At the EBU Press Conference held this afternoon in Baku, the provisional dates were announced for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The Final of the 58th edition will take place on Saturday the 18th of May, 2013, with the First Semi-Final on Tuesday 14th May, and the Second Semi-Final on Thursday 16th May.

On stage for the conference was Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor, Sietse Bakker, the Event Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest and Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser the new Media Director of the EBU, and representing Ictimai TV the Host Broadcaster, Adil Kermu, Tahir Mamadov and Camran Agasi.

The conference started with remarks on the 2012 contest, the main points were the challenges of the brand new venue which was finished just a few weeks ago. The Crystal Hall was not solely built for the contest and will be used for other events. The televoting returned to 15 minutes. In the first semifinal eight of the ten qualifying songs were agreed by both juries and televoters, but one was thanks to televoters and one made it thanks to the jury.