He was the head honcho of Eurovision for ten years. But in 2020, Jon Ola Sand stepped down as the Executive Supervisor of the song contest. In an interview with the Eurovision Legends Podcast, the Norwegian television executive has now spoken out about a wide range of topics.
Jon Ola Sand revealed behind-the-scenes information from his time working at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). He also discussed where he’d like Eurovision to go in the future.
Jon Ola Sand on preferred Eurovision rule changes
During the first part of the interview, Jon Ola was asked what Eurovision rules he would like to change if he was freely able to do so.
The first thing Jon Ola brought up was the running order. In 2013, during his time as Executive Supervisor, the running order was partly put together by producers for the first time. This system, where contestants are drawn into halves and then producers put the exact order together themselves, has been used ever since.
This is a change that Jon Ola defends, but he would also like it to go further and for producers to be able to determine the entire running order themselves. He believes one of the most important things in Eurovision is being able to produce the best TV show possible:
“It is the most significant and most important change in Eurovision Song Contest, that you can actually compose the best TV programme […] I think that would have been a great change, to be able to compose it freely”.
Following on from this, Jon Ola turned to the topic of backing vocals. Eurovision 2021 saw pre-recorded backing vocals being allowed for the first time, and this will continue in 2022. Jon Ola Sand commented that this was good for a number of reasons:
“We have to look closely at backing vocals on tape. I understand that there is a a lot of resistance to this, because some people see this as moving towards a karaoke show. But both for practical reasons and economical reasons, also for the pure sound issue, I think it would be good to put the backing vocals on tape and then focus on the visual aspect and of course have the lead singer singing live.”
Later on in the interview, Jon Ola also says there have been yearly discussions about the best way to use juries in the voting. They have looked into whether there should be changes to how these are made-up, both in terms of numbers and location:
“We are discussing this with the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group almost every year. We’re doing calculations, we’re doing simulations – how would that be, would that help, how should it be organised? There have been discussions if we should have juries appointed by the EBU and sitting in Geneva, representing different countries. Discussions about should we have a common European jury, which is one big European jury appointed by the EBU or in cooperation with the members.”
Ultimately, he believes the current system is the best they can come up with. They have not found a concrete answer as to whether raising the number of people on each jury would be beneficial:
“We think that the system that is in place now is the best we can get. Hence that’s why we have it like this. I think it’s good that we reflect the national taste. And whether ten, fifteen people would be better – we haven’t really got a good answer on that.”
Jon Ola Sand – Eurovision Legends Podcast
Turkey’s absence and Kazakhstan’s debut
There is speculation each year about which countries may return to the contest, or if any new countries will debut. Jon Ola was asked about several of these, including Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Turkey withdrew from Eurovision after the 2012 contest. A number of theories have been given over the years for Turkey’s absence. At first, it was a disagreement with the new voting method (the inclusion of juries) and the Big 5 rule that allows the largest financial contributors to automatically qualify to the grand final each year. Another reason was the rampant LGBT-phobia shown by some of the broadcaster’s key managers.
Jon Ola notes that broadcaster TRT never informed the EBU about the reasons behind their withdrawal:
“We never got formal explanation from the Turkish member of the EBU why they decided not to continue with the Eurovision Song Contest. They never mentioned any specific rules to us. We also read in some media outlets and in some blogs that that should be the case, but they never presented that to us.”
He goes on to suggest that there is wider context at play:
“When it comes to Turkey’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, I think that should be seen in a broader sort of context about the relationship between Turkey, Europe and EU. I don’t think this is particularly about rules or points in the rules, as that could easily have been cleared out with us. At least, we could have talked about it, but they never approached us or talked to us about that. We have had several attempts at the highest level of the EBU to understand why the situation became this way, but we never got any explanation.”
