Welcome back to Copenhagen, where this morning the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster DR held a press conference:
The key points from DR were:
- The venue was a great inspiration for DR, to show that you can do the Song Contest in a ‘different’ sort of venue
- ‘Join us’ was the way DR wanted to present the whole event from the very start; to invite the audience and viewers to engage il themselves in the show
- Semifinal one will start with the ‘Choir of Europe’ – people around Europe singing “Only Teardrops”
- The mission of the show is to be “closer to the competition, the fans of the show and the artists on the stage”
- The postcards show each country’s flag being made by various elements in the filming
- There will also be a history section, call ‘Eurovision book of records’, being shown at various times in the shows during commercial opt-outs
- Emmelie will perform in the first semifinal
From the EBU, the key points were:
- A huge thank you to DR for all their very hard work
- Glad to welcome back Poland and Portugal; other broadcasters unable to due to financial and strategic reasons. However all of those who have withdrawn will broadcast the show
- Canada and New Zealand will show Eurovision for the first time this year
- EBU is very focussed on how the event can be scaled to fit different countries
- Situation in Ukraine is being followed very closely to make sure it will not impact the three shows. Jon Ola Sand has spoken to both delegations to promote themselves and their countries in the correct way.
- There is a tradition that the country who wins hosts the next edition, however firmย security and press freedom guarentees will need to be given for whoever hosts the next edition
- Jon Ola was “pissed off” at the vote buying video that surfaced last year, and angry about it, but was less worried about it due to the Digame televoting system and checks that are in place. He explained the changes made to the jury voting, and Sietse Bakker added that the jury names are now online.
- The split voting results, plus votes of each individual jurors, will be online after the show
- Five countries were asked to make changes to their jury line-ups, which they did
- Any attempt to impact the voting will have an impact on a broadcaster’s participation for up to three years
- The EBU are working with several ideas for a 60 year anniversary show; one of whom is NDR who would like to organise an event in Berlin.
