Recently in Eurovision National Finals Category

The world's oldest 17-year-old sings a song by Father Abraham for the Netherlands

With all this rumbunctious brou-ha-ha over buying tickets and meeting up with other Euro chums to get through these past 24 hours, Boom Bang a Blog has foolishly neglected the other two songs which were selected for Eurovision this weekend.

You will have heard Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha-la-lie) in its demo version before Crimbo. Written by Pierre Kartner, the man who sang with/composed for The Smurfs in the late 1970s as Father Abraham, the Netherlands' Nationaal Songfestival 2010 took place yesterday evening. Five different acts put their own spin on Kartner's schlager-friendly tune - although nobody came up with a wildly different version from what was already on the demo. A four-strong panel (which included Johnny Logan), then had to choose which version they liked best. Two went for 17-year-old (yes, 17, really. Swear down) Sieneke with her pipe-organ carousel-friendly styling, while the girl band Loekze's take on it - which had shades of Amazulu and was, to be frank, dreadful - also got two votes. It was deadlock, and the public vote only had the same weighting of one of the professional jurors. Therefore, the people of the Netherlands voting in their thousands for the interpretation by a young man called Vincent meant diddly squat.

It was all down to Father Smurf himself to break the deadlock and choose who he wanted to go to Oslo with his song.

He couldn't handle the pressure.

Chanée & N'evergreen. A Bardo for the 21st Century

Tonight's national finals have drawn to a close. In the end, I watched Norway choose its song as there's not much point watching Melodifestivalen until the night of the final, which is still five weeks away. Well, I don't wish to sound boastful, but Didrik Solli Tangen did win in Norway (as predicted) and Hera Bjork brought home the bacon in Iceland, which was another Boom Bang a Blog tip from this morning (see the post below to hear the songs).

The only one not called in spot-on fashion was Denmark. The web favourite Bryan Rice finished in second place, letting the poptastic antics of Chanée and Tomas N'evergreen fly the red-and-white flag in Olso with the song In a Moment Like This. Boom Bang a Blog has to confess to developing a real affection for this from just the first listen, it certainly has the *something* that Hera's Je Ne Sais Quoi is unlikely to ever have. I still think ole Did' will score the highest out of everything chosen tonight, though. What do you think?

Good morning Boom Bang a Bloggers. I've had my porridge with blueberries in and sweated buckets whilst attempting lunges and torso twists on the Wii Fit so here I am, relaxed and refreshed with news of the treats coming your way this evening - and how to see them over the web.

Yes, this very night, Iceland, Denmark and 2010 hosts Norway will choose the songs which will go forth to the Eurovision stage in late May under each nation's respective flag. Not only that, but the biggest national final of them all - Melodifestivalen - has the first of its five weekly qualifying rounds in Sweden tonight. In around six weeks, we should know the full line-up for Eurovision 2010. But before all that, here are Boom Bang a Blog's predictions.

The songs taking part in many of the national finals of the 39 competing countries in Oslo are now becoming known. One of the more interesting choices is this one from Romania.

Luminita Anghel finished third in the 2005 Contest and is joined here by Tony Thomas and Adrian Piper for a song called Save Their Lives (In Memoriam Michael Jackson).

Would it be cruel to suggest that this is a cynical way of earning votes from the many, many Jacko fans dotted across the continent if this gets picked for Norway - or is it genuinely written from the heart?

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 Ellää.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

Snowed in? Got a reliable internet conenction? Like Eurovision? If that sounds like you, then Boom Bang a Blog has something which will warm your cockles in this very brrrr-y weather.

Tonight sees the first round of Melodi Grand Prix, the national final of reigning Eurovision champs, Norway. Held in the main aircraft base of Ørland, seven songs will be fighting for the two available spots at the grand final in Olso on February 6. The songs in third and fourth place will go into a second chance round.

It's a right mix of songs and styles, with snippets of the septet available to listen to on NRK (Norwegian TV)'s website.