Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Cyprus joins the club and presents its song. Christos Mylordos was chosen as the singer already last year and seems like there haven't really been high hopes put on his shoulders and the song? Well, on the positive side it's in Greek which is nice. The rest you have to listen yourself: San aggelos S’agapisa

Well, I was expecting this. It took a bit longer than I expected but today it has blown all over. The ladies Mika, Jamala and Zlata are in cat fight who really won Satuday night. On top of that Mika wants to change her song that she won with! Only in Ukraine! Let's see if the last year's fiasco will happen all over again! How hard is it to pick a song? And an artist? And how's poor Vasyl Lazarovich doing these days? You can read all the details elsewhere in the net, I'm too amused to even try to wrap it all up! After the laughing pill Belarus offered today this is a funny day! UPDATE: A new final will he held on March 3 with the ladies. They are supposed to sing the same songs as before, namely Angely , Smile and The kukushka . There will be televote and only only one vote per phone will be counted.

IBA has published today the songs for Kdam 2011, including the long awaited Ding dong by Dana International. The Israeli final will take place on March 8, 2011. Here they are: Adi Cohen - Al haavah Knob - Phev et ze Chen Ahroni - Or Idit Halevi - It's my time Hatikva 6 - Hakol sababa Nikki Goldstein - Amti eifach Sivan Bahnem - Kach oti Michael & Shimrit Greilsammer - Tu du du Dana International - Ding dong Carmel Ekman - El gagoai

Lol, now this is one of the funniest things I have heard for a long time and I only have one question in mind: Are you serious? Born in Belorussia , the Belarussian entry in 2011. It's a long three minutes. And the lyrics won't help. Even poor Anastasiya seems to be thinking what she's got herself into....

Carola's awaited tribute to Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley will be released shortly but the tracklist and the cover have been already released.  Six songs from both legends: Suspicious Minds, In the Ghetto, Enough is Enough, Woman in Love, Always On My Mind, You've Lost That Loving Feeling, Evergreen, Watch Closely Now, Heartbreak Hotel, Lead Me Guide Me, Guilty ,  The Way We Were. She will be touring Sweden with the material starting from Gävle on March 24 and ending 15 concerts later in Luleå on April 17. This is her 14th studio album and 27th if you count various live albums, compilations, Christmas albums and all sort of styles she has recorded since 1983.  Her next release will be a live gospel CD and DVD. When will be get a new pop album???

The Macedonian everlasting final ended at some point last night when I had already given up and went to bed. Vlatko Ilievski's Rusinka was voted the winner by both the jury and televote and indeed was one of the rare songs that stood out somehow, if not for other but Kirka-like vocals. Vlatko already came iqual 1st last year, 6th in 2009 and 18th in 2008 so he was 4th time lucky.

This is what's been chosen this week: Bosnia-Herzegovina , Bulgaria , Lithuania , Turkey , Austria Saturday's happenings: Croatia - semifinal 587, info here , results here Denmark - info here , results here Estonia - info here , results here Latvia - info here , results here Moldova final - info here , results here Serbia - info here, results here Sweden - semifinal 4, info here , results here Ukraine - info here , results here Sunday's happenings: Slovenia . info here , results here   FYR Macedonia - info here , results here

Slovenia goes all vanilla tonight and Maja Keuc's Vanilija beats April with 28.908 votes against 11.993. These two songs were selected of the superfinal and televote by three women jury: Darja Svajger, Severina and Mojca Mavec. One of the best national finals of the season with its two best songs in the final. Life's good! here's her live performance .

UKRAINE Mika Newton (25) won an bit surprisingly the Ukrainian final beating Pridhenko, Zlata and Jamala amongst others. She has been singing since she was 9 and released her first album back in 2005 with her band. Her song Angely has been translated into English for the occasion. This didn't convince we with the first impact but it's not bad. MOLDOVA Zdob si Zdub returns to Eurovision after 5 years. In 2005 they were the country's first represant and with a little help of their granny took the sixth place with Boonika bate toba . This time their song is So lucky and instead of a granny they have funny hats. They're together since 1994 and have released nine albums so far. In some wicked way I like this a little like I did like the granny songs, too. A little. SERBIA Nina Danica Radojicic won in Serbia with Čaroban which translates to Magic . She is fairly unknow 21-year-old lead singer of a group called Legal Sex Department. The song is written by Kristina Kov...

