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Song of the Mediterranean
Boaz Mauda, Tamara and MioDio in Budva festival
The contest is between 36 acts from all over the Mediterranean region, and past winners Severina and Julio Iglesias, both former Eurovision participants, will perform. Twenty competitors will reach the final.
Several contestants from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will participate, namely ninth placed Boaz Mauda from Israel with Lacho Eli, Tamara Todevska of FYR Macedonia with Dajem ti sve and MioDio from San Marino with It is OK. Former Eurovision participants Goran Karan (Croatia 2000) and Ekstra Nena (Yugoslavia 1992) will also compete for the top prize of €15 000.
There will also be ‘consolation prizes’ and awards for the best composition, lyrics and newcomer, making the total prize fund €30 000.
The full festival line-up can be found here.
Related polls
- 2008 esctoday.com award nominations: Best act not to qualify from the semi finals
- 2008 esctoday.com award nominations: Most traditional Europop song
- First quarter final in Bulgaria: your favourite?
- Jury vote, do you agree?
- Jury vote only in the final or in the semis as well?
- What mixture of televote and jury vote do you think is the best?
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Jonny,
Well, that's a relief 
@ Night Elf:
Thank you for the hint!
It is great to see Alenka competing in so many festivals. But I already know her song "Zenska iz soli" for a long time and yes, it is just fantastic.
She will also compete in Croatian "Split Festival" and in "Slovenska Popevka" with two new songs!
Stockholm calling
Only just! 
Jonny K:
Is there enough room for a bed?
Mina, yeah it is!! If I stand in the middle, I can touch either side with my fingertips!! In fact its smaller than our bathroom!
Jonny,
''amazing to see the world champion on a piece of ice about the size of my bedroom!! ''
Your bedroom must be tiny 
Mina
"By the way, I also find football players cute but no, that's not why I like watching it"
lol Mina!!
Stockholm
I think part of the reason why I enjoyed the Russian performance was also because of the figure skating. It was quite amazing to see the world champion on a piece of ice about the size of my bedroom!!
Mina:
Yeah, they were cute Usually I don't watch sports on TV but I'm a big fan of figure skating. Maybe that's why I liked the Russian performance.
Stockholm,
no, I've never played football although if I was a guy, I'd like to be a goalkeeper, it's my favourite position.
It's just my favourite sport since I was a child (it's like our national sport here in Greece!).
It is a little violent but don't worry, there's not bleeding in every game
By the way, I also find football players cute but no, that's not why I like watching it
LOL
Some great artists there.....
Mina:
You seem to know a lot about football. Have you played football yourself?
I've never watched a game before so I thought I'd give it a try. But OMG, the first thing I saw when I turned on the TV was two guys bleeding from their heads. Violent sport, is it?
Anyway, congrats to Germany!
Yep, congrats to Germany although the fair result for this game would be to go to penalties. Anyway, I hope Russia will do it tomorrow.
And to connect this to Eurovision ( ) Dima said he thinks they'll win 2-0 tomorrow
Mina, quite possibly!!! The game has just finished and Turkey lost 
Congrats to Germany, especially for that last goal, but I am so gutted that Turkey aren't in the final
Hopefully Russia will beat Spain and I can support Russia in the final
I'm watching the game but I had to make a comment
So, the problem isn't whether there is neighbour voting but why oh why do they have more neighbours than us?
lollllll
Yes, alot of people claim the Nordic bloc to be worse than it actually is 
And also there is only 5 countries in the Nordic bloc (6 if you include estonia), so the Nordic bloc has nowhere near as much impact as the ex-Soviet bloc where there is 10/11 countries. The same applies the the Balkans, there are only 6 countries in the Balkan bloc, so it isn't as powerful as the ex-USSR bloc.
Jonny K:
I totally agree with you about the Nordic bloc voting.
Mina:
Although there is an important Bosnian diaspora in Sweden I honestly believe that the "native Swedes" really liked Laka's song and voted for it. At least, that's the impression I got from talking to friends
Much as I loved the Norwegian entry I didn't vote for any of my neighbours.
Mina
I totally understand what you're saying, but you have just proved part of the problem. Because so many of the points got to Russia, Russia automatically has a head start over other countries.
And we already saw how Russia will get lots of 8, 10 & 12 points from neighbours regardless of the song. Take Julia Sachieva from 2004, her song was boring and she performed quite badly, however she still managed 12th place due to mostly ex-soviet voting, and thats the kind of problems there are in the contest. Unconditional support regardless of the song.
Now this year, I totally agree that Dima probably did exceptionally well off ex-USSR votes because he is a superstar in eastern europe, and the same applies for Ani Lorak, and Verka etc. And I can completely understand that. I just think the main problem is when artists get lots of points, regardless of the song, and do better than some artists that deserve a much higher place, and it is bloc/diaspora voting that can cause that. And this is the thing which makes the voting look so unfair.
