Terminal 3.... The Eurovision Blog

well almost!!! The Czech Republic entered the Eurovision family in Helsinki and unfortunately it was not a very auspicious start for them. 1 Point (from Estonia) and 28th place. The Czech's have not let that put them off and they have already started the selection process for Belgrade when hopefully they will choose a better song than this year...........thats not fair really my 7 year old son loved it!!!!!!!!! Maybe 2 semi finals will be of benefit to the Czech's but they really need to choose a fab song. Will they follow the routine of choosing a song similar to this years winner because thats how it seemed for this year by choosing a "heavy metal" song. GOOD LUCK to the Czech Republic

.....lots of love from Greece x That is the one thing that Cyprus will be remembered for in Eurovision history. Every year without fail you can guarantee that Cyprus give Greece 12 points. However history should also tell us that in 25 attempts Cyprus have actually been in the Top 10 on 9 occasions 3 of which have resulted in 5th place 1982, 1997 and 2004 unfortunately after 2004 their fortunes have faded somewhat and the dizzy heights have never been reached. After a disappointing 19th place in 2005 with Constantinos and his song "Ela Ela" Cyprus unfortunately have never been back in the final since. Cyprus were one of the red hot favourites to qualify for the final in Helsinki but missed out by finishing 15th. There is talk that Cyprus will be going back to a National Final for their 2008 selection and for me personally I hope they choose a song good enough for them to warrant a place back in the Eurovision Song Contest Final................I think 2 semi finals could b...

and thank you for a wonderful show! has been one of the phrases since 1993 that I have half expected to hear. Croatia have sent some fantastic songs to Eurovision since their debut (as an independant country) in the 1993 contest in Millstreet. PUT who sang "Don't Ever Cry" started as one of the pre contest favourites, but unfortunately ended up in a lowly 15th out of 25 nations, but it was higher than Slovenia and Bosnia who both debuted that year. You could argue in fact that Croatia are the best of the Former Yugoslavian Republics in Eurovision as they have had the most Top 10 finishes with 6 whilst both Slovenia and Bosnia have 3. Croatia had a disappointing 2007 where they finished 16th in the semi final which brought an end to 14 years of qualifying to the final. What will 2008 bring? Will they end up qualifying to the final or have their glory days ended? We shall soon see.

well sort of. LRT the Lithuanian Broadcaster make Lithuania the 23rd country to give any indication of their participation in Belgrade in 2008. The deadline for songs is December 10th 2008 but unfortunately no information as to how they will be choosing their song. I enjoyed the Lithuanian song in Helsinki and believe it should have been placed higher than where it ended but will they be able to get into another final in 2008.

Three years of Eurovision history for Bulgaria and what do they have to show for it? A totally forgettable debut song, a mediocre song and an excellent song. Bulgaria joined the Eurovision family in Kyiv 2005, but entered with a song which could send you to sleep and ended up nine positions out of the final qualification places. So, twelve months later they manage to gain two places and lose out by seven positions, but with 13 less points. You could therefore have been forgiven for expecting another failure in the semi-final in Helsinki this year. How wrong could we be?! The Bulgarians chose a vibrant song with individuality and were rewarded with their first appearance in the final and an excellent fifth place finish. So can Bulgaria continue to build on their success of 2007? Certainly, Bulgaria will be disappointed that they will not automatically qualify for the final in 2008. Under the one semi-final rules they would have qualified, but with the move to two semis, they aga...

Malta were able to lay claim to a first this year, when they allowed fans to choose from two outfits that Olivia Lewis could wear for the contest. It attracted a lot of interest and the chosen outfit was liked by all. However, before it even came to this choice, there were many options available. Terminal 3 has been able to get an insight into the design of the clothing, thanks to Gerard James Borg! Not only is Gerard a talented song writer, but he also puts his talents towards fashion design. Examples of his design work can be seen at his website www.gerardjamesborg.co.uk . Here are two pictures of proposed outfits for the dancers and backing singers, these were not used in the end, but still excellent options! Please note that both pictures are copyright of Gerard James Borg and should not be used without his consent.

