Dima Bilan touring Sydney & Melbourne

Winner of Eurovision 2008, Dima Bilan, is heading Down Under for a short promotion tour this month. He will play the Dallas Brooks Centre in Melbourne on Thursday 11th March and the UNSW Science Theatre in Sydney on Friday 12th.

Dima's press release promose a concert "sure to enthrall spectators, showcasing a group of Russian ballet dancers, as well as a live music ensemble." On Dima's first ever visit to Australia he is looking forward to experiencing "Australian culture, warm weather and see some beautiful attractions including the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the famous Bondi Beach and maybe I'll even get to meet some koalas.”

Dima Bilan was recently in Vancouver, where he devoted a song to Eugeniy Plushenko (the skater who did not remove any of his toes on stage in Belgrade). He sang "Impossible is Possible" in Eugeniy's honour and said "There is no one in Russia who would be indifferent to Eugeniy, everyone believes in his success."

Eugeniy Plushenko got silver.

Did you hear the one about the Dane, the Thai, the Welshman and the Islanders?

You can always rely on Eurosong to create some strange combos - and this year has two already.

In the red and white corner from Denmark comes 40-something Tomas N'evergreen and Gen-Y Dane/Thai babe Chanée (real name: Christina Wongskul) with 'In a Moment Like This.'

But not to be out done, in the divided corner, hailing from Wales, but representing Cyprus comes Jon Lilygreen accompanied by Cypriot act The Islanders, singing 'Life Looks Better In Spring.'

Bridesmaid, finally Bride!

Björk finally gets to sing for Iceland! No, not that one. Helga Björk - who has performed back up two years in a row for Iceland (behind Euroband in '08 and Yohanna in '09) - has won the Icelandic Nationals and will now get her moment in the spotlight. She will be singing in French and English (perhaps an appeal for bail out funds as much as it is for votes). The song is 'Je ne sais quoi' (I Don't Know What).

Georgia is sending the lovely Sopho Nizharadze - but no song has been selected as yet.

Defending champions Norway have elected to disregard EDU's advice of sending Röyksopp (or Anneli Drecker) and are sending some uber-cute Kooks reject named Didrik Solli-Tangen! Didrik will sing 'My Heart Is Yours' (clearly disregarding the fact that our heart is Anneli's).

Wake Me Up When January Ends

As the finals start to come thick and fast, the following nations have announced their singers, but not their songs:

Belgium

Tom Dice

Bulgaria
Miro


Turkey
maNga



Ukraine
Vasyl Lazarovich

Now, as always, Albania had their national finals before anyone cared and have selected the zaftik Juliana Pasha who is singing 'Nuk mundem pa ty' (I Can’t Be Without You).
Bosnia and Herzegovina is sending Vukašin Brajić with 'Munja i grom' (Thunder and Lightning).




Girl folk-duo Kuunkuiskaajat will represent Finland - performing 'Työlki ellää' (One can work for a living, too)





The Dutch announced their song 'Ik ben verliefd, Shalalie' (I'm in love, Shalalie) and then sought their singer. Sieneke was announced as Netherlands' representative on Feb 6th.




In what looks like the first gag song of the year (we so hope this isn't serious, mum!) Switzerland is sending the unique looking Michael von der Heide who is performing 'Il pleut de l'or' (basically = Golden shower!!)

So what did we miss?

In the six months since Moscow, there has been plenty of movement at the station - with five countries pulling out and one nation returning. BTW - Austria and Monaco still look like sitting ESC out for the time being.

Right Back Where We Started From (Returning Nation)
Georgia - They really do want to put in an entry!

The Pain of Withdrawal (Departing Nations)
July
Czech Republic - Fresh from a nul point for the Super Gypsies, ČT announced their withdrawal citing a mutual lack of interest between the Czech public and fans of the contest.
October
Hungary - MTV pulls out of 2010, citing financial limitations.
November
Montenegro - RTCG pulls out of 2010, citing financial limitations.
December
Andorra - Submitted an entry and then started looking for loose change under the sofa cushions. In December 2009 RTVA announced their withdrawal due to a lack of funding.
Lithuania - LRT pulls out of 2010, citing financial limitations. They are currently looking under the cushions of their sofas and if they find €90,000 they'll be back in.

Skaat. Skaat. Skaat.

The long interregnum comes to an end, as Albania conducts its semi-finals in order to pick a 7 minute long song in need of a pruning. But, what's this? Out of the blocks, without warning comes Israel - announcing their 2010 singer on Christmas Day.

Meet Harel Skaat who has been confirmed as the singer for Oslo by the Israeli public broadcaster IBA. He will sing four songs at a mini-Kdam later on with the public selecting his song for Norway.
But seriously, with six months to go - who cares. Wake me up in February.

Georgia on my Screen / Czech, please?

After a tumultuous year, domestically and Eurovisually, Georgia has confirmed it will be back at Eurovision 2010 in Oslo. After their brief war with Russia, Georgia pulled out of Eurovision, only to re-enter with a disco-dig at Vladimir Putin which saw them disqualified. In the meantime, they managed to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

CT, the Czech broadcaster, has pulled stumps on the failed experiment that is Czech music at ESC. The show was never all that popular in the Czech Republic, even though it has been a huge hit in Slovakia. None of the Czech acts made it past semi finals and only one of them got to double points in their semi finals (and that had more to do with the small pieces of tin foil covering the girls, rather than the thousands of missed notes).

Gypsy.cz's song 'Aven Romale' (Moscow, 09) scored the first nul pointe in ESC since Switzerland in 2004.