Lopez Blogs

This is the first of the "Super Saturdays" of Eurovision national finals season 2008. Every year it never ceases to amaze me - that the "looking forward to" is inveitably better than the outcome. And so tonight was the same.

Lithuania: I really don’t know what to make of "Nomads in the Night" by Jeronimas Milius. It’s all very theatrical, maybe too much so. This is more West-End-musical than Eurovision. He does have a good big voice, but the end result is excessive and another wasted opportunity.

Denmark: I deliberately chose not to listen to all the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix songs, because I’ve been so disappointed over the last couple of years (especially last year when "Listen To Love" failed to make it). So I have only heard the winning song, "All Night Long" by Simon Mathew - and I quite like it! Good old-fashioned singalong which could have the same result as "Talking To You". And he’s quite good-looking, but he needs to ditch that flat cap, pronto.

Estonia: sadly I failed to catch all the Eurolaul songs this year but have just heard the winning entry. Oh dear. An unfunny joke entry. On first listen "Leto Svet" by Kreisiraadio has no redeeming features. They were once one of my favourite ESC countries, but now their entries have become a waste of time. Utter rubbish.

Azerbaijan: "Day After Day" by Elnur Gussinov. I am speechless, I can't deal with this at the moment, and probably won't be able to bring myself to listen to it for another three months.

Latvia: First semi-final took place with the following songs going to the final: If I Only Knew / I’m a Part Of You / Summertime / Wolves of the Sea / Take Me Home. "Wolves" is an inevitable winner.