Let's look at Latvia

It's another busy night with another batch of countries picking their entries for Moscow. Latvia had a semi-final last night and have whittled their entries down to 10 songs.

Eurovision Express thinks the best song comes from boyband, Simply 4 with When The Sun Is Going Down, but having watched their live performance we're not totally sure they're going to nail it.

Apparently the favourite is Aisha feat G.Point with the very fresh, and slightly thrashy Hey Hey Hey Hey. Judge for yourself below.

The Eurovision Stage 2009

Eurovision.tv has revealed an artist's impression (above) of the set for this year's Eurovision, designed by the New York-based John Casey, who also created the fantastic 1997 Eurovision stage.

Yes, we'll dance with you, Israel

The four songs competing to be the Israeli entry, all sung by Noa and Mira Awad, are now available to listen to here

The best by far is Will You Dance With Me, a gorgeously old-fashioned, wistful song, that is certainly unlike anything else on offer so far this year.

Israel chooses on Monday 2 March - let's hope they'll pick a song to have us dancing in the aisles....

U2 meets Pet Shop Boys....in Switzerland!

The song to represent Switzerland in Moscow has been revealed...and we quite like it! It's called The Highest Heights and is performed by Lovebugs. This is a modern soft-rock song with a hint of the eighties about it. We hope this will get Switzerland into the final. Of course, it will need to be shortened to 3 minutes.

Here's the song. GO SWISS!

A fairytale ending in Norway

Eurovision Express would be delighted if this man won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009:



which, we hope, would mean that this man would host the 2010 Contest:



Let's hope this is one fairytale that will come true!

What a difference 9 phonecalls could have made in FYR Macedonia

Eurovision Express caught the end of the FYR Macedonia final last night, and found the voting highly exciting. After passing the microphone along a row of jurors it emerged that the jury favourite was Kaliopi and Naum with Rum dum dum. As such it was awarded 12 points. But this was only half the story.

The televote was then announced which would make up the other 50% of the final mark. Kaliopi and Naum only came 5th in the phone vote, and were awarded 6 points, giving them a total of 18 points.

Performers Next Time, who had received 7 points from the jury received the top mark from the televote, 12 points, and as such got a total of 19 points, just edging out Kaliopi and Naum to win the Contest. But a closer look at the number of televotes Next Time and the runner-up in the televote, Slang, got, shows just how different it could have been.

Next Time got 4176 televotes (and therefore 12 points) and Slang got just 8 televotes fewer - 4168 televotes (and therefore 10 points). If 9 more people had picked up their phones and voted for Slang they would have got the televoting 12 points, and Next Time would have got 10 points, which would have given them a total of 17 points (7 from the jury and 10 from the public). Which all means that Kaliopi and Naum would have won....

What a difference 9 people could have made....

Tonight it's all about Norway

Tonight the final of this year's MGP takes place in Oslo. Everyone's convinced Alexander Rybak with Fairytale (above) will win, and Eurovision Express has to agree. We also believe that this song has a great chance of seizing the Eurovision crown in Moscow.

The show will see 8 songs whittled down to four, and besides Alexander's entry, we believe the 'superfinal' will include Velvet Inc with Tricky, Tone Damli Aaberge with Butterflies, and the other Alexander (Stenerud) with Find My Girl. All 4 are great songs, and with Per Sundnes and Maria Haukaas Storeng on hosting duties, it's sure to be a fun evening!

After coming 5th in 2008 with Hold On Be Strong, this year Norway look set to do even better. Stavanger 2010 anyone?

Eurosong ...etc!

Ireland aims for Eurovision win number 8 when it chooses it's entry for Moscow tomorrow night. We heard the six songs in contention today on RTE radio. It was certainly a varied bag of songs, from rock song to ballad to ethnic/dance!

The song we would like Ireland to choose is called Etcetera, a rock song performed by Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy and penned by some of the team of Eurovision fans who wrote Someday for the Danish final.

