Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest
Lithuania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since its debut in 1994, where Ovidijus Vyšniauskas finished last, receiving nul points. Lithuania withdrew from the contest, not returning until 1999, LT Uniteds sixth place in 2006 with the song We Are the Winners is Lithuanias best result in the contest. The country reached the top ten for a time in 2016. Having been relegated from the 2000 contest the country returned in 2001 with Skamp and You Got Style and they received 35 points, placing 13th. However the following year, Aivaras could only manage to come second last with 12 points, since the semi-finals were introduced Lithuania again came last with Laura and the Lovers and Little by Little. The following year the Lithuanian broadcaster Lietuvos Nacionalinis Radijas ir Televizija sent LT United to the 2006 contest with the football chant-like song We Are the Winners. They took Lithuania to the final for the first time since 2002, coming sixth in the final with 162 points, Lithuanias best placing as of 2016.
The following year Lithuania automatically qualified for the final, however 4Fun could not replicate LT Uniteds success, in 2008 Jeronimas Milius failed to reach the final, coming 16th of 19 competing nations in the second semi-final. Lithuania threatened to boycott the 2009 contest if Russia continues to showcase power, the statement was made in reaction to the Russias actions in the 2008 South Ossetia war. Culture Minister Jonas Jucas stated that it was too early to discuss the boycott since spontaneous decisions might aggravate the efforts of diplomats and thus make the situation worse. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Lithuania qualified from the finals and at the end of the voting in the final had received 23 points. LRT announced in December 2009 that, due to a lack of necessary funds, however, in the event that the necessary funds of 300,000 litas would be found the broadcaster announced that they would attempt to continue the countrys participation. Ultimately, private company TEO LT provided the funding and Lithuania participated in Bærum.
In 2011 Lithuania participated in the first Semi Final on the 10 May 2011 and after coming 5th, in the final, Lithuania performed 4th and at the end of the voting had received 63 points putting them 19th. ^ Includes two phrases in French, ^ Includes two phrases in French. American Sign Language was used during the televised performance. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Danish, København, Hafnia) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. Copenhagen has an population of 1,280,371. The Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants, the city is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road, originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a centre of power with its institutions, defences. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century and this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later, following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing, since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure.
The city is the cultural and governmental centre of Denmark, Copenhagens economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö. With a number of connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterized by parks, promenades. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC København and Brøndby football clubs, the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train network connects central Copenhagen to its outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, the name of the city reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce.
The original designation, from which the contemporary Danish name derives, was Køpmannæhafn, meaning merchants harbour, the literal English translation would be Chapmans haven. The English name for the city was adapted from its Low German name, the abbreviations Kbh. or Kbhvn are often used in Danish for København, and kbh. for københavnsk. The chemical element hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered, the bacterium Hafnia is named after Copenhagen, Vagn Møller of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen named it in 1954. Excavations in Pilestræde have led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century, the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen
Circus Building, Copenhagen
The Circus Building on Axel Torv in Copenhagen, Denmark. is a circular building completed in 1886 to serve as a venue for circus performances. It is now used for shows and as a restaurant, at that time, circus tents were relatively uncommon. Instead, touring circus companies performed in permanent venues and they were generally simple wooden structures but in major cities elaborate circus buildings in brick and stone became increasingly common. Ernst Renz, director of Circus Renz and artist who had made a fortune on his trade, had built extravagant circus buildings in such as Berlin, Vienna. In Copenhagen he leased the new building on a three-year contract, the first plans envisioned an extravagant building with an elaborate facade with statues and Greek columns but in the end a much simpler design was chosen. Renz did not renew his lease after the 1888 season and died in 1891, instead the Circus building played host to performances by a variety of visiting foreign circus companies which passed through Copenhagen on their European tours.
In March 1914, the Circus building was devastated by a fire left only the outer walls standing. It was quickly rebuilt, under the direction of the architect Holger Jacobsen, in 1916, Cirkus Schumann performed in the building. The company was run by Willy and Oscar Schumann, nephews of Albert Schumann, after they had taken over the business from their father, Max Schumann. They returned to the Circus building in 1918 and except for a few years break during the beginning of World War II performed there every summer until 1968. During that period, their company was synonymous with circus in Denmark, in 1963, a retail company, bought the Circus building to replace it with a modern department store but the plans were abandoned after massive protests and due to lack of funding. Still, due to escalating rent and the uncertainty about the buildings future, the Schumanns were succeeded by another prominent Danish circus, headed by Eli Benneweis, presenting summer performances from 1970 to 1990. In 1974, the City bought the building and rented it out to the Benneweis family, in 1988, the Circus building was listed by the Danish Heritage Agency.
