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New Moroccan broadcaster aims for EBU membership
Morocco to return in the next few years?
The Moroccan broadcaster, who is a founding member of the EBU and took part in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest, is SNRT. After coming 2nd last in the competition, SNRT decided not to enter again. The sole Moroccan entrant to date, Samira Ben Said, has gone on to become one of the most popular singers in the Arabic-speaking world, a position she maintains even now.
However, a rival Moroccan television station, one that is not directly influenced by the Moroccan government, is now interested in joining the EBU. 2MTV has long been a source for free speech and taboo-breaking in Morocco, and is especially popular with the Moroccan diaspora in countries like France and the Netherlands. A spokesperson for 2MTV confirmed that the station is looking to join the EBU, and that a possible return to the Eurovision Song Contest for Morocco is not impossible, should they get the membership.
A participation in the Eurovision Song Contest could be extremely valuable to Moroccans, many of whom feel more European than African - the Moroccan government has even applied for a EU membership in the past. Eurovision could be a chance for people to consider the idea of a European Morocco once again.
Related polls
- Jury vote, do you agree?
- Jury vote only in the final or in the semis as well?
- What mixture of televote and jury vote do you think is the best?
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thats why ı saıd some
In Greece both semi and final are shown in the same channel NET
why not both on same channel?
Don't get me wrong alex i mean its true not many people watch semi but the reason is not what u say its because not everyone is able to watch as they don't show it on normal channel for example Uk shows semi on bbc3 and final bbc1 so most only have bbc1 to watch it.
what ever alex...
****************READ THIS****************
I would like to write you my opinion about the ''new'' Eurovision beginning in 2009.
First of all , the most people from all over the Europe do not watch the semi . In Greece 37%(1.404.000 people) watched the semi and the final 75%(3.000.000). People watched the semi because of Eyridiki, otherwise it would be much lower .
This fact is in all over the Europe . So just the semi that the country competes should be shown .
Here are the semis i would like to see .
I suggest you to watch a Europe map at url=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/EurovisionParticipants.png]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/EurovisionParticipants.png/url]
SEMI 1
Nordic countries(5) : Norway , Sweden , Finland , Iceland , Denmark
some exUSSR 
: Estonia , Lithouania , Latvia , Russia , Belarus , Poland
West Europe (3-4): Ireland , Belgium , Netherlands ,(Luxemburg)
In this semi , talking without Luxemburg, there are 14 countries competing and 7 of them qualify . If Luxemburg comes again ,then 8 countries should qualify .
SEMI 2
Ex Yugoslavic : Slovenia , Croatia , Serbia , Montenegro , Fyrom , Bosnia-Herzegovina
Central Europe (3-4): Hungary , Chech Republic , Poland , (Slovakia)
Other (5): Albania , Bulgaria , Romania , Moldova , Ukraine
In this semi , talking without Slovakia, there are 14 countries again competing and 7 of them qualify . If Slovakia comes again ,then 8 countries should qualify .
SEMI 3
Smale south states (2-4): Andorra , Malta , (Monaco) , (San Marino)
Southeast countries (4-6): Turkey , Greece , Cyprus , Israel , (Lebanon) , (Palestine)
African countries (0-2): (Maroko) , ( Tynisia )
Kafkasian countries (2-3): Armenia , Georgia , (Azerbaitzan)
Other 
ortugal
In this strange semi , I put Metiteranean countries and the Kafkasian , too. There are 9 sure countries and maybe 4 more come(Monaco , San Marino , Maroko , Azerbaitzan) . If there will be 9 countries , 4 should qualify , if 13 , 6 should qualify .
In each semi there will be multi-jury with well-know people from all the Europe (ex.Jonny Logan , Anne Marie David ,Dana International etc) who they will vote their 3 best songs and choosing :
Semi 1 : 3 of 7 countries
Semi 2 : 3 of 7 countries
Semi 3 : 2 of 4 or 3 of 6 countries
Then there will be a televoting coosing the other qualifiers .
You can see that my semis have countries from different places. For ex. in Semi 1 there are Nordic and Valtics , too.
The countries that qualify will meet UK , France , Germany , Spain and maybe Italy and the winner of the recent year at a total of 22-25 countries.
I know I was boring but it would be a new nice EUROVISION.
EBU make this REAL.
Bjorn lin...
