Until two years ago, no country had ever won Eurovision after singing in 2nd or 4th position in the running order. Then Sertab blew away the curse of fourth by winning the damn thing. Now, for the superstitious, there is only one position of death, one number you didn't want to see when the draw was made in Kyiv today; a big, fat number two. And guess where 'poor Javine' has ended up? She's only in the number 2 slot, isn't she?

Perhaps it's time to cheer ourselves up with that tit shot after all?

<-Hello Rowen!

(The number of visitors to World Of Chig trebled two weeks ago when we briefly mentioned Javine's nipple. There, I've said it again. Let's see what happens now!)

Here's the draw for the final on 21 May, as drawn today by Eurovision hosts-to-be Volodymyr Klytschko and DJ Pasha. (Ruslana has the 'flu and couldn't attend. Too much travelling, my girl - slow down a bit.)

The slots marked 'qualifier' are reserved for the ten countries who get through the qualifying round on Thursday 19 May - see below. So, this year, we won't know who'll have the privilege of opening the 50th final until 48 hours before. Oh, actually, we probably do know - it'll be Ruslana, you can bet your bottom hryvna.

Final - Saturday 21 May

01 (Qualifier)
02 United Kingdom – Touch My Fire – Javine
03 Malta – Angel – Chiara
04 (Qualifier)
05 (Qualifier)
06 Turkey – Rimi Rimi Ley – Gu:lseren
07 (Qualifier)
08 Albania – Nese:r shkoj – Ledina Celo
09 Cyprus – Ela, Ela – Constantinos Christoforou
10 Spain – Brujeria – Son de Sol
11 (Qualifier)
12 Serbia & Montenegro – Zauvijek Moja - No Name
(Ad break)
13 (Qualifier)
14 Sweden – Las Vegas – Martin Stenmarck
15 (Qualifier)
16 Ukraine – Razom Nas Bohato – Greenjolly
17 Germany – Run And Hide – Gracia
18 (Qualifier)
19 Greece – My Number One – Helena Paparizou
20 Russia – Nobody Hurt No One – Natalya Podolskaya
21 Bosnia & Herzegovina – Call Me – Feminnem
22 (Qualifier)
23 (Qualifier)
24 France – Chacun Pense A Soi - Ortal

Qualifier - Thursday 19 May

After Lebanon withdrew last week from making their Eurovision debut, because their law forbids them to mention Israel and therefore they would have had a mysterious 'technical failure' during the Israeli song, we're now down to 25 songs. It's more than enough really, but a damn shame that politics has come in the way of the song contest - though certainly not for the first time.

Below is the result of today's draw for the qualifying round. The ten songs in bold are the ones Chig would put through to the final, as of today, although this is subject to change extensively. It's not a prediction - we'll worry about that later. Chig would actually like to put 18 of these songs through, so they must be doing something right this year, after a poor start, quality-wise, with some of the earlier selections.

Please bear in mind that, along with everyone in the world who's not a Portuguese TV exec, we haven't heard the Portuguese song yet. Despite Chig having a word with Nadia (see left sidebar) to get her countryfolk to get a wriggle on, the lazy arses only managed to publicly name their song and artists today, just before the draw. (The deadline was yesterday, but they probably revealed it in the Heads of Delegation meeting, taking place these last two days in Kyiv, to avoid breaking the rules.) Albania chose their song in their national song contest on 18 December! Come on Portugal, how hard can it be to pick one decent song? [Chig pauses to remember good Portuguese entries from the past.] Hmm, you actually find it quite difficult, don't you? It's 23 years since 'Bem Bom', you know? You can't trade on that forever.

It's good that the qualifier starts and finishes with Austria and Poland; two of the liveliest songs in the contest, both of which are dead certs to get through and could both be challenging to win the final.

01 Austria – Y Asi – Global.Kryner
02 Lithuania – Little By Little – Laura & The Lovers
03 Portugal – Amare (Love) – 2B
04 Moldova – Bunica Bate Toba (Granny Plays The Drums) – Zdob si Zdub
05 Latvia – The War Is Not Over – Valters & Kaza
06 Monaco – Tout de Moi (All Of Me) – Lise Darly
07 Israel – Hasheket Shenish’ar – Shiri Maymon
08 Belarus – Love Me Tonight – Angelica Agurbash
09 Netherlands – My Impossible Dream – Glennis Grace
10 Iceland – If I Had Your Love – Selma
11 Belgium – Le Grand Soir (The Big Night) – Nuno Resende
12 Estonia – Let’s Get Loud – Suntribe
13 Norway – In My Dreams – Wig Wam
14 Romania – Let Me Try – Luminita Anghel & Sistem
15 Hungary – Forogi Vilag – NOX
16 Finland – Why? – Geir Ro:nning
17 FYR Macedonia – Make My Day – Martin Vucic
18 Andorra – La Mirada Interior – Marian van de Wal
19 Switzerland – Cool Vibes – Vanilla Ninja
20 Croatia – Vukovi Umiru Sami – Boris Novkovic
21 Bulgaria – Lorrain – Kaffe (TOILET BREAK! TOILET BREAK! TOILET BREAK!)
22 Ireland – Love? – Donna & Joseph McCaul
23 Slovenia – Stop – Omar Naber
24 Denmark – Talking To You – Jakob Sveistrup
25 Poland – Czarna Dziewczyna (Black Girl) – Ivan & Delfin
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