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Slovakia and Monaco back? No Montenegro?
45 countries limit for Eurovision 2008
With the deadline for broadcasters to apply to take part in Belgrade, the question is how close to this limit will we get?
Azeri EBU member ITV has already begun its search for the first ever Eurovision entry from Azerbaijan, and Slovakian television STV has once again stated that it is interested to return to the contest in 2008, finances pending. But what about the other active EBU members?
Montenegro has yet to confirm that it will participate in 2008. After failing to win a place in the final in Helsinki with their debut entry as an independent country, the national broadcaster has not made any plans public to participate again.
Tunisia has already stated that due to governmental requests it will not take part in the forseeable future, and Lebanon is still serving the final year of their ban after withdrawing after the deadline in 2005. With no change in policy by the government, Lebanon would not be able to enter unless Israel withdraws, something which the Israeli broadcaster, IBA, has said is not an option.
Libyan television LJBC has also now confirmed that the country will not be entering any time soon, claiming that the Eurovision does not fit into their typical programming.
San Marino showed interest earlier this year, but it seems likely that the fact that Italian broadcaster RAI owns nearly half the company will hinder their chances to enter this year.
RAI are reported to have been very close to a return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007. There was a strong movement within the national broadcaster to bring Italy back, however the decision was vetoed at the eleventh hour, it is believed, by the senior management of the company. Whether that was the height of their interest or whether they will return in 2008 will be known in a few short days.
Monaco is a possibility to return, after skipping Helsinki claiming that the one semi final format put them at a disadvantage. Now that the EBU has done what they suggested and changed the format, could we see Eurovision's smallest country back in Belgrade?
The local Eurovision fan club in Luxembourg, OGAE Luxembourg, have been making a big effort to try and rally the local media around a return to the contest in 2008 for one of the Song Contest's most successful countries, with 5 wins, but it remains to be seen how successful this could be, after the broadcaster RTL stated in 2005 that it will "never" return to the competition.
Other active EBU members include Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, but it seems quite unlikely that any of these countries will participate in 2008. The Vatican City has also stated on several previous occasions that it will never enter the competition, as they broadcast only religious services. The remaining country in Europe, the microstate of Liechtenstein, is not an EBU member, as they don't have a television station at all!
esctoday.com will bring you the full list of participating countries in 2008 as soon as the EBU announces them.
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[u]Scott Ross said: [/u]
[i]'Disco/Dramatic/Pop' (1998), 'Retro Up-beat Pop' (1999), 'Easy Listening/Acoustic/Ballad' (2000), 'Breakdance/Pop' (2001), 'Latin/Pop' (2002), 'MiddleEastern/Exotic/Pop' (2003), 'Tribal/Folk' (2004), 'R&B/Pop' (2005), 'Rock' (2006), 'Power Ballad' (2007)[/i]
What a great clasification . Scott, this is great!
Scott, there is surely a good point in your message. only one correction: there are not so many immigrants and expats, the total persentage hardly exceeds 10% even in the most of the countries, what matter is that their votes are concentrated! they are good in collected action.
PS. number of western europeans in the EE is not significant.
I think people nowadays forget that because travel and borders have opened up so much over the past 20 years, it really is a trully mixed european vote that decides the winners of eurovision. countires can no longer rely on just the nationals, as societies are so mixed with many immigrants and that what would normally constitute a 'british vote' or 'french vote' for example, is now a MULTI-CULUTURAL vote, even in Eastern Europe, the have a great number of western european moving there, that even those countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey are now more multi-culutural than ever before.
Eurovision has brought Europe together for good and bad, the reason its still one of the highest watched TV shows of the year in most european countires, and the debate that happens afterwards, people almost over look the technoligy, the costing, the sheer size of the event and concentrate on 'neighbourly voting' - in Europe we are ALL neighbours, and different genres of songs have won in recent years - 'Disco/Dramatic/Pop' (1998), 'Retro Up-beat Pop' (1999), 'Easy Listening/Acoustic/Ballad' (2000), 'Breakdance/Pop' (2001), 'Latin/Pop' (2002), 'MiddleEastern/Exotic/Pop' (2003), 'Tribal/Folk' (2004), 'R&B/Pop' (2005), 'Rock' (2006), 'Power Ballad' (2007)
Lets just enjoy it... more countries... more possiblities
HUNGARY have confirmed that they will be there!!!!!
I agree with Keith (for once lol) I enjoyed the Montenegrin song more than Serbia's. I thought That Montenegro and the Czech Republic had the best intros song wise.
Three more countries than last year? I guess Slovakia and Monaco as the two last ones.
And stop this stupidity about non-European countries entering... The "Eurovision" term is NOT the same as Europe, its belong to EBU as their broadcasting zone. And this zone goes far longer east (and south) than the European map.
I think it's a bit childish that Lebanon can enter because Israel is in the contest. I know they had a war and everything, but the viewers have choice of not voting for it, surely.
Get a grip Lebanon!
After the disaster of the selection of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, it would be funny for us to see how the Montenegrin entry is (or not) accepted in Belgrade.
45 countries!
Yeah well I'd take that with a pinch of salt. They told us that there would only be 40 in Helsinki!!
The funniest thing here is imagining possible Vatican entry 
They should hire Tonci and Vjekoslava Huljic for another Bible inspired [i]Noah-Nazareth[/i] song and group [i]The Blessings[/i] to perform it.
