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By Angeliki Derveni
Scorching temperatures in London, will mean thousands of Londoners organising Eurovision parties tomorrow to celebrate the 57th Eurovision song contest, with British hopes resting on the shoulders of veteran crooner Englebert Humperdick singing ‘Love Will Set You Free’.
Azerbaijan, the central Asian republic which has broken spending records at this years Eurovision, with its president Ilham Aliyev rumoured to have spent millions of pounds on the festival of Euro-kitsch in Baku the Azerbaijan capital.
Reports in the British press today and other European media have said the growing anger in Azerbaijan at the growing concern over human rights abuses, with the Azeri authorities complaining at the growing "politicisation" of the Eurovision in Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile the hot favourite to scoop "deux points" is Sweden with "Euphoria" sung by Loreen, a Euro-pop song highly regarded by bookies across the EU as a likely winner.
With an estimated 125 million viewers watching tomorrow night, higher than the US Super Bowl, and other prime television "experiences", households across Europe and the world will be watching the songs of various countries with, in most cases reserved delight.
Londoners are likely to take advantage of the hot weather with bar-b-q Eurovision parties being organised all over the capital, amongst the die-hard fans of the festival of "music".
The 26 countries which will be going to the Crystal Hall for the final show this year, after the two semi-finals which took place on the 22nd and 24th of May, are the United Kingdom, Hungary, Albania, Lithuania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Russia, Island, Cyprus, France, Italy, Estonia, Norway, Azerbaijan, Romania, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Malta, Fyrom, Ireland, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova.
The voting procedure will be a mix of televoters and a professional jury in each country having a 50% stake in the outcome.
Viewers will be able to vote by telephone only. After all countries have performed, viewers will be invited to vote for their favourite songs, using the numbers which will be given during the programme.
Eurovision is broadcast on BBC1 at 7pm
Or on BBC Radio 2, LBC 97.3fm with Cristo Foufas or London Greek Radio 103.3 FM
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