For the 53rd time the most interesting song contest, ‘Eurovision’, will be held in Serbia. This year it will be in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, because the winner from last year’s contest was the Serbian song – Molitva.
Last year the song ‘Molitva ’ was presented by the Serbian singer Marija Serifovic. Afterwards this song is recorded in several different languages – English, Finnish and Russian.
Having won the first place Marija Serifovic gained the opportunity Eurovision 2008 contest to be held in Belgrade. The contest will be held in Belgrade Arena, which is one of the largest hall in Europe. This hall has about twenty thousand seats, that hopefully will be enough to gather together the audience for the entire show.
Countries from all across Europe can participate in this contest. Eurovision 2008 semi-final will be on 22nd May and the final will be on 24th May. Each country should give in one song which has to represent the country’s music. The song can be written in either the native language or in English. Some of the rules say that the song should not be previously published or broadcasted. From the participant it is expected the song to be new, so that it will be new for the jury and the millions of people watching the contest, supposed to vote. During the whole contest there are several ellegible broadcasters, which are authorized to broadcast Eurovision in the specified country.
The preparations for Eurovision 2008 have already started. It has been reported that lots of hotel rooms are already booked, because of the many participant, guests and fans expected to come. Each country’ delegation will bring about 20 to 25 members. Furthermore, there are expected more than several hundreds members of the press.
Beogradska Arena
The Belgrade Arena The 2008 Eurovision Song Contest will take place at the Belgrade Arena, one of the most appealing concert venues in the region.
The Beogradska Arena is one of the largest European multi functional indoor arena's. It was constructed for sports, cultural events and sports events. Covering an area of 48,000 square meters, and a total maximum capacity of up to 23,000 seats, it is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe.
The official opening of the arena took place on the 31st of July, 2004, when the Diamond Ball basketball tournament was held.
Previous events hosted by the Belgrade Arena. The biggest events held in the Arena include numerous sporting events, such the European championships in basketball (EuroBasket 2005), volleyball 2005 Men's European Volleyball Championship), table tennis (2007 European Table Tennis Championships) and judo (2007 European Judo Championships), concerts of popular Serbian artists and international stars, such as The Chemical Brothers, Joe Cocker and Andrea Bocelli.
In April and May, the Belgrade Arena will be serving as venue of the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest
Participants
First Semi-Final (20.05)Participants: Montenegro, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia, the Netherlands, Romania, Moldova, San Marino, Slovenia, Norway, Belgium, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia
Second Semi-Final (22.05)Participants: Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Portugal, Ukraine, Switzerland, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Cyprus, Latvia, Belarus, Hungary, Albania, Sweden, Turkey, Lithuania, Georgia, Czech Republic and Malta.
The Final(24.05)Participants: France, Germany, Serbia, Spain and United Kingdom. Per Semi-Final, 10 countries will qualify for the Final, bringing the total amount of participants to 25.
If you have any more questions please visit http://www.eurovision.tv/, as it is the home page for Eurovision 2008 in Belgrade