Eurovision Dance Contest 2008

Location

The SEC Centre is Scotland's largest exhibition centre, located in the district of Finnieston on the north bank of the River Clyde, Glasgow. The venue's holding company SEC Limited, is 91% owned by Glasgow City Council and 9% owned by private investors. It is probably best known for hosting concerts, particularly in Hall 4 and Hall 3.

Since the opening of the original buildings in 1985, the complex has undergone two major expansions; the first being the SEC Armadillo in 1997, and then the OVO Hydro arena in 2013.

The host city and venue was announced by the BBC on 7 July 2008. The contest was attended by an audience of 2,000.

Format

Rules and participants

According to the 2007 rules Section 2.2 on the official website, all entrants in the Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 agreed to take part in 2008 when signing up for the first contest. However, in June 2008, Switzerland announced their withdrawal from the contest without specifying a reason, while Germany also decided to withdraw from the event later the same month, due to comparatively low ratings for the 2007 contest in the country.

The running order was announced on 8 August. Due to a scheduling clash with the 2010 FIFA World Cup preliminaries, the Spanish broadcaster announced its late withdrawal on 28 August, just days before the contest was scheduled to take place. In July, they held a national selection show Quiero Bailar and named singer Rosa López and dancer Nieto as their representatives in the contest. According to the draw they were supposed to be 15th couple to perform.

As the number of dances was reduced, with each couple performing once instead of twice, new countries were allowed to enter the competition, but the only new country to enter the contest was Azerbaijan.

Opening and interval acts

The opening of the show featured Red Hot Chilli Pipers playing a Scottish-flavoured medley of known songs, with all participating couples presented on stage in order of performance. The interval act featured a group dance routine and was followed by soprano Lesley Garrett and the Carousel cast, performing a medley of "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" accompanied by the City of Glasgow Chorus.

Controversy

Azerbaijan and Greece announced professional dance couples as their representatives at the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008. According to the regulations of the contest, professional couples were not allowed to take part in the competition. The EBU specified that the couple had to be composed of one professional (defined as a dancer who earns his or her living through dance and dance-related activities), and one non-professional known in a field other than dance. The non-professional was not required to be a celebrity, as long as he or she was known in his field, and it was also not a requirement that the non-professional had no dance experience. Since the representatives for Azerbaijan and Greece both consisted of two professional dancers, however, it is not clear why their entries were considered valid.

Participating countries

Scoreboard

It is worth noting that, had the judges not been introduced (and thus only the televote been used), Poland would still have won the competition by 31 points. However, Ukraine and Russia would have shifted places therefore Ukraine would have finished 2nd and Russia finishing 3rd.

12 points

The maximum twelve points awarded by each country (to the couple who had received the most phone votes) were allocated as follows:

Professional jury

An expert jury of International DanceSport Federation judges from non-participating countries acted as a jury in the contest. After each performance, each jury member awarded each performance up to 12 points. The jury members were:

• Juror A: SingaporeGladys Tay (head judge)
• Juror B: GermanySven Traut
• Juror C: SloveniaBarbara Nagode Ambrož
• Juror D: FranceMichelle Ribas

The points below were converted (giving the jury vote the weight of four countries' votes in the total result) into 4 sets of 12 points, 12 for the first place couple on the jury leaderboard, 10 points for second, 8 points for third and so on, down to 1 point for 10th. The other four couples, do not receive any points from the judges.

Spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was done in order of performance. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.

1. SwedenCarin da Silva
2. Austria
3. DenmarkJens Blauenfeldt
4. AzerbaijanHusniyya Maharramova
5. IrelandBrian Osmond
6. FinlandJaana Pelkonen
7. NetherlandsMarcus van Teijlingen
8. Lithuania
9. United KingdomCarol Smillie
10. RussiaLarisa Verbitskaya
11. Greece
12. PortugalHelena Coelho
13. Poland
14. Ukraine

Commentators

Broadcasts

Most countries sent commentators to Glasgow or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, provide voting information.

Among the countries that took part, Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Malta and Spain also broadcast the event without sending representatives. In accordance with the rules, Spanish broadcaster TVE were obliged to broadcast the contest live due to their late withdrawal as an active participant. The EBU initially confirmed that the event would be broadcast on the network's second channel La 2 "for the benefit of Spanish viewers", however TVE later confirmed it would be delayed by one hour without specifying a reason. Australia also broadcast the contest on 6 May 2009, as a lead up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, on SBS. This was the first time Australia had broadcast the Eurovision Dance Contest, after failing to broadcast the 2007 edition, and was aired without any commentary.

Viewing figures

References

References

1. (7 July 2008). "The Eurovision Dance Contest Glides into Glasgow". BBC Press Office.
2. "World Dance Sport 2008".
3. "Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 information page". ESCKaz.com.
4. "Eurovision Song Contest".
5. (13 June 2008). "ARD zieht sich vom "Dance Contest" zurück".
6. (13 June 2008). "Korb für Dance Contest".
7. (20 August 2008). "Order of performances announced!".
8. (28 August 2008). "EBU confirms Spain's EDC withdrawal".
9. Hondal, Victor. (14 July 2008). "Spain: Nieto to join Rosa in Glasgow".
10. (9 September 2008). "It gets serious!".
11. (22 January 2009). "West End hit in Eurovision Dance Contest!".
12. (13 September 2008). "Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 | The participants".
13. (12 September 2008). "Poland wins 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest!".
14. Klier, Marcus. (7 September 2008). "Voting analysis of the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008".
15. "The Jury".
16. (12 September 2008). "Hello Europe, this is Glasgow calling!".
17. Klier, Marcus. (6 September 2008). "Live: Eurovision Dance Contest 2008".
18. (12 September 2008). "Dancers getting nervous in Glasgow!".
19. (10 September 2008). "EBU.CH :: 2008_09_03_EDC".
20. (28 August 2008). "Espanja vetäytyi Eurotansseista | yle.fi | Arkistoitu".
21. (28 August 2008). "TVE no participará pero tendrá que emitir el Festival de Eurovisión de Baile por La 2, según la UER".
22. (4 September 2008). "TVE emitirá Eurovision Dance por La 2 a partir de las 22:00 horas".
23. "SBS Schedule 13 May 2009". SBS.
24. (2 September 2008). "Dancing Stars sind bereit für Glasgow!".
25. "Azerbaijan at Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 - Азербайджан на Танцевальном Евровидении 2008 ESCKaz.com".
26. (3 September 2008). "Europæisk Danse Grand Prix 2008 - TV 2".
27. (16 July 2008). "Sirpa Suutari-Jääskö ja Johanna Pirttilahti kommentoivat Eurotansseja Kakkosella | yle.fi | Arkistoitu".
28. (6 September 2008). "Lietuvių pora šokių "Eurovizijoje" užėmė 4 vietą".
29. "Untitled Document".
30. (9 September 2008). "TVP1, TVP2 i TVN w górę, Polsat stoi w miejscu".
31. (6 September 2008). "Edyta Herbuś i Marcin Mroczek podbili Europę!". [[Onet.pl]].
32. (4 July 2008). "Danny & Jeanette dansar i Europa".
33. Reynolds, Simon. (7 July 2008). "Eurovision Dance Contest heads to Glasgow".
34. Murray, Gavin. (26 April 2009). "Australia & New Zealand: Full Eurovision schedule".
35. (6 September 2008). "Tímarit.is".
36. (9 July 2012). ""Quiero pasar por delante de Telecinco"".
37. (9 September 2008). "EDC 2008: Ratings Round-Up".
38. (8 September 2008). "TV ratings: BBC1 gets Saturday-night swing".