u/raisum

Eurovision's chief producer Gert Kark does not see Russia returning to the song contest anytime soon.

The Eurovision Song Contest held in Vienna a few weeks ago was the first to be executive produced by Estonian Gert Kark, who has worked at Eurovision for ten years. Looking back on his first year as executive producer, Kark told "Rainbow Morning" that his new position has made his life easier.

"It was incredibly nice to work with the Austrians. I don't think I've ever felt so much in common with the Austrians," he admitted.

Gert Kargu's journey to becoming the chief producer of Eurovision has included a number of different jobs. He started working at the age of 15, when he went to the Pühajärve holiday home as a waitress in the summer. He spent all his summers there for five years. At the same time, Kargu had a great desire to become an actor and was sure that he would enter the stage after graduating from university. However, when he failed the final round of the stage auditions, director Peeter Tammearu invited Kargu to Ugala, where he got the opportunity to play minor male roles. He then worked for a year at Vanemuine. "But it was known that if you don't have talent, it won't last long and it didn't," Kark said.

Since he had a strong desire to work in a creative team, Kark started working at the control desk of Estonian Television, from where he eventually moved on to become an administrator at "Terevisiooni". "A job from which I have learned a lot and which I have applied to this day. As an administrator, you have to know everything. You have to know a little bit about how sound, lighting and direction work," he pointed out.

When the entire sports editorial team traveled to London for the 2012 Olympics, Kark suggested that he could replace the directors in Estonia at the same time. The temporary offer eventually turned into a four-year journey. The decisive moment was a trip to Budapest to a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, where Kark met people working at the EBU and started receiving job offers. "On the third attempt, I got the job as the project manager for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest at the EBU. It's been ten years now."

Kark will be the executive producer of the world's biggest singing competition from the fall of 2025. He said the title of executive producer sounds more glamorous than the job actually is. "It's 11 months of sitting at the computer and one month of excitement. Sometimes we also say 11 months of terror and one month of fun," he smiled.

Work on next year's song contest will begin immediately after the final. Kargu is currently working on writing the rules. "Our rule book is very thick, I think 300 pages in total. Although it seems like the rules are the same every year, in reality there are always a lot of changes, depending on what happened or didn't happen the previous year," he opened.

"For example, I'm the one behind the scandal that the Finnish violin [was] in a live performance. It was actually a new rule this year, but unfortunately many broadcasters hadn't read the rules properly and it came as a surprise to them. But I'm very glad they got to play their violin."
Once the rules are ready, the EBU will contact each country to motivate them to participate. It is also important to get on the same page with the broadcasting of the host country.

"Depending on the experience of the broadcaster, it is sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult. With some broadcasters, there is no work at all because they have already organized Eurovision seven times, very easy, but with some, like Bulgaria right now, it is definitely more difficult," Kark noted.

In mid-June, Kark will travel to Bulgaria and meet with the organizers there for the first time. Then the first big technical meeting will take place and the Bulgarians will have to put together their team.

"Fortunately, I have a lot of friends in the Bulgarian broadcaster. Even though they had a break from Eurovision for several years, the same people are still there. In that respect, it was really nice to work with them, we had a lot of fun. No one believed that they would win this year. That's why I'm very happy that we're finally going a little bit towards Eastern Europe and that a broadcaster who hasn't done it before is organizing it."

According to Kargu, the executive producer's job is largely one of hand-holding. "The broadcaster still does most of the work. My job is to keep an eye on everyone and everything, to make sure everything goes according to the format, that the rules are followed. The most important part of that is to ensure fairness, because this is a competition and all of these 35-40 participating countries must receive exactly the same conditions," he emphasized.

Kark does not know what the budget of one or another participating broadcaster is, but he does not believe that a fatter wallet gives more advantages to winning.

"Everyone has the same stage, everyone has the same lighting, you don't have to pay extra for it, but of course all kinds of special effects and lasers come at the expense of each country. But I really doubt whether this helps the performance. Take, for example, the 2017 winner of Portugal, who practically stood in the middle of the audience, had nothing next to him or with him, and he won. I am very skeptical about all kinds of decorations, although Bulgaria won because of its awesome stage show, but in my opinion it is not necessary. It often seems to me that there is too much of it," he admitted.

While in previous years there has been a place in the Eurovision final where the executive producer informs both viewers and participants that the voting went well and the hosts are ready to announce the points, this year there was no such place in the show. This was Kargu's own wish. "I want to be an unknown person and we lost that. Now all this communication and confirmation goes through the hosts," he explained.

The question of whether Israel should participate in Eurovision has been a hot topic for the past three years. Five countries boycotted the contest this year because of Israel's participation: Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia.

"I have this thing that, fortunately, I don't have to deal with politics at all and I work with those who are given to me. I'll be honest, I've never even voted in my life and I'm absolutely not interested. I always answer like this: I'm Estonian, I have Putin to worry about, so why do I have to get involved in someone else's conflict," Kark commented.

