Well the 2006 contest has come and gone and a decisive victory for Finnish "death-metal" group Lordi and "Hard Rock Hallelujah", their first top five result in four and a half decades of trying and the country bottom of our Eurovision Rankings . Full results and 2006 site updates now complete.

To no-ones great surprise Eastern European countries formed the bulk of the qualifiers for Saturday's grand final.  The full list of ten was draw were: Russia, FYR Macedonia, Bosnia, Lithuania, Finland, Ukraine, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey & Armenia.

NUL-POINTS.NET FINAL PREDICTION

Today the first rehearsals commenced in the Olympic Indoor Hall, the venue for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.  Artists in next Thursdays "Semi-Final" kick off first, a full week before their appearance, and all the over elaborate dance routines are laid bare in their various degrees of awfulness.

NUL-POINTS.NET 2006 PREVIEW PAGE

All the major bookmakers have now established markets on the 2005 Eurovision and if they are to be believed there's likely to be only one winner.  The host nation Greece are quoted at incredibly short prices, probably the shortest I can remember since betting on the contest began.  However, it is worth pointing out that Greece have also been favourites the last two years, and while the songs concerned did do very well (coming third and winning respectively), there is anecdotal evidence of heavy bets placed by Greeks in the UK which of course is going to shorten odds.

The latest betting in the UK courtesy of Coral/Eurobet reveals the favourites as:

Greece 9/4, Romania 11/2, Sweden 6/1,  Belgium & Bosnia 12/1, Germany & UK 14/1

and the rank outsiders as:

Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, France, Netherlands 100/1,  Albania & Lithuania 125/1,  Portugal 150-1. 

All 37 entries for contest and semi-final were chosen over a month ago (or in some cases much earlier - the Albanian final was in late December 2005!).  Yet the contest is still three weeks away.  Such a wide gap between song selection and contest is a very new phenomenon.  For the bulk of it's history the contest has been in March, April or early May and the national selections have been only a month or so before the event.  No explanation has been given as to the gap, other than some feeble reasoning about pressing the official CD. 

What this development has done is inspire artists to promote their entry  by travelling around Europe and grab appearances on TV shows to promote their songs.  The evidence of the last two years is that this can pay off very well: Both 2004 and 2005 winners and the 2005 runner-up were widely promoted before the contest. 

The European Broadcasting Union have announced some changes to the presentation of votes at this years contest. For the last two years those countries who fell in the "semi-final" have been able to vote in the final and this elongated process has stretched the contest beyond three hours, something that has not pleased many national broadcasters.  In 2005 the identity of the winner was known well before the end and viewing figures flagged across the continent.

The organisers have decided to tackle this by changing how each countries votes are presented.  In 2006 countries' votes from 1 point to 7 points will appear on the scoreboard before each country's spokesperson is called up.  That person will only announce the 8, 10 and 12 points. It's not clear at this stage whether the 1-7 votes will be read by the hosts or just appear on the scoreboard.  Only the last three sets of votes will be presented in the full traditional way (by which time of course the winner may already be known so that would be counter-productive).    

Another week and another great advertisement for the new Eastern countries. Serbia and Montenegro held separate heats and last night saw the best from each going head to head in a grand final.  A series of jurors from Montenegro awarded no points to the top Serbian song and Serbian jurors pretty much reciprocated, the eventual outcome being that a Montenegran song came out on top. Quite coincidentally the very same thing happened last year, and with the same Montenegran act benefiting (the boy band No Name, who somehow contrived to finish 7th in Kiev courtesy of some blatant diaspora voting).

The best Serbian song got the highest number of telephone votes but that was not enough to override the jury's bias. No Name were declared winners but had to leave the building under armed protection amid furious reactions from the Serbian audience, including bottles being thrown at the stage. Serb & Montenegran TV is today refusing to confirm No Name as the entry for Athens. Both sides are apparently locked in talks and there is even talk of withdrawal from the contest if a solution cannot be reached. This may be the last time such a situation arises, as Montenegro holds a referendum on independence in May and next year Serbia and Montenegro may each have their own song,  just what the contest needs, another Balkan country ........

UPDATE (16/03/06):  The joint body in charge of selection of the entry decided that no agreement could be reached and announced it's withdrawal from the contest yesterday. However, news comes through tonight that Serbian TV has asked the European Broadcasting Union if a second final can be staged. This would seem unlikely given that Montenegran TV thinks it's song has won fair and square, and also that the deadline for contest entries is Monday 20th March.  

UPDATE (20/03/06): After failing to come to an agreement by the deadline for entries, Serbia & Montenegro formally withdrew from the 2006 contest. As they had a direct place in the final, Croatia (next in line based on last years result) have taken their place in the final, reducing the semi-final field to 23.

As if shenanigans in Belarus (see below) were not enough, another ex-Soviet nation has managed to make a complete fiasco of selecting it's song for Athens.  Three songs tied in the race to choose their song, and Moldovan TV didn't have an adequate tie-breaker. After many days deliberation, they decided to stage a new final, and invite new songs to the event.  The three original tieing songs have been pulled out in protest by their artists. Another great advert for the Eurovision "newcomers"..   

The host broadcaster of the 2006 contest (ERT) has confirmed the names of the presenters for the event. Sakis Rouvas is a popular singer who came third for Greece in the 2004 contest. Maria Menounos is an American born actress and presenter.

