Debts force nations to quit Eurovision song contest

One after another they are calling in sick. First, Portugal and Poland and now, short of an economic miracle, Cyprus and Greece.

For an event that is meant to be one of the most unifying in Europe, next year's Eurovision song contest, to be held in Malmo, Sweden, is starting to look unusually thin on the ground. In quick succession this week, all four countries announced, or intimated strongly, that they would not be taking part.

With the exception of Warsaw, each cited the debt crisis.

"It's a great shame," said Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, who was discovered when she performed A Force de Prier, Luxembourg's entry in 1963.

"I couldn't perform for Greece back then as we didn't have television," she said. "But the whole thing has just got so big and so expensive."

That is why the competition that has come to be associated with kitsch costumes and iffy music has had to take a back seat for recession-hit nations.

"Public television ought not to participate in this year's Eurovision contest in correspondence with overwhelming public sentiment," said a Greek government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou.