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Final decision to be taken 28 September
Eurovision 2008: Two semi finals proposed
The proposal includes that all participating countries apart from the winner and the Big Four will have to go through the two semi finals starting from the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. This means that the result of the 2007 contest will not influence the 2008 contest.
The final decision though will be taken by the TV committee during its scheduled meeting in Verona, Italy on September 28. The Reference Group intends to propose this format after receiving feedback from the participating members.
The 2008 contest will be held in the Belgrade Arena (Beogradska Arena) and it will seat about 14.000 fans. The final will be held on May 24 and should there be two semi finals they will be both held on the same day, May 22, according to esctoday.com sources.
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I think UK should choose to sophie ellis bextor here in spain she likes a lot & at disco sounds many times
I disagree the big 4 (even I am spanish) & the last winning country go to the final directly. Qualifiers songs will listen twice except those & it's not good
The UK never will send a 'decent' song again (by decent I assume we are talking a song that will be liked and voted for) - we could have Madonna performing and she'd probably not get a Top 10 place. Sweden could have Abba reform for the contest and they'd probably not even make the final.
@Max Raspail
Funilly enough, Jessica Garlick is the British act I've liked the least since 2000. I didn't actually watch that contest, but I've got 'Come Back' on CD and find it so boring. Even if they did do badly, both Scooch and Jemeni are heroes to me and my two favourite recent acts. All the rest are either stone crap like James Fox. (God, I hate that song!)
Next year, we're going to send a fantastic song that will raise the roof. I know I've said it loads of times on this site, but I'm campaigning to send The Damned to Belgrade. It'd be fantastic and I'd love it if they represented us. They're an iconic British rock band that can really get the crowd on it's feet and have their own unique explosive style. Plus we've already seen that rock goes down well-look at Lordi! We'd win for sure, or at least come in the top 10.
well no one can judge if its better or not until we see it.but i guess nothing can be worse than this years east exchanging votes.i hope that is...so we will see.http://www.evridikis.com/
@ Kiran Coolican
Well, I don't want to pace you, but neither Javine nor Daz had any style to me.
Of course, it's up to everyone's taste, but I don't had the impression that the UK takes the Contest serious. I think there's no need to talk of Scooch or Jemini.
The last song which I liked was Jessica Garlick with a - nevertheless - IMO outdated ballad.
And before there I liked Nicky French, Imaani and, of course, Frances Ruffelle in 1994 with one of the best British songs ever...
Concerning the history, UK is one of the countries which I really like, but nowadays you send rarely halfway decent songs.
@Max
Actually, for your information, the UK's sent some fantastic songs recently. Sure, 'Flying The Flag' may have been really cheesy, but 'Touch My Fire' was quite the opposite and last year, Daz did a rap song. The UK actually sends fantastic songs to the ESC and despite what the voting shows, they're often better than Germany's. Don't say we don't take it seriously, because we do!
@ Milan S.
I wasn't talking of the recent UK songs which were indeed an impertinence for those who take the Contest serious.
I was talking of Germany and France which are btw part of the Big 4. And there are many people here saying that the Big 4 only send crap and that's just NOT true.
@ Eurovision 2008
Greece is no counter-argument because they belong to the countries which profit from the actual voting system. Sarbel in 7th position is just ridiculous.
And Finland profited a little bit of the weak Scandinavian-effect and much more because of being so extreme and shocking. But that was a big exception. Moreover, things before weren't as bad as they were in this year: Ireland reached the top 10 in 2006, I think Brian Kennedy would have ended up in 17th position or something like this only one year later.
They can have 8 semis and the fact is that a Western country will never stand a chance of winning again - the Eurovision died this year - the West should pull out and let the East fund it.
@Mantas from Lithuania
Are you just saying you don't want 2 semi finals because Lithuania's Eastern? It seems like an excuse to me.
And to all these people who are saying the Big 4's bad, may I just remind you of the teensy fact that we finance the contest and pour millions into it to make it run? It literally wouldn't be able to run if it wasn't for our contributions. Therefore, without sounding big-headed, we do deserve a bit in return.
All I can say is: THANK GOD!!! If we stick with the current system, there is the risk of producing a repeat of this year wiere no matter how good their songs are, Western countries won't get thru and some crap songs from Eastern European countries would. Please stick with this idea, EBU! There is now some hope for the west and if it goes ahead, we'll definitly have some western countries in next year.
@Ayka
Ok we give a lot of money to EBU, but we still don't deserve a ticket to final ! that's unfair !
I think the only way to get this whole mess in the Eurovision, is by having a eastern europe and a western europe semi-final, and in the final, we should all have 50% Televoting and 50% Jury or even maybe 100% Juries.
I can keep on dreaming, but the east is taking over the Eurovision!!
@Max Raspail
Yes, there is truth there - Germany has really given it a try over the last few years and has nothing to be ashamed of - but do you really suggest UK has sent anything worth listening to lately?
@ daniel yu
no comment..
you will never understand, will you ???
The argument that the Big 4 don't send decent songs is a rudity in my ears. As a German, I know what a brilliant concept the responsibles brought to us in the last two years. I think the outcome with Texas Lightning and Roger Cicero is nothing what we have to hide, in controverse, we can be very proud of what we've sent.
The French, too, seem to be awake: The French preselection of 2007 was, in my opinion, the best one, with an outstanding winner.
All this 'Big 4' bashing is really tiresome. Given that between them they contribute something like 50% of the EBU budget then the rest of us can't complain that they get a direct entry to the final. If they don't pay or take part, who will fill the financial gap - FYROM? Moldova? Armenia? - no, I don't think so either.
@Mantas, had they done this from the start, no eastern country would probably be in the ESC and we would still have a contest with 20 countries and nothing more. Wouldn't it be a pity? Lithuania itself wouldn't probably be taking part, and we'd have missed some beautiful songs (like "Love or leave" which I like a lot). Why not allow new countries to join in? Our Sanremo festival lasts 5 days, it's not really too much considering that it takes place once a year.
BIG 4 IN SEMI FINAL TOO ??
than bye-bye - BIG 4 and bye-bye - ESC !!!!!
The 2 semi idea is good. Problem I have is with the big 4 - none of them send decent songs anymore. The other is how the semi's will be decided: east-west and north-south have been raised in the past. A random selection could be interesting. You could see entire 'voting partnerships' knocked out completely. Anyway...
@ Barzin...
Did you read what I wrote?
@Ayka
They don't pay more to be part of Big4, Big4 is the bonus given to them for the money they pay. So with or without Big4, the involved countries would pay the same !
Once again... thanks to the Big4 we have a great amount of money to organize the ESC...!!
No more Big 4, that's stupid and unfair
NO BIG FOUR PLEASE!!
I am from Spain, but i dont want it!!
Well, maybe some countries make money from their national selections, but EBU doesn't.
However, is it such an enormous difference beween 24 and 28 songs in a show?
@ Bjorn...
Are you sure nobody makes money from televoting? How do you think some "poor" countries pay the travels to the ESC?
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