Finnish broadcaster YLE has published the rules and dates of their selection process for 2009 which will decide who will represent Finland in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. As in previous years, the competition will invite selected artists and composers in co-operation with their record companies. The biggest change from last year is that the whole process starts much earlier. Songs will be made public on the 10th of December 2008 and even earlier on YLE’s own channels.

There will be 12 artists competing in three semi-finals on the 9th, 16th and 23rd January. The head of YLE Entertainment, Ms Tuire Lindström is currently concentrate on the selection process  for the competing artists.  They will range from male and female solo singers to bands. The full artist line-up will be announced in September. Ms. Lindström also promises some surprises. “We are very happy with our Eurovision project this year with Teräsbetoni making it to the final in Belgrade, so we will use the same process to select out next entry”, she concludes.

From every semi-final two artists be voted  by the public to qualify directly to the final which will be held on the 31 January. Just like last year, there will be a second chance vote to start off the final between the 6 artists who did not make it directly to the final taking the number of participants in the final to 8. The final will again be in two parts and the winner will be decided by a televote and SMS-vote. There is also a mention of a compilation CD containing from all the entries planned for a January release.

The host city and the venue have not been announced. YLE TV entertainment and TV channel 2 who broascast  the national selection shows and the Eurovision Song Contest in Finland reside in the city of Tampere.  The semi-finals have in the past few years been transmitted “as live” from the Tohloppi TV centre studios in Tampere.

The executive producer for the Finnish national final this year will be Merete Manninen and the producer will be Matti Grönberg.

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The Portuguese representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, Anabela, carries on her successful career in musicals by joining the cast of the Portuguese version of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in the role of Mary Magdalene.

After playing the part of Maria in The Sound of Music for almost two years, Anabela started recently in the role of Mary Magdalene in the rock opera which can be seen at Teatro Politeama in Lisbon. Anabela keeps on adding important roles to her career in the area of musical plays.

The plot was written by Tim Rice and the music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It tells the story of the last weeks of Jesus’ life and his relation with Judas. Presented for the first time in 1970, in New York, the play has been adapted in over two dozen countries. Responsible for the adaptation in  Portuguese is Filipe La Féria who has had hit after hit with his adaptations and original musicals. Anabela has been working with him for almost a decade now.

Anabela sung for Portugal back in 1993, in Milstreet, the song A cidade (até ser dia) and ranked 10th place overall.

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The 17th edition of the OGAE Home Composed Song Contest for amateur composers, lyricists and singers takes place this year, virtually hosted from Hamburg by Stefan Engel, winner of the 2007 edition. The deadline for the submission of the songs is 12th October2008.

The first edition of the OGAE Home Composed Song Contest was in 1991 and since then it has been taking place every year with the exception of 1995. It has seen winners from many countries, with Denmark being the leader with no less than seven victories, the rest of the winners being from Sweden and Germany with 2 victories each, and Cyprus, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and Poland (1 victory each).

The rules dictate that all participants must be primarily a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and an amateur (co-)composer, a (co-)lyricist and / or a (co-) performer of the song submitted. The songs cannot have been released for commercial use (CD or download).

The deadline for the HCSC 08 is 12th October and the voting period will take place between 13th of October and will end 31st of October 2008, 23h local time Germany. All participants and the public will be able to vote for their favourite song. It goes without saying that participants cannot vote for their own entry. The winner will be announced on 3rd November via a special voting show video.

For more information visit the contest’s official site, here.

HCSC 2008 multilingual call for songs

You can listen to and download the winner of the HCSC 2008, Warrior of Love by Stefan Engel, Randi Knobloch and Tato Gomez here.

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On Radio International this week, Wednesday June 18th, they take a look at Spain’s participation at the Eurovision Song Contest with their Eurovision specialist Marcus Keppel-Palmer from the UK. Also, esctoday.com includes on this article a recap of the Radio International interview with EBU Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Svante Stockselius aired last week. Click on the media player below to listen (available for 7 days).