As it's Friday night and the audience for the Late Late Show (the vehicle used for Eurosong 2009) is traditionally an older one, we think that the song picked for Moscow will be the "safe" ballad - So What performed by Lee Bradshaw. Hopefully, we will be proved wrong and Ireland will send what would be one of the few rock songs taking part in the contest this year.

Good luck Sinead!

You can watch the Eurosong live at 22:35 CET tomorrow night HERE

MF Party - Stockholm - 14th March

Soon, it will be time for one of the highlights of the Eurovision calendar - The Swedish Melodifestivalen Final.

For those of you travelling to Stockholm for 14th March, you may be interested in attending an event being organised by Melodifestivalklubben OGAE Sweden. There's a warm up dinner (between 3-6.30pm), and an after party (10.30pm-3am) which will cost 300SEK (for OGAE members) or 340SEK (non OGAE members), or you can just attend the party for 100SEK (same price for OGAE members and non members).

The information we have received from OGAE Sweden is as follows.....

It's now time for the big celebration of 2009 in Stockholm: The Melodifestivalen warmup-dinner! This year the party will continue after the final in Globen!

Here's some important information about the party and we hope that so many of you have the possibility to attend. PLEASE SHARE THIS INFO WITH ALL OF YOUR OGAE MEMBERS WHO YOU KNOW ARE COMING TO STOCKHOLM!

WHEN:

Saturday March 14th, 15.00-18.30 (dinner) & 22.30 - 03.00 (party)

WHERE:

The Party Floor at Café Umbra, Hornsgatan 5 (about 3 minutes walk from Slussen subway-station)

Cafe Umbra is located very central in Stockholm. Umbra has a license to sell alcoholic beverages and accepts credit cards. Wardrobe fee is included in the dinner price. There is a age limit of 18 for the afterparty. Please let us know if you have any allergies.

PRICE:

For members: 300 SEK for all OGAE members. This will be included - A starter drink, two-course dinner, 1 glass of wine/beer/cider (or non-alcoholic alternative), coffee and wardrobe to the dinner (if you only want to join the after party, the price is 100 SEK).

Non Members: Non members are also more than welcome if there are any seats left. We hope we have enough room for everybody. The price for non members is 340 SEK for dinner and afterparty. The price for the party is 100 SEK.

How to pay:
Accountnumber: 146 94 40-0
IBAN: SE 92 95000099 6034 1469 4400
BIC: NDEASESS

Acountadress: Melodifestivalklubben c/o Svanström, Årstavägen 105, S-120 58 Årsta

Please make sure we have your payment no later than February 28th.
When you pay, please write your name and "Globen" if there is any room.

Please make your payment before: Saturday February 28th.

BOOKING:

If you are a member of OGAE Sweden you can book at our homepage, www.melodifestivalklubben.se. Choose if you will attend both the dinner and the afterparty, just the dinner or just the afterparty. Then you chose your choice of food for the dinner.

If not a OGAE Sweden member, you can book via sending an email to stockholm@melodifestivalklubben.se. Please do so before February 28th.

When you mail your application for the dinner, please let us know what of the following you would like to eat:

1) Pork filets with potatoes and mushroom sauce
2) Chicken filet filled with goats cheese, with potatoes and white wine sauce
3) Wok vegetables in zucchini with rice

Please feel free to contact the organiser if you have any questions
HERE

Eurovision Express will be there...hope you will too!

Always On My Mind....Azerbaijan teases us with 30 seconds of its entry

A brief snippet (below) of the entry from Azerbaijan, Always - which will be performed by AySel and the song's composer, Arash - was seen at the Moldovan national final.



Although it's hard to judge from such a short extract, this sounds highly promising. Eurovision Express weren't great fans of last year's Azerbaijani song, but think this effort is much better. We're looking forward to hearing the full version, and reckon Baku 2010 isn't out of the question.

20 songs chosen so far!

So after a busy night, we now know 20 songs for Moscow. Time for our top 20!
You can hear all of these songs on the right-hand panel of this page.

