FACT SHEET MALMÖ 2013

We are already counting down to the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, but let's have a look at some FACT-Sheets About last year Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Malmö:

FACT SHEET MALMÖ 2013

• The 2013 Eurovision Song Contest is the 58th
consecutive annual event, this year produced
by Swedish public broadcaster SVT, under the
auspices of the European Broadcasting Union
(EBU);

• EBU Member Broadcasters from 39 countries
are taking part in this year's competition;

• It is the fifth time the Eurovision Song
Contest takes place in Sweden (1975, 1985,
1992, 2000 and 2013), and the second time in
Malmö (1992);

• TeliaSonera, is the 2013 Eurovision Song
Contest Presenting Partner. Schwarzkopf is the
Official Beauty Partner of the event;

• Some 1,550 accredited journalists from over
80 countries are expected to cover the
contest. They will attend some 40 press
conferences;

• A crew of some 700 people is involved with
the production, while several hundreds of staff
and over 500 volunteers will support the event
organization of the 2013 Eurovision Song
Contest

• 1,283 lighting fixtures will be used, of which
800 moving lights, connected through 24km
signal cable. 3,500 meters of truss are being
used to rig equipment into the ceiling of the
Malmö Arena

• Instead of the well-known large LED walls
viewers have seen for many years, SVT uses
350 square meters of mapping surface
covered by gigantic projectors

• 23 HD-cameras will be used to film the 2013
Eurovision Song Contest

• All equipment in the ceiling of the arena
weighs about 400 tons

• Over 100 million viewers from across Europe
and the world are expected to tune in for the
two Semi-Finals and the Final

• This year, over 100 million page views will be
generated on the contest’s official website,
www.eurovision.tv;

• The Eurovision Song Contest channel on
YouTube registeres more viewers than the
channels of the White House and the Obama
campaign combined, whereas over one million
fans follow the Eurovision Song Contest on a
variety of social media channels.

HISTORY OF EUROVISION SONG CONTEST IN A NUTSHELL

The history of the Eurovision T Song Contest began as the

brainchild of Marcel Bezençon

of the EBU. The contest was based on

the Italian Sanremo Music Festival and

was designed to test the limits of live

television broadcast technology.

The first contest took place on 24 May 1956,

when seven nations participated. With a live

orchestra, the norm in the early years, and

simple sing-a-long songs on every radio

station, the Contest grew into a true pan-

European tradition.

In the beginning, it was obvious for the

participants that they should sing in their

country's national language. However, as the

Swedish entry in 1965, Absent Friend, was

sung in English, the EBU set very strict rules

on the language in which the songs could be

performed. National languages had to be used

in all lyrics. Song writers across Europe soon

tagged onto the notion that success would

only come if the judges could understand the

content, resulting in such entries as Boom-

Bang-A-Bang and La La La. In 1973, the rules

on language use were relaxed, and in the

following year ABBA would win with Waterloo.

Those freedom of language rules would be

soon reversed in 1977, to return with apparent

permanent status in the 1999 contest.

The voting systems used in the Contest have

changed throughout the years. The modern

system has been in place since 1975. Countries

award a set of points from 1 to 8, then 10 and

finally 12 to other songs in the competition —

with the favourite song being awarded 12

points, the famous douze points.

Historically, a country's set of votes was

decided by an internal jury, but in 1997 five

countries experimented with televoting, giving

members of the public in those countries the

opportunity to vote en masse for their

favourite songs. The experiment was a success

and from 1998 onwards all countries were

encouraged to use televoting wherever

possible. Nowadays members of the public

may also vote by SMS. Whichever method of

voting is used—jury, telephone or

SMS—countries may not cast votes for their

own songs.

The end of the Cold War in the early 1990s led

to a sudden increase in numbers, with many

former Eastern Bloc countries queuing up to

compete for the first time. This process has

continued to this day with more and more

countries joining. For this reason, in 2004 the

Semi-Final format was introduced by the EBU

which turned into two semi-finals for the

Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. Now all

countries, except the Big Five – France,

Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom

– together with the host country, have to go

through a Semi-Final to qualify for the Final

where the favourite song of the European TV

viewers is selected, for the 58th time in 2013.