Last night was Jenni Vartiaine's as expected. She won a total of seven Emmas: Best Album, Best Song, Best Live artist, Most sold album, Female Artist, Best Pop7Rock album and Best Video. On top of that her producer Jukka Immonen was awaeded as the Producer of the year. Paleface got three Emmas: Etno Album, Hip hop-Electro-Reggae Album and Male Artist. Here's the song of the year, En haluu kuolla tänä yönä . Live with big orchestra! Check out all the winners here .

Get in the mood with this ! Final tonight also in Slovenia where refreshingly there has been no semifinals or semifinals but just straighforward final tonight with ten songs. Listen to the songs here . Ema used to be one of the most plastic and kitch national selection one can imagine - yet with some great songs in there - but they have taken a new approach to it after recent disasters. And a very solid pack it is! It's very interesting to see what Slovenians will pick! One of the best national finals of the season for sure. Partisans are incredibly annoyingly catchy, Feliks makes BeeGees live again, Maja offers Slavic drama, April Gaga Italodisco just like Sylvain & co, Nina some summer pop, Omar classic Eurovision pop in and oldfashioned way just like Time to Time. Leelookamais is a bit more challaneging and Tabu a bit more poprock. The strongest national final of the season for sure. I would be happy with anyone winning but if I have to cut someone out it'd be Tabu. An...

FYR Macedonia has its traditional Skopje festival tonight and the winner goes to Eurovision. As always there are several familiar names. Listen to snippets here . I have no idea who should win as Macedonians usually always pick up something I had not even considered.... :-) Rok Agresori – Kukuriku Boban Mojsovski – Te krade toj Olivera Gorgovska – Na kraj Angelina Stojanoska – Znaes li Skipi & Tajzi – Ostavi politika i pojacaj ton Amir Ibrahimovski & Art Sound – Posledna pesna Emilija Gievska feat. Andrej Miske – Paranoja Riste Tevdovski – Ne se menuva ljubovta Martin Srbinovski – Ram tam tam Lidija Kocovska – Bozji pateki Goran Kargov – Lazes deka ne boli Zdravka Mircevska – Ludost Natasa Malinkova – Greshka Ile Spasov – Tugja si Filip Jordanovski – Sekogash nekoj poveke vredi Natalija Slaveva – Ne mi trebas Ivan Jovanov & Denis Eks – Kockar Offside – Sekoj den ...

A surprise twist in the end of the Croatian lenghty selection process. Daria Kinzer got the most televotes and flew to the final together with Jacques Houdek dropping the favourite Ziga out of the race. Next week the two lucky ones will each sing three songs in the Croatian final and the winner goes to Dusseldorf.

What? Reiniks didn't win? Well, good! Musiqq with Angel in disguise goes to Dusseldorf. Reiniks came second and Pieninu Vins third. This could just be my favourite of the songs selected tonight :-) Here is the live performance.

Mika Newton has won the Ukrainian final. She won all the three votings: jury, televote, internet voting. Well, I don't know how? It's not that special, in fact it's quite a bore. Yawn. Angel wings and all. Here's the original Ukrainian version Angely . And here's the English final version. Now as the results are out we can see cuccuu-Zlata came second and Jamala third: (draw/artists/internet votes=points/televotes=points/jury votes=points: as Newton won all she got 3 x 21 = average 21.00 if that makes sense...) 13 Mika Newton 37384 21 29064 21 21 21.00 1 Zlata Ognevich 14349 13 19900 19 19 18.40 6 Jamala 37232 19 10800 17 17 17.20 2 Darya Medova 32587 16 2980 16 13 14.65 16 Ivan Berezovsky 1289 5 2502 14 16 14.00 5 Alexey Matias 24924 15 2539 15 11 13.20 14 Eduard Romanyuta 5902 12 2472 13 13 12.90 19 Anastasiya Prikhodko 14821 14 1119 12 12 12.20 8 Alyona Korneyeva 1208 4 879 ...

