Rush to Judgement - Part Three

SPAIN
Spain has selected an actor who has recently turned to musicals. Daniel Diges will sing (Something Tiny) or "Algo pequeñito."

Diges rose to fame in a teen drama series "Nada es para siempre" and has appeared in kid's TV and five other productions. His recent work has been in large scale commercial musical theatre - appearing in the Spanish productions of "We Will Rock You", "High School Musical" and "Mamma Mia!"

Rush to Judgement - Part Two

BELARUS
Belarus is sending the song 'Far Away' by 3+2 to Oslo. 3+2 are Artyom Mihalenko, Elgiazar Farashyan and Yulia Shisko, along with backing vocalists Alyona Karpovich and Ninel Karpovich. That would be three lead singers, plus two backing singers - so Three Plus Two. Ya get it? Amazing creativity on display there. zOMG.

LATVIA
Winner of Latvia's Nationals is Aisha (full name: Aija Andrejeva) who will be singing "What For? (Only Mr God Knows Why)."


SLOVAKIA
The Czechs are gone, but Slovakia is ready for another tilt - this time they are sending Kristina (name: Kristína Peláková) who will be singing "Horehronie"(that is a Slovak province, so there may be a tourism angle at play... I hear their mountains are the new Alps.)


By the way - SBS has confirmed that they are televising Eurovision 2010. The dates are:
First semi: 28 May 2010 (Fri, 19:30)
Second semi: 29 May 2010 (Sat, 19:30)
Final: 30 May 2010 (Sun, 19:30)

Rush to Judgement - Part One

POLAND
Poland has selected Marcin Mrozinski whp will sing "Legenda" (The Legend). Marcin is an actor/singer (we hope he may be a singer/actor!) and he was the last of six wildcards added to the original four entries selected by TVP. He won a third of the popular vote in the Nationals.

FY MACEDONIA
Gjoko Taneski will represent FYROM with the song "Jas ja imam silata" (I have the Strength). Gjoko won by the skin of his teeth thanks to the Jury giving him 12 votes (public had him in second place). The popular vote went to Vlatko Ilievski with "Sreka" (who came second in the Jury).


MALTA
Thea Garrett has won Malta's eagerly contested Nationals with the song "My Dream." She saw off a large number of contenders including some very familiar faces in Malta such as Lawrence Gray (7th place) and Claudia Faniello (8th).


SLOVENIA
Ansambel Roka Žlindre and Kalamari will represent Slovenia with the track "Narodnozabavni rock" (Folk Rock). Roka and his back-up band won by a huge margin - second placed Nina Pušlar scored less than a quarter of the votes of first place! EMA also saw the return of EDU favourite Nuša 'Energy!' Derenda who came 9th place with "Sanjajva." Most intriguing song title of the show was Lea Sirk's "Vampir je moj poet."

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!!)