Officials behind Eurovision in Concert—the biggest pre-Eurovision event on the continent—have confirmed that Cyprus’ Ivi Adamou has withdrawn from the concert just two weeks ahead of show time. Although they did not elaborate on the reasons why, an investigation by WiwiBloggs.Com suggests that financial hardship led to the withdrawal.
CyBC—the Cypriot state broadcaster—has experienced difficulties with its budget in recent weeks. On March 31 the Cyprus Mail reported that employees of the broadcaster did not receive their salaries in March because parliament had not yet approved their state budget. That led to a four-hour blackout and to proposed strikes by staff members. In recent years Cyprus has been forced to reduce the state broadcaster’s annual budget. So funding a trip to Amsterdam might have been seen as profligate at a time state employees are struggling to make ends meet.
It’s a shame, and we’re sorry that Ivi won’t be in Amsterdam. We were very much looking-forward to another lip-synch of her song “La La Love.” For now, however, we will lick our wounds knowing that Portugal’s Filipa Souza is taking her place.
The WiwiBloggs.Com team will be live on the ground from Amsterdam beginning on April 20. Be sure to come back to see our interviews with some of the following participants—all of whom has RSVPed for the show. Let’s just hope they don’t pull an Ivi and bolt at the last minute. . .
- Azerbaijan – Sabina Babayeva – When the music dies
- Malta – Kurt Calleja – This is the night
- Ireland – Jedward – Waterline
- Spain – Pastora Soler – Quédate conmigo
- France – Anggun – You and I
- Greece –Eleftheria Eleftheriou – Aphrodisiac
- Romania – Mandinga – Zaleilah
- Ukraine – Gaitana – Be my guest
- Bulgaria –Sofi Marinova – Love unlimited
- Turkey – Can Bonomo – Love me back
- Switzerland – Sinplus – Unbreakable
- Slovenia – Eva Boto – Verjamem
- Latvia – Anmary – Beautiful song
- Belgium – Iris – Would you
- FYR Macedonia – Kaliopi – Crno i belo
- San Marino – Valentina Monetta – The social network song
- Hungary – Compact Disco – Sound of our hearts
- The Netherlands – Joan Franka – You and me
- Georgia – Anri Jokhadze – I’m a joker
- Austria – Trackshittaz – Woki met deim Popo
- Lithuania – Donny Montell – Love is blind
- Finland – Pernilla – När jag blundar
- Albania – Rona Nishliu – Suus
Huh. After that really well-produced elaborate video? I think Cyprus needed to have spent their money a bit more stategically. Video was nice but Lena and Alexander didn’t need (good) videos to win so I think attending the concert would have been a bit more to their advantage. Pity all the not-so-good entries are going too…where as Estonia and Germany and Sweden and Norway? To me, this does not look like the concert’s best year.