The 55th Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Oslo, Norway, following Alexander Rybak's win in 2009. Again, there will be three shows: The 1st semi-final (May 25th, 2010), the 2nd semi-final (May 27th, 2010) and the Grand Final (May 29th, 2010).

39 countries will take part this year, while 4 countries who took part last year have withdrawn from the contest: Andorra, Czech Republic, Hungary and Montenegro.

The line-up:

Participants of the 1st semi-final: (17)

Albania: Juliana Pasha / "It's All About You" [ Video ]

Belarus: 2+3 / "Far Away" [ Video ]

Belgium: Tom Dice / "Me And My Guitar" [ Video ]

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Vukašin Brajić / "Munja i grom"

Estonia: Malcolm Lincoln: Siren [ Video ]

Finland: Kuunkuiskaajat / "Työlki Ellää" [ Video ]

Greece: Giorgos Alkaios and Friends / "Opa" [ Video ]

Iceland: Hera Björk / "Je ne sais quoi" [ Video ]

Latvia: Aisha / "What For?" [ Video ]

Malta: Thea Garrett / "My Dream" [ Video ]

FYR Macedonia: Gjoko Taneski / "Jas ja imam silata" [ Video ]

Moldova: SunStroke Project & Olia Tira / "Run Away" [ Video ]

Poland: Marcin Mrozinski / "Legenda" [ Video ]

Portugal: Filipa Azevedo / "Há Dias Assim" [ Video ]

Russia: Peter Nalitch & Band / "Lost and Forgotten" [ Video ]

Serbia: Milan Stankovic / "Ovo je Balkan" [ Video ]

Slovakia: Kristina / "Horehronie" [ Video ]

* Germany and Spain will also vote in this semi-final.

Participants of the 2nd semi-final: (17)

Armenia: Eva Rivas / "Apricot Stone" [ Video ]

Azerbaijan: TBD

Bulgaria: Miro / "Angel Si Ti" [ Video ]

Croatia: Feminnem / "Lako Je Sve" [ Video ]

Cyprus: Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders / "Life Looks Better in Spring" [ Video ]

Denmark: Chanée & N'Evergreen / "In a Moment Like This" [ Video ]

Georgia: Sopho Nizharadze / "Shine" [ Video ]

Ireland: Niamh Kavanagh / "It's For You" [ Video ]

Israel: Har'el Skaat / "Milim" [ Video ]

Lithuania: InCulto / "Eastern European Funk" [ Video ]

Netherlands: Sieneke / "Ik ben verliefd" [ Video ]

Romania: Paula Seling & Ovi / "Playing With Fire" [ Video ]

Slovenia: Anzambel Roka Žlindere & Kalamari / "Narodno zabavni rock" [ Video ]

Sweden: Anna Bergendahl / "This Is My Life" [ Video ]

Switzerland: Michael von der Heide / "Il pleut de l'or" [ Video ]

Turkey: maNga / "We Could Be The Same" [ Video ]

Ukraine: TBD

* France, Norway and the United Kingdom will also vote in this semi-final.

Qualified for the Final (5)

France: Jessy Matador / "Allez! Ola! Olé!"

Germany: Lena Meyer-Landrut / "Satellite"

Norway: Didrik Solli-Tangen / "My Heart Is Yours" [ Video ]

Spain: Daniel Diges / "Algo pequeñito"

United Kingdom: Josh Dubovie / "That Sounds Good To Me" [ Video ]

Within in the next three weeks, all entries will be certain.

Edited March 18, 201015 yr by Huntress

I hope Sweden picks a song from BWO or Alcazar this time (though I know they've never had success in the past lol ) (Of course if they were truly smart they'd use the chance to promote Agnes Carlsson more)

As long as Europe doesn't release a Lloyd Webber/Diane Warren song by numbers again...

Edited March 3, 201015 yr by EricMontreal22

There are a lot of ballads participating this year, but none of them is outstanding. In fact, none of the songs that have been selected so far sounds like a winner. Maybe the winning song will come from one of the remaining countries: UK, Germany, Sweden, Israel, Azerbaijan or Serbia?

The UK entry was written by Pete Waterman, who was very successful in the 80s and 90s (he wrote a lot of songs for Kylie Minogue).

Pete Waterman did a ballad? I of course know who he is--bhave tons of PWL/Stock Aitken Waterman albums (even if they had next to no success in N America) but the irony is people have since learned Waterman did NONE of the actual songwriting--he'd come up with a song idea or song title and Stock/Aitken did the rest. So I have no idea what a solo song written by a no talent like him will sound like (I'm sure he hired another team to "help" him write it).