After decreasing ticket sales, Circus Benneweis decided to leave the building in 1990, the building has since been used for a variety of activities and events, including musicals, ballet and concerts. The building is circular and topped by a shallow dome, the most distinctive feature of the facade is a frieze located just below the roof on the periphery of the outer wall. It was created by the sculptor Frederik Hammeleff and survived the fire in 1906 and it depicts motifs from ancient Rome and Greece. Since 2003, the building has been leased by Wallmans salonger, a Swedish entertainment company, the Circus Buuilding is used as a location in the 1973 Olsen Gang film The Olsen Gang Goes Crazy
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix is an annual music competition organised by Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio, which determines the countrys representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. The festival has produced three Eurovision winners and thirteen top-five placings, with the introduction of a semi-final at the 2004 contest, and due to Denmarks absence from the 2003 contest, Denmarks 2004 representative, Thomas Thordarsson, had to take part in the semi-final. His song, Shame on You did not reach the final, in 2005, DR made a bold step for Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Artists were allowed, for the first time ever, to sing in a other than Danish. Many of the entries that year were sung in English, against the odds, jakob Sveistrup won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with his song Tænder på dig. It was re-written for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 to English as Talking to You, unlike the year before, Denmark secured a place in the final, finishing third in the semifinal. In the final he came 9th, guaranteeing Denmark a place in the final of the 2006 contest, a year later, Sidsel Ben Semmane sang Twist of Love in the final, but managed to finish 18th of 24 songs.
In 2007, after poor results, Dansk Melodi Grand Prix adopted a semi-final format that had served well for the Swedish preselection. Two semi-finals with 8 songs each were introduced, with the top 4 songs qualifying for the final, the 4 losing songs of each semi-final took part in one of two wildcard rounds where the listeners of Danish radio stations P3 and P4 chose another two finalists. The winner under this new format, DQ with the song Drama Queen, finished 18th in the semifinal, DR continued to use this format in the 2008 edition which was won by Simon Mathew and the song All Night Long. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Denmark as in 2005, finished 3rd in the semifinals, in the final, Mathew got 60 points, finishing 15th in a field of 25 songs. For the 2009 of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, DR reverted to their one-night final, the final of 10 songs consisted of 6 songs from an open call of songs from the public, with 4 songs being invited by DR to compete. Denmark has won Eurovision three times, in 1963,2000 and 2013
Eurovision Song Contest 1967
The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of Eurovision Song Contest. It took place on 8 April 1967 in Vienna, Austria following Udo Jürgens win at the 1966 contest. The presenter became confused whilst the voting was taking place, and declared the United Kingdoms entry to be the winner before the last country, shaw intensely disliked the composition, though her attitude towards the song somewhat mellowed in years, even releasing a new version in 2007. The contest long remained the only time Austria had hosted the event, the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna, the capital of Austria. The venue for the contest was the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence the Habsburg dynasty. It currently serves as the residence of the President of Austria. The stage setup was a bit unusual this year. There were two revolving mirrored walls on both ends of the stage and started revolving at the start of song and stopped revolving at the end of each song. The hostess, Erika Vaal ended the program by congratulating the winning song, denmark chose not to participate and left the contest at this point, to return in 1978.
The reason was that the new director for the TV entertainment department at DR thought that the money could be spent in a better way, the United Kingdoms win was their first. Television presenter and musician, Rolf Harris provided the commentary for BBC Television viewers, switzerland received zero votes for the second time. Portugal was represented by Eduardo Nascimento who was the first black singer in the history of Eurovision Song Contest. Rumours claimed that Portuguese prime minister Salazar had chosen this particular singer to show the rest of Europe that he wasnt racist, each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra. Three artists returned in this years contest, the table below shows the order in which votes were cast during the 1967 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country. Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.
Details of the commentators and the station for which they represented are included in the table below
SMS
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of most telephone, World Wide Web, and mobile telephony systems. It uses standardized protocols to enable mobile phone devices to exchange short text messages. SMS, as used on modern handsets, originated from radio telegraphy in radio memo pagers that used standardized phone protocols and these were defined in 1985 as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications series of standards. The protocols allowed users to send and receive messages of up to 160 alpha-numeric characters to, though most SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, support for the service has expanded to include other mobile technologies, such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS. SMS is employed in marketing, a type of direct marketing. Adding text messaging functionality to mobile devices began in the early 1980s, the first action plan of the CEPT Group GSM was approved in December 1982, requesting that, The services and facilities offered in the public switched telephone networks and public data networks.
