Thirty-nine public broadcasters have confirmed their participation in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, to take place in Malmö, Sweden, on the 14th, 16th and 18th of May.

“Despite the challenging economic situation in Europe a healthy number of public broadcasters are committed to the long-standing tradition that the contest has become” says Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor of the contest at the EBU.

Since 2004, between 36 and 43 broadcasters have taken part in the contest and 39 participants brings the number of participants to the same level as Oslo 2010 when the contest took place in Norway.

Bosnia & Herzegovina (BHRT), Portugal (RTP), Turkey (TRT) and Slovakia (STV) have decided not to take part. Armenia (AMPTV) has re-joined the contest after a one-year break.

The following 39 broadcasters have signed up: Albania (RTSH), Austria (ORF), Armenia (AMPTV), Azerbaijan (Ictimai TV), Belarus (BTRC), Belgium (RTBF), Bulgaria (BNT), Croatia (HRT), Cyprus (CyBC), Denmark (DR), Estonia (ERR), Finland (YLE), France (France3), Georgia (GPB), Germany (NDR), Greece (ERT), Hungary (MTV), Iceland (RÚV), Ireland (RTÉ), Israel (IBA), Italy (RAI), Latvia (LTV), Lithuania (LRT), FYR Macedonia (MKRTV), Malta (PBS), Moldova (TRM), Montenegro (RTCG), the Netherlands (TROS), Norway (NRK), Romania (TVR), Russia (C1R), San Marino (SMTV), Serbia (RTS), Slovenia (RTVSLO), Spain (TVE), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (SRG SSR), Ukraine (NTU) and the United Kingdom (BBC).

“We regret the withdrawal of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Portugal and Slovakia, which have all cited economic reasons,” Sand added.

Turkish broadcaster TRT has decided to withdraw because of amendments to the rules made in recent years. Sand: “We are surprised by this decision. The changes were made in 2009 and were since never formally objected by TRT. We are eager to pursue dialogue with the Turkish broadcaster to seek a viable solution.”

The EBU is sensitive to the economic pressures facing its Members. Contest organisers are constantly seeking ways to cut costs for both participating broadcasters as well as the host broadcaster and find ways to make hosting the competition more affordable.

Initiatives range from reducing time spent in the host city to negotiating special hotel rates for delegations. Other measures are being looked into for the years to come.

The 58th Eurovision Song Contest will take place on 14th, 16th and 18th of May 2013 in the Swedish city of Malmö, after Loreen won the 2012 contest with the song Euphoria. The winning entry has made it to the charts across Europe and is already regarded as one of the most successful Eurovision Song Contest winners ever.

Every year the generic Eurovision Song Contest logo is accompanied by a graphic identity – also called the theme art – developed by the host broadcaster. This year is no exception and we all will be united under one message this year – ‘We are one’ in Malmö 2013!

Host broadcaster SVT wants to take advantage of the wealth of cultures and expression that is unique for the competition; discuss the value of our diversity and underline that we at the end of the day are the same and are all worth the same.

“This year’s theme reflects that timeless feeling millions of people will experience in May this year, when Europe comes together to celebrate its diversity,” said Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the EBU. “The unprecedented eye for detail that this theme art reflects opens up countless possibilities for three of the best live entertainment shows Europe will see this year,” he concluded.

Eurovision Song Contest is a shared project that unites millions of people in the east, west, north and south. Beyond all the glitter, there is a thought. A big idea that is 100% relevant for Public Service. It’s about togetherness, diversity and happiness.

Eurovision Song Contest might appear as a trivial matter. But a trivial matter that engages over one hundred million people of all ages in more than 40 countries all over the world. And today science knows that sometimes small matters can start powerful and big movements. This phenomenon is called ”the Butterfly Effect”. A flap from one butterfly can – at least in theory – start a hurricane.

Butterflies have one common name, but exist in thousands of different shapes and colours. Just like the Eurovision Song Contest – one strong identity, with rich national diversities. If we all engage and work together, we can achieve anything – We are one.

Happy F & B and Forsman & Bodenfors has created the idea, design and concept for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Story courtesy of Eurovision.tv.

Meyer-Landrut, who turned 19 during the competition in Norway, sang the upbeat, dance-floor friendly “Satellite,” which was one of the favorites to win.

This is the second time that Germany has won in the songfest’s 55-year history. It will host next year’s contest.

