. We will never be able to turn round to a Lithuanian living in Ireland and say "You cant vote for Lithuania" but I feel that by having a 50/50 vote the guarantee of 12 points from Ireland to Lith