A Friend in London has won the Danish final with New tomorrow . Here is the live performance . It's kind of refreshing Denmark didn't fall to the plastic trap again! I kinda like it even if I would have preferred the runner up Anna Noa's Sleepless .

Nina has just won the Serbian selection with Čaroban Sorry, but I'm usually a friend of Serbian entries but... no. Not yet at least. :-( She won with 14.900 votes against Aleksandra 's 5.990 cotes and The Breeze was last with 1.490.

Zdob si Zdub return to Eurovision! With So lucky . Without the granny. Not really my cup of tea but there's something about this I must admit. Something annoying enough to make it stand out....The jury totally dropped Karzma! Here is Zdob's live performance with Leningard Coyboys inspired hats. RESULTS: (televote + juryvote) Zdob si Zdub – So lucky  10 + 10 = 20 Natalia Barbu – Let’s Jazz  7 + 12 = 19 Pasha Parfeny – Dorule  8 + 8 = 16 KARIZMA – When Life is Grey  12 + 1 = 13 MILENIUM – In memoriam  6 + 7 = 13 Boris Covali & Cristina Croitoru – Break it up  5 + 6 = 11 Valeria Tarasova – This is my life  2 + 5 = 7 Mariana Mihaila – Mi rey  4 + 0 = 4 Aurel Chistoaca  0 + 4 = 4 Dumitru Socican – Ma pierd când o văd  3 + 0 = 3 M-Studio  0 + 3 = 3 Cristina Scariat 0 + 2 = 2 Corina Cuniuc – Şi tac  1 + 0 = 1

Getter Jaani wins the Estonian national final with 62% of the votes in the superfinal against Outloundz. Her song is Rockfeller Street .

We are nearing 200 when Niger enters the world of Blogilkar and gets number 197! Welcome!

The Danish have their say tonight hoping to find something that would repeat last year's success. Jenny of Ace of Base fame is amongst the participants and other artists and writers also come a bit here and there instead of Denmark. In snippets they all seem to be the same: or uptempo happy pop or a r'n'b ballads. I have no favourite and I better not pick up one as I never get it so wrong as in Denmark where my favourite never wins. But even so I would pick up Anne Noa or A friend in London. Based on snippets that you can hear here . UPDATE: The four songs made it to the superfinal and Anne beat Stine and is in final 2. A friend in London beats Le Freak so the supersuperfinal is Anne vs A friend in London. Anne Noa - Sleepless -> top-4 Jenny Berggren - Let your heart be mine  Jeffrey - Drømmen   Le Freak - 25 hours a day -> top-4 Sine Vig - You'll get me through  Stine Kinck - Hvad hjertet lever af -> top-4 Lee Hutton - Hollywood Christopher Bra...

Ukraine, one of the most succesful Eurovision countries in the recent years has its final tonight. And about the time, too! It feels like this selection has been dragging on since last summer! I have two firm favourites: Zlata and Armiya, but Jamala seems to be the favourite along with dreadful Anastasiya. I mean Anastasiya is not dreadful, mind you I liked Mama a lot but her song this time is! UPDATE: Incredible chaos in Ukraine in this year, too. Have you ever heard a song has been cancelled during the show for using autotune and bacing vocals? or having seven persons on stage? Don't they rehearse? Set rules? See the performances beforehand? Jeez... But that's what's going on in Ukraine right now. This very moment... Let's see how it goes on...AND WHERE IS ARMIYA??? Alexey Matias - Myself Zlata Ognevich - The Kukushka Mika Newton - Angely Jamala - Smile Neksi - Sever-jug El Kravchuck - Moja nadejda Eduard Romanyuta - Berega Darya Medova - Infinity Armyia - ...

