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Malmö: Updates about the contest

18 March 2013 at 10:43 CET

First of all, it was announced that the 13th, 15th and 17th May are the preliminary dates for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest.

Running order change to 'make every song shine'

Naturally, one of the topics discussed was the change in the running order. Namely this year the running order is not drawn but decided by the producers.

"We want every song to shine," Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor explained the change. 

For the Final, the first and second half of the Grand Final will be drawn at the winner's press conferences of the Semi-Finals.

Producers will propose the running order and the EBU Executive Producer will approve it. For the Semi-Finals the running order will be done the latest by the 29th of March and for the Final on the 17th of May 3 am.

The so-called Big 5 - France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and Italy - will be drawn to the first or second half of the Final during their first individual press conferences.

The position of the host country Sweden was drawn today and they'll perform on position number 16.

Reference group gets new members

Today, it was also time for the Reference Group elections where there were 10 candidates for 3 open places. After the self-introductions of all candidates, it was up to the Heads of Delegations to decide who would be in the group the next two years.

In the end it was Aleksander Radic (RTVSLO),  Nicola Caligiore (RAI) and Christer Björkman (SVT) to join the group.

The Heads of Delegations also got updates about the stage and the show - but this you'll find out soon!