Estonia & Malta Will Be In Denmark
Estonia and Malta have now both confirmed that they will be taking part in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark. EER have said that they will continue to participate as since Eesti Laul was introduced they have qualified 4 out of the 5 times. Malta have confirmed their participating citing the brilliant 8th place they managed in the final.
Belarus Deserved Points From Russia
Belarus are now the latest country to become involved in voting controversy surrounding the points awarded in the Eurovision final. Belarus received no points at all from Russia, which has lead to a statement by the Belorussian president Alexander Lukashenko. He said today that:
No matter how our representative has performed at such public events watched by millions of people, we should be very appreciative. After all, there were many great things about the performance of our girl at this contest. However, you should never take such results too close to heart
He then accused the votes that were announced in the final as being falsified:
I know what you feel, Alyona, about the way Russia voted. You can take these 12 points, not less. This demonstrates how politicized and even falsified this contest is. Those who read news have probably learnt about a scandal around the falsification of voting results that broke out in one of the participating states. I am not even talking about the geographical voting principle. Therefore, you should take it easy, just listen and enjoy the music and performers. I do not want to cast a doubt and question the winning entry. Indeed, the girl from Denmark was very good and her performance was great. However, our girl was just as good. Therefore, I suggest we should stay cool and calm regarding such voting results.
Azerbaijan also ordered a recount of the vote and is looking into why they gave 0 points to Russia.
Average Figure Of 1.1 Million
NTU the national broadcaster of Ukraine have said that an average of 1,104,675 people watched the Eurovision final in Ukraine. Furthermore the viewing share peaked at 26.74% of as the voting took place in the final and the results were revealed.
Semifinal One, in which Ukraine competed, was watched by 407,089 a 4.27% share of the audience. Whilst for Semifinal Two total figures were 317,548- which is 3.4% share of country’s audience.
Source: NTU
Emmelie Brought 700,000 More Viewers
A total of 1.701 million Danes watched Emmelie De Forest win the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. These figures show a massive increase of over 700,000 viewers over last year when just 990,000 people watched the 2012 contest.This equates to the largest viewing figures in years. However it is still far below the highest viewing figure of 2,667,000 when Denmark hosted the contest backed in 2001.
The viewing figures for the 1st semi final were also revealed to be 929,000 this is up on 798,00 last year when Soluna Samay qualified for the final. Interestingly the DR Eurovision website also received 401,000 hits last week in the build up to the contest.
Source: DR
France Lost 1.3 Million Viewers
France had one of it’s worst years for Eurovision viewing figures as it emerges that only 2.7 million people watched the Eurovision final. The contest lost over 1.3 million viewers over last year, mainly due to the final of The Voice being aired at the same time on rival channel TF1. In the end only 13.9% of viewers tuned in to watch the contest.
3 Million Hungarian Watched The Contest
A total of 1,133,000 people watched the Eurovision Song Contest all the way through in Hungary, whilst a whopping 3 million people tuned it at some point during the contest to see ByeAlex get 10th place for Hungary. 1/3 of Hungary watched the contest on the whole up 8% on when Kati Wolf brought Hungary back to Eurovision in 2011. On the whole the figures increased by 0.5 million over 2012.