Ryan misses out on Eurovision final

19 May 2006

BRUSSELS — Eurovision Song Contest favourite, Belgium’s Kate Ryan failed on Thursday night to qualify for Saturday’s final.

This is despite an extensive promotional tour and EUR 60,000 in subsidies paid by the Flemish government.

A further EUR 60,000 was invested in the singer by Flemish public broadcasting network VRT.

Even the dress that Ryan wore during her semi-final performance on Thursday cost a cool EUR 16,000.

However, both Flemish Culture Minister Bert Anciaux and the VRT said Ryan performed well in Athens and that the money was well spent.

Besides Belgium, 13 other semi-finalist nations failed to qualify for Saturday night’s final.

Ten nations did qualify: Russia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Finland, Ukraine, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey and Armenia.

France, Germany, Spain and the UK automatically qualified for the final as the four largest countries.

Hosts Greece and nine top-scoring nations from last year’s contest were also already guaranteed places in the final.

Subject: Belgian news