Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest | |
---|---|
Participating broadcaster | Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) |
Participation summary | |
Appearances | 6 (0 finals) |
First appearance | 2004 |
Last appearance | 2009 |
Highest placement | 12th semi-final: 2007 |
External links | |
Andorra's page at Eurovision.tv | |
For the most recent participation see Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 |
Andorra has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times, debuting in the 2004 contest and participating every year thereafter until the 2009 contest. To date, Andorra remains the only nation to have never competed in a final, with its best result being a 12th-place finish in the 2007 contest's semi-final. Andorra withdrew from the contest following its 2009 appearance, with the national broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) citing financial difficulties as the reason for its withdrawal. The country has not entered the contest again since. Interest in the contest has, however, remained high in the country, while statements from the Andorran government and broadcaster indicated that a future return was possible, depending on financial backing.
RTVA used a mixture of methods to select its entrants in the years it competed, employing a national final for 2004, 2005 and 2009 and selecting internally between 2006 and 2008. A televote was principally used to determine the nation's points, however, due to the country's small population, on occasion a jury was required as the number of votes received from the Andorran public was deemed too low to be considered valid.
Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is open to members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), [1] of which Andorra has been a member since 2002 through Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA). [2] Interest in Andorran participation in the contest was first raised in 2003, when the country's then-head of government Marc Forné Molné indicated his agreement for the country to enter the contest, seeing it as a way to raise their profile at a reasonable cost. [3] [4] Andorra Televisió subsequently broadcast that year's contest as a passive participant, a prerequisite step for participation in the following year's event under the rules of the contest in place at the time. [5] [6] [7] RTVA later confirmed its intention to submit an entry for the 2004 contest, with backing from the Andorran government and an assurance that the Catalan language would be represented in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. [8] [9]
For its first Eurovision appearance, an agreement was announced between RTVA and Televisió de Catalunya (TVC) to jointly organise Andorra's first national final, with viewers in Catalonia being given a say in who should represent the country in the 2004 contest. [10] [11] Viewers and an assembled jury subsequently chose Marta Roure with "Jugarem a estimar-nos" as Andorra's first entry; [12] [13] ultimately the nation did not fare well, placing 18th of the 22 participating countries in the semi-final, receiving 12 points in total, all from Spain, and failing to qualify for the grand final. [14] After debating employing an internal selection to determine Andorra's second entry, a second national final was organised ahead of the 2005 contest. [15] Marian van de Wal was chosen to perform "La mirada interior" at the contest, however Andorra once again failed to qualify for the final, placing 23rd of 25 countries in the 2005 semi-final with 27 points. [16] [17]
RTVA initiated an internal selection to determine its entry for the 2006 contest, selecting "Sense tu" performed by Jenny; [18] the nation's third appearance would bring its worst result to date, placing last in the semi-final and receiving just eight points. [19] Further internal selections followed in 2007 and 2008, however neither Anonymous nor Gisela could bring Andorra to the final in either of the contests. [20] [21] [22] RTVA reverted to a national final for the 2009 contest, with Susanne Georgi selected by the Andorran public and jury to represent the country with "La teva decisió (Get a Life)"; [23] [24] on its sixth appearance, Andorra continued to fail to pass through the semi-final, placing 15th in the first semi-final with eight points and failing to qualify for the final. [25] After initially applying to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway, RTVA subsequently announced its withdrawal from the contest, citing financial difficulties. [26]
Budget restrictions have continued to prevent Andorra from returning to the contest, with RTVA having previously considered leaving the EBU in order to recoup costs, which would have prevented any further Andorran participation in the event. [27] [28] [29] In recent years, renewed interest in the contest has been reported among some members of the Andorran government, with past Andorran Eurovision artists having also been vocal in their support for a return of the nation to the contest. [30] [31] Georgi, Andorra's last participant, also started a campaign to secure a potential sponsorship which would enable Andorra to return to the contest and lobbied with Andorran politicians on this idea. [32] [33] Andorra is the only country to have never participated in a final to date; 2007 remains the country's best result to date, when Anonymous placed 12th in that year's semi-final with 80 points, 11 points away from qualifying. [20] [34]
Andorra has used a mix of methods to select its entries for the contest, having employed both national finals and internal selections. For its debut entry, RTVA launched a casting show, Eurocàsting, to determine two acts to take part in the national final. [35] [36] The selected acts performed 12 potential Eurovision songs over nine weeks on 12 punts, with songs being eliminated weekly until the winning song and artist was determined in the final show. [11] [37] Eurocàsting returned in 2005, but with one winning artist selected to perform three songs in the single final show Desitja'm sort. [38] [39] Following internal selections between 2006 and 2008, RTVA employed a televised competition again in 2009, with three acts competing in Passaport a Moscou. [18] [21] [22] [40]
