'2005 contest with 40 countries or more'

by Sietse Bakker 443 views

At the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, next year in Kiev, Ukraine, more than 40 countries are expected to participate. Svante Stockselius said that during a press conference, which took place in Kiev last Thursday.

Stockselius, Eurovision Song Contest supervisor at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), said to esctoday.com that the final list of participants will be made public in December.

This year, for the first time in history 36 countries participated, spread over two nights in a qualifier round and a final. Taking into consideration that the same qualification system will be used in 2005, 14 countries qualified themselves for the final already, while at least 26 will take part in the qualifier round. Though, a final announcement on the format has not yet been made.