All the songs from the first semifinal:

In most cases, these are not the final versions.

Still missing are the songs from France, Azerbaijan and Ukraine (who had already selected their song, but are now staging a new pre-selection this weekend).

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is this contest? Are the songs chosen previous hits in their countries? Also, from a personal standpoint, I'm wondering, where is Italy?

The Eurovision Song Contest has been held annually since 1956. At first, there were only 7 countries taking part. Over the course of the years, more and more countries joined, especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

In 2008, a record number of 43 countries participated. The contest has between 100 million and 600 million viewers internationally.

The latest additions were the Caucasian republics Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan who joined in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively. However, other countries who haven taken part before have left the contest in recent years, for example Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco and Austria. Italy has not participated since 1997.

Countries usually select their entries by an internal decision of the participating broadcaster or a public contest that allows the country's public to televote between several songs. The songs must be new ones. It is not allowed to select a song which has been commercially released before.

The national pre-selections usually end in March.

The Eurovision Song Contest is then hosted in the country that has won the previous year's contest. This year it takes place in Oslo, Norway.

You can read all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest

And oddly, the show is MASSIVE in Australia, even though they can't participate. Amello, you probably know that ABBA are perhaps the most famous winners from it (with Waterloo in the early 70s).

Huntress thanks for keeping us up to date--I have to admit I'm saddened that my beloved Alcazar didn't make it to win Melodifestivalen (which woulda let them finally do Eurovision again) even if their song wasn't as good as last year's by them, which failed too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmaP4G_rze8

Well, Olivia Newton-John (who represented the UK) did place fourth the same year ABBA won.

But of course, the snooze-worthy Celine Dion also won and represented Switzerland in 1988.

Edited March 25, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

That's one thing I don't get--why can they represent diff countries? (Though I thought Celine was Belgium--maybe I'm thinking of someone else).

Eurovision doesn't have a good track record in the UK--the big single usually sells extremely well there, but there's usually zero interest in a followup (even ABBA had trouble with that, Honey Honey was a complete flop in the UK) Of course Ring Ring didn't even pass Melodifestivalen the year before Waterloo, but after Waterloo was so massive, it wasn't till SOS (which really was the point that Benny/Bjorn picked up on the ABBA formula--less crap like King Kong Song and Nina Pretty Ballerina, more female driven dance/pop). When ABBA refused to enter again, Benny/Bjorn gave their camp single Bang a Boomerang to Svenne and Lotta, but it didn't pass Melodifestivalen either, though to my ears it's damn cathier than anything that did make it that year...

The only time a UK group had a huge hit, and then actually went on to chart success post Eurovision was the early 80s winner, Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz (who might as well have been a UK ABBA). They had a lot of chart success for a while, though I doubt anyone in N America has any idea who they are

Frankly though, as much as I love Alcazar, watching all the Melodifestivalen finalists, I have no idea how "Manboy" didn't win. Cute singer with decent voice, cheezetastic dance routine, borderline inane English lyrics, and a catchy as Hell chorus--isn't that what Eurovision is about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3AVQMllDfg

Oh dear, I'm so behind the times... The UK entry already happened, there was some contest to find the best singer for it and apparently this was the winner....

WOW. It's limp and awful. Mike Stock DID do it with Pete Waterman but it doesn't have a fraction of the, dare I say, magic, fun or catchiness, IMHO of their classic work--or even of Stock's cheezy 90s work for Nicki French or Scooch. There's already been a lot of criticism apparently:

"And Stock trying to save face:

The version of "That Sounds Good to Me" performed on the selection show is not the version that will be performed in Oslo as it will be revamped to compliment Dubovie's voice more effectively. Stock has said he is "now busy getting together the final version which will be significantly different from what has already been served up." He also suggested that the criticisms that have been voiced about the song will be looked at when preparing the final version."

Poor UK...

The final version of the UK entry will probably be made public in April – but I doubt that the song will get any better.

All the songs from the 1st semi final:

All the songs from the 2nd semi final (without Ukraine):

The 5 finalists:

Slovenia is TRAGIC!

I hear the UK entry will now be more Michel Buble... Which is funny cuz why did they hire Stock/Waterman if they wanted a big band number....

Here's a HQ recap of all 39 songs:

Some songs, most notably the UK entry, will still be altered until rehearsals begin in May.