Only 42 Countries Stand in Our Way of Victory...

By Jamie McLoughlin on Jan 13, 09 08:34 AM

THE European Broadcasting Union has announced the official list of nations which will participate in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

With pennies pinchier than ever, the weeks and months leading up to the announcement saw two 21st Century Eurovision ever-presents (Latvia and Lithuania) more or less declare they were too broke to take part, whereas San Marino (one of only two countries to vote for Andy Abraham in Belgrade) is definitely staying away. Georgia had also announced its boycott of a Russian-staged Contest following real-world events in 2008.

With that in mind; shall we see who's on the list?

Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
FYR Macedonia
GEORGIA
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom

So, only San Marino stayed away in the end. And Slovakia is back, for the first time since Birmingham staged the Contest in 1998.

Let's hope the 42 countries competing against the UK are ones where Andrew Lloyd Webber is popular.

Before we fall off this blogbit, tributes must be paid to BBC broadcaster David Vine, who has died at the age of 73. David was the TV commentator for the UK in Brighton in 1974, making him one of the first people - if not the first person - on British television to say the name 'ABBA'.

In the course of his commentary, David was also convinced the Netherlands would beat the Super Swedes, but we won't hold that against him. Rest in Peace, Mr Vine.