"I'm on thirteen types of tablets!"

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

The release of the Queen's Birthday Honours has seen one of my entertainment heroes, Victoria Wood, awarded a CBE. There'll be plenty of her fans - me included - who will be suprised we're not honouring Dame Victoria, but it provides me with an excuse to share a clip from one of Victoria's finest works, the incomparable sitcom, "dinnerladies". ( Read more... )

I'm still in shock. Some big songs just got knocked out. No Malta, Hungary, Switzerland, Belarus, FYR Macedonia or Bulgaria in the final. We do, however, have the awful Croatia, the gimmicky Latvia and the strange entry from Georgia. On the plus side, Charlotte and Euroband are through!!!!!!!!! And Portugal have finally made in back into the ( Read more... )

I know, I know. I failed once again to complete my reviews of all 43 songs, but I'm going to stick my neck out and make a prediction of which 10 songs are going through to the final from the second semi-final. I've had the benefit of being with the other UK jury members and seeing their reactions (even if the darn BBC wouldn't tell us how we ( Read more... )

Ani Lorak's 'Shady Lady' has 'winner' written all over it. It is a fantastic pop song and fully deserves to do well. Accusations of bloc voting certainly have their merits, but the overall winner is usually the one who manages to win support from all over the continent. Let's not forget that Serbia would have won last year even if only western ( Read more... )

Turkey used to be Eurovision failures, but signs of a recovery in their fortunes started in 1997 when they achieved their then highest ever placing with Sebnem Paker's 'Dinle' which came a very creditable third behind second-placed Ireland and Katrina and The Waves who won the contest for the UK ( Read more... )

These were my predictions made just after the singing finished:

ARMENIA
NETHERLANDS
ANDORRA
POLAND
NORWAY
GREECE
AZERBAIJAN
FINLAND
BOSNIA
ISRAEL

The actual result saw all of the above go through with the exception of Netherlands and Andorra. Instead we have:

RUSSIA (and what a snoozefest this song is)
ROMANIA

8/10 ain't bad!

Right, I managed to preview all the first semi songs in time for the start of the show. The rest of the songs to come tomorrow!