My Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Final dates
 Venue
 Number of entries
 Winning song

**My Eurovision Song Contest 2008** was the 9th edition of the annual **My Eurovision Song Contest****.** It took place in Auckland, New Zealand, following Disclosure and Lorde's win at the 2007 contest in Reykjavík, Iceland with the song *"Magnets".* The contest was held in the Vector Arena on Friday 14 March.

## Hosting Bids

Usually when a country wins the contest they are expected to host the next contest the following year however, this invitation was not extended to New Zealand's Broadcaster: Television of New Zealand (TVNZ). In the winner's press conference of the 2006 contest TVNZ stated they would love to host the contest but it is not in the rules of the contest as New Zealand is not in Europe. It was expected that their would be a bidding phase between members of the Big 5 like in the 1st edition of the contest in 2000. However, as the weeks passed by more and more cities in New Zealand stated they wanted to host the contest and that they have the facilities to do so. Many cities lobbied TVNZ to try to negotiate with the European Broadcasting Union to get the contest to New Zealand. After months of silence from the EBU on the host city of the 2008 contest it was revealed in July 2007 that New Zealand will indeed host the contest and TVNZ will hold a short bidding phase for cities to apply to host the contest. A few days later TVNZ announced the candidate cities. TVNZ and the EBU would then send delegates to each city to evaluate their bids.

**These where the bids:**

     *Selected Host*
     *Shortlisted*

In the first round of the bidding phase in August 2007 the cities of **Auckland** and **Hamilton** where shortlisted as possible hosts and had to begin planning the contest theoretically. In the second round of the bidding phase in September 2007 **Auckland** was selected as the host and was given the go ahead by the **EBU** and **TVNZ** to begin the preparations for the **2008 contest.** This was considered a suprise as the city of **Hamilton** was the favourite to win the bidding phase with the **Mystery Creek Events Centre** and their proposal. **TVNZ** later stated that although it was a close call, the **Hamilton** bid would be great but such a large capacity was not needed as the crowd for this years contest was not expected to be as big as previous contests due to a lot of possible audience members not making the journey to **New Zealand** due to the distance.

## Qualification for Final

Each country will submit a song to the **EBU** in which professional juries will vote for songs to qualify for the final. The qualification process is entirely due to professional juries who are the only people to hear the countries' songs before the final. If a country makes it to the final then their song will be released to the public. As the host country, **New Zealand** would automatically qualify to the final along with the **Big 5.** *(France, Germany, Italy, Russia & the United Kingdom.)*

## Final

The Final of **My Eurovision Song Contest 2008** was held in **Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand** with the Motto: ***"Magnetic Hearts"*** this theme fits in with New Zealand's winning song from the previous year *"Magnets"* by British electronic music duo **Disclosure** and New Zealand singer **Lorde** who won the 2007 contest for New Zealand with *220 points*. The design depicts a magnet pulling in the contest's logo and motto from a bright yellow/green background. A spokeperson from TVNZ stated: *"The design fits in with New Zealand's winning song from last year and also with what TVNZ wants to convey to our audience in Europe. Our messege is that love always brings us together like we have magnetic hearts and it is the love of music that will bring thousands of Europeans to Auckland this March."*  The branding is very bright and colourful, something it recieved criticism over as people said the yellow/green background does not fit the rest of the theme.