OIKOTIMES 2011
A YEAR IN REVIEW
It’s almost over and 2011 was one more exciting year for Eurovision, Eurofans and of course the team of oikotimes.com. We would like to review the year with some major events we will remember for sure. The website turned 10 years old and we had a great party last April with Maja Keuc, Loucas Yorkas, Stereo Mike and Elena Risteska at ALAS.
IN GENERAL
One more successful year ends for oikotimes.com. According to Alexa, oikotimes.com is the second most visited and most reputed website in the world as a Eurovision fan site. Based on Google Analytics oikotimes.com had more than 3,5 million visits this year (increased from 2010 stats). From 3,900 our facebook fan page is now to 4,300 members! This year the top visitors came from Greece, Portugal, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
OIKOTIMES EDITORS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
With various references on oikotimes.com as a source in Greece, Portugal and Ukraine, oikotimes.com team also presented itself to various international media. During the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, oikotimes.com’s chief editor was the first Eurofan to give an interview to CNN Europe and Becky Anderson. We also presented ourselves to Swedish Gay portal QX with our views on the contest. Not to forget of course that in 2011 oikotimes.com photographer Yannis Papoutsakis won the National Geographic top prize in the contest “Show Us Who We Are“.
MAIN NEWS WE STILL REMEMBER
The main news we will remember this year are many: We start with the exclusive revelation of Ivi Adamou representing Cyprus as of April. We remember the announcement that Lys Assia would enter again the Eurovision race, although ended up with the artist admitted to the hospital. Sad faces after the first semifinal in Dusseldorf with Stella Mwangi crying on cameras after her unfair elimination from the final. We were sad with the death of various participants, authors of the Eurovision Song Contest this year with most shocking the news on Malina Olinescu. We will also remember the average hosting of the 2011 ESC with many problems and we also remember the hysteric Dana canceling her press conference and then hunting the press one by one when Jean Paul Gaultier gave her an “exclusive dress” previously presented by Anna Vissi.
We would also remember the kiss of Eric Saade to Danny Saucedo which made all press and media in Europe talk about it, the meeting of Dana International with Alexander Rybak at the Israeli party, the Greek national final party with various participants from the past attending and many many more!
WE TRAVELLED A LOT
The team of oikotimes.com had the chance to attend the Senior, Junior Eurovision along with some main events in Europe. We were in Dusseldorf for the Eurovision Song Contest, in Yerevan for Junior Eurovision edition, in Amsterdam for the Eurovision in Concert and in Stockholm for the 2011 Melodifestivalen.
MAJOR EVENTS COVERED
Major music events were also headlined on oikotimes.com with special reviews such as the 2011 MAD Video Music Awards, the 2011 MadWalk, the premiere of Sakis Rouvas at Athens Arena and many more such as the Anna Vissi party at DreamCity. Our team editors attended the Maltese and Portuguese selections bringing us interviews and reviews from these shows as well.
Also to mention that oikotimes.com topped the interview section this year with various text and video interviews by our colleagues on oikotimes.com and radiointernational.tv. Lilian Brunell also gave a smashing presentation of the alternative Eurovision Song Contest with her funny videos presenting various aspects of Dusseldorf. Lilian also joined the international spotlight with an interview to a European media. Not to forget our dear friends Elena Risteka and Alex Sparrow for reviewing this year the senior and junior editions of the contest respectively.
FACT AND NUMBER SUCCESS
Remember our polls? In February everyone was so against oikotimes.com when our Greek poll was the only predicting Loucas Yorkas to win the national final. In March, no one actually believed the review poll we had for 2011 Melodifestivalen, predicting Eric Saade as the winner. The Eurovision poll was not bad at all. No site predicted the winner but oikotimes.com was the only poll predicting Azerbaijan second in our votes! Not to mention that all other sites had Azerbaijan at least 6th! Another success was the Swiss final 2012 poll the winner of which was predicted by our poll during the live review.
NEW SERVICES ONLINE
This year oikotimes.com launched a series of interactive services for its fans. We completed and presented the National Final Database where anyone can search any information you can imagine for a national selection show from 1956 till 2011. We launched new Twitter account and added Tweets from your favorite Eurostars on our main page. A brand new website launched on early March which impressed everyone (especially TV and Radio stations). We are the first fan site with a free iPhone application the visits of which have been risen extremely hight.
OIKOTIMES WEB TV
Our web TV also upgraded and features new program and clips. Besides all the latest music videos by Eurostars several projects are now on air such as the Tinka Show, Eurogrill and many more.
EDITORS & NEWCOMERS
New editors came onboard the team this year: Greg, Andreas, Lucian, Romeo, George and Olivier continue with us while others decided the pressure was too much. Ivan, Anton, Maria helped oikotimes.com with their materials from escrus.com as the main Greek team failed the last moment to attend the 2011 Junior Eurovision in Armenia.
From the bottom of our heart
Thank you for a wonderful 2011
Merry Christmas & a very Happy New year
