Recently in Eurovision National Finals Category

Azeri telly announced that Jennifer Rush lookee-bittie-likie Safura was the act representing the land of fire at its national final a few weeks back. It has now been confirmed that Drip Drop, one of the three songs Safura performed at that final, will be the entry for Azerbaijan in Norway.

Drip Drop is not an especially memorable tune, although the country is riding high in the bookies' expectations right now - which could all change during rehearsal week. Boom Bang a Blog thinks the backing dancers aren't falling down by design of their choreographer, they're actually collapsing to the floor with boredom as this song progresses. It's all a bit drippy, really.

Sunday marks the absolute deadline when all the songs taking part in this year's Eurovision Song Contest are to be known, ahead of the draw for the running order. However, following protests about Vasyl Lazarovich being the only singer in with a chance of representing Ukraine this year, not to mention the distinct lack of oomphage in his entry I Love You , an all-singing, all-dancing national final has been arranged for Saturday night - the last possible date a song for this year's Eurovision can be chosen.

The word has gone round the country's record industry - and Vasyl himself is welcome to have a go if he wants to - but Saturday will now see an entirely new song chosen for Ukraine.

Now, is it just me, or are these the type of stories you come across in Eurovision retrospectives, somewhere along the lines of: '(Song X) was never intended to be part of Eurovision 2010 at all, it only got its chance when a last-minute open final was held in Ukraine the night before the deadline. It went on to sweep the board with the juries and televoters alike...'

Well, it would be interesting if it happened...

Harel wanted to call it Milim-ium, but Robbie Williams objected

The Telenor Arena must be in plain view on the Road to Oslo now as the final songs in the line-up of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest are known. With the two songs included in this blog entry, all that remains is for Azerbaijan to decide which of the three songs Safura performed in the national final will be selected for Norway and for France's World Cup-themed entry to get its first public broadcast. Also, the Ukraine may also be holding another - hastily arranged - narional final after the poor reception to the Vasyl Lazarovich's song. And in heartening news for the UK, Mike Stock, Pete Waterman's co-writer on That Sounds Good To Me (sort of) made it clear on his website that Friday night's Your Country Needs You was an absolute shambles and that we'll barely recognise the song once he's got to work on it with Josh in the studio and we'll all be 'pleasantly surprised' with the final result. Here's hoping, anyway.

But back to Israel. Harel Skaat sang all the songs in the selection, with the song Milim topping the vote with each jury as well as the public. In a very brave move for a Eurovision song, where 'instant' is the key, Milim meanders for almost two minutes before really going up an orchestral gear and sounding goose-bumpily impressive for its final 60 seconds or so. Milim is also unusual for having a real chanson style, which one would normally associate with French rather than Hebrew. I rather like it - but I'm not sure it will tick all the boxes with the televoters tuning in in about nine weeks from now.

Here's a proper treat to distract you from the start of the working week. On Friday night, Scott Willison, whose Round the Merseyrail We Go blog is well worth a look, was among the throng crammed into Studio One of BBC Television Centre for Your Country Needs You. This is his report.

I only applied on a whim.

The BBC Eurovision Twitterfeed popped up with "register for tickets for Your Country Needs You here!" and I just clicked it without thinking.

I didn't believe I'd have a chance of getting in. In fact, I didn't even bother completing the "additional info" part with a little paragraph on how excited I'd be to go and watch the UK finals. Just my name, address and e-mail address and whoosh! Off it went. So when the e-mail came through with PRIORITY E-TICKET I was abnormally excited.

I'd never been to see a TV show before.

This really is the Swedish entry for Eurovision 2010. Swear down. No lie.

Well, I've resigned myself to the fact that the only time I can justifiably wave my Union Jack about in the Telenor Arena on May 29 is right after the UK entry has been performed (although, note to Pete/Matt/the BBC, get a soulful backing vocalist to growl the 'I don't know 'bout you...' bits, present the whole thing as though Josh is the frontman of a band where all the other musicians are funky young ladies and drop any idea of daft dance routines and we may just escape Oslo with our dignity intact...) as I can't see me getting much of a chance during the voting. However, with a task to complete still very much on my to-do list, I'm soldiering on as with a few more entries to be decided before the full list of 39 are known before the draw for the running order on Monday, March 22 (bet you Blighty either opens the show or gets slot two again this year to rub the salt in even further).