@ everyone who says that arab countries don't recognize Israel:
Egypt and Jordan (both EBU members) do recognize it and have diplomatic relations with it.
Tunisia and Morocco (EBU members) also have some relations with Israel.
The reason why Egypt and Jordan don't participate is just lack of interest and the fact that almost noone knows about ESC.
Tunisia wanted to participate in the past, but it was other countries that forced them to resign and I guess they have that fear today as well (as well as lack of interest) and maybe this is the case with Morocco too.
But I guess it's possible that Morocco returns in the near future, it could benefit of the support of arabs who live in Europe as well as of its diaspora in Spain, plus it produces great music!
@ Vladimir : There were plans for such a " world contest " indeed - I am not sure if they`ll ever turn into reality though or if it was only a vision.
PS : Really a shame how the RAI ignores the ESC...
I agree with Frank S. regarding the convention in Lux. one has to be simply realistic.
I hope Slovakia & Monaco will return and Montenegro will not withdraw.
Then there are 45 countries .
And Azerbaijan welcome to ESC once again.
Can't wait for a great arabic song. 
I agree with Marino: Italy gave to ESC some very important pearls and few times horrible songs (just like any other country). The main reason why Italy leaves a hole in ESC is that Italy together with UK, Spain, France, Germany, have made most of the European history and culture, without these countries Europe would not be the same.
Italy and Luxembourg won't return, Montenegro will partecipate for sure, wherelse could this country raise some attention if not in ESC?
In Italy younger people don't even know that ESC has ever existed and older people think that it does not exist anymore.
So why should RAI partecipate? No audience, high cost, only immigrants and ESC fans would watch it. This would be the italian televote for sure: Romania 12 points, Albania 10 points, Ukraine 8 points. Italy would be patecipating in the final only getting somewhere around the 20th position.
It's more likely that neightbours like France and Austria would join us out of ESC
iam only concerned about italy. such a shame they r not there anymore. great songs and great singers. the list is too long to mention here.
Btw, in ten years time perhaps we could expect the change of the contest's name to Worldvision Song Contest (WSC). Can you imagine the contest with the USA, China, Korea, Japan, Brazil...?
It would be nice to see Italy and Luxembourg in Belgrade and I'm really sorry for saying it, but I don't think either of them would return. It would be stupid for Montenegro to withdraw - they had a bad song in Helsinki and no wonder it wasn't successful. They have some very nice performers who could do very well on ESC. It would be also nice to see Monaco, Slovakia and Lebanon - especially the last one. I just don't unterstand how they don't realise that their boycott of Israel harms them much more then Israel.
As for Azerbeijan, I have no idea what we could expect from that country.
@ Eurovision 2008 - Just to point out that it was not our own decision, it was our broadcaster's decision - Italian TV viewers have got less and less information about the ESC throughout the years, and the contest has been broadcasted late at night for years. In the end, they've grown unaccustomed to watching it, and that's what RAI wanted! Try and ask any italian (except OGAE members of course) about the ESC, and you will see they don't even know or remember that the contest exists!!! How can they be interested in it if they do not know????
Luxembourg coming back. O come on, be serious. A friend of mine has been to the OGAE LUxembourg convention and he told me that there was very low media interest in this. After the contest, you could read nothing at all in the newspapers and RTL wasn´t interested at all in this convention. He thought that this convention was nothing more than another annual gay convention and regarding he does not think that RTL wants to come back to the contest.
"Tunisia has already stated that due to governmental requests it will not take part in the forseeable future,..."
Do anyone know WHY the government doesn't want that a Tunisian broadcaster take part at the ESC? By the way is the Tunisian broadcaster (which is a EBU member) a state broadcaster or it is private? It would be very bad if a state can even influence the decisions of a private broadcaster in regards to its program.
Aren't we done yet discussing who's in Europe and who's not?
i also dont think at all that resisting african and asian countries is close-mindness. i understand and share that many europeans dont get or dont want the extension of eurovision. but as extended as it is now, Eurovision is still a paneuropean (but not westerneuropean) event and has its continental uniqueness.
as to Italy & Luxemburg. Dont forget that the music markets and broadcasters in countries have changed. so we might never face from LUX, anything like the listed (brilliant) 5 winning songs (no matter if they were imported - we dont have anything like this from France now as well)
I see a point in Marino's words over "hole", which can't be filled out by newcomers from EE. But the thing is, that Italy itself would unlikely to feel that hole as well, as do the most of western countries today. At the same time, as to me, such entries as Natali and Anjezha, not mentioning Ruslana, Bilan, and Koldun would also represent missing "holes", if they stop or fade out.
LOOOL, peter ericsson is just impossible. his message made me laughing out loudly.
Okay, in order to keep the balance I personally don't except a country participating in Eurovision to respect human rights and freedom and recognize Israel.
i keep thinking if a young age can justify all this blabla
@ Paul G
Slovenia is confirmed as they already published EMA rules.
UK, France, and Spain are because we would have heard already if they wouldnt have. Portugal i read somewhere are taking with singers. Romania is also review its selection process.
Its obvious Armenia and Georgia are taking part especially if Azerbaijan are. Macedonia for sure since its in Serbia (some I believe for montenegro and croatia). Ukraine and Russia have had success so i doubt they are out. I believe Austria will be taking parts as well. Didnt this site publish articles in the past few months saying austria and montenegro would come back, look it up, im sure you'd find it.
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