NOW - Netherlands: Radio International

Netherlands: Radio International - Svante Stockselius interview (on demand for 7 days - Jun 17th to Jun 24th)

This Wednesday June 18th, there will also be the Eurovision Quiz where fans and listeners have the chance to win some Eurovision goodies. On offer this week is a DVD of Elnur & Samir who represented Azerbaijan this year at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Another special prize is a copy of the open air concert “Legends and Sensation of Eurovision” which took place on the 16th of May 2008 in Belgrade with the participation of Ruslana, Dana International, Maria Serifovic, Zeljko Joksimovic and Elnur & Samir from Azerbaijan.

Show time: 20:00 CET to 23:00 CET.

Radio International is glad to play your Eurovision music requests, just contact them through their website here telling them who you are, where you are listening from and the song you would like to hear, and let them know that your listening through esctoday.com.

Then the hightlight of the show is in their third hour at 22:00 CET when they will air interviews with Maria Haukaas Storeng representing Norway this year, Euroband from Iceland and a special treat - The King of Russian Pop: Philipp Kirkorov, the force behind Ukraine’s “Shady Lady.”

A Live Radio Player will appear on this article just before show time and throughout the show’s duration at 20:00 to 23:00 CET on Wednesday June 18th, so check out this article close to show time to listen in.

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Marcin Mroczek and Edyta Herbus have been selected by public Polish broadcaster TVP to represent Poland at the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest, to be held in Glasgow on September 6th.

Both of them are well-known faces to Polish people. Marcin has worked as an actor, gaining fame with productions such as M jak milosc and the film Stara basn - kiedy slonce bylo bogiem. Marcin has also taken part in the dance show Taniec z gwiazdami, aired on TVN channel where finished 3rd in couple with Edyta Herbus, his partner at this year’s Eurovision Dance Contest. They came 3rd in the competition. Then, Marcin crossed the boundary and participated at the Ukrainian Dancing with the Stars 3, becoming the winner.

Edyta has appeared on TV before as well. She is a professional dancer and participated twice at Polish Dancing with the Stars, placing 3rd. Other Edyta’s jobs on television are actress at series Na Wspolnej and competitor at the singing programme Jak oni spiewaja?

Performance of the couple is available here.

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Eurovision Dance Contest trophy holders Finland have decided their competing couple for this year’s EDC to be held in Glasgow (United Kingdom). Their names are Maria Lund and Mikko Ahti.

After Finland’s win last year with Katja Koukkula and Jussi Väänänen, the Nordic country will try to repeat victory on September 6th in Glasgow with Maria Lund and Mikko Ahti, winning couple of Tanssii tähtien kanssa (Dances with stars) competition.

Maria Lund will not be strange to the Eurovision world, since her mother, Tamara Lund, participated at the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest Euroviisut back in the 1960s. Maria also has participated in several musical theatre plays such as West side story, Madamme Butterfly or My fair lady, as well as recorded two jazz music albums.

Mikko Ahti is a professional dancer. He has competed at several dance contests representing Finland. He used to dance together with Carina Riikonen, but the couple ended in 2003.

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Andorran broadcaster RTVA has not taken a decision on the country’s participation at Eurovision 2009 yet, after this year’s disappointing results.

Creu Rosell, Head of Delegation of Andorra, told partner site eurovision-spain.com that the public broadcaster RTVA has not decided whether the Principality will participate or not at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Russia.

Andorran Eurovision plans are now in stand-by and will remain like this until September, when RTVA is expected to announce Andorra’s involvement or withdrawal from Eurovision 2009.

Since Andorra joined Eurovision Song Contest back in 2004, the country has never been able to make it to the final. Their best result came in 2007, when Anonymous placed 12th in the semifinal. This year, despite the ambitious plans and big promotion that Gisela enjoyed across Europe, Andorra could not either manage to qualify for the final.

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Ronnie Lans becomes new project manager for Melodifestivalen after Christel-Tholse Willers.

Ronnie Lans has worked with Swedish Idol and various other huge live television galas and tv-shows for many years.

There are rumours about changes for Melodifestivalen 2009. One possibility is that the final will be moved from the Globen in Stockholm to Malmö.

With the selection of a new project manager with background from Swedish TV4 and the Swedish Idol - it is apparent that Swedish Television tries to give Melodifestivalen a new boost and direction.

That might be needed after Charlotte Perrelli’s dissapointing 18th place at Eurovision 2008 held in  Belgrade last month.

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