2 006 was a close encounter with the winners podium for Bosnia & Herzegovina. A brilliant crafted song from Hari Mata Hari lost out to the monsters of Finland, but was probably one of the best all round song of Athens. B ut 2006, seems to be the exception to the rule of Bosnian entries rather than the rule. A debut in 1993, saw a country torn by war enter to massive rounds of applause from the audience in the hall, but it took six years before the public voted them into the top 10. W ith an automatic place in the final in 2007, fans eagerly awaited the follow up to Lejla. However, a slow tempo song followed and was crippled by the bad draw which found the song opening the 2007 final. Forgotten by many, due to the many songs that followed, Marija Sestic finished just out of the top ten with an eleventh placed finish. At present, there is no news coming out of Bosnia & Herzegovina regarding the 2008 contest. It will be interesting to see how they fair in the new 2 semi-final...

H aving only missed out on 3 contests in the whole history of the Eurovision, you could say that Belgium are an old-hand at this game. However, of the twenty one top ten finishes, only one has been as winner (Sandra Kim in 1986.) B elgium came close again to a winner in 2003 with the alternative Urban Trad, with a song in a made up language. Losing out by 2 points, Belgians could have thought that their fortunes in the Eurovision were on the up, but after finishing third from bottom in the 2004 final, we haven't again seen a Belgian song make a final appearance. 2 006 saw Belgium pull out the stops with Kate Ryan, but fell short by 7 points even though she was the pre-contest favourite. DISCO was the flavour that Belgium took this year in Helsinki, but they were way off the pace and finished 26th in the Semi-final. S o what will 2008 hold for the Belgians? They originally set a deadline of 9th November for song submissions, but were persuaded to push that date back to 23rd Nov...

and we will have just found out who the qualifiers are for the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest Final to be held in Belgrade. Taking that into consideration it is not suprising that many countries, 23 in fact have given a definate indication of the intention to be there, 10 of which including Iceland, Bulgaria, Albania, Norway, Denmark, Cyprus, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden have announced the cates of their National Finals. Malta, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Rep, Germany, The Netherlands, Israel, Slovenia and Switzerland have announced their plans for selection. Whilst Hungary and Ireland have announced that they will be letting us know soon what their selections will be like and of course their is Serbia whom as hosts we are assuming will be sending a song, and it would appear that Azerbaijan have started the process too. Personally, I think taking into consideration recent years we will be seeing internal selections from The Netherlands (we know they have approached Gerard Joling wh...

and apparently Gerard Joling the Dutch representative in 1988 with one of my favourite songs "Shangri-La" has been asked by NOS (the Dutch TV Broadcaster) to be their representative in Belgrade. I personally am not sure whether he would be the most suitable candidate for the Netherlands, however, what do I know?? Should the Netherlands bite the bullet and send the likes of "Bearforce1" I'm not sure! Maybe sending an established artist who is still as popular now as he was 19 years ago could pay off and the Dutch will be in their first Eurovision final since 2004. Good Luck Netherlands!

The EBU have announced that Azerbaijan will be particpating in Belgrade and I just cant seem to get excited about it. What will this mean another 12 points to Russia or Armenia or Georgia. A lot of people seem to think that Turkey will benefit from an Azeri televote.............. I really am not sure what I think.........Maybe when they have chosen their song my opinion will be changed but at the moment I am gonna sit on the fence and say those magic words "NO COMMENT"

At last the Irish tricolour has arrived on the blog. It looks like Ireland are going to be having a National Final again which could be interesting. By the end of this week there should be announcement. Ireland the winners on 7 occasions have like the United Kingdom been down in the doldrums over recent years. Will a National Final be enough to bring the pride back to the Irish.......I'm not sure but you can never rule them out of winning again.

the Swedish songs have been announced and there was an ulmighty great suprise for all Swedish fans......what was that? you might be asking. Well believe it or not there was no mention of Mr Thomas G:son. The list of songs is as follows:- actually if you want to see the full list of songs and composers you can visit ESCtoday for a comprehensive list. I wonder who they have lined up to sing these............will there be any famous names?

are sent out from myself and Colin to the friends and family of Tose Proeski who was killed in a car accident earlier today. Tose performed at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul with the song "Life" which I think is their best entry yet where he ended the contest in 14th place. God speed Tose R.I.P So that we never forget his contribution to Eurovision here is his performance:-