In regards to a possible debut by Kazakhstan, Jon Ola confirms that the Kazakh broadcaster has made several requests to participate in Eurovision. However, despite being a participant of Junior Eurovision, he does not believe the country will feature at Eurovision itself any time soon:
“When it comes to Kazakhstan, they have shown a very keen interest for many years. We know that they can come up with fantastic acts – we’ve seen that at Junior Eurovision, where they are allowed in at a case by case basis. But there’s never been any serious discussion to bring them into the Eurovision Song Contest.
The reason for this is they are not a full-fledged EBU member and they’re on a very different time zone to Europe. When you go to Baku I think you have five hours difference, which is very challenging in itself, and you have even more if you go to Kazakhstan. And then it’s a very different TV and media environment there. So I don’t think in the next years they will be a member of the Eurovision Song Contest family.”
Interview timestamps
This just scrapes the surface of what Jon Ola Sand discussed in the interview. You can listen to discussions about the following topics at the designated time stamps:
- 07:48 – The concept of the Big 5 is both good and bad
- 09:02 – Would like the producer to be able to set the running order completely freely
- 20:45 – Poor logistics in Birmingham 1998
- 27:09 – The problems when producing the Eurovision in Norway in 2010
- 29:50 – Thrives on chaos
- 30:20 – The irregularities in Baku
- 38:19 – Jon Ola in a roundabout way admits to torturing Sweden in the semi-final 2011
- 45:17 – On Turkey’s absence
- 48:19 – On debuts for Liechtenstein, Kosovo or Kazakhstan
- 50:46 – Jon Ola gets angry on controversial flags
- 54:00 – Disappointment of Russia in 2017
- 1:00:02 – Azerbaijan buying votes
- 1:04:05 – Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s jury votes
- 1:05:30 – More members on each jury?
- 1:06:35 – Encouraging countries to have a national selection
- 1:09:30 – On cancellation of the 2020 contest
- 1:13:56 – On his involvement in the American Song Contest
What do you make of Jon Ola Sand’s comments? What direction do you want to see Eurovision go in the future? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below!
For me the main question for ESC management and fans to answer in the years to come is whether ESC stays eurocentric, as today, or if it starts expending outside Europe (e.g. by inviting either permanently or occasionally other countries).Demographically, culturally and economically Europe’s share in world dwindles every year. In a world where American, Latin American, South Korean, Chinese etc. music artists can collect hundred of millions of views in only couple of days, the views ESC artists gets seem very very small
I’m sorry but I’m not buying this crappy argument for Kazakhstan having a bit too different timezone from the rest of Eurovision countries when we literally have Australia as a participant on the other side of the world. Jon Ola Sand was never an honest person, I’m surprised I thought it would different this time.
I’d prefer to see a different special non-european guest participating country every year. His excuse about Kazakhstan is hypocritical. Australia is a rich “western” country so they have no problem letting the participate. Australia’s artistic contribution is pretty low and unoriginal. I’d prefer to see a country like Lebanon or Morocco instead.
Lebanon and Morocco are both EBU members, they would not be guests.
I mean the televote only era was an absolute disaster for the contest. I’m not sure how anyone could deny that besides people who just watch the top 5’s on youtube.
The juries have their flaws, but their reintroduction completely changed eurovision for the better.
Well, if I were Jon Ola, I would allow Kazakhstan to debut and give all non-EBU members like Australia and Kazakhstan special conditions to allow the two countries to host if they win such as a more flexible starting time for the show. The show can start at 9:00 pm or earlier in the time zone of the host city. For example, the show starts at 9pm Almaty Time, it can start at 4pm CET. If the show starts at 9PM in Sydney, it can start at 12pm CET. I know this is impossible at the moment but I can… Read more »
The contest would lose three quarters of its viewers if that happened, they would be out doing their Saturday shopping.
That wouldn’t work, people wouldn’t watch it at that time.
That being said, I don’t see a problem with show starting at middle of the night local time. Artist would just stay on European time zone while in the host city, so it solves the jet lag as well. It can be whatever time in the host city, you can still serve breakfast according to European time and have a show according to European time. Sure, it would limit sightseeing but that was never the point of going to Eurovision.