In the years where Andorra participated, voting at the Eurovision Song Contest typically consisted of 100 percent public televoting, with countries obligated to use televoting as the method for determining their points from the 2004 contest. [41] However, each country was obligated to assemble a back-up jury, whose votes would be used instead of the televote in cases of technical failure, or from 2005 when the number of televotes registered failed to pass a certain threshold. [41] [42] RTVA utilised SMS voting to determine the country's points during the shows in which Andorra participated, however on occasion the back-up jury results were required to be implemented as the number of votes received was considered too low to provide a valid result. [42] [43] This occurred in 2005 and 2007, when the votes of Andorra's back-up jury were used instead to provide the Andorran votes in both the semi-final and final. [42] [44]
◁ | Last place |
Year | Artist | Song | Language | Final | Points | Semi | Points |
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2004 | Marta Roure | " Jugarem a estimar-nos " | Catalan [46] | Failed to qualify | 18 | 12 | |
2005 | Marian van de Wal | " La mirada interior " | Catalan [47] | 23 | 27 | ||
2006 | Jenny | " Sense tu " | Catalan [48] | 23 ◁ | 8 | ||
2007 | Anonymous | " Salvem el món " | Catalan, English [49] | 12 | 80 | ||
2008 | Gisela | "Casanova" | English [50] | 16 | 22 | ||
2009 | Susanne Georgi | "La teva decisió (Get a Life)" | Catalan, English [51] | 15 | 8 |
The public broadcaster of each participating country in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the contestants, songwriters, composers and backing vocalists, among others. [52]
Year | Name | Ref. |
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2005–2009 | Creu Rosell | [53] |
For the show's broadcast on Andorra Televisió (ATV), various commentators have provided commentary for the contest in the local language. At the Eurovision Song Contest after all points are calculated, the presenters of the show call upon each voting country to invite each respective spokesperson to announce the results of their vote on-screen. [54]
Year(s) | Commentator | Dual commentator | Spokesperson | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | Meri Picart | Albert Roig | Did not participate | [55] [56] |
2004 | Josep Lluís Trabal | Pati Molné | [53] [57] [58] | |
2005 | Ruth Gumbau | [53] [59] [60] | ||
2006 | Xavi Palma | [53] [61] [62] | ||
2007 | Marian van de Wal | [53] [63] [64] | ||
2008 | Alfred Llahí | [53] [65] [66] | ||
2009 | None | Brigits García | [54] [67] | |
2010–2024 | No broadcast | Did not participate |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's victory at the 2002 contest with the song "I Wanna" by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV), the contest was held at the Skonto Hall on 24 May 2003. The contest was presented by last year's winner Marie N and former contestant Renārs Kaupers.
Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra, S.A., shortened to RTVA, is the public television and radio broadcaster in the Principality of Andorra. It operates a television channel, ATV, and two radio stations, RNA and AM, all of which broadcast in Catalan.
Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Sense tu" written by Rafael Artesero and Joan Antoni Rechi. The song was performed by Jenny, who was internally selected by the Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) to represent Andorra at the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece. The song, "Sense tu", was presented to the public on 8 March 2006 during a special gala show entitled Alguna cosa batega.
Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Mr Nobody" written by Urša Vlašić and Matjaž Vlašić. The song was performed by Anžej Dežan. Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija organised the national final EMA 2006 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece. Fourteen entries competed in the national final where "Plan B" performed by Anžej Dežan was selected following the combination of votes from a five-member jury panel and a public televote. The song was later translated from Slovene to English for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Mr Nobody".
Lebanon has never participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. The country's broadcasting organisation, Télé Liban, was set to make the country's debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" performed by Aline Lahoud, but withdrew due to Lebanese laws barring the broadcast of Israeli content.
"Tomorrow I Go" is a song by Albanian singer Ledina Çelo composed by Adi Hila and written by Pandi Laço. The song was released as part of a CD compilation on 29 April 2005 by CMC Records. Musically, it is an English-language folk-influenced dance song that incorporates traditional Albanian sounds in the instrumentation. Lyrically, the song discusses the themes of love and marriage, while also reflecting the story a story of a woman's wedding. "Tomorrow I Go" represented Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Çelo won the pre-selection competition, Festivali i Këngës 43, with the song's Albanian-language version "Nesër shkoj". The country reached the 16th place in a field of 24, gathering a total of 53 points. During her Albanian-themed performance of the song, Çelo was accompanied by four female backing violinists and a male drummer.
Ireland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Love?" written by Karl Broderick. The song was performed by Donna and Joe. The Irish entry for the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine was selected through the third season of the music competition series You're a Star, organised by the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). The competition consisted of 17 shows and concluded with a final, resulting in the selection of "Love?" performed by Donna and Joe as the Irish Eurovision entry after facing a public televote.
Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Stop" written by Omar Naber and Urša Vlašič. The song was performed by Omar Naber. Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija organised the national final EMA 2005 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. Fourteen entries competed in the national final where the winner was selected over two rounds of public televoting. In the first round, the top three entries were selected. In the second round, "Stop" performed by Omar Naber was selected as the winner.
Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "La mirada interior" written by Rafael Artesero, Daniel Aragay and Rafa Fernández. The song was performed by Marian van de Wal. The Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) organised the national final Desitja'm sort in order to select the Andorran entry for the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. The national final took place over three stages and two televised shows, resulting in the selection of Marian van de Wal as the winning artist on 19 December 2004 and "La mirada interior" as the winning song on 22 January 2005.
