Finland 2010: And doesn't it just scream 'winner' at you?

The Finnish national final finished last night and the band Kuunkuiskaajat, fronted by sisters who bring to mind thoughts of those dreadfully tuneless twins for Your Country Needs You last year, will be giving it laldy in Norway with the rather unusual number Työlki EllÀÀ.

It starts off rather folky, as though someone's decided to get an especially lacklustre wedding reception going with a bit of a sing-song round the accordion and there are certaimly signs of it having the desired effect among the audience members.

But is it a winner? Or even a song which will qualify to the final itself form the semi? There are still too many songs to be picked to make any concrete predictions, but let's just say that after clicking 'save' on this particular blog entry I won't be dashing to ladbrokes.com for a cheeky flutter.

And they look like such charming young ladies as well. So cruel.

It was announced by the BBC this morning that successful record producer Pete Waterman, the man who steered Kylie, Rick Astley and Steps - among others - to chart success will be behind this year's British entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Although the smart money (based on tabloid and supposed insider rumour) before the official press release was let loose into the ether had either Gary Barlow, Cathy Dennis or even Elton John pencilled in for the job, there is already some confusion over whether Pete will actually be writing the song, or collaborating with another composer/s and putting some studio expertise and polish on their work. It sounds a bit like the way Andrew Lloyd Webber worked with American songwriter Diane Warren on It's My Time last year.

UPDATE: Sorry, everyone. The BBC won't be revealing any news until 'early on Friday morning' now. I do hope the composer isn't getting cold feet...


First Andy Murray gets through to the final of the Australian Open and then someone on BBC Eurovision's twittering team announces that today's the day we learn the details of the UK selection for the 2010 Contest. What a sterling morning's work for Le Royaume Uni.

Past experience has led Boom Bang a Blog never to get all that excited about these announcements. Don't forget, the year we could have had Morrissey, we ended up with Scooch. However, with Your Country Needs You looking a certainty for this year's selection process once more - it's likely the identity of a well-known composer who's agreed to take on Mission Oslo will be the thrust of the imminent press release.

BBaB has its fingers crossed for Gary Barlow or Cathy Dennis. BBaB is also hoping and praying that the job hasn't gone to a former Big Brother contestant who knows how to hum quite well, or someone who last had a hit before Britain went decimal.

As soon as it's announced, we'll bring you full details and a personal reaction. Time's a ticking down...

He really does sound genuine. Hmm...

A big thank you to Anita Kinky for this tip off; Hirsute Bristolian Justin Lee Collins appeared on the legendary Irish programme The Late Late Show last week to discuss his (serious) quest to represent said nation at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

This has been mentioned on Boom Bang a Blog before - Justin is working on a documentary for channel Five in the UK about representing a country at Eurovision and in a real case of hedging his bets he's been all over the place trying to ease his way onto the shortlist for a national final. Estonia and Andorra were two of the countries he visited - but Estonia has published its final shortlist of songs and it is definitely a Lee Collins-free zone, while Andorra won't even be in Oslo due to monetary concerns.

What do you think? Would you give Justin a go? I'd especially like to know what readers in Ireland think...

The A1 now leads to Norway, apparently

Largely British boyband A1 made a comeback last night - at the semi-finals of Norway's Melodi Grand Prix. The group which won the Best Breakthrough Act BRIT award in 2001 and enjoyed two number one hits at the beginning of the noughties are seeing their possible appearance at Eurovision 2010 a bit of a career renaissance. Their song Don't Wanna Lose You Again was one of two entries receiving enough votes to go straight through to the Norwegian final on February 6.

Since day one, A1 has had Norwegian links, especially regarding original member Christian Ingebrigtsen (who was born in Oslo), before anyone cries out that the lads are being unpatriotic.

Lead singer Ben Adams, you may remember, appeared on Celebrity Big Brother last year - and may or not be named after Ben Adam, the title of the Israeli entry from 1988.

Ben finished fifth in Celeb BB, but with the size of A1's fanbase, I'd imagine he and his bandmates will be going a lot further in Melodi Grand Prix.

This is the logo of the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest when the event was held in Cannes, France.

It's all very simple and straightforward and does the job it needs to do, but one thing has always bugged me. What on earth is that pencil sketch to the right of the writing supposed to represent? Is it a cross-section of a lady wearing a strapless evening gown, beginning just below her chin and ending just below her bust? Is it an open handbag with something off plonked upright in it? Or is it something so simple that I've been trying to heard to tell what it is? If you know, or have any theories yourself, please enlighten us all by leaving a comment.

A new age dawns for Boom Bang a Blog this very day. It's not quite the age of Aquarius, or even the given age for Joan Collins, but the launch of Boom Bang a Blog's brand new page on social networking site Facebook.

As national final season slowly grinds into life, there must be loads of stuff you want to get off your chest, Boom Bang a Blog's Little Brother style, so feel free to open any new discussions on the page, as well as joining in with the ones already there.

Please treat the page as Liberty Hall for those who pop in and out of here regularly - you really are very welcome - and there's always the chance that the best stuff can 'cross fertilise' onto the Little Brother's Big Brother right here.

To join the group, click right here. Ta.

Popstar Queen - disqualified from the Spanish preselection. Tsk.

As you may remember from a previous blogpost, Spanish TV invited potential acts for this year's Eurovision to submit potentail winners online, which the public will then whittle down from the 313-strong (yes, that's 313) longlist via an internet vote to the 10 songs which will be performed in Spain's national final soon.

This is the same process that they've used in the past two years, one producing a comedy song about chickens and the other a run-of-the-mill pop thing which finished way down the bottom of the scoreboard in Moscow.

But in the past 24 hours, four songs have been eliminated from the preliminary round for not playing by the rules. Naughtiness has its price - and these cheeky singers are paying.

I will never forget watching the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest. I was in my second year at Glasgow University, staying in a tenement flat not too far from the Botanic Gardens or the famous Byres Road (you really should try and do the pub crawl) which had rooms as big as ballrooms that were just as difficult to heat. Two days before the Contest was screened, Labour had swept to power after 18 years in the shadows and Tony Blair looked like the sort of bloke who could make Britannia cool again. With such a momentous seachange for Britain, it's understandable that the goings on between acts from 25 nations across the Irish Sea in Dublin's Point Theatre weren't going to register much on neither media radar nor national consciousness. But somehow, it did.

Topping off a week when, for Britain's non-Tory populous, things really could only get better - they only went and did. As though it was written fresh on the statute book in the burgeoning daylight of May 2, as though everyone had decreed it so to welcome in a new age, as though the rest of Europe suddenly realised we weren't so bad after all on this sceptred isle. On May 3, 1997, the United Kingdom won the Eurovision Song Contest.

And it's still the only one I've ever watched on my own.

Pavel Turcu's Imm Eurovision. He really did just send in a photo with the song in the background.

Eurovision 2010 has created its first superstar. And the irony is, he'll probably wind up far more well-known and wealthy than whoever lifts the trophy at the end of the voting in Oslo on May 29. When Moldovan television put out the call for anyone - absolutely anyone - watching to submit a song for this year's national final, they received one video audition which has created a national sensation. Pavel Turcu is the security guard who is being called Moldova's answer to Susan Boyle after his effort for Oslo , Imm Eurovision, spread like wildfire over the web.