Malena Ernman - La Voix

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I was lucky enough to be in the audience in the Globe Arena in Stockholm to watch Malena claim the 2009 Melodifestivalen title. Despite being the favourite in the pre-contest betting, it looked like Malena was well out of the running after the jury votes had been called in but, in one of closest and most exciting finishes ( Read more... )

Andrea Demirovic - Just Get Of My Life

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Another recently-joined member of the Eurovision family, Montenegro have not so far been blessed with much success. As much as it pains me to say it - for I love their 2009 entry - I don't think that situation is going to change this year. Written by Eurovision songwriting veterans, Uncle Ralph Siegel and ( Read more... )

Kejsi Tola - Me Merr Ne Enderr

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Albania haven't been the most successful of Eurovision countries since their debut in 2004. Their debut was, in fact, their best result to date. This year's song, however, has a great deal of potential. It's got a lively chorus and a good melody running throughout. Two qualifications remain. The song will be ( Read more... )

Stefane & 3G - We Don't Wanna Put In

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I like to think of this one as Wigan Casino meets a United Nations diplomatic spat. Look at that song title again. The EBU may force significant changes before the contest itself..........

Alexander Rybak - Fairytale

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I'm putting some money on this one. I loved this song from the moment I heard it, and I believe it is going to do very, very well in Moscow. It's a curious mixture of styles and the best definition I've been able to come up in terms of the musical genre in which it lies is 'folk-schlager'. It does no harm, of course ( Read more... )

Sakis Rouvas - This Is Our Night

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While the United Kingdom might be the most successful country in the whole history of the Eurovision Song Contest, today's contest is a very different beast from that of even only fifteen years ago. Much is said of the eastern takeover of the contest in recent times, but the most successful country of the past ( Read more... )

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It's probably every Eurovision fan's dream. Get together with a few of your fellow fans, come up with a stonking melody, some good Eurovision lyrics, and then submit it to a national broadcaster to be considered as one of their potential entries. Well, this year it wasn't just a dream for a group of four Danish and Norwegian contest fans who ( Read more... )

The 1999 'Great British Song Contest' saw one of the closest finishes in any national final. Barely a thousand telephone votes separated the top three songs, and the losers were the pair of Manchester sisters known as 'Sister Sway'. 'Until You Saved My Life' is widely regarded as the best song never to have gone to Eurovision, and I must admit ( Read more... )

Here's the first in a series of looks at the plethora of national competitions that decide which composition will be put forward as a country's entry to The Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision fandom is consumed every winter with those songs that didn't quite make it. I'll be listing some instances where I think a song left in the qualifiers ( Read more... )