It is not a sprint - it is a marathon

Eurovision Express has just about recovered from watching what felt like 10 hours of national finals last night.

27 songs in Russia was just too many, and we had to switch over to Belgium before the winner had been announced. However alternative sources revealed to us that Dima Bilan had won with Believe, produced by Timbaland, who is, apparently, quite big in the R'n'B and hiphop world. We're not sure how this will do - it's certainly not as catchy as Never Let You Go.

Belgium chose Ishtar and O Julissi Na Jalini which is written in an imaginary tongue. We like this a lot, and reckon it could do very well in Belgrade. We did, however, feel sorry for Sandrine, the Belgian runner-up - she had a great song too.

Finally it was the turn of Portugal. We weren't expecting an especially high level, to be honest, but there were at least 3 songs that were good. Our favourite was the ballad Do Outro Lado da Vida, which came 7th! The winner, Senhora do Mar, sung by Vânia Fernandes, initially passed us by, but we can see it doing well with some of the Former Yugoslav countries.

So, 40 countries down - 3 to go: Serbia, San Marino and Sweden. We didn't have chance to watch the Serbian semi last night, so the songs in tonight's final will be fresh to our ears. We're expecting a strong line-up from this year's host nation. Check back here later tonight to see if Serbia could do the double.