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Eurovision Song Contest 2008
"The Confluence of Sound"
Dates
Semi-final	20 May 2008 (SF 1) 22 May 2008 (SF 2)
Final	24 May 2008
Host
Venue	Belgrade Arena, Belgrade, Serbia
Presenter(s)	TBA
Host broadcaster	RTS
Website	eurovision.tv/event/belgrade-2008
Participants
Number of entries	43
Debuting countries	Azerbaijan  San Marino
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Austria
Participation map
Vote
Voting system	People in each country can vote by tele-vote or SMS. Each country's 10 favourite songs are awarded 12, 10, then 8 through to 1 points based on the votes of the population of each country. All participating countries in the semi-finals and final will have the right to cast points in the final.
Winning song	TBD

The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be hosted by Serbia. The semi-finals will be held on 20 and 22 May respectively and the final on 24 May 2008 in the capital, Belgrade. The Belgrade Arena, venue for the Contest, is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe, with a total capacity of more than 20,000 seats. Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. The host broadcaster will be RTS.

At a press conference in Helsinki in May 2007, Svante Stockselius, executive supervisor of the Contest for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the competition's format may be expanded to two semi-finals in 2008 or 2009. On 28 September 2007 it was announced that the EBU had approved the plan of hosting two semi-finals in 2008. The 2008 contest's official website opened on 15 January 2008. For the first time ever, Eurovision.tv will stream national finals on ESCTV with broadcasters' permission. On 30 January 2008, Eurovision.tv revealed the theme of the Contest: "The Confluence of Sound".

On 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the "Eurovision keys" to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a tradition from now, and the ring contains a key from every city that has ever hosted the competition. Cosmetics supplier Wella will become the official partner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008.

Due to problems and riots in Belgrade, Serbia regarding the independence of Kosovo, on 22 February 2008 the EBU held a phone conference to decide if the contest should be moved to a different city. Ukraine was considered an option since they came second in Eurovision Song Contest 2007. YLE were another option, as they hosted last years competition in Helsinki, Finland. ERT also offered the EBU to host the contest in Athens, Greece again. It was later decided that the contest will stay in Belgrade, with the EBU giving support. RTS will gain a guarantee of safety and security from the government of Serbia for all visitors and participants of the contest.

Visual design

RTS ran a competition that led to the creation of the 2008 Contest's branding, logo and the stage. The stage picked by RTS is named "Confluence" in order to associate with Belgrade's geographical position on two European rivers, the Sava and Danube. It also represents the Kalemegdan Fortress located in central Belgrade above the confluence of the two rivers. According to RTS the stage represents native identities, history and modern themes, symbols and universally recognised messages. The confluence stage also contains a large number of television and LCD display screens. The stage will have settings for all new electronic possibilities including some movable parts of the stage. The stage will also have the possibility to be seen from all angles of the hall and subordinated for TV broadcast. The RTS Eurovision organisation team said that the stage will be slightly refined for the Belgrade Arena.

Format

Based on research conducted by the EBU’s tele-voting partner Digame, the semi-finalists will be sorted into the two heats through the drawing of lots, which will be seeded to keep countries that have a significant history of voting for each other apart. Each broadcaster will have to broadcast the semi-final they are taking part in, with the broadcasting of the other semi-final being optional. The draw for the semi-final allocation occurred in the Belgrade City Hall on Monday 28 January 2008 at 13:00 CET and was conducted by dancers from the National Dance Ensemble KOLO. First, two envelopes with 'Semi-Final 1' and 'Semi-Final 2' were drawn. Then, three countries from each pot were chosen randomly to take part in the first semi-final and the other three in the second one. The country left in Pot 5 took part in the first envelope that is drawn. While, the country left in Pot 6 in the second one.

The automatic finalist countries can choose whether they will broadcast both semi-finals or just one, but viewers from these countries may only vote in one. From the draw conducted, it was decided which of the five finalist countries will broadcast and have voting rights in either of the events. The semi-finals will be webcast live through Eurovision.tv. The top nine songs from the televoting will qualify for the final, and a tenth will be determined by the back-up juries. Twenty-five songs will compete in the final.

Semi-Final allocation

On 24 January 2008, all 38 countries in the semi-finals were separated into the following pots based on voting history and geographical location:

Running order

The draw to decide the running order of the songs in each Semi-Final and the Final, will be conducted at the Heads of Delegation meeting on 17 March 2008.

Individual entries

Template:Entries of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Participating countries

On 21 December 2007, the EBU confirmed that 43 countries would be present in Belgrade. San Marino, as well as the newest EBU member, Azerbaijan, will debut at the 2008 contest. Austria will not compete; its broadcaster, ORF, said "we've already seen in 2007 that it's not the quality of the song, but the country of origin that determines the decision".

The following countries will compete in two semi-finals to be broadcast live on Tuesday 20 May and Thursday 22 May 2008. In addition to this, automatic finalists Germany and Spain will exercise voting rights and broadcast the first semi-final. While France, the United Kingdom and host country Serbia will exercise voting rights and broadcast the second semi-final:

Semi-Final 1

Semi-Final 2

Final

The Big 4 and the host country are automatically qualified for the final to be held on Saturday 24 May 2008.

Commentators

•  North Macedonia - Aleksandar Nikolovski

International broadcasts

Australia

Although Australia is not itself eligible to enter, the event will be broadcast on SBS. The first semi-final is to be broadcast on Friday 23 May, the second semi-final is to be broadcast on Saturday 24 May 2008 at 8.30pm Australia local time, with the Final being broadcast on Sunday 25 May 2008 at 7.30pm Australia local time. In previous years, Australia has aired the United Kingdom's BBC broadcast, including commentary. The contest in recent years has been one of SBS's top rating special with viewers.

Austria

Austrian broadcaster ORF will probably broadcast the contest live, despite its withdrawal.

Template:Country data World Worldwide

A live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast worldwide by satellite through European streams such as Channel One Russia, ERT World, TVE Internacional, TVP Polonia, RTP Internacional, RTS Sat, SVT Europa and TVRi. The official Eurovision Song Contest website will also provide a live stream without commentary using the peer to peer transport Octoshape.

High-definition broadcast

RTS will broadcast the event in 1080i high-definition (HD) and 5.1 Surround Sound. The new high-definition television system will be in place at the Belgrade Arena by April 2008. This will be the second year that the event will be broadcast live in HD. The BBC in the United Kingdom will broadcast the final in high definition on BBC HD. Swedish broadcaster SVT will broadcast both the semi-final and the final on their HD-channel SVT HD. However all other countries will broadcast the show only in standard definition, and the event will only be available to buy on a standard-definition DVD; it will not be released on Blu-ray Disc.

Map

References

1. "Welcome to Belgrade Arena". Eurovision.TV. 2007-05-13. Retrieved 2007-05-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "San Marino in Belgrade confirmed". ESCtoday.com. 21 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. ^ "Austria will not go to Belgrade". 20 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-20. {{cite news}}: Text "publisher+ESCToday.com" ignored (help)
4. ^ "Eurovision 2008 - format confirmed!". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
5. "Reference Group concludes Belgrade visit". Eurovision.TV. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
6. "Two semi finals in 2008". ESCToday.com. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-05-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. "Eurovision: 2 semi finals confirmed!". ESCtoday.com. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Revamped eurovision.tv site launched!". ESCtoday.com. 2008-01-15. Retrieved 2008-01-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. "Belgrade 2008: The Confluence Of Sound". Eurovision.TV. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
10. "Belgrade received Helsinki city keys". Eurovision.tv. 2007-09-14. Retrieved 2007-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. "Wella official partner 2008". Eurovision.tv. 2007-05-11. Retrieved 2007-05-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. "'Helsinki could host Eurovision again'". esctoday.com. 2008-02-22. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. "WEBU holds phone conference to decide host city". Oikotimes.com. 2008-02-22. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
14. "Eurovision 2008: Set to stay in Belgrade". esctoday.com. 2008-02-22. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
15. "Serbia 2008: THE WINNER OF THE LOCAL OPEN COMPETITION FOR THE SUBLOGO – CODE MAMA 2008". RTS.co.yu. 2007-07-05. Retrieved 2007-07-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Eurovision 2008: Full stage image - The Sava, the Danube & Kalemegdan". esctoday.com. 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2007-10-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Berba šljiva ili agencija za usamljene". www.politika.co.yu. 2007-12-22. Retrieved 2007-11-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
18. "All you need to know for Monday's draw!". Retrieved 2008-01-24.
19. "Svante Stockselius explains the new format". oikotimes.com. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
20. "43 Countries for Eurovision 2008". Retrieved 2007-12-23. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |publsher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
21. The song is mostly in English, but includes words and/or phrases in French, German, Italian and Spanish
22. Song is in English, but also includes 2 Russian words
23. The press conference at the Athens Hilton hotel Retrieved January 22, 2008
24. "Australia: SBS to air both Eurovision semi finals". ESCToday.com. 2008-02-07. Retrieved 2008-02-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
25. "Broadcasting of Eurovision in Australia". ozeurovision. 2008-02-07. Retrieved 2008-02-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
26. "ORF likely to broadcast Eurovision Song Contest 2008". ESCtoday.com. 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
27. “Tijanić: Sa RTS-a proterane španske serije“, November 2007

External links

• Eurovision Song Contest
• Radio Television of Serbia
• ESCToday
• Esctime.com

• Eurovision Song Contest by year
• Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008
• 2008 in music
• 2008 in Serbia