Should be available in the mobile system and this plan included the exchange of text messages either directly between mobile stations, or transmitted via message handling systems in use at that time. The SMS concept was developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand, the GSM is optimized for telephony, since this was identified as its main application. In this way, unused resources in the system could be used to transport messages at minimal cost, however, it was necessary to limit the length of the messages to 128 bytes so that the messages could fit into the existing signalling formats. Based on his observations and on analysis of the typical lengths of postcard and Telex messages. SMS could be implemented in every mobile station by updating its software, hence, a large base of SMS-capable terminals and networks existed when people began to use SMS. The technical development of SMS was a multinational collaboration supporting the framework of standards bodies, through these organizations the technology was made freely available to the whole world.
The first proposal which initiated the development of SMS was made by a contribution of Germany and this proposal was further elaborated in GSM subgroup WP1 Services based on a contribution from Germany. There were discussions in the subgroup WP3 network aspects chaired by Jan Audestad. The result was approved by the main GSM group in a June 85 document which was distributed to industry, the input documents on SMS had been prepared by Friedhelm Hillebrand with contributions from Bernard Ghillebaert. The last three words transformed SMS into something more useful than the prevailing messaging paging that some in GSM might have had in mind. SMS was considered in the main GSM group as a service for the new digital cellular system. In GSM document Services and Facilities to be provided in the GSM System, the discussions on the GSM services were concluded in the recommendation GSM02.03 TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status.
In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s.
It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest
Turkey participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 34 times from their debut in 1975 with the song Seninle Bir Dakika performed by Semiha Yankı, to their withdrawal in 2013. Turkey has always qualified for the final, except the 2011 Contest. Since their debut in the two years Turkey finished last, they scored nul points, before 1997, the countrys only top ten result was achieved by Klips ve Onlar, who placed ninth in 1986. Turkey achieved six top five results between 1997 and 2010, winning once in 2003 with the song Everyway That I Can by Sertab Erener, in 2004, the home entry in Istanbul, For Real by Athena, placed fourth. In 2007, Shake It Up Şekerim by Kenan Doğulu finished fourth, in 2008, the band Mor ve Ötesi placed seventh. In 2009, Hadise achieved another impressive result for Turkey, finishing in fourth place, in 2010, the nu metal band maNga, achieved Turkeys second best result in the contest, finishing second. Since the introduction of the free language rule as well as televoting, in 1997, Turkey finished third with the song Dinle by Şebnem Paker, who sung all the song in Turkish.
The country sent a song partially in English for the first time in 2000 and completely in English in 2003, since 2000, Turkey has had seven entries completely sung in English and four bilingual songs. TRT announced on 14 December 2012 that they would not attend the 2013 competition in Malmö, in September 2013, Turkeys state broadcaster stated a return is unlikely for the 2014 competition, citing the same reasons. Also there was no television broadcast on TRT in 2013 and 2014, test transmissions started on TRT1 on 31 January 1968. A full national television schedule, which at that time linked the areas in and around Ankara, Istanbul, TRT renewed its membership in the European Broadcasting Union starting on 26 August 1972 with Turkeys first Eurovision Network event, a football match, on 13 January 1973. Turkish national broadcaster televised the Eurovision Song Contest between 1973 and 2012 incessantly, even in the years that they werent participating, Turkey debuted to the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1975 Contest, which is the 20th edition of the Contest and held in Stockholm, Sweden.
Greece did not participate in the 1975 Contest for unknown reasons according to the EBU, TRT organized a national final for select the first ever Turkish entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest. The final took place on 9 February 1975 in the studios of TRT, the winning song was picked by averaging the ranks from the professional jury and peoples jury as Seninle Bir Dakika by Semiha Yankı. At the close of voting the song had received only 3 points from Monaco, in 1976, Greek entry aroused controversy as it was about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This time Turkey withdrew from the Contest to protest the political background of the entry of Greece, Panagia Mou, Turkey didnt take part in the Contest until 1978. The 1979 Contest was held in the Israeli capital, Turkish entry selected as Seviyorum by Maria Rita Epik but Arab countries compelled the Turkish government to withdraw from the Contest because of Arabs state of war with the host country, Israel. So Turkey withdrew from the Contest for the time in 1979
Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since making its debut at the contest in 2000, where the group Brainstorm finished third with the song My Star. Latvia won the contest in 2002, with Marie N and the song I Wanna, Latvia is the second former Soviet country to win the contest. The 2003 contest was held in the Latvian capital Riga, the country achieved its third top 10 result in 2005, when Walters and Kazha finished fifth with The War Is Not Over. Latvia qualified for the final for the first time since 2008 at the 2015 contest with Aminata and her sixth place in the final is Latvias fourth top 10 finish and best result in the contest since 2005. Latvia made its 10th appearance in the final in 2016, Latvia has had seventeen Eurovision entries since its debut. To select the 2017 Latvian Eurovision entry, Spotify data will be included in national Eurovision vote, ^ The song is in English, there are some phrases in Latvian. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year.