Two previous Eurovision stars - both did even well - are in tonight's final, Natalia and Zdob si Zdub. Also many other familiar names in the list. But this is a good example of a national final where there are way too many songs. Cut it to 10-12 and it would be a very good selection (of course if they picked the right songs!). Amongst the writer Rafael Artesero (no, it's not Mi rey !)and Ralph Siegel. I really don't have a favourite but if I have to name someone I say Boris & Cristina, Karzma, Millenium, Natan and Zdob si Zdub.You can listen all the entries here .  Natan -  Dacă dragoste mai e Natalia Barbu -  Let's jazz Formaţia "Ion Krasnopolski" -  Cu fanfara până dimineaţa Anişoara Balmuş -  You and I Denis Latişev -  It’s my first dance with you Pasha Parfeny -  Dorule Doiniţa Gherman -  Viaţa Corina Cuniuc -  Şi tac Cristina Scarlat -  Every day will be your day Diana Staver -  Love song Dumitru Socican -  ...

Sweden's Melodifestivalen circus has moved to Malmö for the fourth and last semifinal. As usual televote will bring one entry directly to the final and the four next songs will be revoted and once again the winner goes to the final, second and third placed to second chance and fourth is out as are the bottom three entries of the first round. I haven't listened the songs so no predictions either :-) UPDATE:  Very mediocre semi i Sweden.  And Bengtzing as the winner? That song would never work in Eurovision! And Love Generation os Afro-Dite all over again.Great show and choreographies and such but where are the good songs? The real music? Melody Club - The hunter -> 7th Julia Alvgard - Better or worse -> 6th Lasse Stefanz - En blick och någonting händer-> 5th Linda Pritchard - Alive - > Second chance Anders Fernette - Run -> 8th Linda Bengtzing - E de fel på mig? -> WINNER -> FINAL Nicke Borg - Leaving home -> FINAL Love Generation - Dance alone -> ...

After two semifinals and a second chance round we have the 12 finalists in Latvia. Trianas Park withdraw earlier this week with their Upside down due illness. Listen the songs here . This is a prime example of a national selection were all songs are uninteresting or just "nice" - if even that. But then all you need is one good song. Is it Banjo Laura? In this line up I guess he will win hands down. The only other song that raised some interest in me to listen more than 30 secs were Janis Stibelis, Musiqq and D-Family. UPDATE: The superfinalists are Lauris Reiniks, Pienenu vins and Musiqq. 1. Evija Sloka -   Don't stop the dance -> top-5 2. Elina Krastina - Grence - Look back at me again 3. Ivo Grisnins - Grislis - Cinderella 4. Trianas Parks - Upside Down -> withdrawn 5. The Secretz - Summer night 6. Pienenu vins - You are -> top-5 7. Janis Stibelis - Let it be me 8. Oksana Lepska - Live on! 9. Musiqq - Angel in disguise -> top-5 10. Blitze - Hop ...

After two semifinals we have the Estonian finalists battling it out tonight for Dusseldorg. Once again a very alternative selection of songs out of the Eurovision box. Getter Jaani is the big favourite amongst fans but Estonians know how to surprise even themselves at times so let's wait and see! I have one favourite: Ithaka Maria!  UPDATE: The superfinalists are Getter Jaani and Outloudz! Orelipoiss came 3rd followed by Jana Kask, Ithaka Maria, Viktoria, MID, Rolf, Noorkuu and Mimicry last. Ithaka Maria - Hopa'pa rei! Rolf Roosalu - All & now Orelipoiss - Valss Getter Jaani - Rockefeller Street Jana Kask - Don't want anything MID - Smile Outloudz - I wanna meet Bob Dylan Mimicry - The storm   Noorkuu - Be my Saturday night Victoria - Baby had you

