Russia hosts this years competition on Saturday 16th May. The semi-finals are on Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14th May. For the first time Graham Norton commentates for the BBC, it won't be easy replacing Terry Wogan who commentated in 1973, 1978 and every year from 1980 to 2008.

The strong favourite at the moment is the Norwegian entry, Fairytale by Alexander Rybak, justifiably in my opinion, a catchy song and just the right type for Eurovision. The fact that he was born in Minsk and has Russian style dancers on stage with him can only help, he should pick up lots of votes. Personally I'm not too keen on the Andrew Lloyd Webber written UK entry, It's My Time by Jade, a good singer perhaps, but a mediocre song. Maybe we will do a bit better than in recent years due to changes to the voting system, but I am still expecting us to finish in the bottom half.

Norwegian Entry on Youtube

UK Entry on Youtube

We will be finishing in the bottom half again so why do we bother taking part?

Am I the only person here who actually likes the UK entry then? It's a strong song sung by a strong singer. As far as I can tell, it's already going down well with the rest of Europe too, so I reckon it's got a good chance of a decent finish.

Not that it's a patch on the Czech Republic's entry, which is just SO GROUNDBREAKING that I don't think that the European public will be able to cope with such brilliance.

At least we have taken it seriously this year, and with the voting now being 50/50 between the public and jury voting with the combined scores added up for overall points, we might do better this year.

That Czech entry is absolutely terrible, I hope that gets voted out in the semi final. I'll have a gander through them and see which are my favourites.

Heresy! Have you seen that guy's moves?!

Sadly, it seems that once again, the world isn't quite ready to recognise a truly great artistic talent...

It's certainly artistic.....

I am not a big fan of gimmicky acts though, hence why I hated that Ukrainian entry a couple of years ago which I think was a drag queen.

I thought it was a song contest...

Whatever the British entry is like, I'm sure we will finish in the bottom six as the rest of Europe still hates us!

Have you never seen Eurovision before, then...?

Yes, but the dancing surely doesn't rescue a crap song (though it's probably true in most cases that both are terrible!)

The bit worth tuning in for used to be Wogan commentating on the political scoring, won't even have that this year!

I've heard them all now and my personal favourites are the entries from Greece, Ireland, Malta, Romania and Andorra.

I only have one thing to say to this BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
For two reasons firstly we are wasting time and money entering this its all politics anyway even if its half public voting because nobody likes us and thats a fact.
Secondly and farrrrrr more importantly: THEY HAVE TAKEN CASUALTY OFF FOR THIS TOTAL RUBBISH! And it was on a cliff hanger too and now I have to wait a fortnight for it to come back on
In conclusion Bah Humbug!

Brilliant. The guy has a nice hairpiece.

I do hope Norton brings his own presenting style to it rather than trying to copy Wogan. Mind you, I'm not sure if I'd prefer Norton being himself or Norton copying Wogan... both are equally as bad! Can't say I'll be making a point of tuning in this year. I've seen no trailers for it or anything, which is a bit odd. Normally they're heavily publicising it but they don't seem to be this year.

Still, Norton updated itself the other day according to a pop-up message, so there's hope for a new presenting style. That may have been the Internet Security version, though.

With killer gags lines like that, I'm surprised nobody's ever put you on the telly. Oh, hang on...

Back on topic, it's not as utterly fabulous as the Czech entry, but the Serbian song is also worth checking out. What a voice!

Ok, his hairpiece beats that of the man in the previous entry!

I've seen nothing but ads for Eurovision when I've been watching BBC, so I don't know what you've been watching David.

I hate that Serbian entry as well!

Norway is the heaviest favourite to win there has been since Tatu (who didn't win) in 2005, but the UK is faring well in polls done in other countries about their favourite songs.

I don't watch a huge amount of TV (apart from DOND!) but whenever I have BBC One on (such as for Ashes to Ashes), I haven't seen any trailers for it. I just guess I haven't been paying attention when they've been on.

Ok, I've just seen a trailer for it for the first time...

The only ones i have heard are the U.K one which i thought was dreadfully dull, and the swedish one, which i thought was very good

In recent years it has become a joke, people in the past have voted for certain countries rather than what they actually think of the performances. Hopefully the judges vote combined with the public vote should lead to more fairer voting although I do think that there is still a long way to go and we may never get there.

Good set of results tonight, most of the Eastern countries got knocked out, and most of my favourites got through.

I've not decided that if we can't win it, which is more than likely, I want Iceland to win, what a brilliant song, and the girl singing has a great voice and is rather pleasing on the eye