What do you mean Turkey doesn't need to put much effort, ofcourse it needs to be put effort, all countries does. Gaining points is not that important, its just an excitement that happens in the show. Whats important is to come up with interesting ideas and see where it goes upto after the show. Kenan didn't get his first place, but im sure hes gona be even more popular than the winner and be more succesfull in future. Hes allready so popular in Turkey and people around the world enjoy hes musics. It's not that big deal to win or not because winning is just for hosting, and which we all know people don't vote for best music, they vote for many reasons. Thats why I just see this show like a big festival all coming to one place and making great jobs. We most know who actually deserve to win any way and everyone has their no one, thats why I like more countries to be invited.
@ Björn Lin.
I think that confirm what I mean. It is normal that the semis and the final have a different audience share, but the difference is usually not as big as in Germany. 12,7 times more people have watched the final than the semis in Germany.
If only 800 000 have watched the semis in Sweden this year, then 10,21 million Swedes must have watched the final to get the same difference as in Germany. This was obviously not the case although the startin-point of Germany and Sweden was the same this year. Both countries didn't need to participate in the semis.
first of all Morocco didn't enter after 1980 because Israel got back to the contest that's one thing.
secondly to all the people here who are narrow minded enough to talk about EUROvision song contest - mind you being a european country is considered by the EBU not by geograpic place - and if a country is paying they are entitled to be in the contest! so you dont have any right to complain here.
Im sorry, but Morocco again in the EUROvision song contest, seems quite ridiculous to me. I have nothing against Morroco, but I guess we already have to many countries here in Europe, and Israel joined this group and never lived, so respecting the tradition, I think we must keep them in the group. But Morroco only taked part in the contest once, and they left. I really dont understand this lets-make-eurovision-a-huge-mess that EBU likes so much... There is already a big problem to resolve with these east/west blocks, and the tragic path that eurovision is going with all this anger growing in the contest.
Again, nothing against you Morroco (besides the closest european countries you have are Portugal and Spain, and since Im portuguese it would be very helpful for us, because we only have one neighbour), but I think there are too many countries here, so Im sorry, but I dont really agree with Morroco again in the ESC.
OK, the regional system is maybe not a fantastic idea, but I can see no tehre soution (except for going back to relegation system, which would be sad) As for now, there is hardly place for European nations who want to compete, so it's not time to let in African nations as well!
@ jalal talal i agree with you
cok buyuk tas 
But very few people want to see a Semi-final with 30-35 songs in it, it will be way too long, and the voting as well.With regional semis, there will surely be countries from all over Europe reprsented, and the final will have fewer songs. But all songs should of course be included on the CD, and the eliminated singers invited to the host city to perform on special non-broadcast concerts.
Yeah people, read more carefully what togravus writes.
Greets,
Lukas
@ Asta
I didn't suggest to abolish the semi. It's even more fun with the semi because then the party goes on for a week. I only objected to the idea of having REGIONAL semifinals in different places.
Togravus Ceterum
I totally agree!!! Everybody should join together at one contest, and it doesn't matter if its final or semifinal. Always together.
Greets,
Lukas
I don't like the idea of regional semi finals at all. Isn't it all about everbody coming together in one city and having a great time?
I suggest regional Semi-Finals, like this:
NORTHERN 9 3 FINALISTS
SWEDEN, DENMARK, FINLAND, IRELAND, NORWAY, ICELAND, ESTONIA, LATVIA, LITHUANIA
WESTERN 7 3 FINALISTS
NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, LUXEMBOURG, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA, ANDORRA, PORTUGAL, MALTA
SOUTHERN 10 3 FINALISTS
SLOVENIA, CROATIA, MONTENEGRO, BULGARIA, GREECE, CYPRUS, TURKEY, ISRAEL, AZERBAIJAN, MOROCCO
EASTERN 14 5 FINALISTS
RUSSIA, BELARUS, UKRAINE, POLAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, HUNGARY, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA,
SERBIA, MACEDONIA, ROMANIA, MOLDOVA, ARMENIA, GEROGIA
+UNITED KINGDOM, FRANCE, GERMANY, SPAIN
=18 FINALISTS
The semis are held in their respectively region, all during the same week in late March. Of course, they don't have to be very big. They are only broadcast in the "region" and only competing countries can vote, as well as for the final.
