Semi 1 - the final five

Time now to reveal who else we think will be in those magic envelopes come Tuesday 10 May. Yesterday we predicted places in the final for Switzerland, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and Serbia.

Our sixth spot goes to Poland, a country that until this year has failed to make much of an impression on us. So it's with delight that Poland is sending its best song since 1998! Magdalena Tul sings Jestem, and is first up. We think picking position one is quite a canny move. This is a good, modern entry, which promises to be well sung and well staged. Poland is back!

Next in our ten is Finland with Paradise Oskar and Da Da Dam. This looks set to be this year's Tom Dice. A simple, almost naive, song, simply presented, this looks to stand out. When we first heard it we thought it was perhaps more suited to the Junior Contest, but we really like the melody, and it has a very clear messsage. Probably not a winner overall, but a place in the final for sure.

Only three more songs to go, and, perhaps inevitably, Greece is our next choice. We are picking this more because Greece always seems to progress to the Final, rather than on the song, which, in our opinion, is not as strong as previous Greek entries. Loucas Yiorkas featuring Stereo Mike sing Watch My Dance, but it will be interesting to see if this is the year that Greece's good luck runs out and they don't make it to the Saturday night final.

Our penultimate choice is Iceland. We loved Yohanna and Erna in the Icelandic contest, but it was not to be. That said, Coming Home perforemd by Sjonni's Friends (left), is certainly a good song. It has a strong hook, and no one can fail to be moved by the story of the song's composer, Sigurjon ‘Sjonni’ Brink, who sadly passed away earlier this year. A genuinely touching entry that deserves a spot in the Final.

Ok, so who does our final place go to? Azerbaijan of course! Running Scared sung by Eldar and Nigar is a real contender for Eurovision victory. From the very first notes this song packs an emotional punch, and is without doubt the best ballad in the contest. We're really hoping the live version sounds as good as the recorded track. If it does, then Baku 2012 is most definitely on the cards. A club remix of the song can be heard below.



Join us tomorrow as we predict who will be the 10 qualifiers from Semi 2.

Who will qualify from Semi 1?

Ahead of rehearsals, which begin this Sunday, Eurovision Express has decided it's time to predict who we think will be the 10 qualifiers from each of the two semi finals.

Today - and in no particular order - we reveal 5 countries whose names we reckon will be in the 'envelopes' on Tuesday 10 May.

First up is Switzerland. The country who gave us the very first Eurovision winner hasn't been doing too well of late, despite some great songs (Era Stupendo was our favourite in 2008!) Who can forget all the talk about DJ Bobo was going to win the whole contest, and he didn't even qualify! This year though we think Anna Rossinelli (above) and her song, In Love For A While, is going to make it through to the Grand Final. It's a quality song, simply performed, and we're sure juries especially will like it.

Our next prediction is Turkey. Initially we were a little disappointed with Yüksek Sadakat's Live It Up, but when we saw the preview video our opinions changed dramatically. This is a good piece of rock/pop, and being performed after 4 female solists will make it stand out. Everyone thinks Turkey's always a safe bet to qualify, but you have to admit that they don't just get through on diaspora - they really have a knack of picking modern, credible songs.

3rd up is Hungary, this year's fan favourite. Like most other people we're loving What About My Dreams? by Kati Wolf (left). It's catchy, punchy, and we're sure it will be the monster hit on the Eurovision dancefloor. Rumours abound that Kati might not be able to cut it live, but, if there's any justice, this will be vying for a Top 5 place in the Final.

Our penultimate choice today is Russia. We were amazed they qualified in 2010, but would be equally surprised if they didn't make it through this year. We're not massively keen on the new Eurovision version of Get You, and think that it would just be better if Alexej Vorobjov got straight into the song. But it's pretty modern, poppy and he's not a bad-looking chap either, so Russia should sail through.

The final prediction today is Nina and her song, Čaroban for Serbia. This 60s inspired entry is extremely well executed, and looks and sounds stylish. It may well stand out amid the more stereotypically 'Eurovision' songs.

So 5 down, 5 more to come. Check back tomorrow for the other entries we think will make it from Semi 1.

Jedward in ankle injury shocker!

The "J" half of Jedward (John Grimes) - this year's Irish entry for Eurovision - has sprained his ankle on stage during their Irish tour. He will go on stage tonight in Dublin in a wheelchair. Apparently John sprained his ankle after some "mad" antics on stage earlier in the tour according to their manager and music mogul Mr. Louis Walsh.

Let's hope John recovers in time for their Dusseldorf appearance in less than three weeks time. Take it easy boys! You can read all about it here

Does France have it in the bag?

