NORWAY 🇳🇴
KEiiNO’s performance at the Jury Rehearsal (the day before the final, where the juries cast their votes) was also disrupted with the EBU rejecting the appeal to perform again. During their performance of “Spirit In The Sky” for the jury the screen went black on two occasions. When the picture came back, the camera operator was in the picture. A few days after the Saturday night event, Tom Hugo spoke to the Norwegian media VG about his reactions towards the results:
“It is subjective what is good and bad, and then it is strange that a few people should sit and decide half of what a country should give off points, says Tom Hugo to VG. An email was sent to the jury that they should not be influenced by the fact that the screen went in black. But music is about creating a feeling, and when you don’t get continuity in the experience you can be unconsciously influenced.”
RUSSIA 🇷🇺
Representative of Russia in 2006 and 2008, Dima Bilan admitted, in an interview with Love Radio, that she would like to hold the third participation in the Eurovision Festival. “I want to try for the third time because there are a lot of fans wanting me back on the Eurovision stage. The competition is a big promotion and a real party,” he said in Toronto, where he performed on the night of the Grand Final.
ISRAEL 🇮🇱
Israeli co-presenter of Eurovision 2019 has said he will donate his presenting fee to a charity working with Israeli youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+). Assi Azar, who is gay, donated his £23,000 salary to Israeli Gay Youth (IGY) which he said did “holy work” across Israeli society dealing with LGBTQ+ issues.
“To host the Eurovision for money is definitely something that I won’t do,” he said. “It’s for my soul and to represent the country with respect. If you can do something good with the salary that they pay, why not?”
ANDORRA 🇦🇩
OGAE Andorra reports that RTVA has ruled out returning to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2020. The Andorran national broadcaster took to Twitter to state that they currently have no plans to return to the Eurovision Song Contest. There had been increased speculation over the past few months that Andorra could return to the contest. This came as a result of reports that the Andorran broadcaster would be open to co-operating with the Catalan broadcaster TV3, regarding the Eurovision Song Contest.
PORTUGAL 🇵🇹
The RTP Opinion Board reported in an opinion related to the report and accounts for the year 2018 that it recorded a gap of seven million euros that would have been spent more on the coverage of the Eurovision Festival or the World Cup.
LITHUANIA 🇱🇹
Lithuanian Head of Delegation and Selection Producer, speaking to local press, confirmed country’s participation Eurovision 2020 but with a revamped national selection process. LRT should listen to the audience and see how neighbour broadcasters work. Fewer shows, jury transparency and opening to non Lithuanans. He also hopes to bring music industry closer.
SWEDEN 🇸🇪
Ola Melzig, Head of Production, and he revealed that he definitely won’t return to the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in The Netherlands.
“Eurovision has been such a major part of my life and career the past 19 years, so I can’t just drop it just like that. Focus is right now on America, but I hope it doesn’t stop me from being involved in future Eurovision productions, one way or another”
SERBIA 🇷🇸
Eighteen in Tel Aviv, Nevena Božović, Serbia’s representative, admitted in an interview that she was disillusioned with the result achieved at the Eurovision 2019 Festival. Asked by Srbija Danas, the singer also admitted that she was upset by the voting of the juries from the countries of the former Yugoslavia: Northern Macedonia, Slovenia and neighboring Hungary left “Kruna” out of the points while the Croatian jury awarded them only 4 points. The only exception was the Montenegro jury, which awarded the highest score to Serbia. On the other hand, the televote of the countries of the former Yugoslavia attributed high scores to the song of Serbia, having won the Montenegro vote (12 pts), and received 10 points from Slovenia and Northern Macedonia and 8 points from Croatia. However, Nevena would not have been pleased with the final vote, refusing to give interviews upon arrival in the country.
AZERBAIJAN 🇦🇿
Chingiz received warm welcome back home at the airport of Baku. Meanwhile he commented (actually mocked) the change of results which now rank him 8th instead of 7th by saying that until the next revise of the results, who knows maybe Azerbaijan even wins.