1. Iceland
2. Denmark
3. Andorra
4. Finland
5. Montenegro
6. UK
7. Turkey
8. France
9. Poland
10. Germany
11. Slovenia
12. Moldova
13. Albania
14. Malta
15. Netherlands
16. Romania
17. Belarus
18. Lithuania
19. Armenia
20. Cyprus

5 more songs known tonight

Armenia, Poland, Moldova, Lithuania and Iceland all choose their Eurovision entries tonight. On top of that Norway has its 'Siste Sjansen' round ahead of next weekend's final, Sweden hosts the 2nd heat of Melodifestivalen, and Spain is holding a semi-final. It's certainly another Eurotastic night!

First up is Armenia, but, alas, there's no webcast, so we won't be able to follow that show. Then Eurovision fans all across Europe have to start making some tough decisions.

Here at Eurovision Express Headquarters, we'll be starting the evening with a little bit of Moldova, and then switching to Norway, Iceland and finally Spain. We'll somehow try to keep an eye on the other countries too.

Our main hope for this evening is that Iceland chooses the wonderful ballad, Is It True? as its entry. Beyond that we'll be wishing Man Meadow good luck in Poland, although we think that Lidia Kopania has it sewn up with I Don't Want To Leave. That said we do have a sneaking regard for Tigrita Project (below) with Mon Chocolat.



Nothing really stands out amongst the 10 competing songs in Lithuania, but we think Ruta Sciogolevaite and Redemption would probably be the best choice.

The general consensus of fans is that Nelly Ciobanu will win the Moldovan selection with Hora din Moldova, and could start a good a chance in Moscow. Judge for yourself below.



We don't really mind which two songs get through tonight in Norway as we're convinced that Alexander Rybak will win next week with Fairytale.

Finally, Måns Zelmerlöw is back in Melodifestivalen tonight with Hope and Glory, a pretty strong modern schlager song. Our favourite, however, is Cookies'n'Beans with the Dolly Parton-inspired What If.

By the time the Spanish semi-final comes to an end, we'll be Eurovisioned-out!

Can Sakis still shake it for Greece?

The three songs that Sakis Rouvas will sing in Greece's national final have been made public at a press launch in Athens today.

There's a midtempo number, Right On Time (which is probably the weakest of the three), Out Of Control, a good, catchy song (and our favourite), and then there is This Is Our Night, which has 'Sakis' written all over it - we're sure it will be the song Sakis takes to Moscow

The Greek national final takes place on 18 February. Listen to the three songs below:

Iceland must pick "Is It True?"

Eurovision Express is eagerly awaiting the result of this weekend's Icelandic national final, because, if things go to plan, we could have the best Eurovision entry of 2009 so far.

Of course we're talking about Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir's Is It True?. We absolutely love this song. It's brilliant, so citizens of Iceland, please choose wisely. Enjoy the song below.

Ups and Downs in Euroland!

It was a Swedish shocker last night, with Melodifestivalen legend Shirley Clamp coming last in the first heat in Gothenburg. However, thankfully Alcazar with the poptastic Stay The Night sailed through to the Globen.

Down in Cyprus, we were convinced that Alex Panayi (ESC 1995, 2000)would win the ticket to Moscow with his strong ballad. But a complete surprise was in store when Christina Metaxa with Firefly was chosen as the island's representative. This song and singer will surely struggle to qualify for the final on 14th May. Cyprus will rue the day they didn't pick Alex!

The least surprising results of the night were Alexander Rybak qualifying for the Norwegian final with the excellent and possible Eurovision winnerFairytale and Chiara in Malta with What If We. Chiara will go to Eurovision for the third time with a song that doesn't have the emotional impact of her previous two entries.

Overall verdict tonight - Northern Europe 1 - Southern Europe 0.

Two Euros Decide - Cyprus and Malta

It's another busy Saturday night in the Eurovision calendar.

The first heat of Sweden's Melodifestivalen takes place in Gothenburg, and we're predicting that MF stalwarts, Shirley Clamp and Alcazar, will book themselves a space in the final.

Norway holds its 3 round, and all eyes will be on Alexander Rybak, who is hot favourite to win this year's MGP with Fairytale. Can he cut it live? Soon we will know.

