The inevitable Eurovision 2009 topic

[Minimalizm]

Some interesting bit of information:

Austria did not participate the contest because of political reasons (whatever they are)

San Marino could not participate because of financial reasons

Italy has been boycotting the contest since 1997 due to political voting issue

Some EBU member states proposed to change Eurovision to Worldvision which was thankfully rejected. Instead an Asiavision is on the way in Asia,

Norway's championship is a record-breaking one: 387 points and 12 points by 16 countries (very hard to match)

Hungary replaced its singer for two times. If Hungary replaces its singer next year, it will be disqualified from the contest for five years.

The only zero point: Czech Republic

Armenia's participation with System of a Down was rejected by EBU because the song lyrics include references to the "genocide".

[Fugitive1979]

United Kingdom's (not "England's" I learnt my lesson well )

Secondly you cannot ignore the politics and neighborhood relations in the contest. Let me tell you the countries that 12 points are guaranteed for Turkey: Azerbaijan (obviously), France, Belgium, Switzerland and England (many Turkish people living in these countries and attacking their mobile phones million times). This dampens all the excitement. You almost know who will give what points to you and who will not regardless of how bad or good your song is.

You were doing so well.

[Fugitive1979]

Anyway I think it's a bit strange. The Turkish people on Cyprus are not allowed to vote for their own country (Turkey) - but the Greek Cypriots can still vote for Greece? So in reality they are the only ones who are allowed to vote for themselves in the ESC! Of course the Greek Cypriots could vote for Turkey anyway, but maybe they just don't...

Greek Cypriots are still Cypriots, and have their own country - Cyprus. Therefore, they are not voting for themselves by voting for Greece. The fact they share a common language is by-the-by. They just see Greece as their protectors.

As for the Turkish enclave, it isn't a part of Turkey, so they wouldn't be voting for their own country either, if they could.