Eurovision, oh how I love it.

One week to Eurovision. I'm all kinds of excited, but yet not clicking all the amazing blogs bringing the rehearsal gossip. I want the show to be a wonderful, sparkly surprising explosion of fun.

If you're eagle-eyed, you'll know that I've written song previews for londonist.com. We've tried to popularise the songs... I've focused on all the songs, even the ones I don't like and not raved about those I love. So, having watched all the videos at the wonderful Retro Bar Douze Points bash, these are my Eurovision highlights:


Semi-final


Bulgaria: Amazing. Loving the mix and going-over-a-cattle-grate vocals and this will be ace if they can reproduce their crazy drumming on stage. I'm also hoping Elitsa will wear her wings. I predict the Lordi effect for this year will be wings + fireworks.

Cyprus: Love Evridiki's power-fringing and electropop styling. But, why oh why, is she bringing musicians on stage? She needs hunky dancers! Musicians are so Comme Ci, Comme Ca.

Belarus: Dmitry Koldun's got a big, big sound, is big in the Baltics (-ish), he's probably big in his pants, but will he Work His Magik to be big in the hall?

Iceland. Erikur, bless him, with his over-the-top melodrama and big blonde hairdo, he's this year's Anna Vissi.


Georgia: Sopho's Visionary Dream is Bjork meets Madonna meets Kate Bush meets Karen Carpenter meets post-Soviet chic. This song is nothing short of amazing.

Natalia from Moldova really better bring the hunky boys in shirts and ties on stage and get them to stage-fight. Very 'graphic' (or something).

Netherlands! Edsilia! Wonderful! But! What! is she doing in the video?! Standing?! Finger-clicking?! That's all wrong. She needs to be strutting. Preferably On Top of The World, like a big globe, or something.


Denmark's DQ has the best going-into-a-chorus moment in the whole contest this year. The high, high key change reminds me of moments in the Simpsons when they're being strangled and their tongues wiggle. Amazing.



Serbia: oh how I love a big thumping ballad. I just hope they don't have a daft stage show going on in the background. It's all about Marija and her couldn't-be-bother'd-to-glam-it-up image.


Norway! Ven A Bailar Conmigo, hurrah! Loving the costume change, and that Guri Schanke looks old enough to know better, but is having the time of her life. Guri's a game old bird!

Malta. I've loved Vertigo since, oh, January. Olivia Lewis' crazy frantic running in the video is ace, and gives whole new lyrics for the chorus: "and I run, and I run, and I run, and I run". Hilarious, brilliant melodramatic ethnopop.

Estonia: Gerli will strut on stage for sure, and Estonia can always be counted on to bring hunky dancers.


Slovenia's fabulously bizarre ethno-opera-anthem is as odd as a box of frogs and just as amazing, and Alenka is all kinds of fierce with arms aloft (thanks to Geoff).


Turkey. Mr Kenan Dogulu, with his lots of candy indeed, looks like the kind of man you'd meet in a bath-house and would follow down a darkened alley to shake up his shekerim.

I'm duty bound to love Austria's song for boyfriend reasons, and I do like it. I'm loving that it'll be all sparkly and crystalline.


Final


Spain! D'NASH, or G:Nash as I prefer to call them, need to work clothes removal into their performance. That, or songwriter Rebeca needs to strut across the stage for no apparent reason in heels and big hair... AND! She should rip the t-shirts off the two hot ones. That'll work.

Ireland: bless us, we're going for the twee vote. I much prefer the harsher vocals by Dervish lady as it's more authentically Irish, more Dolores O'Riordan than Andrea Corr, if you will.

Finland: Hanna Pakarinen better be in a big flowing frock, with a wind machine and big rock-chick angry swoops from her mikestand. She can rock the Caustic Carola look. Her kicking the table over in her video is the Anna-Vissi-kicking-the-car moment of 2007.

Greece: Sarbel does loves his tight little t-shirts that show his arms off. It's not a patch on Paparizou's Gigolo, but a nice bit of shakey-shimmying fun.



Sweden: I didn't rate it to begin with, but I'm now a huge fan of The Ark's The Worrying Kind (needs to be renamed Not The Marrying Kind). I'm very excited to read they're bringing Therese's revolving CD stand to Helsinki.

Russia's teen mail-order bride anthem promises us so much strutting action, but what's with the dopey dance breakdown in the middle? Just get to the key change, ladies!


Ukraine is just bonkers and great fun. I don't want this to win, but I do want baco-foil clad dancers on my TV screens. Verka Serduchka, don't live to dance, dance to live. I love you.

UK: Scooch are going to be delightfully entertaining and flying the flag for camp nonsense.



And there's so many others too, as well as all the ace Finnish-ness of it all. Arja Saijonmaa might even pop up, and the lovely Katri Helena too! We can only hope for a CatCat revival. It's all so exciting. Not paying attention to the rehearsals will be super difficult, so to divert, over the next week, I'm going to feature some funky Finnish music. Check back over the next few days to find out more.