Good heavens that umpa umpa umpa didn't win! I was calling out for a powerballad yesterday and Lithuania surely didn't convince me but this Austrian one could become one.... The secret is love. The song grows rather wonderfully and the gospel choir in all its Disney like majesty is rather impressive. Me likes after all! 1. Nadine Beiler - The Secret Is Love 2. Trackshittaz/Lukas Plöchl - Oida Taunz! 3. Klimmstein feat. Joe Sumner - Paris, Paris

Well now, that headline was cheap wasn't it? Yüksek Sadakat presented their entry for Turkey 2011 titled Live it up . It shounds pretty much exactly as I imagined it would be. Turkish rock. Quite simple and catchy. I guess a top placing is sure for Turkey again, and not because of the Turks all over Europe for this. It is a solid good Eurovision rock song. Life is beautiful, my friend!

Austria returns to the contest after a break since Helsinki 2007. Internet selection was held earlier. The jury had its say and now we have ten songs left. There will be only televote in the final. After first round we will have a superfinal with top-3 and new televote. You can watch it on eurovision.tv I guess it's pretty open final, with Leo & Paticia being sort of favourites along with Trackshittaz and Klimmstein but we can't rule out Oliver and Nadine either. And will Alkbottle have its fans ready and voting? And what about Richard? My favourites are Klimmstein and Eva. If that umbaumba taunz wins it will go straight to last place in my chart. Painfully boring and not at all annoyingly good as Verka for example. UPDATE: And I never realized before Joe Sumner is actually Sting's son! Oh well, maybe that will bring them some more points?And yes, they didn't overdo it on stage and it was fun and fresh. A bit France 2007 but I don't think that was intentional...

Tomorrow night it's a very busy Eurovision night but also the cream of the Finnish pop-rock will be celebrating in annual Emma Gaala, the 25th anniversary edition in Espoo's Barona Arena. The Finnish Grammys in short. Most nominated artists will also perform in the gala. I only wish one day we would have such a list for the Euroviisut final as well.....: On top of that Jenni Vartiainen will have a concert with a 30 piece orchestra after the show! Here are some nominees you might know:  Jenni Vartiainen - Album, Song, Live, Female artist, Pop-rock album Suvi Teräsniska - Album, Schlageralbum, Female artistKaija koo - Song Lauri Tähkä & Elonkerjuu - Live, Band HIM -Metal, Band Anna Puu - Female artist, Pop-rock album Johanna Kurkela - Schlageralbum PMMP - Live Apocalyptics - Metal And here are the nominess for the Song of the year: Jenni Vartiainen - En haluu kuolla tänä yönä Fintelligens - Mikä boogie Happoradio - Pelastaja Pariisin Kevät - Tämän kylän poikii ...

Evelina Sašenko's C'est ma vie has won the Lithuanian final last night. I was caling out for a powerballad for Eurovision 2011 and here we have it. Just that isn't that good. Actually it's a snore. She can sing for sure but the song's just not good enough. And her horrid dress doesn't help either... Here are the results of the first round (televote + jury), Evelina won both. 1. Evelina Sašenko — C‘est ma vie  24 2. Linas Adomaitis — Floating to You  18 3. Rūta Ščiogolevaitė — I will break free  14 4. Monika — Days go by  12 5. Donatas Montvydas — Let me  10 6. Liepa — Laukiu  9 7. Urtė Šilagalytė — Candy Baby  6 8. Sasha Song — The Slogan of Our Nation  6 9. The Independent — 7th bus  5 10. VIG Roses — Freedom of mind  4 11. Donatas Montvydas and Sasha Song — Best Friends  3 12. Martynas Beinaris — Tomorrow and after  3 13. Viktorija Ivaškevičiūtė — Be my Baby  2 In superfinal there was only televote: 1. Ev...

Lena's Taken by a stranger's video was previewed in German TV tonight. Will it do the trick?  I never was a fan of this song. Until now. Somehow I got it now. Or my idea of it. And it's fabulous! Watch it here .