Fact & Figures about Eurovision Song Contest

Hello! Today I'm gonna show you some fact & figures about ESC.

FACT SHEET HISTORY

? The first ever Eurovision Song Contest was
held on the 24 May, 1956, in Lugano,
Switzerland

? In 56 years, over 1,300 songs have competed
in the Eurovision Song Contest

• Noel Kelehan conducted five winners (1980,
1987, 1992, 1993 and 1996)

• Dutch conductor Dolf van der Linden
conducted for seven different countries
(Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland

• Johnny Logan won the Eurovision Song
Contest three times. In 1980 and 1987 he
represented Ireland as performer and won
both times, in 1992 he wrote Linda Martin's
winning entry Why Me

• Poland made the most impressive debut in
1994, when Edyta Gorniak came 2nd with To
Nie Ja, closely followed by Serbia's victory in
2007. Although Serbia & Montenegro had
been represented twice before, it was the first
time that Serbia took part as an independent
country

• Norway could be found at the bottom of the
list as many as ten times! The unfortunates
came last in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981,
1990, 1997, 2001 and 2004. Nevertheless, they
also won three times (in 1985, 1995 and 2009)

• Ireland won a record seven times,
Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom
5 times. Sweden and the Netherlands won 4
times

• ABBA is the most successful Eurovision Song
Contest winner. The Swedish pop band won
the contest in 1974

• In 2008, a record number of 43 countries
took part, just like in 2011

• The most covered Eurovision Song Contest
song is Domenico Modugno's Nel Blu Dipinto
Di Blu, also known as Volare. The song has
been covered by famous stars such as Frank
Sinatra, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and many
more

• Televoting was introduced in 1997

• In 2004, the first televised Eurovision Song
Contest Semi-Final was held. In 2008, a
second Semi-Final was introduced

• In 2009, some 124 million people watched
the three live shows on television. In 2011, over
105 million people tuned in for the shows

• During the Eurovision Song Contest Final of
2012, more than 1,5 million tweets were posted
with the hashtag #eurovision, peaking already
20 minutes into the live broadcast

Eurovision 2011: 
Feel Your Heart Beat

 Today I've decided to talk about Eurovision 2011 Theme Art.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was held in the Host City of Düsseldorf, Germany where the Grand Final was broadcast live to over 43 countries to viewing audience of 125M+ people.

In addition to all of the animated graphic assets used during the show such as the title sequence, stings, lower 3rd straps and dynamic voting table, Turquoise Branding, (the creators) created the overall visual identity for Eurovision 2011. TQ's crafted it to work as both an energetic and uplifting static identity as well as a dynamic animation in all on-screen graphics.

The Eurovision 2011 identity was honoured with an award for innovation at the 13th International Eyes & Ears Awards 2011.

Inspired by.. Lena!
Consistent with the theme, the heart is the key feature of the Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf – a symbol which is immediately recognised around the globe.
The idea was inspired by last year’s contest's Final in Oslo, where the winner, Lena, during her conversation with the host Erik Solbakken formed a heart with her fingers to thank all people who had voted for her. Many representatives of other countries followed, adopting Lena’s gesture.
This year, the heart will be employed making use of compelling animations - it consists of multi-coloured, pulsating rays of light. Their function is to connect countries, people and their songs. They also symbolise national flags in different colours.
Please check out the gallery of Eurovision 2011 Theme Art:
Please check out Eurovision 2011 Theme Art Photos:

Thank You!

Is Eurovision Song Contest 2009 the best ESC ever?

This is my first post on this blog, and I want to start it with Eurovision Song Contest 2009 which was held in Moscow, Russia. It's also notable as one of the most expensive Eurovision Song Contest shows ever.
It's notable also for one other thing. In 2009, Norway won the contest with the highest number of points ever. It were 387 points! A clear favorite!
Below you can watch Alexander Rybak performance at the Grand Final of ESC 2009:

Nice song though! I like it.
Please tell below your opinion about this ESC winner! Thanks for reading this blog!