Daz Sampson (aka DJ Daz) has won the right to represent the United Kingdom in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens on May 20.  He was the clear winner of "Making Your Mind Up" with "Teenage Life".  Full scores were:

1. Teenage Life - Daz Sampson      121
2. Beautiful Thing - Anthony Costa    96
3. All About You - City Chix              55
4. Whisper My Name - Kym Marsh     53
5. Hand On My Heart - Four Story      17
6. Play Your Game - Goran Kay         14

Last year Belarus (who have yet to qualify for a contest final) made an unprecedented move by ditching the song that won their national selection after it received a poor response from fan sites on the internet!. Singer Angelica Agurbash was retained but "Boys And Girls" was replaced by "Love Me Tonight", which failed to make the contest final.  This year a national final was staged, not to select a winner, but to select a top 3 who would go to a selection committee! (I guess that's ex-USSR democracy for you). This week the committee revealed that they had selected singer Polina Smolova,...... but that she won't necessarily be going to Athens with her national final song, "Mama", if they can find a better one before the cutoff date.  Absolutely barking...........

Spanish television has confirmed today that their 2006 Eurovision will be performed by the female vocal group Las Ketchup, who had an international chart-topper four years ago with "The Ketchup Song".  Their new ditty is called "Bloody Mary" and is the title track of their upcoming album.

The BBC have announced the six songs and singers who will participate in the 2006 version of "Making Your Mind Up",  the successor to "A Song For Europe" which was laid to rest after Jemini's disastrous result in 2003.  The contenders are:

• Play Your Game - Goran Kay
• Whisper My Name - Kym Marsh
• Teenage Life - Daz Sampson
• All About You - City Chix
• Hand On My Heart - Four Story
• Beautiful Thing - Anthony Costa

In the very first hours after the announcement there has been speculation about the eligibility of the songs of both Anthony Costa and Daz Sampson. In both cases the songs appear to have been available on the internet before October 1st 2005.

The ex-Soviet republic of Armenia has been confirmed as a budding entrant in the 2006 Eurovision, making it's first foray into the event. The list of interested parties was published today and the total has reduced from 39 to 38: Armenia's entry has been countered by the exit of Austria and Hungary (see below).

24 countries will compete in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest: The top 10 countries from 2005 (Greece, Malta, Romania, Israel, Latvia, Moldova, Switzerland, Serbia & Montenegro, Denmark, Norway) plus the "big 4" countries (France, Germany, Spain, UK) plus the ten highest finishers from a "semi-final" two days earlier (Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine).

The evolution of the Eurovision Song Contest reached new heights of absurdity when it was revealed that the song "Day Or Night" by Amberlife will compete in the 2006 national final of both Lithuania and Latvia!. Quite amazingly there is no pan-European rule against this. The artist has said that if he wins both events he will represent Lithuania, which must be a huge boost to Latvian self-esteem.

There are a couple of similar precedents to this: in 2003 Esther Hart was in both the Dutch and UK finals with different songs. At the eleventh hour she withdrew from the UK final and her song was sung by another artist (she went on to win the Dutch final that year).  Eleven years earlier, "Soleil Soleil" byh Geraldine Olivier was selected as the Swiss entry for the 1992 contest, but was later disqualified as it had been entered in both the French-Swiss and German-Swiss heats. How times change!

This notoriously unsophisticated  country have always been desperate to select their entry and they didn't disappoint, yet again picking their song a whole five months before the event in a three night extravanza.  The winner was Luis Ellji with a silly hat and a ditty that was about 90 seconds too long for Eurovision, and will as sure as eggs is eggs be translated into English for the contest. 

German TV have  confirmed their strategy after a disastrous last place result in 2005... they will stage a three artist final that will incorporate a look back at half a century of Eurovision.  The three artists include Vicky Leandros, who won the contest for Luxemburg in 1972. Leandros is Greek, but represented Luxemburg, singing in French, but has lived for decades in Germany....  hey, but that's what Eurovision is all about (!).  Lesser  known is that Vicky brought the evergreen "Love Is Blue" to the attention of the world when she sang it at the 1967 contest.  It came 4th.

Thomas Anders was one half of the duo Modern Talking who enjoyed a mammoth sequence of pop/dance hits in the 1980/90s.  Their big British hit was "Brother Louie" in 1986.  The third component in the final is the comedy country group Texas Lightning, fronted by popular comedian Olli Dittrich, and speculated very early as the possible winner. 

UPDATE (09/03/06): Texas Lightning won the German final.    

It has been confirmed that Hungary will not submit a song for the 2006 Eurovision. They join neighbours Austria in declining an invite to the 51st contest.

After it's very painful fall from the summit of Eurovision, Ireland has finally chucked out the talent show idea and managed to entice the very wonderful Brian Kennedy to perform for them in 2006. Kennedy has had considerable success in both Ireland and the UK. Whilst he is renowned as a songwriter, Irish television have invited songs from other composers.  Ireland will have to negotiate the semi-final to make the 2006 Eurovision after a poor result in 2005.

(DEC 05 update) Brian Kennedy (picture above) went on to perform "You Raise Me Up" at the funeral of George Best, and has released a single about Best. 

The European Broadcasting Union have comfirmed that the 2006 contest will be held on Saturday May 20th, 2006.  For the third year the controversial "semi-final" will be held, this time on May 18th. The draw for running order will be on March 21st.

Greek superstar Sakis Rouvas, who came third for Greece in the 2004 contest, has been confirmed as the male host for the 51st contest.  No news yet on his co-host. It has been traditional for the last thirty years or so for the contest to have a male-female combo at the helm (Israel have been the only ones to veer from this with a threesome in 1999 - that's one male and two females, and it wasn't a conspicuous success).

Greek TV company ERT have confirmed that the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest will be staged at the Olympic Indoor Hall, site of some of the most spectacular events at the 2004 Olympics. 

Austria pulls out of 2006 Contest

It is widely reported that the Austrians have pulled out of the 2006 event.  Their first entry was in the second ever contest in 1957 and at times their presence has been sporadic. They won the contest in 1966 but have had a series of poor results in recent times.  No reason was given for the withdrawal.