According to the latest betting odds, France is the clear favourite to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest. We think the contest it a lot more wide open this year than last year so a lot will depened on the rehearsals and, of course, the live performances.

If Amaury Vassili wins with his song Sognu , it will be the first French victory since the lovely Marie Myriam back in 1977 who won in London with L'oiseau et L'enfant.

You can check all the latest betting odds from the various websites here

Eurovision Express will be in Dusseldorf from 4th May reporting on all the rehearsals and general Eurovision shenanigans!

Oh My God!

Eurovision Express is wending its way to Sweden this weekend for Melodifestivalen 2011!

MF took on its current format in 2002, and we were there then, blindly believeing that Kikki, Bettan and Lotta (below) would win big in the Globen. We were totally shocked when Afrodite walked away with the crown.

Since 2002, we've only missed being in the live audience a couple of times (2003 and 2005). Dedication or what?

This year looks set to be a good competition. We fully expect Eric Saade to win with Popular, but we'd really like either The Moniker (below) or Sanna Nielsen to come out on top! May the best song win!

10 songs for Denmark

Eurovision Express loves Denmark. Well they have given us some of the best entries ever, especially in the 80s.

Recently Denmark has gone all modern pop on us, and that's absolutely fine! Snippets of the 10 songs competing in this Saturday's Melodi Grand Prix are now available here.

And they are pretty good! At the moment our favourite (and it seems to be 'the' favourite) is Anne Noa (pictured below, photo by Bjarne Bergius Hermansen © DR) with Sleepless, written by Peter Bjørnskov, Lene Dissing and John Gordon (composer of Lena's Satellite).

Most of the songs are good uptempo pop songs. Amongst our other favourites are Jenny Berggren with Let Your Heart Be Mine and Le Freak's 25 Hours a Day.

Looks like Denmark's going to give us another great final this Saturday night!

Haba a good time tonight in Norway! And fingers crossed for Yohanna!

For the second year running Eurovision Express is going to be part of the live audience at Norway's MGP.

It seems that Stella is going to triumph with Haba Haba. We quite like the song, and it definitely stands out. But we actually think the best song is You're Like A Melody performed by Hanne Sørvaag, who co-wrote last year's Norwegian and Georgian entries. Listen to the song below.



We'll be popping along to this afternoon's dress rehearsal to see how the 8 acts are shaping up, and to see if there are any surprises in store.

We're going to be on the edge of our seats tonight, and not just because of the excitement of being in the Oslo Spektrum. Tonight a number of other countries will be choosing their songs, and we're particularly interested in the result in Iceland. Fingers crossed for Yohanna, whose song, Nótt (below), is by far the best Eurovision song we've heard this year. We have a feeling in our water that she's not going to make it, but if she does, she's got to be a contender for this year's Eurovision crown.

Lipstick Lads for Ireland

Eurovision Express is back in Oslo for the final of MGP. But before we contemplate the excitement of tonight's spectacular, we caught the Irish national final on the internet last night.

Our verdict? We're delighted that Jedward are representing Ireland. Why? Because they had the best song! It's as simple as that.

Eurosong 2011, part of The Late Late Show, was a pretty entertaining shebang. Former Eurovision entrants Cheryl Baker and Bryan Kennedy were on hand to give their opinions. We love Cheryl but think it's time she moved on from the East block voting argument. Norway? Finland? Germany? They won because they had good songs.

Anyway, back to the final itself. It was always going to be a two horse race between the X Factor's Jedward and Nikki Kavanagh. We thought Nikki was most definitely the best singer of the night, but she just needed a better song.

The 6 juries votes accounted for 66% of the final score, and it was fantastically exciting, as it seemed Nikki was going to pip Jedward to the title. But the Sligo jury, if we remember correctly, gave Nikki a pretty low score and awarded Jedward 12 points.

Before the public televote came in, Nikki led by 4 points, but she only came 2nd in televote, allowing the twins from Lucan in Dublin to leapfrog her and win by a mere two points.

A good, tense final, and a great outcome. OK, Jedward aren't the best singers, but the song is infectious and they certainly sell it. And, if it does manage to get to the final, we're certain that the UK will be giving it douze points!

8 acts battle it out in Norway's "Sistesjanse"

Eurovision Express is looking forward to jetting off to the Norwegian MGP final in just over a week's time. Six acts have made it directly to the Oslo Spektrum, and this Saturday 2 more will join them from the Sistesjanse round.

NRK has created the lovely graphic above to illustrate how Saturday's show will work. It's going to be a series of duels.

