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One of 5 Facebook and Twitter statuses yesterday related to Baku-host Eurovision-2012 Song Contest - PHOTO

One of 5 Facebook and Twitter statuses yesterday related to Baku-host Eurovision-2012 Song Contest - <font color=red>PHOTO</font>

23 May 2012 14:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ulker Rashidgizi â€“ APA. Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest Jan Ola Sand, Executive Producer of Eurovision-2012 Adil Karimli, Event Supervisor of the contest Sietse Bakker, Public relations and communication manager of the Working Group Tahir Mammadov, as well as PR manager Kamran Aghasi has held a press conference today, APA reports. Jon Ola Sand said that the Eurovision Song Contest was held for the first time in Azerbaijan and 42 countries were represented in this contest: â€œMontenegro returned to the contest this year, Armenia didnâ€™t participate in the contest, Albania didnâ€™t broadcast the first semi-final yesterday because of the day of mourning in this country. Azerbaijan has been represented in this contest with talented singers since 2008. The Eurovision is held for the first time in the newly-constructed arena. This place wasnâ€™t tested before, but it is tested during rehearsals and shows. The voting is held in the last 15 minutes from this year. The purpose of this decision is not to divert attention of the spectators. We wanted the spectators to enjoy these performances till the endâ€.

Sand said that a problem occurred in ear microphone of Romanian singer in the first semi-final and added that they would try to remove all these problems in the next shows: â€œWe achieved different results in jury and TV voting on countries qualified for the final yesterday. The voting of spectators and juries of 8 countries coincided with each other, 1 country qualified for final because of TV voting, 1 â€“ jury voting. â€

Sietse Bakker noted that 1 mln links were posted on facebook and twitter last year during the Eurovision song contest: â€œBut yesterday one of five statuses on the both social networks was about the Eurovision contest or representatives.â€ Sietse Bakker highly appreciates the interests of people to this show, despite this contest is being held at the late hours.

He said next year first semi-final of the Eurovision song contest will be held on May 14, the second semi-final on May 16 and final on May 18.

Event Supervisor said that the EBU supports the hosting of all countries to the contest: â€œIf the country has rich culture, we are ready to help country in conveying of this culture to the world.â€ Executive producer of the â€œEurovision-2012â€ Adil Karimli welcomed the reporters and guests and wished them successes.

Jan Ola Sand answered the journalistâ€™s question on amount of finance, which was spent to the contest. He answered that almost the same amount in DÃ¼sseldorf was spent to this show. He said that construction expenses of the Baku Crystal Hall and Press Centre are not included in this figure, because Baku Crystal Hall was not constructed for the contest and this venue will function for a long time.