That already happened in 2012, the first contest to be held on a Sunday.
if australia wins the eurovisionsongcontest it will be organized in a European country
I would love to see Catalonia and Scotland participate as independent countries in the future.
Yeah that’s not happening any time soon, specialy Catalonia?
Keep dreaming, but when they are independent, if they will ever be, yes I would like to see them too.
It’s been said so many times. But song contest. Not singing contest
Well, that certain country was placed to perform 4th in the semi-final this year, and their final result surprisingly had more televoting points than the juries. Perhaps some things are already changing? Even if said country really delivers top notch quality in terms of production.
Off topic, but Ursula Tolj has just been replaced as a Croatian HOD. The new acting HOD is Tomislav Shtengl. I have no idea what his new policies will look like, but it’s perhaps a shift in selecting Dora entrants, media coverage, and song releases… We can only guess as of now.
EDIT: Rumor has it (as local news are reporting, but take it with a grain of salt) that Tolj has overstepped in the budget this year without consulting HRT board of directors, as well as picked Zigman for Albina’s costume designer without taking second opinions.
I am going to listen to the podcast, interested to hear about ESC 1998 and the Azerbaijani scandal(s). I don’t want Kazakhstan in ESC, their participation in JESC serves the purpose of filling in the list of participants (the contest is more popular in ex-soviet countries) but ESC is already a massive show with loads of countries. It will slowly become globalvision. I’d rather have Slovakia and Luxembourg back. About juries, i like the idea of having all juries in Geneva. Also, increasing the number of jury members might help add diversity in the results. I still can’t believe they… Read more »
Slovakia and Luxembourg do not want it Kazachstan showed interest
It’s an odd way to promote non-political contest, when one country is constantly forgiven to bribe, manipulate and even push political views. All they have to do is pay a small fine and it’s all water under the bridge.
I would change the 12 points system to a system, where each participant down to the last one gets points (perhaps only the last one 0 points). Then we would have a more realistic result from about tenth place downwards. A country which e.g. always ends up between 11th and 20th place would then get its fair place and not the infamous 0 points and bottom of the list…
That’s a terrible idea.
Do you have a reason to share, why you think it would be a bad idea?
I’m in favour of that voting system too. It would also reduce the impact of neighbouring and diaspora voting, which would be positive too. But I don’t think the EBU is taking this step and letting the “12 points” go.
The way he defends Azerbaijan seems like he still gets “caviar” shipped to him from them. It is utterly disgusting to say that Azeris are at war with Armenia that’s why they blocked their voting number especially when Armenia actually gave 1 point to Azerbaijan that year in the grand final. Then to go on to suggest that Azeris were set up by a “certain country” or a “certain group” to make it seem like they bought votes like comeee on…we all saw the videos, we all saw the fictitious 12 points going to Azerbaijan from the smallest populated EBU… Read more »
BBC’s Panorama even made a programme about Azerbaijan and the contest, maybe he should watch that. It’s on YouTube.
He doesn’t need to, apparently he has a first hand experience with them. There was actually a report that came out (can’t find it now), talking about all the various platforms Azeri government had vested interest in infiltrating – Eurovision was apparently one of them. Everyone knows that the Azeri government and the Azeri broadcaster (Ictimai TV) are not independent from one another (contrary to EBU rule). In fact, Azerbaijan created Ictimai TV in 2007 so they could participate in Eurovision because their previous applications were denied. This all sounds like a joke, but it’s a total nightmare when the… Read more »
Yeah, the Aliyevs definitely want as much international attention as they can get – and they have the money to make it happen. Athletics, boxing, car racing, soccer – they’ve had everything. They even built an “Olympic” Stadium not long after the 2012 Eurovision – supervised by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the same Sepp Blatter and Michel Blatini who gave the World Cup to Qatar and this week were indicted for corruption.
The 2011 contest, for me, is like the 2020 contest. We will never know who the winner would have been.
