With Alexander Rybak’ victory in Eurovision 2009 in Moscow, the next Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Norway.

The first two semi-finals of the 55th Eurovision Song Contest are scheduled on 18 and 20 May 2010, and the final is on 22 May 2010.

Today, 17 May, is a Day of national celebration and pride in Norway, and the country is celebrating twice.

The Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, stated “It’s a great holiday”.

The crowds were coming out on the streets of Norway towns and villages all the night to celebrate their victory. Alexander Ryback is the third winner, after Bobbysocks in 1985 and Secret Garden in 1995, which brings the Eurovision Song Contest first prize to Norway.

The decision about a place of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest will be made by the Norvegian national TV broadcaster NRK in the near future.

Odds are it will be Telenor Arena in Oslo.

Telenor Arena is a multi-use indoor stadium located at Fornebu in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. It will be used mostly for football matches and is the new home ground of the football club Stabæk, who played at Nadderud stadion from 1961 to 2008. The stadium was opened ahead of the 2009 season in Norwegian football.

In June 2008, the telecommunications company Telenor acquired the naming rights to the stadium in a deal lasting until 2018. Prior to this, the stadium was known informally as Fornebu Arena, and while still in the concept stages as Blue Dream Arena. It is also referred to by supporters as Hangar’n (the hangar in English), as the stadium resembles a hangar and is located on the premises of the former main airport of Oslo.

The structure will be a single-tiered bowl attached to a seven-storey building on one side containing retail space, restaurants and bars for the premium-priced seats, executive boxes, and offices. As originally planned, the stadium was to have a retractable roof, but due to the high costs involved it was decided that there would instead be a fixed roof covering both the stands and the pitch. For football matches and other sporting events the total capacity will be approximately 15,600, whereas for concerts it will be up to 23,000.

The Fornebu Arena project has its origins in Stabæk’s rapid ascent from the lower divisions of Norwegian football to the top division in the first half of the 1990s. Although several improvements have been made to their current home ground Nadderud stadion since then, including the construction a new main stand in 1996, it remains severely lacking in facilities, and does not meet national requirements for hosting football matches at the highest level. After initially seeking to buy and redevelop Nadderud, which is owned by the municipality, the club started to work towards moving to a new stadium elsewhere in Bærum instead.

In 1999 the club settled on Fornebu, the site of a large urban development project. Lengthy negotiations between the club, the municipality and the area’s main developer came to an end in 2005 and the plans gained final approval on 21 June 2006. Demolition of existing structures on site began on 17 February 2007 and construction began shortly after.

The project has an estimated cost of 585 million NOK.

The first match played at the stadium was a pre-season friendly between Stabæk and IFK Göteborg on 24 January 2009, which ended in a goalless draw. This was followed by a sold-out AC/DC concert on 18 February, the first concert on the European leg of the their Black Ice World Tour. Trond Olsen of Rosenborg became the first player to score a goal at Telenor Arena as Rosenborg defeated Stabæk 1–0 in another pre-season friendly, on 27 February.

The stadium was officially opened on 8 March 2009 with a “Charity Shield”-style match between league champions Stabæk and cup champions Vålerenga, which ended in a 3–1 win for Stabæk. Daniel Nannskog scored the first ever Stabæk goal at Telenor Arena in the 19th minute of the game. The net proceeds of the match were donated to UNICEF.

(Wikipedia)

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