Albania 2012: Rona Nishliu performs Suus

Now, this one goes on a bit but if you look beyond all of that it has the makings of a the most impressive Albanian offering since their 2004 debut. Called Suus, it took the honours at the 50th Festival i Kenges, which despite half a century of heritage in its own right has now been adopted as the route songwriters take to Eurovision itself. In its current state, Suus is about a minute too long for the Contest rule book and as Albania is renowned for remixing the Festival i Kenges winner within an inch of its natural between Christmas and Easter, heaven knows what sounds will be coming out of Rona's mouth on stage in Baku.

Merry Christmas Boom Bang a Bloggers. Click right here to open up The Boom Bang a Blog Book 2012. It's a little birra fun for Crimbo. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together. And if you like it enough, it may *just* become an annual, err, annual.

Over the past three months I've been working on a wee project for all you loyal Boom Bang a Bloggers to get your first shufty at on Christmas Eve Eve. And somebody else who has been turning their hand to online publishing is our ald mucker Ewan Spence (he used to review albums for us, remember?) who has just published the account of his trip to this month's Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, earlier this month. Called It's Cold and There are Children Singing, the title reflects the below-freezing temperatures Armenia experiences at this time of year as well as the fact that children sing at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

Ewan's stuff is always worth a read, so if you're interested in his trip, have a click here to find out more.

Sinplus with Unbreakable, the Swiss entry for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest

Lys never even made the top three in the end - and perhaps that's for the best. Her page in the Eurovision history book does not need any disappointing 21st Century addenda. So this was the song that got the voters' collective nod at tonight's Swiss final, it's Sinplus with Unbreakable and I always like when an act that sounds like they're a band first and a Eurovision entry second gets through the national final phase. Liking this one.

Lys Assia with C'était Ma Vie, the song with which she hopes to represent Switzerland in Azerbaijan next year

While British viewers get busy choosing their X Factor winner this evening, over in Switzerland the nation is preparing for the very first national final of the 2012 season, a whole three weeks before 2011 itself draws to a close. And the hot favourite to take the ticket to Baku this evening is none other than Lys Assia, who won the very first Eurovision Song Contest back in 1956 with Refrain.

Now aged 87 (and if she gets to Eurovision she'll be 88 by the time the semi-finals roll around), Lys has remained active as a performer and a recording artist since the 1940s. She is also a regular guest at the Contest itself and popped up in press conferences in Moscow in 2009 to compare her experiences at the birth of the festival to the mahoosive thing it has become in the 21st Century. She's not known for her humility either. In an interview with Channel 4 ten years ago she told the interviewer that she won in 1956 because she was by far the best singer taking part that night and when she showed up on stage at the Contest itself a few years back she made it quite clear that she had been expecting a standing ovation - which she didn't get.

So, what are the chances of her getting the crowd on their feet in Baku?

Either the song is called Candy Music and the group is called Candy or it's the other way round. Whichever way it goes, this song won Junior Eurovision 2011 for Georgia last night

I cannot pretend I have watched more than one minute of this song because the Junior Eurovision Song Contest has never been appointment television for me. However, for the sake of putting things on record, here is the winner from last night's competition which was held in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. The Netherlands finished in second place, good going for one of the few Western countries represented in this Eastern European-dominated spin-off from the grown-up counterpart.

Georgia also took the Ickle Song Contest title in 2008 with something about the noise that bees make. This time it's with a song about sweets. I'm sorry, but I just find the entire concept behind this event mildly disturbing...