What these plans will do to the news coverage for the Eurovision song festival, is still up in the air. Meanwhile, the Olympiysky Arena in Moscow has been a hive of rehearsals and frenzied activity for the past two months to get ready for this week's nightly, televised extravaganzas. The final competition takes place on Saturday. The shows can also be watched live online throughout the week
on
From tonight's 18 participants, ten will proceed to the finals of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
The first 18 contestants can be viewed
here
Every country that is represented in this semi-final has the right to vote, as well as Germany and the United Kingdom. OnMay 12, nine finalists will be decided by televoting, and one additional finalist will be the one country that has received the most votes in the national juries and has not yet qualified by televoting. The ten countries going forward to the final will be announced in random order by opening "virtual" envelopes.Last night, the first full dress rehearsals took place - for the first time all the artists had to get 100% ready for their stage act, with all their outfits, hairstyles, makeup, dancers, back-up orchestras and stage-lighting exhibited on stage.
Eurovision TV press handouts
Rehearsals and pre-publicity shoots for the Eurovision Song Festival in Moscow on May 14 have been going on all this week. This is the Swedish entry, Malena Emman, with her dance troupe.
image:50806:6::0
|
The hairdressers' room was packed to the rafters with singers and dancers.The technicians were still working hard to get the green room ready where the representatives of all the countries will be seated during the show. Blue light is being used to create a relaxed atmosphere.
And the dressing rooms buzzed with excitement. Singers, songwriters, dancers and representatives of the delegations were mingling there, getting dressed, making music together, or just drinking coffee or having a short nap.
New friendships were built as well - for example, the musicians from Israel, Portugal and the Czech Republic met all together in one dressing room and played their instruments jointly, creating a warm atmosphere.
Nina NL
Sexy burlesque dancer Dita von Teese, ex-wife of shockrocker Marilyn Manson, has designed her own retro-look Wonderbra collection. She's also dancing in the German entry for the Eurovision Song Festival in Moscow .
image:50807:5::0
|
Gay Pride parade and counter-demonstrations - shambles expected in Moscow
However, a storm is gathering in Moscow on Saturday, which may throw a large shadow over the Eurovision song festival.
It all started with Moscow police's banning of a Gay Pride parade that same day - and plans by Orthodox-Christians to hold a counter-demonstration that day.
The Dutch singer
Gordon, who sings in the trio
The Toppers and is openly gay, threatened to fly back to Holland if the police used any violence against the Gay Pride parade participants.
Eurivison Song Festival
Dutch Eurovision team The Toppers, Moscow
image:51154:5::0
|
The atmosphere grew even grimmer today when a lesbian Russian couple, Irina Fedotova and Irina Sjipitko, were denied official permission to get married by an offical of Moscow's marriages' registry department.
The women were sent packing after they had waited an hour to register, sitting around with the foreign news media in their best wedding outfits in their attempts to try and register their marriage.The two women posed with bouquets of white roses before entering the Tverskoi branch of the State Registry Office on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa with prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev and a throng of foreign journalists.
The chief registrar, Svetlana Potamoshneva, initially refused to even consider the women's request, citing the Family Code, which states that marriage requires the consent of a man and a woman.
She also noted that the official form only has sections for "he" and "she." Alexeyev then persuaded her to consider a request written on a plain piece of paper. All the participants stressed that they expected a refusal of the request.
Reporters packed into the registrar's tiny office Tuesday. One climbed up on a desk, which unexpectedly collapsed, scattering pens and dried flowers. An hour later, Potamoshneva issued an official rejection of their request, citing the Family Code. "You are now seeing a concrete example of discrimination against sexual minorities in Russia," Alexeyev said after reading the rejection letter aloud. "It's exactly what I expected."
Shepitko, 32, and Fedotova-Fet, 30, now plan to travel to Toronto, Canada, in the summer to register their marriage there.
Nikolai Alexeyev
At past gay-rights demonstrations in Moscow, police have cracked down hard on activists such as Nikolai Alexeyev, pictured here during an arrest.
image:51146:4::0
|
Aleksejev says it wasn't just their marriage, but also justice which was being postponed.
Officially, homosexuality was 'decriminalised' in Russia in 1993 - however the hatred and resistance against gays continues, especially among religious and nationalist circles.
Moscow police are gearing up for a troublesome day in Moscow on Saturday, with the Eurovision Song Festival finals, the banned Gay Rights parade and the counter-demonstrations all going on at the same time.
Michail Nalimov, chairman of Moscow's
Union of Orthodox-Christian Youths, said 'the gay pride parade is an act of psychological terrorism,' and they will definitely hold a counter-demonstration.
see
Dutch broadcaster threatens to pull out:
The Dutch National Broadcasting Service (NOS) said it will 'reconsider its cooperation with the Eurovision Song Festival final in Moscow' if there is a crack-down on the planned Gay Pride that Saturday.
At least that's what the Dutch media is culling from the replies given by MP Ronald Plasterk, the Dutch minister of culture, during the parliamentary question session on Tuesday about the issue.
Questions were asked by MP Boris van der Ham of the Democrats-66 party - and Plaskerk said he 'recalled earlier scenes of a homo-demonstration in Moscow which was suppressed with heavy hand. Gruesome scenes.'
Plaskerk would 'convey his concerns' to the Russian ambassador, his colleague in the cultural affairs department and also ask secretary-of-state Frans Timmerman to raise the issue at a gay-rights meeting in Paris this week.
NOS-director Gerard Dielessen also said from Moscow on Tuesday that he feels it's 'very logical' if Gordon threatens to leave the city in case of police-violence at the Gay Pride parade.
"If the demonstration gets out of hand, and I mean if it turns into a battle, we (NOS) would have to reconsider our participation and our broadcasting the TV show (of Eurovision)," he
said.
