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Norway voting fiasco
Telenor to pay voters back
Information chief Elisabeth Evjen stated that the company did not want customers to have the burden of paying for votes that were not counted. Instead, the charges would either not be debited from customers' bills, or the costs would be credited back to them if already charged.
Telenor had suggested that the votes disappeared via a German operator, but consumer groups had put pressure on the company to take responsibility for the fault. Spokesperson for the Consumer Council, Hans Marius Graasvold, explained that "for the consumers, it is Telenor who they bought a service from", adding that consumers should not have to turn to sub-companies in the process. He also suggested that Telenor could be more liberal in its reparations, perhaps offering a 10% reduction from customers' next telephone bill.
In any case, customers will not lose out thanks to Telenor's announcement, although the biggest loser may be Bosnia-Herzegovina, who allegedly lost out on an eighth place due to the use of the jury vote and note the televoting results.
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http://www.euro-party.blogspot.com/
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I have Telenor too, I want money for voting back! LOOOL 
Im'm sure that this in Spain wouldn't happen 
And also, Serrat did also initially agree to sing for Franco's Spain, it was after he received much pressure that he stated he would sing in Catalan knowing he wouldn't be allowed to sing that way. And I'm happy that it happened that way cause it puts Franco to shame.
@ paul c
Oh, please, to judge her only on her present image is kind of unfair, and I know it's her fault, but... Massiel is only remembered for "La la la" now, after all these years, and for appearing drunk on tv shows, but she did have hits before her ESC participation... and you know what, her songs before ESC were "canción protesta", her biggest hit before ESC was Luis Eduardo Aute's "Rosas en el mar", the reason why my dead left winged uncle used to like her, a song about freedom: "voy pidiendo libertad y no quieren oir, es una necesidad, para poder vivir, la libertad derecho de la humanidad, es más facil encontrar rosas en el mar [...] qué ganarán qué perderán si todo esto pasará".
Is it my impression or has ESCtoday entered a Doctor Who (I love that show!) kind of time loop?! no real new news, or comments etc...
anyway...Massiel "a commie"..jeje LOL +, love that, if she'd been really anti-franco she'd have said Lalala but no gracias to representing Spain that year or showing her face in 1969 (like Serrat who refused to sing in Castellano and was sure penalised for it in the Franco regime), her career went bad cause basically she was only remembered for "Lalala", she's made a comeback completely based on Eurovision (especially since OT 2001) and her appearances on various TV shows as a "commentator" on gossip TV shows (I can quote one "La Noria" 
cause her comments always cause some kind of "controversy", that's all..at least Salomé has been far more discreet but successful in her own region (Valencia), as for the 1968 "Controversy": let me explain : I'm a journalist working within Spanish TV, the documentary from La sexta coincided with their backing of Chiki last year, everyone in Spanish TV knows it was completely lacking in any kind of journalistic research and just to promote Chiki, I remember listening to it and laughing at the following part:
"and Franco bribed countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia to vote for Spain", well enough said...it was 1968, draw your own conclusions..I hate Franco regime as much as anyone I know but not the real freedom of journalism and its twists on the truth (as a journalist myself), people will believe what they hear sometimes without the true facts...fight for it every day!
By the way, Massiel was a commie, so, some time after her victory, she was put on the dictator's regime's "black list", and didn't appear again on TVE's shows for a period.
About the 1968 contest documentary...
the only evidence it showed about the vote "fixing" was a interview to a journalist (José María Iñigo) that used to work Iin TVE in those days saying he had heard rumours about Franco buying votes. It was just a marketing plot by the tv channel to get publicity, the guy spoke later remarking he had heard only rumours, that he didn't really know anything, and he said he was sorry to Massiel. I don't know how the British media took this so seriously.
In France also there were problems with the televoting. I sent 10 SMS for Israel and only 3 were counted. Then, after the end of the show, I received 7 messages telling "Sorry, it's too late to take your vote into account". A friend of mine also sent 3 SMS for Israel and another one sent 1 for Norway and 1 for Sweden : they were all refused as well. However, we are charged for everything, including the SMS that French phone company was enable to handle. I'm sure there were many more votes from French public this year and French phone company could not cope with this unexpected situation. I regret it since it also probably changed the real results from France.
