Azerbaijan, Baku, May 23 / Trend, M. Aliyev /
Dates of semifinals and final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 have been determined.
The semifinals will be held on May 14 and May 16, while Grand Final - on May 18, 2013, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest Jon Ola Sand said at a press conference in Baku on Wednesday.
"These are preliminary dates, we will negotiate the exact date with the host country" Ola Sand said
The grand celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision will be held in 2015, Sand said. Ola Sand noted that the committee accepts proposals from member countries to conduct these activities.
He also noted the popularity of the contest in social networks. According to Sand the analysis of the first semifinal held in Baku showed high activity of the posts to twitter and other social networks. "It shows the increasing interest of Europe, in particular of young people in the contest," Ola Sand said.
The participants from Romania (Mandinga - Zaleilah), Moldova (Pasha Perfeny - Lautar), Iceland (Greta Salome & Jonsi - Never Forget), Hungary (Compact Disco - Sound of Our Hearts), Denmark (Soluna Samay - Should've Known Better), Albania (Rona Nishliu - Suus), Cyprus (Ivi Adamou - La La Love), Greece (Eleftheria Eleftheriou - Aphrodisiac), Russia (Buranovskie Babushki - Party For Everybody), Ireland (Jedward - Waterline) reached the final following the first semifinal of Eurovision-2012 song contest in Baku today.
As a result of the voting, Eurovision participants from Montenegro, Latvia, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Israel, San Marino, Austrial left the contest.
The second semi-final will be held on May 24 and the grand final on May 26. Eighteen more countries will participate in the second Semi-Final of the contest on May 24.
Serbia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Netherlands, Malta, Belarus, Portugal, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Sweden, Georgia, Turkey, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Lithuania will participate in second Semi-Finals on May 24.
The contest is being held at the Baku Crystal Hall, built on the shores of the Caspian Sea specifically for Eurovision 2012. The hall seats 23,000 spectators and another 16,000 spectators are able to watch the contest's semi-finals and final live on big screens.
Representatives of 42 countries participate in this 57th contest started 00:00 local time that is 8pm GMT.
The television audience of Eurovision 2012 is more than 100 million people in 50 world countries.
Azerbaijan won the right to host the prestigious European song contest after the victory of Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal (Ell / Nikki) at Eurovision 2011 in Dusseldorf, Germany last May.