Eurovision Song Contest - Kiev 2005

The semi final this year sees 25 songs compete for ten places up for grabs in the Saturday night final, and believe me, there's going to be a lot of competition! The range of music this year is more diverse and more bizarre than ever. Austria will open the semi final with 'Y Asi', a song that combines traditional Alpenpop with Latino music, more commonly found in Brazil; this song not only has an accordion and clarinet, it also has yodelling and surprisingly it works quite well! Austria are not the only country to brave something new; debut country Moldova send a song that translates as 'Granny Plays Drums' and is a strange mix of drums, guitars and strange singing! Norway, one of this years favourites, have sent 'In My Dreams', a song that you would expect to be found on a Bon Jovi album - its thrashing guitars, rock singing and mullets suggest everything not associated with the Eurovision Song Contest. Bulgaria have sent late night after dinner jazz for their entry; Poland have sent a Russian folk song. Croatia and Slovenia have both gone for mean, moody and atmosphere while Hungary's 'Foragj Vilagj' is something reminiscent of a medieval folk tune! Estonia and Switzerland have both sent Estonian girl groups (don't ask) with strong pop songs and Iceland and Denmark sound very chart friendly too. And this Eurovision really sees the return of the ballad with Israel, Belgium, Monaco and the Netherlands all sending huge slush numbers, the Dutch song sounding like a Whitney Housten album track. And don't forget this is just the semi-finalists!

There are 14 more songs that have already qualified for the final one way or another and a lot of these are strong favourites to do well. Malta have jumped on the ballad bandwagon this year and arguably have one of the best songs this year with 'Angel'. The Spanish entrants Son de Sol sing 'Brujeria' (Witchcraft) sounding reminiscent of The Ketchup Song! Russia and Germany have both gone for rockier songs, while Sweden is a strong outsider with 'Las Vegas', an upbeat song that could have come straight out of a musical! Turkey's oddly named 'Rimi Rimi Ley' owes more to Bollywood that to Istanbul. And as for the host country, well they send a political hip hop rap. And why shouldn't they?

There isn't much 'cheese' or 'kitsch' that is usually so evident in Eurovision, but Bosnia-Herzegovina have sent a very Abba-ish song. Girl group Feminnem sing 'Call Me' and if the televoters go for cheese this year, it could well be Sarajevo 2006!

However, the style of music that has been doing so well recently is ethnic/Eastern music, both Ukraine and Turkey conquering in that style in the past two years. And so this year a lot of countries have jumped on the bandwagon, not least the UK. Javine will sing 'Touch My Fire' for us and it's certainly got a hint of the east about it that should bring the UK a good position this year. Cyprus, Albania and Macedonia have also gone for that eastern tinge too. But the strongest 'ethnic' song in the contest this year in the Greek entry, 'My Number One'. This song, sung by Elena Paparizou, has gone a storm with Eurovision fans and it's a big favourite with the bookies too. It's a strong pop song and with so much support, many are predicting an easy Greek victory this year.

However, this is the Eurovision Song Contest. Anything could happen. Two years ago, a Celtic song sung in an imaginary language lost by just two points. Last year's runner up was a dark ethnic moody piece sung in Serbian. So what's to stop Ukraine's rap winning? Could it be Norway's rock stars? Romania's club tune? Estonia's girl group pop song? The UK's ethnic romp? Or could the favourites Greece go and take it all? Whatever happens, it cannot be denied that the Eurovision, in its 50th year, is going stronger than ever. The 39 songs this year are some of the best I've heard for a while and you will not hear a more diverse range of music than if you buy this CD. Buy it, choose your favourites, laugh, cry but most of all have fun. This is Eurovision - this is brilliant!

Unfortunately, like all Eurovisions, there were some really trashy entries (Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova). And some songs should have been higher placed were it not for the block voting. But this shouldn't put you off buying a great album which contains absolute gems like Monaco, Israel, and of course the winner "My Number One" from greece.

Maybe we can have a fair contest next year where the good songs are placed highly and the bad ones lower down.