However, if a song is good enough, it will do well no matter bloc it does/doesn't belong to
Of course, they start with an advantage, IF they send a star and IF he does well (let's not forget that Charlotte was also well-known in Europe, even more so for being a winner but still she did terribly even among western countries) but the rest of Europe has to give higher points than 1-2 to be able to reach top 3, or win.
And it's not as easy as it seems to get 5-6-7 points....but you know that better than me.
lol
Jonny,
take a look:
Moldova 2 pts to Armenia
Georgia 2 pts to Latvia
Estonia 4 pts to Ukraine
Armenia 5 pts to Ukraine
Latvia 4 pts to Azerbaijan
Armenia 0 pts to Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan 0 pts to Armenia
Estonia 0 pts to Armenia
Lithuania 0 pts to Armenia
Estonia, Lithuania 5 pts to Georgia
Moldova 3 pts to Georgia
The only other ex soviet country they all gave 8-12 points to, was Russia and I'm positive it had to with Dima because he's famous in all those countries. As were Serebro and Tatu and Alsou. The second ex soviet country they most gave high points to was Ukraine because of Ani Lorak who is also famous there.
Actually I don't think the Nordic bloc is as strong as alot of people may think. The voting this year shows that the Nordic countries didn't vote massively for each other, apart from for Norway.
Take a look at some of the Nordic votes -
Iceland only 3 to Sweden
Denmark nothing to Finland
Sweden only 5 to Denmark
Norway only 4 to Finland
etc, etc, etc!
So whilst Nordic countries did exchange alot of high scores (particularly to Norway), they also didn't vote as hugely for each other as you might think
Stockholm,
you voted for B and H...so it wasn't their diaspora that gave them 10 points? I'm shocked
cpbija 89:
I don't deny that the Nordic countries (often) exchange points but I think it's natural as the Scandinavians tend to like the same kind of songs. Still, Norway is the only Nordic country which did really well this year and deservedly, I think. Sweden wouldn't even have qualified without the jury vote. Besides, Sweden gave its 10 points to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Actually, I also voted for B and H. I like their song even though I don't understand a word of it
Night Elf
Yes I understand what you're saying! And also Balkan countries are very close culturally so its understandable that Balkan people are more tempted to vote for their neighbours. I always tend to be tempted to vote for Ireland for example, and I would have this year had it not been for the semi rule. And thats probably because Ireland and the UK are very close culturally so its understandable that I like Irish songs alot.
And this does partly explain bloc voting, and theres no problem with this The main problem nowadays is diaspora voting, and diaspora now means that countries like Armenia and Turkey have a massive advantage because their people are spread all around europe.
I can't really complain about the points ex soviet countries give us..it's not like we give them more.
Armenia always gives us points, we give them back. (they gave us 8, we gave them 12).
Azerbaijan gave us 6, we gave them 3.
Russia gave us 3, we gave them 7.
Ukraine gave us 2, we gave them 6.
Estonia gave us 1 point, Belarus 2, Moldova 4, we had given them 4 in the semi final, Georgia 4, we also gave them 4. Only Latvia and Lithuania gave us nothing.
And well, Norway, Iceland, Portugal and Finland also gave us 0 points.
I really don't believe that ex soviets just 'agree' not to vote for Balcans...unless the Scandivanians agree to do the same thing and even the Mediterranean countries, too! We got 2 points from Malta and 3 from Spain.
I think it's not fair to judge ex soviet countries just because they're more.
If, and I've said this before, there's a song that attracts the majority of Europe, ex soviet countries can do nothing about it.
If ofcourse, everyone votes for their friends, then yes, the one with most friends wins.
If Malta chooses to give 12 points to Sweden (that almost noone liked) and 2 to Greece, who was one of the favourites, it's not Russia's fault.
Although Mina is right If there is a good enough song, it will do well regardless of which bloc it does/doesn't belong to!
@Johnny and @Crbija 89
Yes, and I would like also to mention all these festivals where several times in the year singers from all ex YU join together and compete for best songs. So every year there is small Eurovision between Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia broadcast live in all countries and it's going for more than 10 years now... So all singers from each country are very well known in all ex Yu republics..
So it's not BIG surprise when Eurovision starts there are pts between this countries, it is like we send 6 contestants in Eurovision, and + we can vote for them ether...
But I agree with everyone that this is not fair voting. We will give each other every year at least 1 pt no meter of song. (Well Montenegro give only 2 pts to Croatia this year, or was it 3...)... But anyway I think because our music scenes in all ex YU republic are like one, so singers from Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia are not foreign in Montenegro, there is why Eurovision pts look like this.
I try to explain something,,but I all mess up anyway that's how it is
cpbija 89
Yes, generally the standard of music is higher from the Balkans rather than the ex-USSR because I like to listen to traditional music, and the Balkans sends some really good ethnic songs
And yes, alot of people overlook the Scandinavian bloc, however the Scandinavian bloc isn't nearly as strong as the ex-USSR bloc
And that thing you heard on forums about Russians not voting for the Balkans is awful. Its almost cheating in fact
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