San Marino wants to participate in Esc

The microstate of San Marino is one of the last European countries never to have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, it seems that this could change in the next few years - Sammarinese broadcaster SMRTV has confirmed to esctoday.com that they are watching the Eurovision project with a possible participation in mind.
SMRTV considered joining in 2007, but its stockholders, many of whom are related to Italian broadcaster RAI, decided not to support the idea. Whether they will have changed their minds in a year seems unlikely, but SMRTV is aiming to participate at some point over the next few years, according to a spokesperson for the broadcaster.

San Marino is a tiny country surrounded entirely by Italy, and is often reported as being the world's oldest republic. Success for microstates has happened in the past - Monaco won in 1971, for example, and Malta has had 4 top 3 placings to date, the most recent coming in 2005 when Chiara placed 2nd.

As Italy is not participating in the contest, and seems unlikely to return in the near future, San Marino could act as a representative for the Italian language and music tradition in the contest in their absence. As a debuting country, San Marino would have to start in the semi final, should they enter. esctoday.com will keep you up to date on all potential new and returning countries as it finds out the information!

Source: esctoday.com

Promo Video! Eurovision JESC Cyprus 2008

Enter Georgia !Bosnia & Herzegovina withdraw from JESC

Georgia's participation in this year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest can be considered as a lucky break for the new Eurovision enthusiast country as it was made possible by the withdrawal of Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Originally, there had been 19 applications for this year's JESC in Rotterdam with Georgia being the 19th. As the rules of this year's contest dictate that a maximum of 18 countries participate, Georgia was excluded. But a sudden withdrawal of Bosnia & Herzegovina made it possible for them to take part after all.

The final list of participants is as follows (in alphabetical order):

1. Armenia (ARMTV)
2. Belarus (BTRC)
3. Belgium (VRT)
4. Bulgaria (BNT)
5. Cyprus (CyBC)
6. FYR Macedonia (MKRTV)
7. Georgia (GPB)
8. Greece (ERT)
9. Lithuania (LRT)
10. Malta (MTPBS)
11. The Netherlands (AVRO)
12. Portugal (RTP)
13. Romania (TVR)
14. Russia (RTR)
15. Serbia (RTS)
16. Spain (TVE)
17. Sweden (TV4)
18. Ukraine (NTU)

Source from esctoday.com

Constantinos Christoforou in support of Bryan Adams

source: oikotimes.com

Bryan Adams will be in Limassol for a concert on June 29 at the Tsireio Stadium. The preparations for the concert have been undertaken for two months now with technicians and managers from London and Milan. Their wish was for a well known Greek artist to open Bryan's concert. And the name decided: It will be Constantinos Christoforou.

Constantinos who recently won the award of Best CD Single of the year in the Cyprus Music Awards has represented Cyprus three times. In 1996, 2002 (leader of boy band ONE) and 2005. The decision of Bryan Adams' management team to have Constantinos as opening act in his concert reached Constantinos himself who accepted as he felt honoured, loveradio.gr reports.

Constantinos therefore will open Bryan Adams concert with the songs Thes Na Kanoume Schesi and She's No Fool a song which came second in the 2005 Cyprus Song Selection. This is the second Greek Cypriot artist in support of a well known artist. Evridiki will open Evanescence concert this Saturday in Athens.

Local media claim Despina Olympiou in talks with CyBC

The Cypriot media discuss for days now the potential participant of Cyprus for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest representation. According to the claims, Despina Olympiou is in discussions with CyBC to represent the country in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade.

CyBC has made no official statement on the story and it is not really expected to do so. Though the name of Despina Olympiou might give an explanation to our previous article on why Michalis Hatzigiannis is not any more gaming with ERT for Greek representation in Belgrade for the 2008 Eurovision edition. Michalis Hatzigiannis and Despina Olympiou are a couple in life and it wouldn't be nice for both of them to represent 'competative' countries in an ESC edition.
Source from oikotimes.com

Moldova to make participation decision in October

The Moldovan broadcaster TRM is one of the poorest participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, something which nearly caused the country to pull out of the 2007 edition held in Helsinki. In the end, however, a compromise was reached stating that Moldova would participate as long as its representative paid the fees connected with the contest themselves.
However, another part of the agreement was that should Moldova enter the Top 10 in Finland, TRM would refund the participants' expenses - something which did indeed happen after Natalia Barbu placed 10th with Fight.
This means that TRM did not actually save any money and since their financial situation has not improved in the meantime the same doubts about their participation in 2008 remain the same as last year. TRM will consider their budget before making a final decision on participation in Belgrade in October of this year.
As Natalia Barbu finished Top 10 in 2007, Moldova is one of the countries prequalified to the 2008 final by right. The next in line for prequalification, should they withdraw, is Bosnia & Herzegovina, who finished 11th.

Georgia to participate in Junior Eurovision

Georgia, for the first time ever, will participate in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands on December 8, 2007. Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB) will present the Georgian participant, who will be selected through a national contest.

In addition, the song, which will be performed at Junior Eurovision – 2007, will be revealed through a competition as well. The essential precondition for entrants is to sing a song in the Georgian language. Children between ages of 10 to 15 will be eligible to participate.

The national contest will be held in three tours. All applications will be discussed during the first tour. Then the regional casting of participants will be held with the 12 best ones being selected. At the final concert, a person, who will depart for Rotterdam, will be revealed.

Deadline for submitting applications is July 10. The selection tours will be held under the auspices of Georgia’s First Lady Sandra Roelofs.