Partners in Crime

The hosts for the Semi Finals have finally been annouced - not a moment too soon! A TV personality and a model will host the two Semis, with the Final to be hosted by a former Russian entrant and 'the best dressed presenter on Russian television.' (Think Megan Gale, Andrew O'Keefe, Vanessa Amorosi and Eddie McGuire). Get ready for style to grind substance into the ground!

Semi Finals

Natalia Vodyanova -a model since she was 16 years old, part of Calvin Klein's 2002 campaign.
Andrey Malakhov - a former journalist on Channel One TV who presents several talk-shows.

Finals
Ivan Urgant - an actor and singer, who has worked in radio stations and on MTV. He presents a number of shows in Russia.
Alsou - represented Russia in 2000 with "Solo" (finishing second). Since then she has worked with Enrique Iglesias, Jon Bon Jovi and Nelly.

Lose Control

In what may be the greatest news in Eurovision news ever - Germany has announced that their stage show for the very cool and very swinging 'Miss Kiss Bang Bang' will include the world famous (and utterly wonderful) burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese.

Obviously Dita has to keep it clean - but even so, it will be a huge highlight to an already impressive live performance. Should Ms Von Teese do something outrageous on the Saturday night the EBU will use the footage of the Friday night dress rehearsal. That is the EBU's guarantee against any act pulling something political or distasteful each year.

This is EDU Calling

The Editors have ranked the songs and argued differences in opinion over France and Turkey. Our predicted qualifying songs from the semis (below) were ranked alongside the five automatically qualified to produce our Top Ten list. While we love Norway, we love Switzerland just a little bit more - well, a heck of a lot more. The editors were also surprised to strongly agree on Portugal - their best placing ever calls!

FINAL PREDICTION
1 Switzerland 12 pt
2 Norway 10 pt
3 Portugal 8 pt
4 Estonia 7 pt
5 Malta 6 pt
6 France 5 pt
7 Turkey 4 pt
8 FY Macedonia 3 pt
9 Iceland 2 pt
10 Armenia 1 pt

Semi-Final #2 Predictions

Semi-Final #2 Predicted Top Ten
Norway Alexander Rybak - Fairytale
Estonia Urban Symphony - Rändajad
Moldova Nelly Ciobanu - Hora din Moldova
Albania Kejsi Tola - Carry Me in Your Dreams
Ireland Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy - Et Cetera
Greece Sakis Rouvas - This Is Our Night
Azerbaijan AySel and Arash - Always
Slovenia Quartissimo feat. Martina Majerle - Love Symphony
Denmark Niels Brinck - Believe Again
Cyprus Christina Metaxa - Firefly

Semi Finals - EDU Prediction

Semi Final #1 Predicted Top Ten
Switzerland Lovebugs - The Highest Heights
Portugal Flor-de-Lis - Todas as ruas do amor
Malta Chiara - What If We
Iceland Yohanna - Is It True?
Turkey Hadise - Düm Tek Tek
FY Macedonia Next Time - Neshto shto ke ostane
Andorra Susanne Georgi - La teva decisió
Belgium Patrick Ouchène - Copycat
Armenia Inga and Anush - Jan Jan
Bosnia Regina - Bistra voda

The King is Dead...

SBS has revealed its plans for Eurovision 2009 - and they involve two Australian commentators on the scene.

Now that Sir Wogan has retired, SBS will attempt to fill the vaccuum with an Aussie angle. Fans (including EDU) revolted when Des Mangan commentated in in 2003 - in lieu of Terry Wogan - and since then SBS has shied away from too much local content. Julie Zemiro - host of RockWiz and star of Eurobeat (the ESC stage comedy) - will broadcast from Moscow, alongside 3RRR broadcaster Sam Pang.

As per 2008, the two semi finals will be delayed a few days in order to screen from 7:30pm on Friday 15th & Saturday 16th May. The Final will screen at 7:30pm on Sunday May 17th.
(more details here)

This means that Australian viewers will be denied the usual BBC commentary - this year provided by Graham Norton (whose hilarious chat show is currently on ABC2 Thurdays at 9:30). For those keen to hear Norton's commentary might try UK-specialist file sharing sites like thebox.

Putin' on the Politics

EDU expected Georgia to blackban this year's contest in Russia, after they decided to taunt the lion from the wrong side of the zoo cage (in the military sense). We were non-plussed when they announced they would withdraw from Moscow 2009. We were kind of surprised they re-entered only a few weeks later.

Now it becomes clearer. It is hard to flip the bird on an international level if your country's only international relations are at Eurovision. So, EDU is delighted to hear Georgia is sending Stefane & 3G to Moscow with the song '(We Don't Wanna) Put In.' Opting against more challenging puns on the name Medvedev, the Georgians swear the song is not a swipe at Vladimir Putin. Which is a good thing... we're not sure the same rules apply to singers as they do to journalists - but we hope Stefane & co have better exit strategy for Moscow than Saakashvili did.