Eurovision Dance Contest

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For the Song Contest see Eurovision Song Contest.

The logo of 2007 Contest features the word Eurovision written in the same way as it is on the Eurovision Song Contest logos without the heart and the silhouette of a dancing couple in front of a star that contains the flag of the host country, the United Kingdom.
The logo of 2007 Contest features the word Eurovision written in the same way as it is on the Eurovision Song Contest logos without the heart and the silhouette of a dancing couple in front of a star that contains the flag of the host country, the United Kingdom.

The Eurovision Dance Contest (not to be confused with the Eurovision Young Dancers Competition) is an international dancing competition that was held for the first time in the United Kingdom on Saturday 1 September 2007.

The contest was inspired by the television show Strictly Come Dancing, a 2004 revival of Come Dancing in the United Kingdom, which is a massive hit in over 25 countries around the world. The contest is in addition to the Eurovision Song Contest.On 9 May 2007, the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF) officially announced its association with the Eurovision Dance Contest.[1] IDSF credits the contest to Richard Bunn of rbi network,[2] Geneva, former EBU controller of sport, who convinced the EBU to create this TV programme.[3]

Contents

[edit] Format and general information

Logo for first Eurovision Dance Contest in London
Logo for first Eurovision Dance Contest in London

The competition consists of pairs of dancers from each participating country, each pair performing two dances. The first dance is a ballroom or Latin dance while the second is a "freestyle" dance in which the cultures of the individual countries can be showcased to the rest of Europe. After all of the performances have taken place, viewers may vote for their favourite couple via telephone or text messaging and after the votes are counted each country awards points through a representative on a video broadcast, as happens on the Eurovision Song Contest – and the winning couple from the winning country is announced.

The BBC was "host broadcaster" for the first contest and will host it again in 2008.[4]

[edit] Contests

[edit] 2007

Main article: Eurovision Dance Contest 2007

The pair from Finland won the inaugural competition, broadcast from London. UK commentators were Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.

[edit] Countries taking part

Country Broadcaster Year Joined Years Participated Year Withdrew
Flag of Austria Austria ORF 2007 2007
Flag of Denmark Denmark DR 2007 2007
Flag of Finland Finland YLE 2007 2007
Flag of Germany Germany ARD / WDR 2007 2007 2008
Flag of Greece Greece ERT 2007 2007
Flag of Ireland Ireland RTÉ 2007 2007
Flag of Lithuania Lithuania LRT 2007 2007
Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands TROS 2007 2007
Flag of Poland Poland TVP 2007 2007
Flag of Portugal Portugal RTP 2007 2007
Flag of Russia Russia RTR 2007 2007
Flag of Spain Spain TVE 2007 2007
Flag of Sweden Sweden TV4 2007 2007
Flag of Switzerland Switzerland SRG SSR 2007 2007 2008
Flag of Ukraine Ukraine NTU 2007 2007
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom BBC 2007 2007

[edit] Winners/Host City

Year Host City Presenters Winner Winner's Dancers Points
2007 Flag of the United Kingdom London, United Kingdom Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman Flag of Finland Finland Jussi Väänänen and Katja Koukkula 132
2008 Flag of the United Kingdom Glasgow,[5] United Kingdom

[edit] References

  1. ^ IDSF Presidium announcement
  2. ^ rbi network, Richard Bunn, Genève - easyMonitoring
  3. ^ IDSF President Address of the occasion of IDSF’s 50th Anniversary
  4. ^ Eurovision Dance Contest EBU (Bottom of page)
  5. ^ Confirmation on host city

[edit] External links

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Eurovision Dance Contest
Contests
Countries participating