ESCKAZ.com (Eurovision Song Contest Knowledge from A to Z) is the first and most visited independent English/Russian language online resource devoted to the Eurovision Song Contest, daily publishing the latest news on it's preparation and developments under the motto "Delivering Eurovision News First", also covering Junior and Dance Eurovision Contests, National Preselections and other related information. We have more than 10 years of Eurovision experience.
Since 2001 ESCKAZ keeps leading rankings on the number of visitors (up to more than a million hits daily during Euroweek and more than 10 thousands visits daily in the unpeak days during the rest of the season) being THE most visited Eurovision Song Contest related website in 10 participating countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, first reporting to the world wide community of fans on the latest happenings in those countries, and also keeping Russian speaking fans informed about the latest news from other European countries. ESCKAZ is firmly positioned in top 2 most popular adult Eurovision English language unofficial sites (also proved by Alexa rank) and also is the most visited unofficial Junior Eurovision Song Contest website in the world-wide web.ESCKAZ website is the only English/Russian language website and website from CIS countries officially accredited at the contest since 2002. Representatives of the website have worked at Eurovision Contests in Baku, Duesseldorf, Oslo, Moscow, Belgrade, Helsinki, Athens, Kyiv, anniversary event in Copenhagen, Junior Eurovisions in Amsterdam, Yerevan, Minsk, Kyiv, Limassol, Rotterdam, Eurovision Dance Contest in Glasgow, other biggest events and also national preselections of different countries, covering all pre-contest preparations.
Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku has been the most successful event for ESCKAZ team so far: all 42 artists interviewed live in Baku during Eurovision week in English (the only site to achieve this, with other media at least 10 interviews behind), plus additional 30 interviews in Russian through a translator, thus making it more than 70 interviews live in Baku in total; 40 out of 42 artists interviewed prior to Eurovision week, including coverage of promotional parties in Amsterdam and London; unique coverage of events in Baku: press-conferences, Euroclub and other parties, dress-rehearsals etc. This year, ESCKAZ has firmly proved being the leading website devoted to Eurovision contest.
During the 10 years of our history ESCKAZ has numerous exclusives and breaking news, obtaining rights to present to European community entries or official videos of various countries, such as
Russian entries 2002, 2005-2006, 2009, 2012; Belarus entries 2004-09, 2011; Ukrainian and Moldovan entries 2006-09, 2012, Azerbaijan entries 2008-09, officially consulted Russian, Belarus, Moldovan, Latvian, Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations in various years. ESCKAZ was invited as experts to observe Georgian and Azerbaijan national preselections 2008, Ukrainian and Belarus preselections 2012-2013, Russian - 2010 and 2012. As per calculations in 2008-2012 seasons, around 80% of ESC news are first published on ESCKAZ, proving it's motto. In 2009 ESCKAZ was the only Russian language and one of just 5 English language news sites to be originally included in the links section of official Eurovision website. In 2005 - 2008 our website has organized pre-contest interviews with almost half of participants of all Eurovision contests, moving this figure to 90% of artists interviewed prior to the Euroweek in 2009-2012, which is the record number among all websites devoted to the the Eurovision, part of those interviews were later reprinted by official websites of the performers and different other mass-media. One of the projects of ESCKAZ was creation of Russian lyrics for Eurovision 2007 winning song "Molitva", which was recorded and released by original artist Marija Serifovic and became first Russian language version of Eurovision winning entry for the last 25 years. In 2007, ESCKAZ has also been awarded prestigeous EuroWebby "Eurovision Hero" award, which is given to the "site that works hard to offer great information, news and other resorces about Eurovision". ESCKAZ, the only website from CIS countries nominated for the awards, also finished as runner-up in "Most reliable Eurovision website category" and it's live coverage blog was among leaders in "Live coverage from EuroWeek" category.Since 2007, ESCKAZ was presenting exclusive reports from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia in regards to JESC, exclusively presented Belarus, Russian, Armenian JESC entries for web community, covering in full also all other participating countries, "delivering news first" from their national preselections, preparations period. In 2007-2009 ESCKAZ has become not only the only Russian, but as well the only English language specialized resource covering in complete details Euroweek live. In 2008 ESCKAZ has become the most visited JESC website, even beating official website, according to Alexa calculations. In 2008-2012 ESCKAZ has obtained rights to legally present mp3 download of participating entries from around 80% of the countries and published pre-contest interviews with 90% of participants, which is all time record for JESC coverage. Reporting live from JESC 2007-2011, ESCKAZ is the most experienced source of news on this event.
In 2007-2008 ESCKAZ has established itself as the most comprehensive internet source of information about Eurovision Dance Contest. More than 90% of all news and information related to the project have been published first at ESCKAZ.
We are directly cooperating and exchanging information with organizers of the contest European Broadcasting Union, biggest broadcasters of CIS, which are participating in the contest: Channel One and RTR/Rossiya (Russia), NTCU (Ukraine), BTRC (Belarus), TRM (Moldova), PTV (Armenia), GPB (Georgia), iTV (Azerbaijan) and others, different artists and representatives of music labels of Russia and other European countries and also organizers of different other musical contests. ESCKAZ is most quoted source of any Eurovision related information in Russian language mass-media and also the most quoted source on the Eurovision news from CIS countries in worldwide mass-media. During only last year more that 100 articles featuring information of our website were published, including interviews with authors and organizers of the project.
Project of ESCKAZ - "Euroforum" - is leading Russian language fan community devoted to the Eurovision Song Contest and Junior Eurovision, and is the most popular place of gathering of Eurovision fans from different countries and place of discussions. More than 700 thousands messages and 5000 registered users. "Euroforum" finished as runner up as "Best Eurovision Messageboard" in EuroWebby awards. Special projects devoted to the history of Eurovision Song Contest, and also history of participation of Russian and other CIS singers in it since year 1994 were established, which feature exclusive information that was not published anywhere before. Also our website organizes different online musical contests where professional and amateur artists in any music field can compete.Official Eurovision Fanclub was established on the base of the website, which unites not only CIS citizen (from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan), but also European Countries as UK, Sweden and others, and Rest of the World countries, such as South Africa, Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand. Fanclub also awards special prize and honorary diploma for the selected Eurovision entrants and songwriters.
We are happy to cooperate with different mass-media and share the latest and the most reliable information about Eurovision song contest and events, connected with it - providing editorial, journalist and consulting services.
Also our website is ready to provide consulting services, connected with preparation and participation in Eurovision Song Contest, including explanations of the rules, development of strategies of successful preparation and performance at National Preselection and Eurovision contest itself for the artists and song authors, and als PR and promotion services. Our experience in this field will help us to achieve success together.As per 2012 ESCKAZ team includes:
Chief-editor: Andrey Mikheev (Russia/Ukraine/Kazakhstan)
Senior editor: Alexey Tcharykov (Russia)
Editorial board members: Michael Duncan, Daniel Fay (UK)
Live correspondents: TBA on every event separately.
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