...the absolutely bloody amazing song that Croatia chose this weekend as their Eurovision entry. This is one of those songs, and there have been many over the years, that makes me wish I had taken my violin lessons seriously at school and not just used them as an excuse to miss maths lessons. The violins on this track (or whatever Balkan instrument they may actually be) are so powerful. I love a bit of fiddling! Download 'Moja štikla' by Severina here by right-clicking on the word Dora, then pretend that a band of Croatian gypsies have moved in as you jig around your living room.

And laugh at the bit where she sings, "shits, shits".

This is a dead cert to get past the qualifying round in Athens. Then it will be challenging to win the final. Zagreb 2007, here we come! (The regular reader may remember that I made a similar foolish prediction regarding Hungary last year, but this is even better.)

Below are my scores for the songs picked so far. (I haven't caught up with Lithuania and FYR Macedonia's winners from this weekend yet.) If Sweden picks 'Sing For Me' by Andreas 'Glorious' Jonsson, they will be top of this list and will probably win in Athens. But they're going to choose Carola again, aren't they? Carola was on Sweden's biggest radio show this morning, and didn't talk about Jesus, which is progress. She did say this though; "I will sing in Swedish here and English in Athens. Oops! What did I say? I mean IF I go to Athens." Then she laughed. Whatever she does in the final of Melodifestivalen, in Stockholm a week on Saturday, Chig will be there. Hurrah! (We're assuming she'll get through her heat this Saturday.)

Chig's Eurovision scores so far...

1st Croatia - Moja stikla - Severina (12 points)
2nd Iceland - Til Harningjnu Island - Silvia Nott (10 points)
3rd United Kingdom - Teenage Life - Daz Sampson (8 points)
4th Estonia - Through My Window - Sandra Oxenryd (7 points)
5th Norway - Alvedansen - Christine Guldbrandsen (6 points)
6th Turkey - Superstar - Sibel Tüzün (5 points)
7th Denmark - Twist Of Love - Sidsel Ben Semmane (4 points)
8th Slovenia - Mr. Nobody (currently Plan B) - Anžej Dežan (3 points)
9th Poland - Follow My Heart - Ich Troje & The Real McCoy (2 points)
10th Romania - Tornero - Mihai Traistariu (1 point)

11th Malta - I Do - Fabrizio Faniello
12th Belgium - Je t'adore - Kate Ryan
13th Albania - Zjarr e ftohte - Luiz Ejlli
14th Ireland - Every Song Is A Cry For Love - Brian Kennedy
15th Spain - Bloody Mary - Las Ketchup
16th Cyprus - Why Angels Cry - Annette Artani
17th Switzerland - If We All Give A Little - Six4One
18th Belarus - Mama* - Polina Smolova

*Song likely to change. Because it's crap and they know it is.


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