After three semifinals we have the Lithuanian finalists ready and tonight it's the final time. Let's send Vigroses so we have three twins in Dusseldorf (or wannabes at least). With one listening it might be also my real favourite along with Ruta. As long as Sasha Song won't win and distroy the memory of the wonderful Love . Update: Witnthe addition of the wildcards the things change and turn interesting. Once again there's rather horrid Sasha Song song dragging poor Donny along whose solo effort it way better and also Urte and Martynas bring some soice to the soup....  Sasha Son - The slogan of our nation   Monika - Days go by   The Independent - 7th bus   Evelina Sasenko - C'est ma vie   Liepa - Laukiu   Vigroses - Freedom of mind   Linas Adomaitis - Floating to you   Ruta Sciogolevaite - Break free   Viktorija Ivaskeviciute - Be my baby wildcards: Martynas Beinaris - Tomorrow and after Urte Silagalyte - Candy baby Donny Mont...

So, Poli took her revenge and won both televote and the jury vote and will do honor to the Bulgarian colors in Dusseldorf. Na inat is not bad  but I would have preferred something else but who knows? The 2011 edition misses the powerballad - who will promide it?

Bulgaria will choose its entrant tonight with 50-50 televote-jury. Some familiar names amongst the participants like Poli and Lazar. There's a little bit of everything from sumowrestlers to playmates, from teenage angst to ethno-granny and angry male rock. My favourite is Lazar but he would propably have the faith of Mirò anyways but then, there isn't anything that good either! Poli Genova and Emilka Valente are quite nice and then worth listening are Plamena, Vlad and Jakob as well as 032 and 5-te Sezona - if they only learn English first. You can watch snippets of all entries here . Four songs have withdrawn or disqualified from the original line up. Marked in red. The fun starts 19.30 CET at eurovision.tv  UPDATE: I'm watching the show and there isn't much to tell home about except they have a lovely pre-recorded applause going on all the time! :-) Lazar did a great job and what I have seen so far in blogs and chats I'm not alone liking him. Poli Genova got a ...

As expected and as always Sanremo takes over the Italian charts. While waiting for the physical charts we already have news from the iTunes. In singles Arriverá by Modà and Emma beats the winner Roberto Vecchioni as they enter the top-2 places. The surprise of the editon, Davide Van De Sfroos hits #3 followed by Luca Barbarossa & Raquel del Rosario , Raphael Gualazzi , Nathalie , La Crus , Giusy Ferreri and Anna Tatangelo at #9 so Sanremo takes the top-9 this week. (Some have released music videos so click the names to find out who!) In Albums Sanremo takes over 9 out of top-10 places (only Jovanotti resisting the attack at #9): Modá #1 followed by Raphael Gualazzi, Roberto Vecchioni and then Nathalie at #7, Max Pezzali at #8 and Giusy Ferreri at #10. The places 4-6 are taken over by the Sanremo 2011 compilations.  A real thriuph for Raphael Gualazzi in Jazz Song Downloads where he takes over nine out of ten places in top-10 (only Norah Jones at #9), Follia d'amore obviou...

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports:   TVE has officially presented Que me quiten lo bailao in a press conference held yesterday in Madrid. The Spanish broadcaster is proud and happy with the outcome of Destino Eurovisión Lola Molina stated -We have found a great singer and a great song that will help us going back to the top in Düsseldorf (was she high?). Lucía also expressed her happiness with the result - Que me quiten lo bailao is a positive song that help us forget all bad things around and invite us to dance. She expressed her hopes for the song -I wish this song will be a hit in Spain- (yeah keep on wishing...we might look for a genie in a bottle) and said she was quite surprised with the 68% of the votes as she knew she could win but not for a landmile (well, have you seen your concurrence sweetheart? The intensive work for Lucía starts now, first with recording of the video clip and also the new version of the song that will be made in Barcelona. Chema Purón, c...

