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Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-05-19
CONTENTS
[01] 51st Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals held in Athens Thursday
[01] 51st Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals held in Athens Thursday
First-time contestant Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, FYROM,
Ireland, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and Ukraine are the 10
countries that qualified in the early hours of Friday for the 51st
Eurovision song contest Final on Saturday night, following viewer
voting late Thursday among the 23 contestants at the spectacular
semi-final held in the indoor basketball venue at Athens' OAKA main
Olympic complex.
The 23 countries taking part in Thursday night's semi-final were:
Armenia (which is taking part for the first time in the history of the
competition), Bulgaria, Slovenia, Andora, Belarus, Albania, Belgium,
Ireland, Cyprus, Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland, The Netherlands, Lithuania,
Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland.
The ten best semi-finalists elected late Thursday night will now
compete in Saturday's final with the 14 top songs of last year's
Eurovision song contest: Switzerland, Moldova, Israel, Latvia, Norway,
Malta, Denmark, Romania, Croatia (which was the first runner up and
took the slot following the withdrawal of Serbia-Montenegro), the four
major countries which traditionally participate in the competition --
Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom -- and 2006 host country
Greece, which won the Eurovision song contest in 2005 with "My Number
One" performed by Elena Paparizou.
Thursday night's qualifiers were Armenia, with "Without your Love"
performed by Andre; Bosnia-Herzegovina, with "Lejla" performed by Hari
Mata Hari and his band; Finland, with "Hard Rock Hallelujah" performed
by the heavy metal band Lordi; FYROM, with "Ninanajna" performed by
Elena Rusteska; Ireland, with the ballad "Every song is a cry for love"
performed by Brian Kennedy; Lithuania, with "We are the Winners (of
Eurovision)" performed by LT United; Russia, with "Never let you go"
performed by Dima; Sweden, with "Invicible" performed by Carola;
Turkey, with "Superstar" performed by Sibel Tuzun; and Ukraine, with
"Show me your Love" performed by Tina Karol.
The event was hosted by Greece's Eurovision 2004 third-place winner and
pop heartthrob Sakis Rouvas ("Shake It") and Greek-American model,
reporter and actress Maria Menounos, who will also host the Final on
Saturday night.
Caption: Ireland was one of the 10 of 23 competing countries in the
Eurovision song contest semi-finals on Thursday night in Athens to
qualify for the final, to take place Saturday at the indoor basketball
court at Athens OAKA main Olympic complex. Brian Kennedy brought
Ireland to the finals with a heart-rending performance of "Every song
is a cry for love". (ANA-MPA/Orestis Panagiotou)
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