Semi Final Two: Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and Lithuania

Months before a single note is heard, Sweden's tabloids are filled with double page spreads merely rumouring which acts will be taking part in the next edition.

Over five weeks in February/March, 32 songs are spread across four heats, the top two from each going through to the Stockholm final, with two wildcards from the higher-scoring heat losers also getting a chance to re-shine for the voting public.

In that same period, the Swedish top 10 is jampacked with Melodifestivalen entries, with at least five or six hitting the top spot.

It couldn't be more different to Blighty - we curl up in an embarrassed ball at the thought of trying hard to find a decent Eurovision song - which is sort of a shame. I'd rather sit through a few weeks of new songwriting performed by established and burgeoning UK talent than I'm a Celebrity... or Strictly Come Dancing.

This interest always means that the Melodifestivalen winner - and ultimate Swedish Eurovision entrant - is praised to the heavens and hyped to the hilt. This year's is no different.

Charlotte Perelli, under the surname Nillsson, won Eurovision in 1999 with the schlagertastic G-A-Y friendly Take Me to Your Heaven.

Bookies predict Lotte will be the first woman to do the Eurovision double in 2008 with this slab of power pop that swept all Melodifestivalen opposition away (although Boom Bang a Blog would have preferred this to fly the Swedish colours in Belgrade).

Although there's no doubt Hero hits you in the face harder than a meatball lobbed by Geoff Capes across the IKEA coffee shop, it is a simple tweak of songs Sweden has entered before.

Ten out of ten for effort for Sweden, as ever. It's just a pity the well-known name (domestically) of the Swedish entrant brought her Melodifestivalen victory over some more-deserving tunes.

Boom or Bang?: Top 10 in the final.

Turkey: Mor Ve Otesi - Deli

The Turkish equivalent of News 24 ground to a halt for the exclusive live preview of this song.

Since Turkey finally won the Contest in 2003 (the same year Jemini scored zilch for Royaume Uni), they take the event very seriously. Very seriously indeed.

So much so, Istanbul's Eurovision selectors have moved away from choosing tunes too traditional to appeal to the mainstream Eurovision audience and now concentrate on finding an entry which ticks the listeners' boxes from Reykjavik to Jerusalem.

Mor ve Otesi are huge in their homeland, but retain a conviction never to perform in anything but the Turkish language, despite a sound that's very accessible for Western ears.

Deli, accompanied by a promo which would give some people nightmares (it's all very Tales of the Unexpected, that opening bit with the carnival dummies) is exactly that - a rollicking good stadium anthem which doesn't betray its national roots lingo-wise.

Boom Bang a Blog likes this. Just the sort of thing Eurovision needs to distance it from the stereotypical cheesey-pop it's so often associated with.

Boom or Bang?: Deserves to do well. Will reach the final.

Ukraine: Ani Lorak - Shady Lady

Take out an 'i' and an 'L' and this performer's name spealls 'Anorak'. The fact this blog is written by a Eurovision fan is entirely coincidental.

A preview party featuring a clutch of this year's entrants was held in London in late April. Ani was one of those people making the trip and, judging by the crowd reports, she nails this superbly silly pop song with each and every performance.

You can tell this song is going to do well as the packed crowd sang along to the 'Sha-dee! Lay-dee!' bit of the chorus with much gusto and enthusiasm. It's great fun and another example of how quickly the Ukrainians found a successful Eurovision formula so soon after their 2003 debut - they won the whole thing in 2004 and were runners-up last year.

Ukraine telly wrapped up its national final in one night by giving Ani a shortlist of songs to perform, with the public making their choice from that.

It may have been decided with less effort than the Swedes, but - if we're honest - Shady Lady is far, far easier to love than Charlotte's rather clinical slice of schlager.

Apparently, Kyiv wasn't much fun for the fans who made the trip to the 2005 Contest, so they dread another Ukraine victory. Ani might just spoil their party plans for 2009.

Boom or Bang?: The closest thing to a winner thus far.

Lithuania: Jeronimas Milius - Nomads in the Night

This year's Lithuanian heat had some genuinely good pop songs in it (a group called Mini-Me sent a good one), but the bizarre final choice was this, by long-haired operatic-type gentleman Jeronimas Milius.

Listening to the live version of this song - on that video box thingy just above these words - it becomes apparent that Jeronimas (Jeronimo to his closest friends, surely) has overstretched himself on the notes which play a vital role in Nomads in the Night. The poor fella is more strained than the porter who'll be lugging Rebeka Dremelj's shoe luggage up the stairs at Holiday Inn Belgrade.

Also - let's not be coy - this song is absolute pants. We're not sure which phrases were swimming about the minds of those who voted for this on the night of the Lithuanian final, but 'mass appeal', 'winning potential' and 'good song' certainly weren't among them.

He's following a shady lady, so this un-shavy laddie really needs to pull something big out the bag to qualify.

What do nomads do during the night, anyway? Actually, don't answer that.

Boom or Bang?: We're sorry. Nineteenth place in the second semi final.