Here's something on the next year situation. The 2004 contest will almost certainly take place in Istanbul, Turkey, but the organisers (the European Broadcasting Union) have decided to make the 2004 contest a two-day event. This is to allow many more countries to take part, and also to stop the current system of low-scoring nations sitting out the contest for a year. With the new system every country gets to perform its song every year, if only in the qualifier. I was at the Friday press conference (23rd May) which discussed this. Some of the detail is reproduced at http://www.eurovision.tv/public/news/26473.html The concept is that this year's high scorers will have an immediate place in a Grand Final to be held on a Saturday in May 2004. The so-called big 4, who pay more to enter (UK, France, Spain, Germany) also are guaranteed a place in the Grand Final. This is despite their poor showing this year - only Spain made the top 10. The Grand Final will have 24 songs, or, depending on your interpretation, up to 24 songs. Anyway, those who sat this year out (Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia, & Switzerland) plus the lower-scorers this year, plus any new nations (like Moldova & Bulgaria, etc) will have a guaranteed place in the Qualifier which will be held a few days before the Grand Final. Whichever nations choose to televise the qualifier will be able to vote on it, even if they are only taking part in the Grand Final, so if ARD chooses to show it in Germany, then the Germans can vote even though they will have no song in the Qualifier. This example was given in the Press Conference. The 10 highest scorers from the Qualifier join (up to?) the 14 guaranteed a place in the Grand Final. The Qualifiers may then have the advantage of being heard twice in some countries. Those not in Qualifier show are not obliged to televise it, but may do so if they wish. So by my reading of this, it seems everybody whose place was below Germany will be in the qualifier except the big 4. There was some muddiness from ESC Coordinator Sarah Yuen about how it worked when the big 4 were out of the top 10. I think the details are not fully worked out, and they hadn't decided if the qualifier would be on the Friday before, or the previous Wednesday, or even the previous Saturday. To be decided at their meeting in June. Apparently it shouldn't cost more than 10% more becuse the same facilities would be used, and the extra broadcasters would bring more cash. However all the nations could vote on the grand final so the voting procedure could get long. A committee was looking at that problem. I personally feel this change may well kill the contest, but we will see. Watch this space!	Place	Country	Song	Total	2004?
	1	Turkey	4	167	Finalist
	2	Belgium	22	165	Finalist
	3	Russia	11	164	Finalist
	4	Norway	18	123	Finalist
	5	Sweden	25	107	Finalist
	6	Austria	2	101	Finalist
	7	Poland	20	90	Finalist
	8	Iceland	1	81	Finalist
	8	Spain	12	81	Finalist
	10	Romania	24	73	Finalist
	11	Ireland	3	53	?
	11	Germany	10	53	Finalist
	13	Netherlands	14	45	Qualifier
	14	Ukraine	16	30	Qualifier
	15	Croatia	8	29	Qualifier
	16	Bosnia-Herzegovina	6	27	Qualifier
	17	Greece	17	25	Qualifier
	18	France	19	19	Finalist
	19	Israel	13	17	Qualifier
	20	Cyprus	9	15	Qualifier
	21	Estonia	23	14	Qualifier
	22	Portugal	7	13	Qualifier
	23	Slovenia	26	7	Qualifier
	24	Latvia	21	5	Qualifier
	25	Malta	5	4	Qualifier
	26	United Kingdom	15	0	Finalist