@ Kathrin Schmidt
Thanks for your very concise analysis of Germans' (dis)interest in the ESC. It might help people from other countries understand the problems we are facing here. I would like to add one more aspect:
I am convinced that the viewing figures for the final are only acceptable because of the Saturday night slot. The ESC is considered as one of those ARD Saturday night (bad taste) family programmes, and a lot of people just watch it because they watch ARD every Saturday night. Therefore, the ESC is considered to be one of those bad taste shows like those by Florian Silbereisen and others. People aren't really interested, they just watch it beacuse it is a family ritual. The reputation of the ESC, I am afraid, won't change for the better as long as Joy Fleming, Georg Uecker, Dirk Bach and the rest of the insufferable crowd operate as Germany's ESC experts. In fact, I think it is nothing short of a miracle that we have sent quality entries for the last two years!
Back to the topic: I am all in favour of letting more countries participate, but two semi finals will probably kill the thing in Germany. A friend of mine, who always only watches the final, said the other day that he loses interest because there are different countries in the final every year. He further stated that an ESC final without Norway, Israel, Portugal, Malta, and others is completely devoid of its ritualistic significance for him. Well, if you cling to tradition, it is always hard to cope with change. The real fans would of course love more songs and two semis, at least I would, but then we have to take into consideration that it is not us who keep the whole thing going.
To FABIO DELUCA
Well point taken Fabio. At some point I agree with you, but I'm not going to change my mind. Like everywhere ESC needs to know and pursue some boundries. Rules should be more strict and cathegorical. You would probably think that I am nearow minded, but believe me I am not. If ESC is going to develope like this its gonna become a huge mess. So I am calling out for more calmness and prudence. No for Marocco.
Greets,
Lukas
The only time Morocco competed, they gave 12 points to Turkey, which was about half the points Turkey got. Turkey didn't award Morocco any points, but amost no one did. If Morocco returns, they will for sure exchange high points with Turkey...
The topic is Morooco, not Turkey..
Turkiye kadar basiniza tas dussun...
@Katrin Schmidt
In Sweden, the popularity of the semi of course depends on if we are in the semi or not. Last year, the Semi-Final was wathced by 2,5 million people (out of 9 million) and the final by 3,5 million. But this year, not even 1 million wiewed the semi! The final, on the other hand was as popular as last year, and I think the audience share was about 80%.
@ Alex F
It would be possible that the turks in Germany didn't know that the semis were shown in the TV. The semis are shown on a very unpopular TV program which isn't even broadcast everywhere in Germany. It is so unpopular that a lot of TV magazine don't even print their program. The result of this is that only 0,58 million people, a market share of 2,4 %, have watched the semis in 2007. In 2006 this wasn't much different.
And that is not all. A lot of turks in Germany don't even watch German TV. They have a satellite dish and watch TV channels from Turkey. A lot of turks probabIy don't even know the TV channel which airs the semis. The TV channel which airs the final is in contrast widely known and broadcast everywhere. Its program is printed in every TV magazine. In news, magazines, papers and so on you can see advertisings for the final. 7,38 million, a market share of 29,9 %, were watching the final in 2007.
I don't think the difference in the viewing number between the semis and the final is normal. I like to know how this is in other countries. I hope someone here have numbers from other countries.
I don't have a problem with countries participating at the ESC from outside Europe. The problem is the "number" of countries at the ESC. Soon one semis and a final will not be enough. There will be another semis. Who will watch three shows in a week while at two of them their own country don't participate? Probably only the biggest fans and not normal viewers. The German TV channel ARD, which shows the final, isn't even interested to air "one" semis.
I am a big ESC fan since the 90s but even I find the shows after a while boring. The first ten music acts are interesting but then I am already waiting for the end of them and the beginnig of the points distribution. My attention span, and probably not only mine, isn't just big enough to watch for hours music acts which I often don't even like. Some songs are just so bad that sometimes I wish I am deaf. So I don't think it would be a good idea to accept more and more countries at the ESC.
To Bjorn Lin. :
In 2005 Germany gave 12 to Greece... and 10 to Turkey
In 2006 final 12 to Turkey , 10 to Finland
In 2006 semi 12 to Finland , 10 to Bosnia-Herzegovina and 8 to Turkey
Didn't the turks in Germany know that their lovely country would be in semis (of 2006) ?
And congrats to the true thought of Fabio Deluca . The Argentinians think cool. I wish your country to compete in the Worldvision !
All wishes from Greece
yay Morroco, much love for you
Mike Strothmann & Stevan Peric:
You should remember this is the [b]Eurovision[/b] Song Contest, not the European or Pan-European Song Contest. Any country can take part on it, as long as it is a member of the EBU (which is a non governmental organisation). It's not stated anywhere the country must belong to Europe in geographical or political terms.
So, stop the European bullshit, because this is just a contest organized by TV stations, this is not the European Parliament in Brussels.
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