Revealed today - this year's official Eurovision poster:




We've seen that skyline idea somewhere before:




Still, if it ain't broke... For those who haven't read the official blurb from the designers of this year's stage set in Kyiv (and if not, why not?), here's the basic concept:

Ukrainian flag = yellow cornfields under a blue sky. (See sidebar.)
Yellow + blue = green, so the stage set is full of greenery.
Last November's political protests = Orange Revolution, hence orange blob.

In the meantime, we're on the home straight, as the Eurovision pre-season comes to an end on Sunday, when Belgium holds the last national final. Well, if you can call it a national final, when it's between two songs. Yes, two. I ask you, is it worth it? Couldn't they at least show willing and have 75 songs like Ukraine, and then, after 15 weeks of heats, parachute in a song that was basically chosen by the President? Non?

France chose their fair-to-middling song last night, leaving just the following entries unheard and not yet in our MP3 collections:


Iceland - the return of Selma Bjornsdottir from Eurovision 1999, with 'If I Had Your Love'. She came second in Jerusalem in with the fantabulous 'All Out Of Luck'. Her new song will be revealed on Icelandic TV on Saturday, amidst high expectations. Which means it will probably be rubbish.

Portugal - the most secretive country this year. They promised to reveal their song today, but nothing has filtered through yet. No artist or title yet, but it's rumoured it will be one of the boys from Operacion Triunfo. Chig hopes it's David or Rui. Either would make their song much more bearable and aesthetically pleasing.

Monaco - only a brief clip exists of Tout de Moi by Lise Darly, so we await the full version.

Denmark - 'Taender Pa Dig', which won the Danish final, was yesterday announced as 'Talking To You' in its English, Eurovision version. We haven't heard it yet, but it can only improve their chances, as the scores for this unhummable song in Danish were never likely to be good in Kyiv.

Ukraine - the EBU ordered a rewrite of the Orange Revolution's theme song, 'Razom Nas Bohato' as the lyric was too political. The duo, Greenjolly, have duly obliged, but we don't know what the new lyric is yet.

Fnally, there's still a possibility that Belarus will change horses mid-race, with Angelica Agurbash abandoning her song 'Boys And Girls' because they have taken note of reaction across European websites and realised that nobody likes it. If they've left enough time, it will be a very sensible switch. ARE YOU LISTENING, BULGARIA? You still have four days to withdraw your tedious 'Lorrain' song!

Next Monday, tickets go on sale, and the 40 Heads Of Delegation, at their meeting in Kyiv, will officially submit their countries' songs. Then, on Tuesday, it's the draw! We'll get to find out the running order for the qualifier on 19 May and the final on 21st. I'm praying that Poland and Moldova don't get drawn next to each other, as they may ruin each other's chances, and that Javine doesn't get drawn after Turkey or Greece, for the same reason. Fingers crossed.
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