If you've been a keen follower of the 2011 Eurovision season you'll have noticed these fantastic gems of graphic art. The Eurovision Minipops Icons are the creation of Edinburgh-based artist Ben Morris who has kindly allowed us to use his version of Danish band A Friend in London (my personal favourite from this year's line-up) on Boom Bang a Blog.

Our chum Ewan Spence at ESCInsight has conducted an interview with Ben which you can find here (and it's a good read). If you're on Facebook and want to join the page where you'll find all 43 of this year's entrants in Minipop form then take a look here. Ben's version of Zdob si Zdub from Moldova is brilliant - but they're all worth a look.

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Avast ye Eurovision liking landlubbers. After last year's Boom Bang a Blog Big Poll, Katie Boyle got a bit scared by how keen we all were to vote on the songs competing for Oslo so has only agreed to oversee this year's operation if it can be done from the safety of the open sea, where Eurovision fans cannot reach her. So, we can now proudly bless the Vote Boat and all who allocate points in her. Please send Katie your picks from the 2011 songs (regardless of whether it's in the first semi-final, the second semi-final or one of the Big Five). Vote by Saturday, April 2 and we'll bring you Boom Bang a Blog's favourites for the 2011 season. Happy voting!

This has come as a surprise. Paddy O'Connell, the man who has covered the Eurovision semi-final commentary for BBC Three since 2004 has been released from duty. He announced the news on his Twitter feed yesterday, as did Sara Cawood, the lady who has also been part of the BBC's pre-final coverage in recent years.

It's a real shame about Paddy as he is a genuine lifelong fan of the Contest and I'm sure I'm not the only ESC-liker who's a bit miffed that he won't be there in Germany (in an official BBC capacity at least) to give us a very different outlook on the show than the UK's default 'we mustn't be seen to be taking this too seriously' approach on the Saturday night.

I can't pretend I'm that upset about Sara Cawood, whose main contribution was over-enthusiastically failing to elicit an excited response about something trivial from a non-UK act absolutely exhausted after their latest rehearsal. But I will miss Paddy.

Hello, I'm atill at work after a rather hectic day so can't deliver you the draw results with any bangs or whistles. Here, however, is who will be singing where in the semi-finals in May - and how the Big 5 countries line-up in the final.

Semifinal One

01. Poland
02. Norway
03. Albania
04. Armenia
05. Turkey
06. Serbia
07. Russia
08. Switzerland
09. Georgia
10. Finland
11. Malta
12. San Marino
13. Croatia
14. Iceland
15. Hungary
16. Portugal
17. Lithuania
18. Azerbaijan
19. Greece