Here at Eurovision Express we love nothing more than to get out our crystal ball and predict what's going to happen. So, taking you round by round, here are our thoughts:

Use Me v Pernille and Marius

We reckon Daisy, the poppy rock song by Use Me will just pip Pernille and Marius' slightly schlager-lite I'll Be Yours in this first duel.

Sie Gubba v Mimi Blix

Tricky one this. Alt du vil ha is a country style number by Sie Gubba, absolutely poles apart from Mimi Blix's Allergic. We like them both, but hope that Mimi's modern dance track will take this round.

Gatas Parlament v The Lucky Bullets

We really don't like either of these songs. Gatas Parlament's Jobbe Litt isn't our bag at all, and we find The Lucky Bullets rockabilly Fire Below uninspired, but if we had to choose we'd go for The Lucky Bullets!

Endre v Susperia

We were amazed last weekend when metal group Susperia didn't get an automatic pass to the Final with Nothing Remains. It's not our cup of tea, but we thought it was pretty good if you like that sort of thing. However we reckon Susperia are going to be disappointed a second time, as Endre and Puppy Love looks likely to pull in the girly vote.

OK. So first rounds over. Our predictions would then create the following second round duels:

Use Me v Mimi Blix

We hope that Mimi will win this one. Her funky tune is much more us!

The Lucky Bullets v Endre

Endre would definitely deserve to win this battle, although would probably be the weakest song in the Final.

So, our predictions are:

Mimi Blix and Endre to the Grand Final! Let's see if we get it right!

Going Dutch with 3JS

The Netherlands will be the fourth country to reveal its song for Germany tonight, when boyband 3JS (pictured above) present five songs. Snippets can be heard below.



Although it's difficult to judge from these short extracts, Eurovision Express thinks the uptempo De Stroom sounds like the best option. But we're looking forward to hearing the full versions.

Red White and ... BLUE for the UK

The news has literally come out of the blue that reformed boyband BLUE will be the UK's representatives at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

It's not the first time that members of the group have bid to take part in the competition. Lee Ryan wrote and composed "Guardian Angel", Andy Scott-Lee's song for the 2005 edition of Making Your Mind Up. Furthermore, Antony Costa came second in the 2006 edition of the show with the song "It's A Beautiful Thing". Group member Duncan James was a panellist on all episodes of the Eurovision: Your Country Needs You series in 2009 , which Jade Ewen won.

The self-penned song will be called "I Can" and a BBC documentary will follow the group's preparations for the contest. This is the first time since 1994 that an act has been chosen internally by the BBC.

Although BLUE haven't had hits for a number of years, we are cautiosuly optimistic of the UK's chances in Dusseldorf and looking forward to hearing their song. This will be the first time for several years that a well-known act will represent the UK. We think this is a good thing! Bring on the song!

Final fling in Norway

Tonight sees the third and last semi final in Norway. It looks like last year's host country has saved some of the best songs for this heat.

You can hear snippets of the entries that will be performed in Skien here

Our favourite at Eurovision Express is SOS by boyband, Girl Happy (below). It's probably the most Eurovision sounding song of the 21 entries in this year's MGP.

However we think the song most likely to qualify, and also in with a very strong chance of representing Norway in Germany, comes in the shape of heavy rockers Susperia with Nothing Remains (below).

So after the gentle My Heart Is Yours, Norway might be going in a ve3ry different direction....!

We want to go to Iceland!

Eurovision Express is back off its holidays, and what do we return to? A potential Eurovision winning song from Iceland!

It's no secret that we loved Iceland's 2009 entry, Is It True? so we were anxious to hear Yohanna's entry for 2011. And our verdict? Well we reckon that if Iceland sends her song, Nott, then Eurovision could be held in Reykjavik in 2012!

Yohanna took part in this weekend's Icelandic semi-final, and is through to the Final, taking place on 12 February, Enjoy the performance below.

Will Sarah get Switzerland back on a roll?

Poor Switzerland has been doing very well at Eurovision over the past few years, despite some brilliant songs. In 2008 Era Stupendo was our absolute favourite entry, and it didn't even make it out of the semi final!

This year Switzerland is having a national final for the first time since 2004. We'll be tuning in this Saturday (11 December) to discover the first song selected for Dusseldorf.

The best song, in our opinion, comes from Sarah Burgess. Co-written by John Gordon (one the composers of Lena's Eurovision winning Satellite) Sarah's song, Just Me, sounds like it could be a Katy Perry track.

So it's not actually a great surprise to discover that Sarah is in fact from the US, and actually tried her luck at American Idol!

Enjoy the song below.

Romania - we want U!