The Baltics rarely change points with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine.
They give points to Russia because they have a big Russian minority but usually don’t get points from Russia. It’s extremely outdated to associate the Baltics with that “Soviet bloc”. I understand if people did it in the 90s.
Jon Ola Sand: Kazakhstan is in a different time zone from Europe.
Also Jon Ola Sand: Good morning Australia
I was just thinking the same… wtf was his argument!
If I could change one thing about Eurovision I would have the vote made for the names of the song or artist not the names of the country. Eg. Maneskin 12 points instead of Italy 12 points. To try and take some of the nationalism out of the voting process.
I think the point of the contest is bringing all these countries across the continent together and have them compete against each other in peace. Erasing the country aspect is not really good for the eurovision brand I think. If they were to be like ‘and now…12 points of Bulgaria go to natalia gordienko! People would be like hmm, which country was that again?
I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. Like, imagine if big stars like Dima Bilan or Polina Gagarina competed again. It’d be like, “hmmmm, I sure do wonder which country he/she’s singing for. /s”
I like the way you’re thinking!
Perhaps they should make it so that any country could not be put in the same half for more than two years in a row as well as have a longer time frame – say 10 years – during which the spilt between forst and second half had to be 50/50 for everyone.
That would still allow production some room to manouver and guarantee some fairness.
Jon Ola Sand’s explanation about Kazakhstan is one of the dumbest excuses ever. Australians can get up at 5 AM to watch Eurovision, so why is time zone a problem for Kazakhstan? They have a small part of their country within Europe, shows interest in participation and are already a member of UEFA, so why can’t they join Eurovision too?
3am for me lol
I remember on another fansite (can’t remember which), someone said that Kazakhstan doesn’t have its own phoneline system (it shares one with Russia), similar to how San Marino doesn’t. And that that might be partly why. I don’t know if that’s true, though.
“the current jury system is the best one they could come up with” excuse me
jon ola sand is defending azerbaijan are we surprised ? he glossed over the fact that azerbaijan interrogated voters, saying “they were at war”. he defended the evictions in baku. I would not be surprised if azerbaijan paid him directly for their victory in 2011. 2011 was his first year as supervisor after all.
I will always be grateful that australia is in the contest, given that im australian. but there is genuinely no reason not to afford that same courtesy to kazakhstan, especially when they are already trying so hard and doing so well in junior eurovision. (and the dictatorship argument is null and void when russia and azerbaijan exist)
Russia has made it’s dictatorship to seem like a genuine election and if you question it you’re an enemy to them, Azerbaijan barely even hides it. Both countries are well corrupted and a word or two in the wrong way gets you in prison or even dead. Why invite more, we know Kazakhstan is using the contest for same reasons as they are.
Sorry but what you are saying is stupid then every Eastern European or Balkan country should not participate because of their goverment.It is a song competition.And Kazachstan has only given quality at JESC not like Belarus who always bring drama in their NF.
I believe he genuinely loves the contest and doesn’t make decisions willy nilly. There are some things that I don’t really agree with, but overall Jon Ola Sand really made the contest better and his legacy will be remembered forever.
I was just thinking he deserves at least one nice comment. His ten years in charge were much better than what Svante Stockselius gave us, this is true.
what did svante do?
Can we just mention he said between 39-41 participating countries was optimal for him because of logistics and a good show. It’s so specific. Crazy and funny. He was serious about it also
He is right. The final is already long enough as is.
20 for each semi and the the big 5 for the finals. That’s 45 or 46 depending on if the host country is part of big 5 like next year. But he says 16/17/18 is optimal for a semi. And I’m not sure why.
I am sorry but this reason behind Kazakhstan’s non participation is pure c**p … I mean Australia is participating for ages and there is no problem but when it comes to Kazakhstan who can bring some culture to the contest then it’s a no no ..
