|
Event Information:
The Eurovision Song Contest (French:
Concours Eurovision de la Chanson)
or ESC
is an annual competition held among
active member countries of the
European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The
Eurovision Song Contest will be
the 57th annual Eurovision Song
Contest. It will be held in Baku,
Azerbaijan, following Azerbaijan's
win in the Contest with Eldar &
Nigar's song "Running Scared". The
two semi-finals will be held on 22
May and 24 May , and the final
on 26 May . Ten countries from
each semi-final will qualify for the
final and will be joined by
Azerbaijan, France, Germany, Italy,
Spain and the United Kingdom.
Forty-two countries have announced
their participation in the contest,
with Montenegro returning, having
last taken part in 2009, and Poland
and Armenia withdrawing.
The
venue for the Contest is the
Baku Crystal Hall in the Azerbaijani
capital. On 16 May , it was
announced that a special concert
complex with 23,000 seats for the
Contest was to be built near
National Flag Square in Baku. Three
days later, organisers announced
that they may use the Tofiq Bahramov
Stadium which contains 37,000 seats,
or the Heydar Aliyev Sports and
Exhibition Complex. On 4 August
, it was confirmed that the
laying of foundations for the Baku
Crystal Hall had started near the
National Flag Square,[8] but did not
confirm that this was the location.
The foundations were completed on 14
October , but the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU), the
organisers of the Eurovision Song
Contest, did still not confirm the
location. Tofiq Bahramov Stadium,
which is currently under repairs to
host the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
in September–October , was to be
used as a back-up option.
On 8
September , Azad Azerbaijan TV
(ATV) reported that Baku Crystal
Hall will be the venue of Eurovision
Song Contest , despite not being
the host broadcaster of the contest.
No formal confirmation was made at
the time by the EBU. On 31 October
, Mr. Ismayil Omarov, the
director general of Azerbaijani
national broadcaster İctimai
Television announced that a decision
on the venue choice would be taken
by the steering committee in January
. On 25 January , it was
confirmed that the Baku Crystal Hall
will be the venue of the Eurovision
Song Contest . Even though the
venue has an extended capacity of
23,000 people, only 16,000 people
will be able to attend each show.
Local
Weather:
|