Cyprus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Ela Ela ", which was written and performed by Constantinos Christoforou. Christoforou was internally selected by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) in November 2004 to represent the nation at the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. His song was selected through a national final, which was organised by CyBC and took place on 1 February 2005. The national final featured four songs performed by Christoforou and resulted in the selection of "Ela Ela " through a combination of public televote and jury deliberation.
Greece won the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, its first Eurovision Song Contest victory. Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Helena Paparizou who sang "My Number One" in Kyiv, winning the competition with 230 points. The song is written by Manos Psaltakis, Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou. "My Number One" was selected through a national final on 2 March 2005, where the public and a professional jury chose it over three other candidate songs.
Serbia and Montenegro participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Zauvijek moja" written by Milan Perić and Slaven Knezović. The song was performed by the band No Name. The union of public broadcasters of Serbia and Montenegro, Udruženje javnih radija i televizija (UJRT) organised the national final Evropesma-Europjesma 2005 in order to select the Serbian and Montenegrin entry for the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), and the Montenegrin broadcaster Radio i televizija Crne Gore (RTCG) each submitted twelve entries from their respective selections Beovizija 2005 and Montevizija 2005 with twenty-four entries in total competing in the national final on 4 March 2005. "Zauvijek moja" performed by No Name was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from an eight-member jury panel and a public televote.
Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Brujería" written by Alfredo Panebianco. The song was performed by the group Son de Sol. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Eurovisión 2005: Elige nuestra canción in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. The national final consisted of a semi-final and a final and involved twelve artists and songs. Six entries ultimately qualified to compete in the televised final where a public televote exclusively selected "Brujería" performed by Son de Sol as the winner, receiving 24.2% of the votes.
Greece competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, held at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. The Greek broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Sakis Rouvas with the song "Shake It", written by Nikos Terzis and Nektarios Tyrakis, to represent the nation. Prior to Rouvas' selection, the broadcaster had organised a public selection process entitled Eurostar, consisting of live semi-final heats, leading to a three-participant national final to select their entrant. While the event did take place and Apostolos Psichramis was selected as the Greek entrant, the song selection portion did not materialize after the Rouvas announcement and Psichramis instead joined Rouvas as a backing vocalist.
Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song "Salvem el món" written and performed by young Andorran punk-rock band Anonymous, consisting of band members: Guillem Gallego, Niki Francesca and Alejandro Martínez. The band was internally selected by Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) in a process called Projecte Eurovisió for the 2007 contest in Helsinki, Finland. The internal selection ended with a total of 82 songs having been submitted to RTVA. These entries were whittled down by the broadcaster to determine the fourth Andorran representatives. Anonymous were announced as the Andorran representatives on 15 January 2007, while the song was presented in a special gala show on 1 March 2007.
Macedonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Life" written by Jovan Jovanov and Ilija Nikolovski. The song was performed by Toše Proeski, who was internally selected by the Macedonian broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) to compete for Macedonia at the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey. MRT returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their relegation from 2003 as one of the bottom five countries in the 2002 contest. Toše Proeski's appointment as the Macedonian representative was announced on 7 June 2003, while MRT organised Skopje Fest 2004 in order to select his song. Eight songs competed in the competition on 14 February 2004 where "Angel si ti" was selected following the combination of votes from an eleven-member jury panel, Proeski himself and a public televote. The song was later translated from Macedonian to English for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Life".
Andorra debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Jugarem a estimar-nos" written by Jofre Bardagí. The song was performed by Marta Roure. The Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) organised the national final 12 Punts in order to select the Andorran entry for the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey. The national final took place over four stages and nine televised shows, resulting in the selection of Marta Roure as the winning artist and "Jugarem a estimar-nos" as the winning song during the final on 15 March 2004.
Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Casanova" written by Jordi Cubino. The song was performed by Gisela, who was internally selected by the Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) to represent Andorra at the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. The song, "Casanova", was presented to the public on 26 February 2008.
Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "La teva decisió " written by Susanne Georgi, Rune Braager, Lene Dissing, Pernille Georgi, Marcus Winther-John and Josep Roca Vila. The song was performed by Susanne Georgi. The Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) organised the national final Passaport a Moscou in order to select the Andorran entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. Three songs performed during the national final on 4 February 2009 where a combination of jury voting and public voting selected "La teva decisió " performed by Susanne Georgi as the winner.
Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Thunder and Lightning", written by Dino Šaran and performed by Vukašin Brajić. On 11 January 2010, the Bosnian broadcaster Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) revealed that they had internally selected Brajić to compete at the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway. His song, "Munja i grom", was presented to the public during a show entitled BH Eurosong Show 2010 on 14 March 2010. The song was later translated from Bosnian to English for the Eurovision Song Contest with the new title "Thunder and Lightning".
Serbia could not vote for itself, and Albania and Andorra relied on backup national juries.