About the backing vocals thing,no one will ever convince me having them pre-recorded is a good idea NEVER
It is a song contest yes. But it is also a tv-show and as such visuals and what you see are just as important. It is EuroVISION after all. There should be correlation between both of them We can’t say one is more important. Without songs there would be no show but at the same if we focus on the songs then we might as well just show music videos and vote on that.
The EBU is a broadcasting union. That includes radio. The contest is still broadcast on radio, with separate radio commentators. I suppose nobody cares about that anymore.
The main focus is a visual show however. That is where they put the money on. Not sure if all broadcasters sends it on radio..
Anyway, it needs to be both. Just show videos if you want focus on songs..
Quite frankly yes. Radio is a dying format. Plus tell me why would you listen to Eurovision on the radio when you have access to a television? It was valid in the 50s and 60s but hardly now.
I don’t know. Maybe people with vision problems, or evening workers, or taxi drivers, or hospital patients – radio is still important. There’s not much hope for it if even its own union stops caring.
Running order decided by the producers: Albania in 2nd place forever, Russia in the 5th and Malta in 6th like this year to despise them. And by the way Australia has a time zone very similar to the European one… They have been very unfair to Kazakhstan.
Tell me why can Kosovo not debut the country of Dua Lipa Era istrefi who cares about Serbia their songs are always boring anyway
Not a year passes by, when people don’t bring this question.
1. They’re not part of the United Nations
2. RTK (their broadcaster) isn’t part of the International Telecommunication Union so they can’t apply to be full members of EBU
3. It’s still not totally recognized as an intepended country internationally
We won’t see Faroe Islands, Greenland, Åland Islands, Catalonia or Kosovo as they’re all part of another country, each one more or less.
Kosovo participate in the Olympics also plays official Football games.Is recognized by most UN nations EBU recognize Kosovo beacuse Kosovo participated in Eurovision Young Dancers.It is by most countries recognized internationally only Russian pupper states do not recognize Kosovo.San marino is also part of Italy.And Kosovo is not part of Serbia.question to you Are you Serbian?
What? San Marino is an independent country that is surrounded by Italy, it’s a whole different country.
No I’m not Serbian.
We saw Wales in the junior contest, though…
Which is probably why Serbia stick around in the Junior contest (and potentially why Spain came back), in all honesty. Serbia did only get 7 song submissions for JESC this year, it doesn’t seem like the interest is really there… but I imagine RTK are probably ready to take the chance as soon as it comes their way and that isn’t in Serbia’s interests at all.
Yes we did, but JESC has different rules and it’s not as watched as ESC so I suppose they wanted to get some interest in the contest to get more viewers rather than waiting it to be cancelled because of poor viewing figures. Same as with ESC, more countries were allowed to participate, new countries joined, we got two semifinals and then they even invited Australia to keep it interesting.
Please Eurovision had always big vieuwing figures before Australia.
The viewing figures were about JESC and Kazakhstan, not about ESC and Australia. Australia only got invited to ESC so there would be something new to the contest, of course they had a long history of broadcasting Eurovision since 1980s.
Australia showed us in 2015 that rules are only important until they’re not.
I’m not saying Kazakhstan shouldn’t ever participate, but if they’re enough close to gain full membership status of the EBU why not wait until they have? Australia clearly isn’t in the main broadcasting area, but has otherwise been an active with the interest on showing ESC since the 1980s, other requirments they do fill. If we allow any associate member to participate why let Kazakhstan, which gained associate member status in 2016, when we could for example let some other associate member to participate which has had the status longer but hasn’t asked to participate because there’s been rules that… Read more »
Only full members should be allowed in the contest, this was the rule for six decades – to avoid situations and questions like these. Special treatment for Australia was a mistake.
True and that being said we should only allow Kazakhstan to compete if they meet the requirements. Australia seems to get invited every year, no idea what EBU would do if enough competing countries would come from full members.