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"In fact I don't understand why disasters like 1969 didn't occur earlier. "
MAYBE it occured but we just don't know it yet! LOL
Where are the good old pre 1997 days: juries, orchestra, own language singing.... *cry*
With the voting system used in those years (10 jurors who each awarded 1 point to the song they liked best) close calls were bound to happen. In fact I don't understand why disasters like 1969 didn't occur earlier.
It was mentioned in the media here in the UK too about the alleged rigging of the 1968 contest:
http://news.bbc.co.u(...)_ireland/7384130.stm
Personally I prefer 'La La La' to 'Congratulations', but I like 'La Source' even more. 1968 was quite a bad year for songs overall.
lol...Austin Powers....
I guess you could be right.
And how would Franco have achieved that?
In reality this rumour was spread last year by the tv-channel that was responsible for Rodolfo's song. There is no evidence that this rumour is true. In my opinion Salome had a very impressive performance.
And maybe the lyrics of "La la la" weren't that strong, but "Congratulations" isn't exactly Shakespeare either. Best song that year was in my opinion Isabelle Aubret's "La source". But like every other year, there are no objective standards what should and shouldn't have won. The juries voted for it. Maybe if the 12 points system was used, another song would have won. Maybe if Cliff wouldn't have looked like Austin Powers he would have won. We don't know, and we will never know.
About the contest in 1968.....
A documentary says that the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco rigged the votes to win by 1 point.
I believe this to be true, because "Congratulations" is an amazing song, and to be beaten by a song with the only lyrics as "la" is astounding.
What do you guys think?
I keep wondering where Alexander Rybak was looking at all the time.. (@the vid)
@ May T
Someone from songfestival.web-log.nl told me about her, the Norwegian comentator, than I looked at the clip where Alexander Rybak was announced as winner.. wasn't it very annoying that she was talking all the time while Alexander came up the stage and was walking to the stage etc. etc. I mean the average commentator who would comment on this while his/her own country wins wouldn't talk all the time about things which aren't that relevant at that moment. (That's what I could understand)
I'd rather see something modern for Norway next year, like Royksopp or Lindstrom & Prince Thomas. I think it is great when the host country tries something experimental. After all the urge to win is probably not that high.
http://www.euro-party.blogspot.com/
You can visit and find everything about Eurovision
Thank you Telenor 
Btw i stil have a dream that A-ha wil sing for Norway next year hehe , just listen to Morten Harket's voice, here from a consert 25/3/09 in Sau Paulo Brazil, its just wonderful
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=0ZIbjxgdVy0
Alexander was yesterday in the Netherlands, in Paul de Leeuw's show. With live music of course:
http://www.youtube.c(...)h?v=uMXhso4zUBM&
Also they know next year esc will be in their own country and they will earn even more :-)
@ City Flyer: "Strange how Telenor recorded the Norwegian votes and then lost them when sending them to Germany" ...
Telenor have stated publically that they didn't lose the votes. The problem seems to have been that the Norwegian televotes had to be updated due to a hitch with the votes for Croatia. Apparently, Telenor transmitted the valid televotes to Digame well before deadline, and got a confirming telephone/fax back. If Digame was unable to establish the final Norwegian voting, it's their own fault, not Telenor's. So they say.
In any case, Telenor are just paying people the money back to be nice. Not because they have to.
Strange how Telenor recorded the Norwegian votes and then lost them when sending them to Germany, and yet they are the ones who own the arena where the esc will be in 2010!
Any news on how the Swedish and Icelandic juries voted?
@ Aijdin:
"I heard that commentator on Norwegian television wasn't telling really nice "stuff" about Regina when the postcard of Bosnia&Herzegovina was on before performance. They probably didn't want from people to vote for us."
No, our commentator stayed somehow close to sane as long as the performances were on, it was during the votings she kind of lost it as her pulze rised and she realized that we could actually win the whole thing. 
Not that she said all that much wrong either, a few jokes over the line but not too far either, the problem was that she got a severe case of Mouth Diarea and just couldn't stop talking!! I found her quite funny, but problably not for the right reasons though.
But, about Bosnia and Hertzegovina she actually praised that song up to the pink sky, she said that it was a very populare and beautiful ballad that deserved it's favourite position, then talked a bit about the composition itself (instruments, drums, chours etc), and summed it up with sayin' that this one had to be considered as a very strong competitor, and that it was "dangerous" to our own Fairytales winning chanses.
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