Saturday night saw the most low-key winner of Sweden's Melodifestivalen final in years. Whereas the Swedes usually despatch perfectly produced pop to the Contest, this year the public - but not the professional jury - overwhelmingly voted for Anna Bergendahl (the song is currently number one in the Swedish charts) with the acoustic-but-poppy and remarkably grown-up, considering its Melodifestivalen origins, This Is My Life. The same title was used for Iceland's rather dancy 2008 entry - but there all similarity ends. I've heard this song twice now - and I'm still not convinced it's going to get out of its semi final. But I've been wrong many, many times before.

And the winner of the Most Promising Intro of the Year Which Doesn't Deliver is...

Seven years ago I got a ticket to go the Eurovision Song Contest in Latvia. Words cannot describe how excited I was at finally going to the competition I've always been laughed at for liking in person to cheer on the UK from one of the best seats in the house. This year, I'm going again - only the second time I've been to the Eurovision Song Contest in person in my life.

In 2003, the UK sent Jemini with Cry Baby and we scored nil points. I have a horrible feeling that history is about to repeat itself and I'm going to be put through that agony all over again from my seat in the Telenor Arena, just waiting for someone to send at least one point Britain's way. I thought I was a jinx seven years ago. I'm convinced I am now.

I tried to like That Sounds Good to Me, I really did. In fact, I really, really wanted to enjoy Your Country Needs You as one of the better Uk finals of recent years.

Boom Bang a Blog is very excited this morning. Very excited indeed. Twelve hours from the time of typing we should be starting to hear the lung potential of the half-dozen hopefuls fighting for the right to fly the flag for le Royaume Uni in Oslo.

There is a real sense of secrecy this year and it's really adding to the fun. The title of the song Pete Waterman and Mike Stock have been crafting and honing for the past few weeks still isn't known and - otehr than the odd scrabble about YouTube, there is no evidence of the acts singing yet. But the BBC has uploaded video snippets from all six entrants having a bit of a chat about the Contest. You'll find them over the page.

Lips remain notoriously tight about this year's UK entry, other than one of six acts will prove their warbly onions on Friday night in Television Centre before being depatched to Oslo with a song masterminded by legendary producer Pete Waterman.

However, reports are surfacing on internet chat boards that Mr Waterman was a guest on BBc Radio 5 this afternoon and gave a few clues as to what we can expect from his song for Europe when it receives its first airing on Friday evening.

We can expect the following:

(a) A key change.
(b) The viewing public to be singing it as soon as the show is over as it's 'very catchy'.
(c) The song to then be tailored to the winning act.

It's all getting rather intriguing. Can't wait 'til Friday night!

Is this any way to treat six lovely old ladies? This Sanatogen-fuelled sextet were without doubt the favourites with the crowd - and those watching the live webstream - of the Russian final last night, where a mammoth 25 songs (the same amount that took part in last year's Eurovision final) competed for the chance to sing for Mother Russia in Oslo.

Oh, oh, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshaka-aye-ar. Etc.

Called Buran Babushka (or at least, that's one of the translations floating about the web), I still don't know what the title of the song they are singing is as only the Cyrillic text is listed in various bits of the web. Either way, it's all rather daft and marvellous but by no means an advert for Russian dentistry.

Sadly, the ladies only won the bronze medal in the battle for domestic supremacy. The song which won is in the 'Continue reading' bit. And gosh, it's a terribly exciting one.

No, really. It is.

The Portuguese just love our Filipa. Honest

As much as I love the Eurovision Song Contest, even my affections were tested last night while watching the Portuguese national final over the web last night. Broadcast live from a massive bull fighting arena in Lisbon, 12 songs were performed before the hosts then went to 20 regional juries to collect their votes in the Eurovision style of one-to-eight, then 10, then 12. And therein lay the problem. The Eurovision itself will take around and hour or so to get through almost 40 national juries at the end of May. Last night, it took Portuguese telly an hour and a half to get through 20. The hostess stopped to have a chat with each spokesperson, some of them went on and on and on (and on) before delivering a single point and it was absolutely interminable viewing.