Today we continue our reviews of each eurovision country with Belarus..... With the invention of semi-finals in Eurovision, Belarus were able to enter. 2004 saw a pop song with an ethnic sound in "My Galileo" which was only able to win 10 points in the semi-final and a very low 19th place in that semi. However, this low finish didn't put off Belarus and they returned in 2005 with Angelica Agurbash's "Love me tonight" which only missed out on a final appearance by 18 points. Instead of building on that improvement in 2006, Polina Smolova's "Mum" recorded their lowest finish in Athens. Equalling the lowest points total of 10 points, Polina finished in 22nd place in the semi-final. Again, not content with this, Belarus returned in Helsinki with their best effort so far. Pulling out all the stops, Dmitry Koldun with his Bond-like song "Work your magic" was one of many songs tipped to take the title in 2007. A top four finish in the s...

What a day tomorrow will be for Swedish Melodifestivalen fans. The 28 songs will be announced which will be in the 4 rounds and then later 4 more songs will be added to the list to give the 32 songs. We will not get to know the singers for another month or so and the bets will be on big time. The big question this year will be "How many songs will Mr Thomas G:sonn have in the contest this year?" I am looking forward to tomorrow already, at 4pm we will start to get to know the songs.

Belarus will be asking that question as they now have also joined the race to win the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Belarus have sent some good songs and they have sent some bad songs, last year however was a good song but unfortunately I thought a very weak vocal performance on both the semi and at the final where Belarus scored their highest placing ever by finishing in 6th place. The question is will Belarus be as successful in Belgrade as they were in Helsinki, it will be very interesting to see.

The Queen of Swedish Eurovision and the equally talented Mr Andreas Johnson are apparently going to be entered into the 2008 Melodifestivalen as a duo. How fantastic would that be. Pack up your tents Europe cos if this is true they will wipe the floor with all the other singers in Sweden before I think running amok with the televoting and taking the Eurovision Crown back to Sweden for a 5th time. I said in May after The Ark finished 17th in Helsinki that Sweden would be calling for back up and bringing the "big guns" out to bring them the glory. You can imagine it now...........a great big wind machine with Andreas and Carola stood in the middle belting out some all time "schlager classic". I can hear it now "And we give our 12 points to .................. SWEDEN" ringing out around Europe.................it's like music to my ears.

Well it is if you are an Austrian Eurovision fan. Over the years Austria have taken part 45 times and only finished in the Top 5 on 5 occasions including their win back in 1966 with Ugo Jurgens with his famous ditty "Merci Cherie". The last time Austria graced us with a placing in the Top 10 was in 2003 with Alf Poier when he finished 6th. Austria then finished 21st in 2004 and since then have been stuck in the Semi Final. Global Kryner was probably Austria's best chance of re-qualification to the Final in 2005 as it was one of the best performed songs in the semi and also one of the most original, unfortunately it was not meant to be and the result ended in the Austrian Broadcaster saying "Enough is Enough" and then withdrew from 2006. Coming back in 2007 after much pressure from Eurovision fans both living in and out of Austria, a singer and song were chosen internally which once again ended in disappointment for the Austrian faithful 27th out of the 28 ...

You have to sing the title of this blog to the tune of that most fabulous of Turkish entries from 1983 which was sung by Cetin Alp and Short Wave. But we are not here to talk about Turkey..no we are here to say that another country has now officially joined the race to win the Eurovision Song Contest in Serbia. Slovenia for so long the poor relation of the former Yugoslav Republics actually qualified to the Final in Helsinki with the Operatic "Cvet Z Juga" sung by the very beautiful Alenka Gotar along with her torch. Following on from their success in Helsinki where Slovenia finished in 15th place they have now started their search for their participant in Belgrade. This will culminate with a final in early February 08. Good Luck Slovenia.....but please something pop this year not opera

Even after DQ's disappointment in Helsinki where they were placed 19th in the Semi Final. According to reports today coming through 443 songs have been sent in to DR State TV in Denmark. Surely there has to be 1 song in there that can put Denmark well and truly back in the Eurovision Song Contest Final!! We shall see, it will be the same process as last years Dansk Grand prix with 2 semi finals in January 2008 and then the Final in early February.

