Sweet!

Ukraine has been fined by the EBU for their mucking around since the deadline for entries passed. The EBU fined NTU over the entry submission delay and also imposed an additional fine for every next day after the deadline with no entry submission.

As the old saying goes, bureaucratic fines are the mother of invention.

NTU has revealed the official entry to ESC 2010 for Ukraine will be: "Sweet People" to be sung by Aloysha.

Stay tuned in case someone figures out it was released two years ago and/or is plagarised.

You've Got Homework...

Following a hasty (actually, just 'read' hasty for anything relating to Ukraine, OK?) investigation into Aloysha's winning song 'To Be Free' the Ukrainian broadcaster has realised it was done before.

Rather than disqualify the cheat, and give second place a go (love you Masha, right) OR even re-instate poor ole Vasyl Lazarovych, the Ukrainians have asked to write a new song for Alyosha.

The EBU has granted Ukraine an extension to COB on Friday (26 March) to submit the song.

Now that's a recipe for great music.
What could possibly go wrong now?

Same ole f%&#in Story

Hey, you know how your Eurovision entry has to be brand new? Like, it cannot have been performed by someone else or infringe their copyright?? Yeah, you do?

Interesting... coz it doesn't look like the new board controlling Ukrainian television knows about that (quite important) rule.
As we saw yesterday, having fired the pro-Ukrainian TV board, the new pro-Russian board declared Vasyl Lazarovych to be an invalid selection and forced him to enter a new National Final with 19 other unfortunates. As luck would have it, the singer who went on last - Alyosha (real name Olena Kucher) - won the Final with her song 'To Be Free.'
The lyrics were written in 1977 and the music supposedly written by Alyosha herself - except that it sounds pretty much exactly like 'Knock Me Out' by Linda Perry and Grace Slick.

Yep - past the date for all entries to be final, the Ukrainian delegation cancels Vasyl's entry, holds a new Final and select a song that must be disqualified. Are the ESC going to allow Ukraine a third shot at this? Or will second place Masha Subko with 'Ya tebya lyublyu' be sent?

Tune in for the next thrilling installment - same bat-sh*t crazy time, same bat-sh*t crazy country.

Butterflies and Elvis

Belarus has gone back to its playbook from 2005 and done the old swapping-the-song-at-the-last-minute trick.
After five semi-finals, the public selected the group 3+2 to perform 'Far Away' at Oslo. But the day before the Meeting of the Delegates, Belarus announced that 3+2 had a new song - written by an influential Russian music producer - called 'Butterflies.'

Like Lazarovich with a Double By-Pass

EDU is calling shenanigans on Ukraine's Eurovision process for 2010.
Last December the Ukrainian selectors announced that Vasyl Lazarovich would compete for Ukraine and then sought songs for him - nothing too controversial there, same thing is happening in Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Belgium & Turkey. In a broadcast final on March 6th, 'I Love You' was selected from five songs as Vasyl's entry.

But a funny thing happened on the way to those finals... Ukraine had national elections, the pro-Russian candidate won and the entire board of the TV network were replaced. And so, Vasyl was informed that his selection had been retrospectively deemed to be illegitimate.

On March 10, a new National Final was announced and 19 candidates quickly collected.
Vasyl announced he would compete in the new Finals on March 20th: "I am not afraid of a national selection; I know that I have support in Ukraine in the face of fans of my talent. Yes, I am not happy with the re-selection, as I was elected by a legitimate vote. But, in order to dispel such doubts, I accept the rules of the new leadership of the channel.”

Rush to Judgement - Part Five

ESTONIA
Artist: Malcolm Lincoln
Song: "Siren"

Malcolm Lincoln got 54% of the popular vote, beating former Vanilla Ninja (Switzerland, 2005) Lenna Kuurmaa who sang "Rapunzel."

GERMANY
Artist: Lena Meyer-Landrut
Song: "Satellite"

Breaking a long tradition, Germany is sending a cute girl. Lena won the Nationals in a sing-off with Jennifer Braun: each of them singing "Satellite" as well as "Bee." Jennifer also sang "I Care For You" and Lena sang "Love Me."

A knock-out final followed, where Jenniferreprised "I Care For You" and Lena Meyer-Landrut won with her version of "Satellite."

U.K.
Artist: Josh Dubovie
Song: "That Sounds Good to Me"

"That Sounds Good to Me" is written by Mike Stock and Pete Waterman (of Stock Aitken Waterman infamy). Get ready to be Rick-Rolled!


SWEDEN
Artist: Anna Bergendahl
Song: "This Is My Life

Anna was on Super Troopers a music program in 2004, and came 5th in their Idol in 2008. The Swedes pick on the Norwegians a lot - expect the love!


SERBIA
Artist: Milan Stankovic
Song: "Ovo je Balkan" (This is the Balkan)

Milan is also an also-ran from the world of Idol - he came 4th in Zvezde Granda.

Haven't we Been Here Before?

Two artists return to the scene of the crime... well, one artist and Feminnem.

Feminnem divided the Editors in 2005 when they performed 'Call Me' for Bosnia & Herzegovina - some of us got the joke and others treated them as serious performers (and justifiably panned them). We are united in 2010 in thinking this is historical - Feminnem are back, singing "Lako je sve" (Everything is Easy) for Croatia ! We are pretty sure no other act has represented two nations at the Finals before. Plenty have entered Nationals in multiple countries...

The other repeat offender is Niamh Kavanagh who won the thing in 1993 for Ireland. She returns (rather boringly for Ireland again) singing "It's for You."