There's a second semi-final in Lithuania, and the 10 songs in Eesti Laul, Estonia's national final, will be presented, ahead of next month's final.

But the main events are in Cyprus and Malta, who are both holding their national finals tonight. None of the Cypriot songs have been made available, so we've no idea what to expect, although Alex Panayi (1995/2000) and Marlain (1999) are both in contention.

There are new fewer than 20 songs in the Maltese final, and it's very hard to pick a winner. Chiara (1998/2005) must stand a good chance, although we're not as impressed with her song, What If, as we'd like to be. We're hoping that the Siegel/Meinunger penned, Tonight At The Opera (below) by Classic Rebels makes it through. Think Let's Get Happy with an operatic twist! The UK and Turkish entries will also both perform at the Maltese final, so we'll get a chance to see how the songs go down with the locals.

13 songs available...and so far the Danes have it!

We now know approximately one third of the songs for the 2009 Eurovision, so we thought we would compile our top 13. Denmark leads the field so far with Belarus failing to impress us!

1st - Denmark
2nd - Montenegro
3rd - Andorra
4th - UK
5th - France
6th - Finland
7th - Turkey
8th - Slovenia
9th - Albania
10th - Hungary
11th - Netherlands
12th - Romania
13th - Belarus

All songs chosen so far are on the right-hand side of this page.

Some Irish Eurosong hopefuls revealed!

Three possible Irish Eurosong hopefuls have been "revealed" on the internet. The Irish final is on Friday 20th feb as part of the Late Late Show on RTE1.

These three songs are believed to have been entered in the competition, but as to whether they will make it to the final or not on 20th, nobody knows.

First up, A New Way to Fly by Lauren White.

A very middle-of-the-road song which would probably not make a huge impression in Moscow.


Next, Róisín Dubh (pronounced Row-sheen Dove) by the group Lamph

Go forward to about 1:20 to hear the song. It starts off as a typical Irish ethnic song, lapsing into the Irish language every so often, and then changes into a drum-based fast-paced song. It alludes to some Irish rebel songs of the past and is apparently a social commentary on modern Ireland post Celtic tiger! Unusual effort and is more memorable than the first song.



and the other song that has been touted as a possible Irish finalist is a techno song called Mind in the Gutter by Chris Crocker. This is certainly a departure for Ireland. It starts off as a confession prayer and then descends into a story about someone who is clearly losing their mind! Should be an interesting Eurosong if this gets through!

Andorra : Decision Time

Tonight, the tiny country of Andorra decides which one of the three songs in their final will make it to Moscow. The favourite is Susanna Georgi with the europop sounding La teva decisió but also in the running are Mar Capdevila with the comtemporary/modern song Passió obsessiva and finally Lluis Cartes with the Catalan rock song Exhaust.

Most predictions are for Danish-born Susanna to win throiugh tonight and we see no reason to disagree. Maybe we will have an upset, who knows? Tune in here to see the live webcast from ATV at 21:35(CET).

Bona Sort!

Is this the French song?

Apparently in an interview earlier today, Patricia Kass, who will represent France at Eurovision, revealed the title of the French song for 2009 to be - Et s'il fallait le faire (If it had to be done). This song is taken from her new album Kabaret.

Here is that song on youtube. Of course, it will have to be shortened if it is to go to Moscow.

Eurovision Express predicts the winners in Denmark, Finland and the UK

We're celebrating here at Eurovision Express headquarters, as three of our favourites were crowned winners in Denmark, Finland and the UK.

Despite a technical hiccup during the first performance, the Danes plumped for Brinck and the brilliant Believe Again (video below). It was an excellent final - 10 great songs, with Hera Björk's Someday a worthy runner-up.



Finland chose Waldo's People and Lose Control, which looks set to become a Euro floor-filler, and a welcome break from hard rock. Hallelujah!

And, despite being in the dangerzone last week, the UK chose Jade, who will sing My Time (video below).



But - hands up - we did fail to predict the winner in Romania (more on that later), but 3 out of 4 ain't bad!