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The 23rd? Sorry, we are fully booked

23 January 2008 at 17:04 CET

I don't know if it's all coincidence, or if I have to go through all possible conspiracy theories... Is it our unfortunate destiny, or are north, east, south and west joining forces to put us up for the ultimate test? Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland, Poland, FYR Macedonia and Romania already planned to hold their national selections on the 23rd of February, yesterday RTÉ announced the Irish selection would take place on the very same day. Sweden continues the search for a potential winner in the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2008. Israeli broadcaster IBA made a wise decision to hold their song selection for Mauda on the 25th and 26th of February, and it's a pleasure to know that at least someone thinks about our nerves. Guys, you did it for us... didn't you??

With seven national finals and one semi-final in Sweden on the 23rd of February, we're heading for one of the most nerve-wrecking Saturday evenings of the year. The entire Eurovision.tv team will be on duty that night, and there is no doubt this will also be the case with the fan sites. The die-hard fans will spend their usual night out in front of their computers, unboubtfully testing their F5 key (to refresh a web page) to the maximum to be the first to know the winner in each country. Last year, the website esctoday.com declared the 3rd of February Super Saturday. Four countries picked their Eurovision Song Contest participants on that night, while eight preliminary heats took place across Europe. 

When we discussed our editorial policy a couple of weeks ago, we decided to put a strong focus on the national finals, and not so much on the semi-finals, preliminary heats or sing-offs. The fan sites provide excellent and in-depth coverage of these events, while we focus on a broad audience with Eurovision.tv. On the 23rd of February you can expect in-depth coverage of all national finals, and maybe... maybe, we will even stream a couple of them live through esctv! Stay tuned for further announcements.

"The 23rd? Of February? No sir, I am sorry. We are fully booked that date. Can I recommend you the 16th? Only Iceland and Ukraine will air their finals on that day..."