The 13 songs competing to represent Romania in Dusseldorf are now available to listen to here.

We loved Ovi and Paula's Playing With Fire, and we reckon Romania is on to another winner if they pick Claudia Pavel and the fantastic ballad I Want U To Want Me. Enjoy the performance below.



The Romanian national final takes place on New Year's Eve - let's hope they pick Claudia's amazing song!

Junior Eurovision, and Georgia's on our mind....

This weekend sees the 8th Junior Eurovision Song Contest take place in Minsk, Belarus.

Eurovision Express has followed JESC all the way since 2003 when we ventured over to Copenhagen to cheer on the UK's Tom Morley. Of course the UK no longer takes part, and we have to watch the show on the internet these days.

14 songs are battling it out. Some of our favourite songs come from Belgium, Sweden, Armenia and Latvia. But we reckon that if there's any justice Mariam from Georgia should triumph with her Lady Gaga-esque Mari Dari. It's well performed and catchy as anything.

Enjoy one of the rehearsals below.

Radio 2's getting Butterflies!

Here at Eurovision Express we were big fans of Butterflies, the song that came 2nd in the 2009 Norwegian MGP.  Sung by Tone Damli Aaberge, it, of course, lost out to the eventual Eurovision winner, Fairytale.

But the good news is that it's getting a UK release, and is BBC Radio 2's record of the week!

Let's enjoy the MGP performance again, and hope Tone goes big in Britain!

Ticket time again for Swedish MF 2011

Tickets for the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2011 go on sale tomorrow (Thursday 21 October). 

More info here.  Best get in quick as they usually get snapped up in seconds!

It's Dusseldorf!

It's official - after months of speculation the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the Fortuna/Espirit Arena in Dusseldorf.  Full story here

UK fans gather for Eurobash 2010 in Manchester!

Eurobash 2010, the annual gathering of the British Eurovision fanclub, OGAE UK, takes place next Saturday (16 October).  After 4 successful years in Birmingham, the sold-out extravaganza moves to Manchester!

Over 100 fans will come together to celebrate all things Eurovision - with a quiz, a special 'Firsts' themed Contest, and the eagerly anticipated Stars In Their Eurovision Eyes, where attendees become their Eurovision heroes - for one night only.  This year 11 acts will compete, all hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year's winners, who gave a knock-out performance of Laka's song from 2008.

Eurobash 2010 will also welcome 4 special guests: Kit Rolfe (better known to Eurofans as Belle from Belle and The Devotions, who sang Love Games for the UK in 1984), Hera Bjork (Iceland 2010), Sarah Cawood (UK semi-final commentator) and Craig Lees (who entered the 2005 UK heats of the Junior Eurovision).

Eurobash 2010 promises to be another fun-packed day!

Junior Eurovision details announced!

image copyright EBU

The EBU have confirmed details for this year's Junior ESC to be held in Minsk, Belarus on 20th November. 14 countries will take part with Moldova trying it out for the first time. Sweden return after a year off, as do Lithuania and Latvia, increasing the number of participants by one compared to last year.

You can find out full details here.

Austria comes home!

It might have something to do with the fact that their near neighbour has won this year, but whatever the reason, we're delighted to see that Austria will return to Eurovision in 2011!

The country that gave us Boom Boom Boomerang by Schmetterlinge in 1977 and the unforgettable Alf Poier in 2003 has decided to re-join the Eurovision family after a three-year gap. They may even be one of the first to announce their entry according to this report (in German).

Welcome back Österreich!

It's the 3 "J"'s for the Netherlands!

Netherlands are quick off the mark for ESC 2011 - they have chosen their singers already! The group that will represent Les Pays-Bas next year will be the 3 "J"'s! After Sieneke's disappointing showing in Oslo, the Netherlands are going back to the formula of choosing an artist and then a song.
The 3 "J"'s will perform 5 songs and the public will choose one to represent them in Germany. Unfortunately this process didn't work for The Toppers in 2009, but we are hoping that the Netherlands pick a great song and get to the final where they belong in 2011!

Read more here.

Lena goes for the double.....and ESC 2011 moves forward one week!

The dates of next year's semi-finals and final have moved forward one week to 10th May for Semi-Final 1, 12th May for Semi-Final 2 and the final on Saturday 14th May. NDR, the German broadcaster announced the new dates today and also announced that Lena will represent Germany again in 2011!

You can read the full details here

Germany wins televote and jury!

The jury votes of ESC 2010 have been released by the EBU and show that Germany won both televote and jury convincingly. Turkey didn't do so well with the Juries but Belgium did!

You can see the results here.