Published: 16 May, 2009, 08:33
Edited: 16 May, 2009, 08:33
Performers from 25 countries will rock Moscow’s Olimpiysky Stadium in the Eurovision final on Saturday evening. Hundreds of millions worldwide are expected to tune in to watch the most expensive final in its history.
After Russia sealed the victory in Serbia last year, Moscow is playing host to the contest and has gone to great measures to ensure it will be a night to remember.
“At the moment it’s cost over $30 million. That includes a mobile TV station which was built for the Beijing Olympics,” said Konstantin Ernst, general director of Russia’s Channel One, which has organized the international broadcast of the show.
Moscow’s Olimpiysky stadium seats 20,000 people, and although it will be packed with fervent Eurovision fans on the night, some critics say the contest is anything but good music:
“Of course it’s about politics and money, not music, because the quality is appalling,” Russian music critic Artemy Troitsky said damningly.
Any cynicism about the contest definitely isn’t’ shared by the tens of thousands of people who’ve descended on Moscow to see the show and find out which one of the 25 countries will be crowned winner and next year’s host.