Music
Final preparations for Eurovision 2008 semifinal
By Toni Sant in Belgrade
May 21, 2008 - 6:40:16 PM

Final preparations for Thursday evening's Eurovision Song Contest 2008 second semifinal round are in full swing at the Belgrade Arena in Serbia. The last day or so before a semifinal are undoubtedly the most nerve wrecking for the participants and their teams.

Malta's entry appears 16th out of the 19 songs in Thursday show. The other countries competing for the remaining 10 slots in Saturday's Eurovision final are: Iceland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Lithuania, Albania, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Belarus, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Hungry, Cyprus, F.Y.R. Macedonia, and Portugal.

On Tuesday evening, the first semifinal round yielded ten finalists to join pre-selected Serbia, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kindom for Saturday's final. The ten qualifying countries from the first semifinal are Greece, Romania, Finland, Russia, Israel, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Poland, and Norway.

The first of three dress rehearsals for Thursday's semifinal round started on Wednesday at 1500 CEST. Rehearsals include a full front of house drill, which involves airport-style security checks at the venue entrance. A number of the 23,000 arena seats at the afternoon rehearsal were filled by an audience made mostly of the 43 official delegation members, die-hard Eurovision fans and Serbian volunteers.

The rehearsal proceeded smoothly, with adjustments for camera-work, sound and lighting noted for the next dress rehearsal, which starts at 2100 CEST. At the first of the three dress rehearsals, Malta's entry appeared as if it could benefit from improvements.

Malta's Eurovision core fan base has now arrived in Belgrade. While numbers are nowhere near the hundreds that accompanied the Maltese entry in Athens in 2006, a visible crowd of fans from Malta made their presence felt at the Sava Centar's EuroClub on Tuesday evening, just as they did in Helsinki last year.

Mr Gaetano Abela, who headed every Maltese Eurovision delegation in the first half of the 1990s is also currently in Belgrade. He was at the helm of the Maltese delegation when Malta returned to the contest in 1991 after a sixteen year absence. While he is a seasoned veteran of the song contest, he is only accredited as a fan within the Maltese delegation. Mr Abela gladly gave his comments to the Maltese media in Belgrade.

By contrast, current Maltasong board chairman Mr Robert Abela has apparently been evading the Maltese media. When approached for comments throught this week he refused to appear on camera, more than once. Notwithstanding, he has been very cordial off camera.

Meanwhile, during a press conference between rehearsals on Wednesday evening, the European Broadcasting Union announced that next year's edition of the Eurovision Song Contest will be held on 12, 14 and 16 May 2009.

The Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Mr Svente Stockselius, also maintained that the new format, with two semifinals, should be more fair. This comes in the rise of last year's complaints about an alleged shift in voting patters towards countries in Eastern Europe, as there are now more such participants in the contest.

There was also an announcement about plans for a Eurovision Song Contest comedy film, produced by Working Title, the film production house behind such box-office hits as Four Weddings and a Funeral. A deal has already been signed between the EBU and the production company.

For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.


See also:
More comments on Malta's entry at Eurovision 2008
from Toni Sant's Blog



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