-QUALIFYING ROUND TO BE HELD IN ISTANBUL TONIGHT
ISTANBUL - The half final evening of the 49th Eurovision Song Contest will be held tonight with participation of 22 countries at Abdi Ipekci Sports Hall in Istanbul.
The event will be held with a brand new format: Two televised contests in one week - a Qualifying Round and a Grand Final, both broadcast live. A record 36 countries will participate in the song contest.
The great final of the 49th Eurovision Song Contest 2004 will be held on Saturday, May 15 at the Abdi Ipekci Sports Hall.
Andorra, Belarus, Denmark, Macedonia, Croatia, Israel, Greek Cypriot side, Lithuania, Monaco, Serbia-Montenegro, Ukraine, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Estonia, Finland, Holland, Switzerland, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Greece will attend the qualifying round tonight.
They will compete for the 10 remaining places in the Grand Final.
The half final evening will be broadcast live in 33 of the 36 participating countries while there will be no live broadcast in France, Poland and Russia.
Voting will be made through telephones and cell phones.
The Grand Final will be aired on Saturday and broadcast live in all 36 participating countries.
Fourteen countries already have a secured place in the Grand Final: The winner and the highest scoring countries from the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest, along with the four largest countries in the competition: Turkey, Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Romania and Russia.
Sertab Erener, representing Turkey with the song ``Every Way That I Can``, won the 48th Contest. The event was transmitted live by 42 broadcasters over the Eurovision network reaching over 100 million viewers across Europe and beyond in territories as far afield as Australia.
(MS-AÖ) 12.05.2004