The rumour from San Marino is that Senit has it down to two songs. One, apparently called Il silenzio dell'amore is a powerballad and the other Passione movimento an up beat dance track. Both songs are a mix of Italian and English. The song xhould be revealed on March 11, 2011. She did a gig in Bologna some time ago and you can read about that here . (I'd die to hear that Sará perche ti amo! The song that made me learn Italian some 30 years ago!) And guess what? She is really getting into the Eurovision mood following closely the happening in other countries and blogging about it in her website. I wish the the other artists where more like that!

Dansa i neon is Lena Philipsson's real classic from Melodifestivalen 1987. Reaching only 5th it is propably the biggest hit from that year and has since been covered several times, including Magnus Carlsson's Barbados . But Lena herself never recorded in in English but now here it is , together with Dead by April having a metal treatment. Already #2 in iTunes. And here's the live version from Melodifestivalen 2011. Lena is in the charts also with her come back single Idiot at the moment at #12 and the new album is the making. Can't wait!

Thank you Dino! Thank you Bosnia-Herzegovina! You have restored my faith in Eurovision for today at least. Adter 15 rather mediocre entries chosen this year so far here comes Love in rewind that I cannot help but listen and rewind all over again. Great track! At this point I say Sarajevo 2012 but let's wait and see....  We have songs from Bulgaria coming up tomorrow, Lithuania on Thursday, Austria and Turkey on Friday and then Moldova, Serbia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine on Saturday, Slovenia and FYR Macedonia on Sunday! You can click the ESC 2011 logo on right hand side on top to listen to all selected songs so far. 

Tonight the Bosnia-Herzegovina's entry will be presented in a show that besides Dino features last year's Vukasin Brajic and Italy's "no-longer-the-last-Italian-entry" Jalisse. Dino will also sing other songs and duets, one of the with Beatrice and their 1999 entry I putnici . The show starts at 21.00 CET. If the show goes like last year the Bosnian version will be first heard and then the English version. UPDATE: Love in rewind it is. And I like it! 

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: The last show from Destino Eurovisión ended up with 1.6 million viewers and a share of 9%, it was the 4th option in a country with no more than 7 decents channels. 12 monhts ago 2.6 million viewers with a 15.2% of share watched Daniel Digés getting his ticket to Oslo. I seriously think TVE need to re-think (again) the format as nor the result neither the viewers seem satisfying. (Considering RAI got an average share of nearly 50% for the 5 Sanremo nights with the peak of over 19 million.... Ed.note ) Leaving behing the flop, Lucía came back to her house in O Inco, Galicia seized with emotions and wordless. She was received by hundreds of people, with fireworks and the Mayor screaming "We are going to Germany". Lucía is the first singer coming from Galicia representing Spain in Eurovision, but she wont be the first singing "Uouououo", aren't the opening lyrics of Que me quiten lo bailao exactly  the ones of  Algo Pe...

Erik Saade's pre-contest pressure has been such that nothing but victory in his semi would do and that's what he did - straight to the final. Last year with Manboy he took a shower on stage, now we breaks free from a glass cage in Popular , a song that makes me sing this right away. I was rather sceptical about the song at first but considering what else Melodifestivalen has offered us this year so far this might just be the best so far. But will he and Danny divide the votes in the final and something like The Playtones ending victorious instead? One more semifinal to go and there's Love Generation, the other entry that has high expectations.

We are in mid-February and we have already 15 selected songs from Albania , Finland , Georgia , Norway, Poland , Switzerland , Iceland , Malta , Belgium , the Netherlands , Ireland , Romania , Germany , Italy and Spain . and we know the singers from Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Slovakia, France, UK - that's nine so we have facts from 24 countries. Click on the countries the hear the selected ones so far. FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Denmark, Estonia, Moldova, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria and Bulgaria will have their national final by the end of the month so by then we should have 11 other winners.  In early March Croatia, Sweden, Israel, Greece and Portugal will have their finals so that leaves us only with three question marks: Russia, Hungary and Belarus . About Russia we know so far only that they will be participating. There have been some artist rumours from Hungary, internal selection most likely and a lot of rumours from ...