Israel finished second in both this and last year's contest. Kark pointed out that if a country wins Eurovision that for some reason cannot host the song contest, they have a plan B and a plan C in addition to plan A.

Kark does not see Russia returning to the song contest. "Russian broadcasting is not a member of the EBU or they have been expelled by the EBU. So the answer is definitely no, of course they will not come back," he said.

To keep his spirits up, Kark likes to do other projects throughout the year. "I've never been a fan of Eurovision and I'm not even now, I dare to admit that. It's just a job and I like the TV side of it. Whenever I have a free moment, I immediately grab the opportunity to do my own little shenanigans in the theater or other small TV shows," he said.

Kark does not want to say that he will never return to his homeland permanently. "Nothing is ruled out," he emphasized. "In these ten years, I have become a very proud Estonian who promotes Estonia. In the second semi-final, we also had a nice Kihnu family who stopped voting. What can I say, I also had a hand in it. I am a very Estonian patriot and I am going more and more," he is proud of his roots.

raisum 12 points · Apr 2026

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/operators/retailer-lidl-plots-mvno-push-across-its-markets/

https://www.1global.com/support/finance/what-is-1global-world

Näib et Eesti tugi on juba olemas sellel.

raisum 18 points · Mar 2026

Ma pole seda veel 100% kontrollinud aga leidsin sama statistika koos keskmise palgaga.

Food price level comparisons, 2024 (EU=100)
Food Affordability Index added (higher = more affordable)

Country	Food Price	Avg. Annual Wage (€)	Food Affordability Index (EU=100)
EU	100.0	39,800	100.0
Luxembourg	125.7	82,969	165.8
Denmark	119.3	71,565	150.7
Ireland	111.9	61,051	137.1
France	111.5	43,790	98.7
Malta	110.9	33,499	75.9
Austria	110.9	58,600	132.8
Finland	108.4	49,428	114.6
Sweden	106.7	46,525	109.6
Estonia	105.3	26,546	63.3
Belgium	105.2	59,632	142.4
Greece	105.1	17,954	42.9
Cyprus	104.8	27,611	66.2
Italy	104.0	33,523	81.0
Latvia	103.1	22,262	54.3
Germany	102.9	53,791	131.3
Portugal	100.6	24,818	62.0
Croatia	100.5	23,446	58.6
Lithuania	99.4	29,104	73.6
Slovenia	99.3	35,133	88.9
Netherlands	97.0	56,000	145.1
Spain	94.6	33,700	89.5
Hungary	93.9	18,461	49.4
Czechia	89.0	23,998	67.7
Bulgaria	87.1	15,387	44.4
Poland	85.6	21,246	62.4
Slovakia	82.9	20,287	61.5
Romania	74.6	21,108	71.1

Food Affordability Index = (Country Wage / Food Price Index) × (EU wage / EU price) normalized to EU=100

Higher value = food is more affordable relative to wages.
Source: Eurostat (food prices 2024, wages nama_10_fte 2024)

raisum 1 points · Mar 2026

Nice, I am waiting to receive the same monitor for myself! Jumping from AW3423DW to this one.

raisum 5 points · Mar 2026

Vivo X200 Ultra. Hiinakas aga sellel on ühed parimad kaamerad mida ma telefonis näinud olen. Olen väga rahul sellega. Ainult üks viga on, et kahjuks VoLTE ei tööta Telia all aga seda müüakse ka ainult Hiinas siis sellest on see arusaadav ka. Hetkel otsest ei plaani uut telefoni osta, aga uus versioon sellest Vivost tuleb varsti välja ning nad plaanivad seda ka globaalselt sedakorda müüa.
Pilt 1.
Pilt 2.
Pilt 3.
Pilt 4.
Pilt 5

raisum 6 points · Mar 2026

https://nordic.ign.com/news/104917/valve-facing-uk-lawsuit-over-music-rights-in-games-valve-doesnt-make-or-own

In the UK, however, licensing music for video games (that is, what happens when a developer or publisher negotiates a deal to place a particular song in their game) is a separate element of the copyright to what occurs when the game is subsequently downloaded or streamed by a player. PRC website documentation indicates that storefronts like Xbox use the same “General Entertainment Online Licence” that covers non-broadcast streamers like Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix, and notes previous deals with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the use of copyrighted music within games and games-related content downloaded across Europe.

u/raisum

Another Arma Moment #363 (v.redd.it) [:snoo_trollface: HUMOR]

ESC executive producer Gert Kark gave an interview in an Estonian radio. In it he reveals that he was the one behind the ruling for the Finnish violin live performance (eeter.err.ee) [📰 News]

ESC executive producer Gert Kark gave an interview in an Estonian radio. In it he reveals that he was the one behind the ruling for the Finnish violin live performance. (eeter.err.ee) [📰 News]

Urban Games Enters Partnership With Paradox Interactive (store.steampowered.com)