Lopez Blogs

Mr. Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest (EBU) held a press conference today congratulating the German hosts for the great success in organizing Eurovision 2011. Eurovision has grown and expanded in its fifty years, and has earned the title of "mega-event". It is not merely a trans-national TV show, but rather an international phenomenon that outshines its competitors around the world.

This year's Eurovision is not even over yet and has proven to be the biggest event ever! Though the same number of participants are competing this year as in the previous year, there has been an exponential increase in media attention. Some 2,500 journalists have descended upon Dusseldorf, Germany to document the dazzling events - on and off stage!

Most noteworthy is that San Marino, Italy, and Austria have made a comeback to Eurovision this year after an absence of several years, and whose presence has been noted and applauded.

There was a technical malfunction during the broadcast of the first Semi-Final which resulted in interruptions in audio transmission. Unfortunately, it had a direct affect on a number of countries. The problem occurred when the multichannel sound connections were not correctly transferred from the commentators boxes to the relevant interfaces.

Rest assured that the problem has been located and fixed. Moreover, to ensure that the remainder of Eurovision 2011 progresses without another glitch, a backup system has already been put into place. A stress test will be conducted before the second Semi-Final for each participating country to verify full functionality.

Interesting new development has been announced that the order in which various countries are announced will be changed! This will add to the anticipation and unpredictability of proceedings.

Smaller countries who also wish to host future Eurovision events have not been able to do so because their financial burden was to great to bear. This has come to the attention of Eurovision executives whose goals are to limit the growth and expansion of Eurovision but while maintaining its international appeal as a "world-class event".