This year’s competition was overshadowed by the continent’s financial woes, with four countries pulling out for lack of funds.

The contest is decided by a panel of judges and telephone voting by the 39 participating countries.

Also known as the “King of Herrings,” the dead fish was picked up by a west coast resident who found it floating near the shore over the weekend. It was handed over to The House of the Sea aquarium in the town of Lysekil, where expert Roger Jansson says it’s being kept pending a decision on what to do with it.

Johansson said Wednesday the Giant Oarfish can grow up to 36 feet (11 meters), and is believed to live in deep waters. He says the last recorded discovery in Sweden was in 1879.

Travis, who was from West Bloomfield, Michigan, also was a supporter of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising organization and appeared often in its Easter Bonnet Competition.

She continued to work long after her Follies days ended, with annual appearances on Broadway, a small role in a Jim Carrey movie and a memoir, “The Days We Danced: The Story of My Theatrical Family From Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond.”

Interest in the 5-foot-2 centenarian piqued after a 1997 reunion with four other Ziegfeld Follies Girls for the reopening of the New Amsterdam Theatre, where she danced about 80 years earlier.

“I was the only one who could still dance,” she said then.

That led to her involvement in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit, where she caught the eye of Carrey and director Milos Forman, who were making the movie “Man on the Moon,” about the life of comedian Andy Kaufman.

She played an actress who was no longer popular.

“I had to ride a stick horse and faint and then get resuscitated,” Travis recalled in 2006, laughing as she did a fake gallop.

Even after more than 90 years as a hoofer, dancing still came easy to Travis, who appeared in the extravagant Ziegfeld Follies show that enchanted Broadway from 1907 into the 1930s.

“I’m the last of the Ziegfeld Follies Girls now,” she said when she was 102. “It’s an honor in a way. I certainly didn’t think that would happen.” 

Travis, who owned several dance studios in Michigan and operated a horse ranch in Oklahoma, had a few wrinkles and white curly hair that framed her eyes of blue. She enrolled at Oklahoma University and earned a bachelor’s degree in history at age 88. She credited her longevity to her ongoing love affair with dancing and not drinking or smoking.

Travis was born March 14, 1904, one of seven children to newspaper linotype operator Charles Eaton and his wife, Mary, in Norfolk, Virginia.

Some of the children, who became known as The Eatons of Broadway, got their first break when a stock company production of “Blue Bird” appeared in Washington, D.C., in 1911. Travis and her sisters, Pearl and Mary, had only small roles, but it led to steady work in other local plays.

By then, the Ziegfeld Follies had become an entertainment staple. Inspired by the Folies Bergeres in Paris, Ziegfeld Follies was part Broadway show, part Vaudeville, featuring top entertainers such as W.C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice and Will Rogers. Juicing up the show were beautiful female dancers who performed elaborate chorus numbers composed by Irving Berlin and who wore costumes by Art Deco designer and illustrator Erte.

Pearl Eaton nabbed a part in the chorus of the “Ziegfeld Follies of 1918,” and Travis became the youngest Ziegfeld Follies Girl when she was hired at age 14. She became a principal dancer in 1920.

She turned to silent movies with “At the Stage Door” and “The Broadway Peacock” in 1920 and “Tell Your Children” in 1922. But she never really got into film.

Travis’ love of dancing and musical theater was shaken when the stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the Depression and an end to many theaters.

At a friend’s suggestion, she applied for a job as a tap dance instructor at the Arthur Murray Dance Studios in New York. She got the job and branched into social dance. She eventually opened a Murray franchise in Michigan and began a second career.

Murray gave her a list of people who had taken lessons or paid for some and hadn’t completed them, and one of the first people she contacted was Paul H. Travis, whom she married in 1949. He died in 2000, a few days before his 100th birthday.

In a statement on behalf of the family, her nephew Joe Eaton Jr. said Tuesday she always loved Broadway.

“She adored dancing with the young dancers,” he said, “seeing new shows and the incredible response from the Easter Bonnet audience and Broadway community.”

The executive director of BC/EFA, Tom Viola, said Broadway Cares loved Travis, whom he first met when she was 94 and was appearing at the 12th Easter Bonnet Competition.

“When the stage lights hit Doris,” he said, “she was instantly and forever young.”

He said Broadway, which planned to dim its lights Wednesday night in her honor, would “miss her forever.”

