EVEN though the result of this year's Melodifestivalen has been signed, sealed and delivered - a controversy from Saturday's show still lingers - and it's all about this, which was played while the organisers totted up the votes from the viewers:

(Please be warned, there are occasional instances of naughty swear words in this clip)

The film about Tingeling's visit to Moscow, complete with underworld dealings and women in peasant wear, coupled with the subsequent musical presentation (a chorus of Red Square guards, a dancing bear and swaying Russian dolls) has - allegedly - caused outrage.

The Russian Embassy in Sweden weren't too impressed with proceedings, with spokesman Anatoly Kargapolov saying: "It makes no sense to me why Sweden would show such ignorance in misinterpreting this image of Russia. If Russians could see what happened on the stage of (Melodifestivalen venue) Globen on Saturday, I'm fairly certain it will reduce the number of votes they give to the Swedish singer."

The ambassador was, apparently, informed of the complaints - but decided not to get involved.

Sveriges Television's Ronnie Lans responded: "It wasn't our intention at all to offend anyone. It was a comedy sketch. Satire is what it is, and sometimes it can be edgy. We've all been to Russia and know that's not how it really is."

The matter seems to have been resolved, however. Earlier this week, Swedish Television sent a bouquet to the Russian Embassy and the matter appears to be closed.

The United Kingdom has been drawn to sing 23rd out of the 25 nations competing in the final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest on May 16.

This is, to be frank, brilliant. If Jade can pull a stirring performance out of the bag with just two songs remaining to follow her, she could sneak into the Top 10.

Aah, twenty-three. Doesn't it have a lovely sound to it?

So, do you want to know who's singing in the other spots?

IF you're reading this in an office somehwere in Europe, look around you at 4pm CET (that's 3pm if you're in Blighty) for people looking a bit twitchy and constantly logging on to a certain website.

That twitchy soul is likely to be a Eurovision fan - because today's the day the draw for this year's running order is decided and it's being streamed live across Europe via the official Eurovision website.

As old-time readers of Boom Bang a Blog will know, last year Andy Abraham was saddled with the doomed slot number two in the final, a wilderness from which no Eurovision winner has ever been seen. Here's hoping that Jade with her crowd-rousing (if her appearances at various national finals are anything to go by) performance of My Time isn't saddled with the same fate. Anything from the teens or twenties will do nicely. Singing last or second-to-last would be even better, but we won't get carried away.

We'll let you know how the UK fares later on today.

To ease the tension, here is the winner of Saturday night's Melodifestivalen - thus Sweden's Eurovision entry for 2009 - to keep you entertained. The lady's name is Malena, the song is La Voix - and just how are they going to reproduce that choral sound backing track on stage in Moscow with the maximum of five backing vocalists?

AND so the Georgian mischief-packed dream comes to an end.

Their song which wasn't so much a thinly vieled jibe at Vladimir Putin, more a jibe which hadn't been anywhere near a veil and had flashing neon arrows pointing to its jibeness from every conceivable direction, has now been chucked out of the show by the big EBU bosses. And with that chuck goes Georgia itself, it would seem, as the representatives have no interest in changing the lyrics and Georgian telly don't seem too bothered about picking a song to replace the offering from Stephane and 3G.

You'd think that was that, wouldn't you? This year's Contest has had its get-rid-of-this-song-by-crikey incident. You'd think that, but it's so not true.

Wait until you hear the fuss about this little number from Belgium...

IF you visited Boom Bang a Blog in the run-up to last year's Euro antics, you'll have read all about the Swedish heats for Eurovision - otherwise known as Melodifestivalen.

The five-week marathon to find the act bound for Russia in May is almost at its climax, so it's high time we let you know what's been happening so far.

There have been four Melodifestivalen heats broadcast on Swedish telly, with two songs from each heat going forth to the grand final - destined to be the most-watched TV programme in Sweden this year. And you may have to pinch yourself when it comes to this piece of Eurovision-related news - but there's a good chance you'll have heard of at least a quarter of the octet selected so far for the final sing-off.

The first of these is Alcazar. As there's a big clampdown by Swedish TV on Melodifestivalen clips going on a certain video-sharing website, we can't put the song on here just yet, but we can tell you that Alcazar's potential entry for Sweden is called Stay the Night.

Melodifestivalen aside, you'll probably know them best for this:

DOESN'T tempus fugit?

It is now five weeks since the nation decided to send Jade Ewen to Moscow in May with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren's My Time - but our girl certainly hasn't spent the time inbetween eating Pringles and watching Diagnosis Murder.

For a start, here she is performing My Time at the Greek national final. And it may just swell your heart to know that the winner of Your Country Needs You was the only act on the night who didn't mime. Even the Greek entrant used playback for all three of his shortlisted songs.