Vodka and orange - the Eurovision revolution hits Kiev

EUROVISION - the contest that nobody watched and everyone hates - will be alive and well and coming to you from Ukraine this May.

Despite the events on the streets urging a revolution in the country, the organisers are confident that the dingy old Soviet-era Sports Palace will be ready.

The man behind many of the past 49 Eurovisions, Bjorn Erikson of the European Broadcasting Union, reassured local journalists in Kiev that he had seen it all before, and the Sports Palace was no less prepared than any other venue five months before the event.

“It’s not the sexiest looking place at the moment - it needs to be shined up, a little paint, and it will be fine. I’m not worried at all”, he said.

Eurovision has been going through a revolution of its own since Sweden in 2000 and it will continue in Ukraine.

Four years ago the average age of the viewers was a sad 44 years. Worried its days were numbered, they appointed an executive producer to oversee every year’s show and give it a new dynamic, more speed and to revitalise it.

It appears to have achieved the near impossible in modern TV - a reverse of the trend. Audiences are up and the average age of the viewer is down, to 35 so far.

Organisers expect to have a record 100 million people watching this year. They have also got their first international sponsor for the event - a Ukrainian vodka producer, Nemiroff.

Some of the young Ukrainian journalists, just off the political picket lines, were concerned. “You want to get younger people interested in Eurovision but you pick a vodka company as sponsor?” one asked incredulously.

Mr Erikson explained at some length that there was nothing wrong with alcohol. “Its like a knife and fork - you can use it to eat with or you can kill with it”, he said.

However had he visited Shooters or any of the clubs frequented by young people in Kiev he would have known exactly what the journalist meant. Vodka in Kiev is an old person’s drink. Tequila has hit the counter and the locals love the lemon and salt ritual - the advertising says something about a mysterious ancient ritual of the Aztecs and Carlos Castaneda.

Nothing could be further from the reality of downtown Kiev with its dirty, slushy snow and its eternal grey skies.

Sambuca is the other hot favourite, lit to the sound of bells and whistles in the club owned by Scotsman Robert McNeil. It would be difficult to image many of the young clubbers there settling into two nights of the Eurovision. But Nemiroff is optimistic and sees its €2 million sponsorship as well invested.

“We want to promote our country to the international level”, spokesman Yakov Gribov said. The orange revolution is of course a god-send in this respect, he tacitly admitted.

“It’s difficult when we have to explain about our country first and where it is. Now other events have promoted the Ukraine to celebrity in the world.”

You begin to feel the Orange Revolution is really a promo for the Eurovision. The world’s TV audiences will get a before and after picture. The before, with no make up, will be the tent city in Kiev’s Independence Square full of muffled and inelegantly wrapped people shivering in the cold. The after picture will be in the spring time with the Sports Palace sexed up nd well lit, the skies blue, woolly caps and furry boots set aside, and everyone drinking vodka and orange no doubt.

The deal introduces Nemiroff to what it can expect if Ukraine moves closer to the EU.

Its sponsorship gives it access to only 18 of the 41 countries taking part in the Eurovision - all the others have laws banning alcohol advertising or even sponsorship itself. Mr Erikson is busy looking for a safe sponsor for the remaining countries. Something like banking or advertising would be ideal, he said.