Funeral arrangements are private. A memorial service in West Bloomfield will be announced later.

When London-based betting agency Boylesports released the first set of betting odds in late March, Safura, the 17-year old winner of Azerbaijani Idol, was the odds-on favorite at 7:2. Germany was listed fourth highest at 14:1. In subsequent weeks, however, Lena has narrowed that gap significantly and the two now stand in a virtual deadlock atop the table.

Voters will have to decide whether they prefer Lena’s quirkiness or Safura’s theatrics. On stage, Lena comes off as likable, if a bit kooky. She can’t dance, but doesn’t seem to care, and her natural awkwardness transforms into something endearing. You get the sense she wants to be a singer, not a pop star. As in her preview video, she’ll likely appear on stage in Oslo alone, sparing us the bare-chested backup dancers and trapeze swings Eurovision fans have grown accustomed to.

Safura, on the other hand, desperately wants to position herself as mainstream. In her song Drip Drop she tells the story of a woman done wrong by her philandering other half — a tired theme taken straight from R&B. Azerbaijan has hired JaQuel Knight, Beyonce’s choreographer and the man behind the Single Ladies video, to craft Safura’s stage performance. It promises to be sleek and over-the-top, but that could drain it of soul and sincerity.

Other factors work in Lena’s favor, too. Germany, Britain, France and Spain make up the Big Four group of nations that bypass the semi-finals and automatically receive places in the final. That special status stems from their significant financial contributions to Eurovision. Because Lena debuts her song in the final, Satellite will sound fresh and novel. Lastly, Lena’s appeal cuts across generations. She’s young and edgy but keeps her cleavage to herself. Elderly voters in the Bulgarian countryside and housewives in Macedonia will respond more favorably to that than Safura’s high-octane sexuality.

What Europe’s youngins will prefer remains a mystery.

At the end of judging that evening, Bra vibrationer took the third-place slot with 103 points. Finland and Norway both awarded Sweden 12 points that night.

Sung in contemporary schlager music style, the singer relates her strong emotions upon falling in love with a man with whom she had just met. She is concerned about things moving too fast, but in the end, she feels good vibrations and is very happy with what has transpired.

After Eurovision, the song was placed at #12 on the Swedish charts, and it stayed in the top 50 for eight weeks.

Ann-Kristin “Kikki” Danielsson (born 10 May 1952 in Osby, Sweden) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. She also gained popularity at the US country stage during the 1980s. In 1986, she had the “Kikki i Nashville” TV show.

“There’s no need to worry, guys. There will be plenty of our beer for all the fans during this period,” said Norman Adami, managing director of South African Breweries, the local arm of global drinks giant SABMiller.

The company, which produces roughly nine of every ten bottles of beer drunk in South Africa, is predicting a 5 percent increase in sales during the tournament starting on June 11.

However, it will be able to meet the extra demand — equivalent to 30 million bottles — because the southern hemisphere winter is normally its slowest sales period, Adami said.

“It depends on a range of factors including the weather, the number of foreign visitors who actually do arrive and even the performance of our team,” he told a news conference.

Organisers are predicting 373,000 foreigners for the tournament, less than initial expectations of 450,000 due mainly to the impact of last year’s global economic slowdown.

And there are fears South Africa’s weak team will be the first hosts not to qualify for the second round of the finals.

Budweiser, owned by SABMiller rival Anheuser-Busch InBev and an official FIFA partner, is the only authorised supplier inside stadiums.

SAB will be allowed to sell beer at 10 FIFA fan parks in the World Cup cities, but only in unmarked bottles to avoid breaching FIFA’s jealously guarded rights rules.

The organizers said the fair, which was held in Milan on May 8-9, aimed to help divorcing people start a new, happier life.

“Smiling is key to this fair, which also offers serious, practical advice for often dramatic situations,” Franco Zanetti, who created the event, told Reuters.

The services include divorce planning, anti-stalking help, and “new look” tips, the organizers said.

Echoing similar initiatives in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, visitors will also be able to subscribe to divorce gift lists at department stores in Milan.

A growing number of Italian couples file for divorce every year, according to Italy’s statistics agency ISTAT.

More than 130,000 couples split or got divorced in Italy in 2007, up more than 3 percent from the previous year, ISTAT said.

On the other side, the number of marriages nearly halved since 1972 to around 246,000 in 2008.