Continuing on with our series these parts are dedicated to Turkey and Ukraine:

Turkey

After coming second in 2010 not qualifying this year was the shock of the night for Turkey and very much helped Azerbaijan to win. However I think Turkey may split votes with Azerbaijan and thus cancel each other out if each makes it to the final. Should one fail then the other ought to do very well. Turkey’s internal selection has done well for them until this year and it still could produce a good song. They have a strong diaspora vote and are in the Outer Balkan Block, which does give them a lot of points but may not be there for them in the Semi Final when the votes are split up.

Istanbul 2013? Interestingly many fans seem to think that Turkey could win next year but I still think they have a slightly lower chance than Russia.

Ukraine

In 2009 they sent one of the most male geared songs ever seen and only coming 11^th and then this year they come 4^th with an average ballad [one of the great injustices of ESC]. For me even Ukraine qualifying this year was a long shot, and then when they were in the lead I near fainted. Since 2010 they have had the “Rigged” national final format, and got two top 10 places for their troubles. They are very capable of winning but when they leave potential winners at home (Jamala), they could hardly expect to win. Each year Ukraine throws something to Eurovision and each time it is something new.

Kiev 2013? Depends on what they choose from their National Final and the EBU may step in if they continue to rig their National Final. They may do well in the coming years but a win is out of the question.

There will be some news tomorrow.

After Show Thoughts X Factor Show 1

As part of my new venture to do some coverage of the X Factor UK 2011.

My first thoughts after live show 1 are available on The Best X Factor Blog.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events San Marino have pulled out of Jesc 2011 claiming they could not find a singer - I'll let you make your own mind up on that one.


A new eurovision website has lauched. EscXtra.com.....Spot the difference between that and the old escdaily.


Also I now am going back to do some reviews of songs in this years JESC 2011 in Yerevan. Where better to start than Armenia. This year Dalitia will represent the host nation.


The song in my opinion is pretty average and I would be slow to put it on the MP3 player. Dalitia's pronouncation is poor and the voice in the background is awful. I just think this is the average song that causes JESC to fall in peoples eyes.

And The Winner Of Eurovision 2012 Is.....?: Part 13

Continuing our series this part is dedicated to Greece and Iceland:

Greece

Greece is difficult to beat. Even when they put in as poor a song as Watch My Dance they still get 120 points and 7^th place for their troubles. However they clearly lack the drive and resources to win the contest. Even if they did win serious questions about would need to be asked about their finances and the contest maybe moved to another country. If they realise that the IMF don’t pay for Eurovision when you’re not quite doing as they say, then Greece will surely lose their drive to win. As they did this year.

Athens 2013? Very unlikely. If they do it may do be in Greece

Iceland

Iceland is one of the best countries at semi-finals but then does poorly at the final. Even though their national final can be poor, they have not many international stars and hosting a contest would be very difficult given their finances you have to admire plucky Iceland. They don’t really stand a chance of winning any time soon but they do deserve credit for how well they do each year. Their songs also lack that killer blow and instinct but given this year’s winner anything it is possible.

There has been an upsurge in the visitors to my blog and I would like to thank you for visiting.

Melodifestivalen kicks off

The big news today is that Melodifestivalen has kicked off with the web joker competition. I was never a big fan of the web jokker so I'm not expecting anything massive. However sooner or later a web joker is going to win a place in the final so it may be worth a look at.

In Finland 540 entries have been entered with the national final in Feb.

I'm also delighted to say ESC 2011 has won an award for Best Entertainment from the Deutscher Fernsephpreis. Well done Eurovision

Also the video of the day is Edsilla Romebly's new song. Note to the schlagerboys: TAKE A LOOK AT THIS:

All Kinds Of Everything

I'm for real this time, so lets dive straight into the news

Dana, winner of the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest is running again for president of Ireland. This is the second time she has ran for the highest office in the land. In 1997 she polled third with about 13% of the vote. As always we will keep you up to date on the latest developments of how the campaign is going. It is not expected that she will come anywhere close to winning.

In other Eurovision news we have the start (of the sort) of the National finals with Slovenia. They have some sort of X factor type competition that has kicked off.

Speaking of X factor Janet Devlin got through to the live finals so we all look forward to her.

Janet was simiply amazing in Bootcamp, and Judges houses, so if anyone from Ireland or UK is reading please consider supporting her.

As I previously wrote I am having trouble finding the time to blog at the moment. This is largely due to pressures on my time as well as a lack of news to comment on. I also have been stuck for a computer. Anyway I should be fully back blogging by Monday.

In the meantime just for your information we have been online for nearly 12 weeks. Over the next 12 weeks (or between now and the year end) I hope to:

1. Continue blogging and have a 60% post/days rate (currently 50%).
2. Continue with "And the winner of ESC 2012" and finish it before November
3. Continue reviewing the various JESC entries and start reviewing ESC entries as they come.
4. Launch The Best Eurovision Blog on Twitter and trial commentary for the Swiss national final

Also our friends over on ESCDaily are launching a new look website on Friday and we look forward to that.