The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) has announced, via its official website, that the Mediterranean island country will not be participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen. CyBC’s board said that they reached the decision after determining a need to cut spending on programs, despite public interest. Cyprus has had a bumpy history with placing in Eurovision, having qualified to the …

The National broadcaster LRT  started the selection process of the Lithuanian representative for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. Several changes are being made from this year’s National Final: Songwriters and artist will apply individually! Singers will go through multiple stages throughout the competition starting with auditions which has been a popular and quite successful approach for some countries. …

Ott Lepland Announces Small North American Tour Ott Lepland fans in four North American cities rejoice: your favorite Estonian crooner is making his way to Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York this October to perform “Kuula Live”. “Take your friends with you and you are welcome to join wherever you can!” invites Lepland’s official facebook page, where fans were …

Estonian national broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) has confirmed that Estonia’s national selection Eesti Laul 2014 will be held on March 1 of next year, with the same format as the previous year’s contest. “The competition provides the opportunity for all artists to introduce their work to a wider audience,” said Heidy Purga, producer of Eesti Laul, to ERR. Indeed, each year, …

LTV, the Latvian national broadcaster, has announced that they will be keeping the old Dziesma competition format for their national final selection for 2014. Just like last year, there will be a total of 24 songs selected to compete in the two semi-finals – a setup similar to Eurovision. The six songs with the lowest score (juries in Latvia give the …

Eurovision season is truly upon us: Swiss German-language broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) has opened its web portal and has begun to accept video entries for their portion of the 2014 Switzerland national selection. SRF’s web platform currently features a number of submitted entries, all of which have entered in the hopes to represent Switzerland in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest …

Zlata Ognevich, Ukraine’s representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, has been announced as the host for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013, along with TV presenter Timur Miroshnychenko. Zlata Ognevich is best known for reaching the third place in last year’s ESC in Malmö with her song “Gravity”. Ognevich, who is a soloist for the Ensemble of Song and Dance of the …

Two days ago, online news portals across former Yugoslavia went viral with the news that Bosnia & Herzegovina would ditch Eurovision for the newly announced ‘Turkeyvision’ Song Contest. Numbers of other articles have come out and there have been varied reactions to this news. Many are supporting Bosnia venturing into Turkeyvision, but there is across the board criticism of the …

Maltese broadcaster PBS has announced the format for their national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 via Eurovision.tv. PBS is now taking submissions, of which 20 will be chosen to compete in a semifinal, compared to last year’s 24. From there, 14 entries will be chosen to compete in a final. The event will take place sometime in January …

We recently caught up with Tooji (Norway 2012) to discuss his Eurovision days, the release of his new single “Rebels”, his personal life and future plans. “Rebels”, Tooji’s first single was recently released and is said to be “representing a new depth of Tooji both musically and visually.” According to Tooji’s label, “Rebels” Creates a dark pop landscape with artistic visuals, where …