My Eurovision 2009 Coverage

May 2009 saw me attend my very first Eurovision Song Contest, in Moscow. Although a fan for as long as I can remember, this was my first time in the crowds at the concerts. While there, I provided coverage for a number of outlets, and experimented with using the Internet as a new route to the Eurovision Audience. This page collects my coverage in one place.

Audio Commentaries for the Semi-Finals and Finals

Recorded live at the Moscow Olympic Stadium during the final dress rehearsal for each show, these MP3 commentaries were made available for fans around the world to download and listen to alongside the show, either supplementing the commentary free live stream provided at Eurovision.tv or as an alternative to their National broadcaster. Because of this, my goal was to provide a factual yet entertaining commentary suitable for an international audience, with no bias towards any particular country.

Twitter

I posted just over 750 tweets from the week of my Eurovision coverage. Roughly 200 tweets were made as commentary during the grand final, and 150 during each semi final. That’s roughly one per minute throughout the live shows (www.twitter.com/ewanspence). The nature of the medium led to a more rough and tumble comedic commentary when compared to the MP3 commentary, but again doing my best to stay relatively independent. The complete stream of my Eurovision Tweets is available on request.

A Beginners Guide to Eurovision

A series of five short films explaining the origins of the Eurovision song contest, the scoring, the judges, the schedule and some fun facts.

BBC News (Technology List)

The Stage (Print)

Leading article in print edition of The Stage (Thur 21 May, 2009) discussing the UK result (5th) and why it was as good as a victory:

The final challenge of this rebirth will be in 2010. Who will step out onto the stage for the United Kingdom? Will they continue to have the support of a leading songwriter and all the partnership that boosted Jade this year? The path to a successful Eurovision has been cleared by the BBC, will they have the strength and character to continue onwards and build on their efforts this year?

The Stage (Online)

Grouped under “The Stage Goes To Eurovision”

Both areas of work with The Stage naturally had a UK angle, but hopefully with a realistic touch, and looking at the contest from an Arts point of view.

Political Betting

All About Symbian

The Daily Dust

UK online tabloid newspaper focussing on good news, coverage was light and entertaining with a strong UK bias.

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