...than 8th place is surely what the Armenians will want when they take part for the 3rd time in the Eurovision Song Contest. Andre with his 8th place in Athens and Hayko with his 8th place in Helsinki would surely class as a couple of great first years for Armenia. Personally I think they were lucky! "Without Your Love" which was the 1st song sung in the Semi Final of 2006 was in my opinion one of the worst performances of the evening. Give Andre his dues.........he did have a heavy cold that night and had had one all week which couldn't have made life easy for him during his Eurovision Week. But could you seriously say that the Andre's performance was better than the Slovene song "Mr Nobody" or Polands "Follow Your Heart" No matter what happens in Belgrade surely the Armenians will be guaranteed points from Georgia (who gave 12 points to them this year) and also Azerbaijan if they enter. GOOD LUCK ARMENIA!!!

Personally I think they were. It was a pop song that McFly and Busted would have only dreamed of. To be rewarded by the voting public with 12th place in the semi final was appalling. After 4 attempts at Eurovision dating back to 2004 when they managed 18th place out of 22 in the Semi final. The Andorran managed to get Anabel Conde (Spain 1995) to provide backing vocals for Marian Van De Wal's La Mirada Interior which she then went on to kill and resulting in the small principality ending up in 23rd place out of the 25 competitors. 2006 and you thought by this time they would have been getting it right........but no.....Jenny was sent to Athens and could only manage 8 points in the semi final which saw Andorra end up 23rd out of the 23 nations. Now that Eurovision has split into 2 semi finals can Andorra finally pull out the stops and get into the 2008 Final in Belgrade...I hope so because they so deserved to be in the final in Helsinki.

Albania a very mysterious country which is starting to show itself now to the rest of the world entered the Eurovision song Contest in 2004 with a great song "The Image of You" and finished a very respectable 7th. Since then however, a very mixed bag of songs. A poor performance in the 2005 final sent them into the semi final for the 2006 show and then another poor song saw them staying there for 2007. Now for me personally the 2007 Albanian song was just absolute drivel and was my personal fave to come last in the semi. Will Albania get the formaula right to win Eurovision or will they fade away in 2008 with another atrocious song. We will find out very soon as they normally choose there song in December so again will be the first country to name their tune for Belgrade. All things considered I do wish Albania best wishes and very good luck for 2008.

Here is a photo that I took of Paul with two UK fans we met on the train heading to the Helsinki arena on the evening of the final. Being the wooley minded people we are, we forgot to ask them their names or where they were from. So, if you are the two in the pic and you'd like to keep in touch, please email us!

Fast on the heels of Iceland, Bulgaria start their national selections. After a strong showing in Helsinki, can Bulgaria choose a song to build on this year's success? From looking at the live webcast, they appear to be putting in a bit more of an effort than Iceland. A very well built set and four presenters. Let's hope that the songs are as good as the set!

So the votes are in and Gudmundur Jonsson is into the final. The only song to be sung in the native language gets through, but as I mentioned before, there were 9 backing singers! So will they trim the backing singers down for the final, so that the people of Iceland can get a true sense of what the song will sound like in Belgrade? Probably not.

This is something that has gone through my mind numerous times when watching National Finals on webcasts...... "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!!!!!!!!!" Watching an hour long tv show over the internet.... No knowledge of the language spoken..... Not being able to follow anything other than listening to the songs..... Sounds familiar?! Still we keep on watching!

Writing this before the results are known...... Three songs from Iceland which as they stand, don't really stand out. In my opinion, the first song "Voice and perfume" was the best on the night, but hopefully, there are stronger songs to come from Iceland. It will be hard to cheer on Iceland in Belgrade if these three songs are the standard of all songs in the other semi-finals. One good thing to come out of tonight's webcast was to see the goddess Birgitta Haukdal again! She deserved more in Latvia and I'd love to see her in the finals again! (Especially in those white trousers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Everyone who follows Eurovision will know that once you get to the Eurovision week, there is a limit on the amount of people you can have on the stage. That limit is six people . They also know that any voices used have to be "live" voices and not pre-recorded. On watching the first Iclandic semi-final tonight on a webcast, the third act had at least 9 backing singers as well as a number of band members! WHY?! If you know that you have a limit of six people on stage in Eurovision, why try to qualify with more? The song will never sound the same with less singers! Look to Daz Sampson's UK entry in 2006. In the UK final, he had pre-recorded backing singers. When he got to Athens, even though the ladies made a good job of it, the song was never at the level with the pre-recorded voices that the song was made for.

