Oslo 2010: Let's share the numbers!

First of all, the Eurovision Song Contest is a television production that consists of 3 live shows, which is expected to be seen by more than 120 million people. Last year, viewers from all over Europe cast more than 10 million votes in the two Semi-Finals and the Final. Over 80,000 tickets have been sold for the live shows and various dress rehearsals. The Final will be attended by some 16,000 people at the arena. The 55th Final since 1956, in fact! Over the past decades, more than 1,150 songs have taken part in the competition.

At Host Broadcaster NRK, a core production team of some 10 people worked on the Eurovision Song Contest full-time since last year's summer, under the leadership of Executive Producer, Jon Ola Sand. Over the past months, NRK recruited some 500 volunteers to be "the backbone of the organisation". Over 500 crew members are involved in the build-up process at the Telenor Arena, which started two weeks ago. Some of them did a great job practising the flash mob dance for this year's contest (see picture)!

532 moving lights and 4,179 fixed light elements are being installed right now at the Telenor Arena, 1,852 being so-called colourblocks that have been installed to involve the audience in the hall with whatever happens on stage. 4,528 metres of truss has been used to build the entire light rig.

23 cameras will be used to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to your TV set or computer screen. Directors Ole Jørgen Grønlund and Kim Strømstad will be in charge. As many as 8 satellite channels and a similar amount of back-up channels will be used simultaneously to receive picture and sound from the 39 spokespersons across Europe. High up in the sky, 2 satellites will bring the signal from Oslo to broadcasters all over Europe and even in Asia. To assure a smooth production, 250 handheld radios will be used by the production crew.

2,007 journalists from over 70 countries have been accredited for the Eurovision Song Contest, while 314 of the most dedicated fans of Europe's favourite TV-show obtained a special fan accreditation. All together, it means a full house this year! 1,014 delegation members from the 39 participating countries are in Oslo. 212 of them will appear on stage.

By the end of the Final, we haven't only had three fantastic live shows, but also over 100 hours of rehearsals on stage.

Eurovision.tv, the official website of the Eurovision Song Contest, has served 14,214,000 pageviews in the first four months of the year, welcoming over 30 percent more visitors than last year. Videos of the contest's official YouTube channel have been viewed a stunning 16,646,000 times since the beginning of this year, three times more compared to the same period last year. 82,500 Eurovision Song Contest fans signed up for the event's page on Facebook.