I can understand the practical and economical reasoning about it (though economically I don’t think it makes sense when a country just drop backing vocals to use dancers instead), but this obsession with putting visuals and production slickness ahead of everything makes me wonder if some TV producers involved with Eurovision actually like… music. Because live music needs to save a place for improvise, imperfections and the vibe at the arena on that particular night. We can’t ignore Eurovision is a TV show, but it only exists because it’s a song contest. We were possibly reaching the perfect balance before… Read more »
Listen to the karaoke version of Efendi’s Mata Hari and you’ll get a pretty good example why using pre-recorded vocals should have some sort of rules attatched to them, she barely sang anything.
Turkey has several times said the voting and Big-5 were the main reasons for not competing, but now we hear that they’ve never even talked about it to EBU? Seems like the huge LGBT+ friendly contest was a bit too much for an average Turkish viewer! Let’s not forget 2013..
Snitches get stiches a quote says. He wrote a report in 1998 in EBU about bad transportation in the venue (!), in 1999 he reported Croatia for using pre recorded vocals (despite the fact that now is in favor of them), and 10 years later he became the boss. Error 404 ethics and talent not found
Of course he wants the main focus to be on the visuals, in which other way all these melfest participants with dreadful vocals like Anton Ewald, Eric Saade,Mendez, Anis don Denima, Suzi P etc would be able to represent Sweden? he knows what he is talking about, dont make daddy Bjorkman angry
Backing vocals helps them for sure. Just as with any ESC county that used to score bad but now have better production, sings in English etc.
You also compare people of very different backgrounds. Being a YouTuber who suddenly gets to sing or originally being just a background dancer is very different from having been singing for your whole life. Even if their voices does not sound good to you there should be a difference there.
The lack of charisma of this man is something else. He wants to focus on the visuals in a SONG contest and he never replied to any challenging question and he never made a wrong decision. Yikes
Ukraine threw out of the competition Russia in 2017 and he has the audacity to say he never made a mistake. What a guy….
oh and i forgot…. DURING HIS TIME THE WRONG RESULTS WERE PRESENTED. DO WE NEED TO SAY MORE?
Hypocrite yes Visuals are very important that is why we Eurofans are always excited for the reherseals we want to see the staging because we want to see visuals of the performance.
you are not part of the mass audience honey, you are a minority. In every possible way
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!!!
Pardon me, voix, but the ESC community is the minority. The majority just likes a good show and don’t care much more for it. There is a reason Sobrals fast food music is so popular across the world. The MAJORITY likes to eat it.
They just want to get entertained and have fun. They won’t bother about what you say.
By the way, this is a really good podcast. My favourite guests so far have included Frances Ruffelle, Edyta Gorniak, Selma, Nina Morato, Amina, Paul Oscar, Jan Johansen, and others – winners like Anne-Marie David, Eimear Quinn, Katrina, Bobbysocks, Izhar Cohen, presenters like Lill Lindfors, nul-pointers like Gunvor. Give it a listen.
This was not a paid ad.
I’ll definitely give it a look!
i guess replacing the big boss was already “a focus on the visuals”
he thinks his ideas are somehow “progressive” ^^
i feel like his is a very scandinavian pov. very pragmatic, very schematic, with maximizing profit in mind. they should try putting the contest in the hands of someone from another part of europe for a while and see.
Is pragmatic not a good thing? What do you wish for instead?
a good balance between that and common sense
You are right. I would love to see someone Dutch in charge of the contest. Dutch television has come up with many television shows that have been adapted around the world. They don’t seem so keen though to squeeze everything into their mould.
i find it very interesting how he switched like a nicki on pre-recorded vocals. back in 1999, when he was the head of delegation for norway, it was HIM who went all karen on croatia for using pre-recorded vocals (it was just an “oooohh” during the chorus). good to know he’s now completely in favor of this travesty ! 🙂
A clown does clown things
Its been 22 years is someone not allowed to change their opinion in that timespan lmao.
Keeping the “best” of the four for Sweden and dishing out the remaining three to other countries, in order of the highest bidder. Oh sorry, they are doing that already!