In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example and France placed inside the top ten, as of 2016, Latvias voting history is as follows, Points to and from Latvia eurovisioncovers. co. uk
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
Malta has never won the contest, although it has twice finished second and twice finished third. Maltas two seconds and two thirds, make it the most successful country not to win the contest, in the last 10 contests, Malta has only once reached the top 10, when Gianluca Bezzina finished eighth in 2013. Together with France, Spain and the United Kingdom, the only use of the Maltese language was three lines in the 2000 entry Desire, performed by Claudette Pace. The Maltese broadcasters of the show are the Public Broadcasting Services, all shows are transmitted live on TVM and Radio Malta. Also, along with Croatia and Sweden it was the country to never be relegated, under the previous rules of the contest. If a country had won the year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition, back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the finals the following year. If, for example and France placed inside the top ten, ^ Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway.
After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark -12 points - instead of being snubbed, the mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Estonia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since making its debut in 1994. Estonia has won the contest once, in 2001, Estonias first participation in 1994 was not a successful one, coming second last only to Lithuania. The country was relegated from the 1995 contest. From its second entry in 1996, the country entered its best era in the contest, maarja-Liis Ilus and Ivo Linnas fifth place in 1996 was the first top five ranking for a former Soviet country. This made Estonia the first former Soviet country to win the contest, the 2002 contest was held in Tallinn, with Sahlene finishing joint third for the hosts. Estonias total of nine top ten results, is more than any other Baltic country, Estonias record at the contest was a successful one from 1996 to 2002, only failing once to make the top 10. As such the 2002 contest was held in Estonia, in the capital city Tallinn, at the second semi-final of the 2009 contest, Urban Symphony qualified Estonia to the final of the contest for the first time since 2003, receiving 115 points and placing 3rd.
The group performed 15th in the final, where it received 129 points, in 2010, Estonia failed to qualify to the final, with the song Siren by Malcolm Lincoln. In 2011, Estonia was represented by Getter Jaani with the song Rockefeller Street and she was the bookmakers pre-contest favorite for victory along with France. She qualified to the final but eventually placed 24th of 25 entries- tying Silvi Vraits 1994 result for Estonias worst placing in the contest final, in 2012, Ott Lepland qualified Estonia to the final with his song Kuula, ending up 4th in the second semi-final. In the final, he equalled Estonias result of 1999 and 2009, together with Urban Symphony in 2009, Kuula gave Estonia its best result in the contest since 2009. ^ Estonia unsuccessfully attempted to participate in 1993, when there was a round for seven countries hoping to make their debut in the contest. The official Eurovision site does not count 1993 in Estonias list of appearances, as of 2016, Estonias voting history is as follows, Points to and from Estonia eurovisioncovers. co. uk
Eurovision Song Contest 1977
The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and was held in London, United Kingdom on 7 May 1977. The contest was won by Marie Myriam, representing France, with the song Loiseau et lenfant and this was Frances fifth victory, a record at the time. It was Frances second victory on English soil, as well as its most recent victory to date, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Wembley Conference Centre, which opened in 1977, was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom, the centre was chosen as host venue for the song contest, which was presented by Angela Rippon. The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years after it had dropped in 1973. However Germany and Belgium were allowed to sing in English, because they had chosen the songs they were going to perform before the rule was reintroduced. At one point before the contest Tunisia was going to participate, had Tunisia gone ahead they would have appeared fourth on stage.
Yugoslavia withdrew, and did not return until 1981, the Belgian act Dream Express had created some controversy in the press with reports that the three female members would wear transparent tops, this did not materialise for the actual event. The British conductor Ronnie Hazlehurst used an umbrella and wore a hat during the UK entry. Each performance had a conductor who maestro the orchestra, several artists returned to the 1977 Contest. Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher from the group Schmetterlinge both represented Austria in 1972 as part of the band The Milestones, irelands participant The Swarbriggs returned after their previous appearance back in 1975. Ilanit from Israel returned after previously representing the nation in 1973, michèle Torr, Luxembourgs 1966 entrant participated for Monaco. And finally Fernando Tordo and Paulo de Carvalho returned once more after they previously represented the nation as solo acts back in 1973 and 1974 respectively, ^ Contains some words in English.
Each national broadcaster sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language
Denmark
Malta
Sweden
Estonia
Latvia
United Kingdom
France
Belgium
Finland
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Israel
