Malta choose Vodka

I can't work out if this song is brilliant or terrible, probably a bit of both. Judge for yourself. Morena sings 'Vodka' for Malta.

Czech Republic choose Tereza

Tereza Kerndlová's entry 'Have Some Fun' has won the Czech national final. It's a great song but her vocals were really bad. Compare the live performance below to the video further down. The placings of the other songs were not revealed.

Norway - Torstein sails through to the final on the Eastern Wind

This has been my favourite Norwegian song from the start but for some reason it had the longest bookies odds to reach the final.



Meanwhile Lena Alexandra (Norway's answer to Silvia Knight) scraped through to the second chance round.

Switzerland - Hot favourite

Not only is he hot but he has a good voice too. Switzerland have gone for a song in Italian song this year. Let's see if they can resist the temptation to translate the song into English like most countries end up doing. It's quite a powerful ballad and definitely the best of the bunch so far but then again we only have Albania and Cyprus to compare it to.

Cyprus - absolutely dreadful

Cyprus, what are you doing? You nearly always send a half decent song to Eurovision. What is this?!

Love Eurovision Youtube Channel

Since all I really do is post Youtube links I thought it was about time I set up a Youtube channel to go with this blog.

http://youtube.com/loveeurovision

Here's a player I've created with all the 2008 videos so far.

Eurovision 1991

Let's go back 17 years to the first Eurovision Song Contest I ever watched. Samantha Janus was the hot favourite with the British bookies (which is nearly always the case however). She pulled off a good performance but didn't impress the judges, having to make do with 10th place. That year's contest was won by a youthful fresh-faced Carola singing for Sweden.

UK 1991: Samantha Janus - A Message To Your Heart


Sweden: Carola - Faangad Av En Stormvind

Andorra tries again

In 2007 Andorra sent their version of Busted to Helsinki but failed to qualify for the final. This year they've gone for a traditional bit of euro pop sung by a blonde beauty called Gisela. Is it a recipe for success? See what you think of this 70 second clip.

Moldovan National Final

A jury have selected 12 songs from 27 that were submitted to be Moldova's 2008 Eurovision entry. The entries are listed below with the score they received from the jury. Alexa's song is much better than Olia's so hopefully she'll beat Olia to become Moldova's entry this year. If she does Moldova have a good chance of winning this year.

86 points: Olia Tira- Always will be
82 points: Alexa - We are one
63 points: Edict - I believe
52 points: Geta Burlacu - A century of love
52 points: Cristina Rujitcaia - You make me feel crazy
49 points: Catrina Pislaru - Dance with me
39 points: Jay Mon - Point of view
35 points: Dana Marchitan - Your name
27 points: Galina Scoda - Your own vision
24 points: Scroom - Jane
22 points: Elena Dermidjean- Living creatures
18 points: Liusia Znamensky - Don't deceive my heart

Apparently you can listen to the entries here but I had trouble getting the player to work.

Olia Tira's song is on her Myspace page here

I managed to find Alexa's 'We Are One' on Youtube:

Eurolaul 2008 to take place 2nd February

Here are the 10 songs taking part in the Estonian national final, Eurolaul 2008.

Kreisiraadio - Leto Svet


SKA Faktor - Real Big Money (no video)

Rolf Junior - One On One


Taavi Peterson - Question Man (no video)
Kristjan Kasearu & Paradise Crew - Üksinduses (no video)

Birgit Õigemeel - 365 Days


? - It's Never Too Late (no video)
Supernova - Stefani (no video)
Iiris Vesik - Ice-cold Story (no video)
Margus Vaher - ? (no video)

Belarus - working no magic this year

Belarus managed a respectable 6th place in 2007 with Koldun's 'Work Your Magic.' None of the four candidate songs for this year's entry look likely to work their magic in Belgrade.




Here are the televoting results from the semi final:

Ruslan Alehno - Hasta la vista (6089)
Litesound - Do you believe (3967)
Palats - Kola mlyna (2438)
Gunesh - I can't live without you (2317)
Skandal - Everybody (1689)
PinCode - You can (1075)
Anya Sharkunova and German Titov - My budem pervye (991)
Lena Voloshina - That's all I feel (858)
Yuliya Guseva - Maybe (759)
Dali Silver - Sky (679)
Katrine - Follow me (663)
The Champions - Drive me crazy (486)
Po glazam - Devochka tryohtysachnih let (420)
Victor Pshenichniy - Baby Blue (338)
Oksana Kovalevskaya - Vsegda odna (271)

First off the starting blocks for ESC 2008 - Albania

Eurovision isn't until May but Albania have got in early this year. Here's their rather unremarkable entry: