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Danish Broadcasting prepares to host record Eurovision Song Contest
Geneva/Copenhagen, 2 May 2001 - The 46th Eurovision Song Contest - in Copenhagen on Saturday 12 May - is expected to be the biggest in the competition's history.
The 23 competing songs* will be performed in the Parken sports stadium - fitted with a movable roof for the occasion - before 38,000 spectators who snapped up every ticket within 50 minutes. This will be by far the largest venue ever used for the competition.
The TV audience is also likely to be a record. The three-hour show will be sent via the European Broadcasting Union's Eurovision network to a live audience expected to nudge 70 million. It will also be webcast on www.songcontest.com under a deal between Danish Broadcasting (DR) and Yahoo!, and be broadcast later in Australia and the US.
The task of organising this year's Song Contest fell to DR after Denmark's Olsen Brothers won in Stockholm last year with "Fly on the Wings of Love".
As always, the contest will be decided by each participating country awarding up to 12 points to the songs of its competitors. This year, 15 countries will base the scores they award on telephone voting. Five will combine televoting with a jury, and three will rely completely on a jury for technical reasons. Excitement will be heightened by a new rule that will exclude countries from next year's contest if they do not finish in the top 15.
DR is confident the huge stadium audience will give enthusiastic support to what will be a lavish and spectacular TV show for Eurovision. Online, internauts will be able to call up each song on demand and choose between five webcams offering glimpses backstage and Green Room interviews. A CD compilation of all the songs will go on sale soon on the BMG label.
The Geneva-based EBU, which founded the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, unites and serves 69 national broadcasting organizations in 50 countries in and around Europe. EBU activities include operation of the Eurovision and Euroradio networks; the exchange of news, sport and cultural programming; coordination of co-productions; technical research; training; legal advice; and the defence of public service values.
* from (in order of appearance) Netherlands, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Norway, Israel, Russia, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, France, Turkey, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Estonia, Malta, Greece and Denmark. The competition will also be broadcast in seven countries which will compete in 2002: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, FYR Macedonia, Romania and Switzerland.
Further
information:
Christine Marchal, Song Contest Coordinator, EBU
Tel: +41 22 717 2412, marchal@ebu.ch
David Lewis, Head of Communications, EBU
Tel: +41 22 717 2032 ; press@ebu.ch