Really nice way of telling us that pre recorded backing vocals are gonna become permanent. Really transparent!
Also, those excuses for Kazakhstan are such BS.
Time zone stuff really is. Like come on, what about Australia?
But full fletched member seems reasonable.
Australia can’t host within their continent, they host it in a European country so it wouldn’t be a problem for the EBU unlike Kazakhstan.
they can hold it in another country. Pretty damn simple
That’s basically what I’ve said above.
i believe they made a deal with RUV to host it in iceland in case they win. or have i been nae naed?
B***s**** excuses for the pre-recorded vocals so delegations can not afford backsingers but for expansives staging and props bingo they can.
I’m sorry but for a singing competition I don’t give a * to your focus on vsual aspect but to the sound and the voices !
I’m done with Eurovision sorry. Bye. And every real eurofan should do the same. TV Ratings and Youtube views divide by half that would make them rethinking their stpity.
Haha. Stop commenting on a ESC FANSITE then!
If it was only about the song they should have live-streamed it on radio, spotify or similar. The visuals actually ARE important!
Kazakhstan is in a much different timezone than Europe….so Australia isn’t? I don’t find that as a legitimate reasons
This from the man that brought in Australia. Oh right, long history, of course. The very least they could do is have that “serious discussion” and then count them out because of the amoral dictatorship.
If we are talking amoral dictatorship then what about Turkey or Russia? Even then it’s just not fair to Kazakhstan in numerous ways.
Yeah, I agree. Turkey and Russia and Azerbaijan are EBU members, though, so things get a little more complicated.
You see some people can’t watch a show at midnight but at 6am it’s OK lol.
If none of this matters for the junior contest, I don’t understand why it matters for the actual contest.
I’d love to see the number of televotes from each country. You also never hear about the viewing figures in Azerbaijan, that too would be an interesting read.
I’d say televote numbers are quite low in most countries. Most viewers can not vote for the song they want to win – their own country.
Well that seemed like an odd reson to say, but to be honest the Australian culture is much closer to the European ones than Kazakhstan’s. Does JESC even get viewers in Kazakhstan a lot?
Seems like another country wants to compete so they can get a better reputation. If Belarus is out why bother bringing another one in?
If I remembered correctly 2018 was watched by around 130,000 viewers in Kazakhstan but it was broadcast on a secondary channel because Khabar’s main channel had scheduling problems or something like that.
Thanks! I wish broadcasters would be more interested in showing the viewing figures every year, even if it wouldn’t so good.
One thing might have affected their 2018 viewing figures, it was their debut year. Seems like a minor viewing figure, when we concider the fact that Kazakhstan’s population is 18,7 million.
RTL simply doesn’t participate because they’ve got a small budget and it’s mostly a news channel these days.
So he would like the producers to decide the running order without limitations and thinks that having backing vocals recorded would be better because there would be less variables and we could focus more on the visuals. Nothing surprising.
But why not go a step further – force every country to produce a music video with MCU tier VFX and broadcast that instead? No variables whatsoever and you get much better visuals.
smh
don’t give them ideas lmao
Did the Birmingham part have any mention of why they did away with the orchestra?
Live orchestra at this scale simply wouldn’t work. They barely ever get the sound mixing right even though there are just 6 people max with mics.
I think a 56-country broadcasting union should be able to make it work – if they can’t, they are in the wrong jobs.
I’ve given up hope on the orchestra ever coming back, all I ask now is for live instruments. A compromise.
I think if they had like a Broadway-style pit orchestra, as opposed to a 50-piece radio orchestra, they could do something (Denmark’s been able to pull it off for their last few DMGPs), but it’s kinda hard to imagine the coordination needed for a full orchestra.
They even allow only one live instrument because they don’t have time for rehearsals, tuning, space behind stage etc.
It can be discussed what the EBU budget should go to. But it sure is expensive
They briefly mentioned the orchestra but rather like that the contest is moving forward.