IS IT ALL WORTH IT? ‘PROMOTION TOURS HARDLY CONTRIBUTE’

esctoday.com, Netherlands
May 23 2006

2006 has been the year of the promotion tours. After Ruslana and
Helena Paparizou toured Europe and ended their Eurovision Song Contest
adventure with a victory, several of this year’s participants travelled
around Europe, trying to enlarge their potentials.

15 countries, 1 point

Fabrizio Faniello, Malta’s representative at this year’s Eurovision
Song Contest, is probably the most unfortunate example. Visiting
Ukraine, Germany, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia,
Andorra, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Latvia, Bulgaria and Greece
was not enough to bring him more than the 1 point he received… from
Albania, the country he didn’t visit to promote I do.

All countries, 20th place in the semifinal Treble from the Netherlands
visited all 37 participating countries, after they promised the Dutch
audience to do so when they would win the national final. They came
20th in the semifinal of this year’s contest and thus didn’t qualify
for the final.

Good result Mihai Traistariu, who represented Romania with Tornero,
visited Greece, Slovenia, Malta, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Monaco,
Spain, Germany, Croatia, Bulgaria and Moldova to promote his entry. He
came 4th in the final, a respectable place. He received 12 points
from Spain and Moldova, 10 from Cyprus and Malta, which he all visited.

But Mihai also got 10 points from Israel and Portugal, countries he
didn’t visit to promote his song.

Armenian singer Andre hardly did any promotion at all in the countries
where he received his 10 and 12 points from. The band with singers
from six different countries, that represented Switzerland, could
only count on 12 points from Malta.

Kate Ryan Belgian representative Kate Ryan visited more than 10
countries to promote her Je t’adore. Not even half of her points
comes from the countries she visited.

No big tours The winners of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi,
didn’t do any big promotion tours through Europe. Although visiting
some countries on his way to Athens, Dima Bilan didn’t cross Europe
either, nor did Bosnia & Herzegovina Hari Mata Hari.

Extensive promotion Although some participants with an extensive
promotion schedule did very well, others didn’t reach a high position
in the final or even failed to qualify for the final. Those who
did an extensive amount of promotion and reached a high position,
generally received points from all over Europe and not just from the
countries they visited.