Eurovision 2013 - Malmö (Sweden) - this coming week

(Please see UPDATE at end)

As in recent previous years Eurovision is a 3-part affair with two semi-finals on Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th, with the final being held on Saturday 18th May. I hope to be able to watch both semi-finals (or at least a part of them) plus of course the final next Saturday. This will be 58th Eurovision Song Contest.

Sweden won last year's contest in Baku (Azerbaijan) very convincingly - I wrote about it here.

You can find out more about this year's contest by visiting the Eurovision website here. There are 16 countries competing in the first semi-final and 17 in the second semi-final, with 10 countries from each semi-final qualifying for the final. The final will include the 5 "big countries" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), plus Sweden as the winning country in last year's contest, giving 26 countries in all competing in the final on Saturday 18th May 2013.

The running order for the two semi-finals will be as follows:

First semi-final - Tuesday 14th May 2013>
1 - Austria
2 - Estonia
3 - Slovenia
4 - Croatia
5 - Denmark
6 - Russia
7 - Ukraine
8 - The Netherlands
9 - Montenegro
10 - Lithuania
11 - Belarus
12 - Moldova
13 - Ireland
14 - Cyprus
15 - Belgium
16 - Serbia

Second semi-final - Thursday 16th May 2013>
1 - Latvia
2 - San Marino
3 - F.Y.R. Macedonia
4 - Azerbaijan
5 - Finland
6 - Malta
7 - Bulgaria
8 - Iceland
9 - Greece
10 - Israel
11 - Armenia
12 - Hungary
13 - Norway
14 - Albania
15 - Georgia
16 - Switzerland
17 - Romania

It is probably no secret to most people that Eurovision, apart from being a popular annual form of light-entertainment is also rather kitsch and has a particular following amongst gay viewers, this year recognised by host city Malmö and the city is making a particular effort to make LGBT visitors welcome.

It should be a good week, I think ..

UPDATES (Sunday 19th May 2013) 12.05 CET) My articles on the first and second semi-finals and the final are below:
- First Semi-Final, Tuesday 14th May 2013;
- Second Semi-Final, Thursday 16th May 2013;
- The Final, Saturday 18th May 2013.