Seems like Azerbaijan's participation is now in doubt after the culture and tourism minister gave a cryptic interview to a local newspaper. He confirmed that the national selection will still go ahead with the first round already having been completed, but his words left doubts as to whether the winner of the selection would appear on the stage in Belgrade. Is it just a poor choice of words or will the winner be left feeling empty at the end with no real prize appearance?

At 21:15 hrs UK time, the quest for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest starts in Iceland. Three songs will compete in the first semi-final, with one song going through to the final in February 2008. I suppose the question has to be asked that if the final is in February, why start the semis in October? Seems a bit too stretched out to me! It's suprising, that having sent in some excellent songs in recent years, Iceland have not had higher finishes. Hopefully, another strong song will be submitted this year by Iceland and we'll see them make the step up into a final appearance. Good Luck Iceland!

To Azerbaijan. Confirmation has reached the Eurovision Community that Azerbaijan will in fact have a delegation in Belgrade. It is understood from the Azeri press that the first round of selections actually started today. 40 acts will be competing in front of a specialist jury, 1 of which will be the Azerbaijan Eurovision entry. A lot of fans would have you believe that Azerbaijan entering the contest will not be good for it, however, I disagree. Another country with another diverse music taste can only be good for the contest. It would appear that most fans are expecting the Azeri "douze point" to be handed quite happily to Russia, Armenia or Georgia, but another country which fans believe will benefit from points wise is Turkey. What fans forget is that all 5 of these countries now have to proceed through the semi finals and there is no guarantee that they will all be in the same one. GOOD LUCK AZERBAIJAN AND WELCOME TO EUROVISION

I doubt it very much.................... In Helsinki after all of the songs had been sung in the semi final I turned to the person in the next seat (whom by the way I had never met) and announced that "we had seen the winner tonight" 2 Songs stood out fo me that night other than the Dutch song and they were Bonaparti.lv and Marija from Serbia. Disappointing was my opinion of the final position of the Latvian entry.....16th in the final...........oh my god were the European public voters seeing the same song that I was......it was bloody brill. Anyway.......... Latvian broadcaster LTV has announced Eirodziesma 2008 will be on March 1st 2008 and will be following the pattern of the previous years, the winner of Eirodziesma 2008 will be selected in two semi finals scheduled on February 2 and 9, and a final on March 1, 2008.

Estonia have announced today that they will be having their Eurolaal on February 2nd 2008 to decided their singer and song fo Belgrade. Having sent some fantastic songs in the late 1990's and early 2000's their fortunes changed quite dramatically after being relegated to the Semi final after the 2003 contest having now never qualified to the Final. Hopefully the move to 2 semi finals may change the chances of the Estonian Delegation in 2008.

NOS, the Dutch Broadcaster has finally announced their places for 2008 and once again are going with one artist who will choose a selection of songs which will then be decided on by the public vote. I have to say The Netherlands are one of my favourite Eurovision countries and send class act after class act year after year, and I was totally convinced that after her performance in Helsinki Edsilia Rombley was going to qualify. I was sat with a contingent of fans from the Netherlands and thought it was brilliant when unknown to the Stewards had blown up so many balloons for when Edsilia came on stage and then proceeded to thrown them from the very top balcony in the arena.............GOOD FOR THE DUTCH!!!!!!!!! I was mortified when Edsilia didnt even qualify and told some Dutch fans so on Saturday when I took their photo for my Helsinki Album. GOOD LUCK NETHERLANDS...............I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

It seems that preparations for the 2008 contest is in full swing and one of the latest decisions is that of the "sub-logo". Every year, each host is allowed to choose a theme for the contest. To the left is this year's winner which was one of 455 submissions. All I can say is that the other 454 submissions must have been really really bad! I don't know whether this was submitted by a professional company or a child. Let's hope it was a child! NOTE FOR SELF: Send in an entry for next years logo contest!