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EUROVISION

Total Eurovision bill nears 100 million kroner

The company hired to put on May's Eurovision contest overshot its budget by 70 million kroner ($13 million), leading to massive criticism and a huge bill for the public.

Total Eurovision bill nears 100 million kroner
Photo: Keld Navntoft/Scanpix
Eurovision may have paid off big for Conchita Wurst, but for Danish taxpayers it resulted in a much larger bill than expected. 
 
Metroxpress newspaper obtained access to the accounts of Projektselskabet, a part of the publicly-owned tourist organisation Wonderful Copenhagen, which was responsible for the Eurovision bonanza. The figures show that the company overshot its budget by a whole 70 million kroner.
 
According to the obtained documents, the Eurovision organisers budgeted for just 26 million kroner in public funds from the Copenhagen city council, the Capital Region (Region Hovedstaden) and the region-operated Wonderful Copenhagen. The final bill being sent on to taxpayers however is estimated to be closer to 97 million kroner. 
 

Financial experts who spoke with Metroxpress characterised the company’s preliminary budgets and accounts as “unprofessional”, “primitive” and a sign that the Projektselskabet “had no experience whatsoever with this kind of show”. 
 
The reactions of politicians weren’t much kinder.
 
“I’m at a total loss for words to describe the total incompetence on behalf of Wonderful Copenhagen,” the Danish People Party’s Kenneth Kristensen Berth told Metroxpress. 
 
Susanne Langer of the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) described it as “getting a bill with a gun to your head”. 
 
Projektselskabet admitted that it had gone “considerably over budget” but stressed that the final figures would not be ready until August. 

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EUROVISION

Sweden among favourites after leaping through to Eurovision final

Cornelia Jakobs, Sweden's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, burst into tears and jumped onto presenter Mario Acampas, after shooting through to the final on Thursday night.

Sweden among favourites after leaping through to Eurovision final

Jakobs was emotional at the press conference after her victory, telling the story of her progress from an “largely unknown” indie artist to the Eurovision stage. 

“There are a lot of feelings right now in this little body, an extremely large amount of feelings that can’t really fit in, so they’re exploding,” she said, before beginning to cry. “But I’m so happy and overwhelmed by all the support I’ve got from all these fantastic countries.” 

When the time came to pick lots for which half of the final she would appear in, she leapt onto Mario Acampas, the presenter asking questions at the press conference, wrapping her legs around his waist and clasping herself tightly to his torso. 

He then walked her over to the bowl where the lots were lying. 

“I want you to choose the second half,” she said to him. “Imagine that I have a pistol here and on the count of three I’m going to shoot you if you don’t choose.”

He refused to pick for her so she took one herself and got the second half. 

Jakobs, with her song, “Hold me closer”, was the clear favourite to go into the final, and will go through alongside Finland’s The Rasmus, and his song Jezebel, Serbia’s Konstrakta with “In corpore sano”, as well as entries from Belgium, Czechia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Estonia, Australia, and Romania. 

You can see her performance on Thursday in the video below. 

In the final, she will meet the other favourites, which include Ukraine, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 

The final will be shown on Sweden’s state broadcaster SVT at 9pm on Saturday. 

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