Lopez Blogs

My first-listen journey through this year's Eurovision entries is almost at an end, but still a couple more instalments to go...

ISRAEL: "Ding Dong" - Dana International A very 'Eurovision' song title, sung by the winner of the 1998 contest - this will certainly get a few votes from those fans with fond memories of how Eurovision used to be. However if the national final version is anything to go by, it's needing a bit of polishing before being let loose in Dusseldorf.

SLOVENIA: "No One" - Maja Keuc OK so here we go again, with another pretty girl singing another forgettable (if over-dramatic and very Balkan) ballad: it'll be in English apparently in the final.

ROMANIA: "Change" - Hotel FM. One of the first songs selected this year, and one of the few which I'd actually heard in advance of this listening exercise. It starts off like Arvingarna's "Eloise" before going into Take That's "Hello" and then into a very familiar-sounding chorus although someone needs to remind me what it reminds me of (!). It's maybe a bit more old-fashioned than some of the entries on show this year, but I quite like it.

ESTONIA: "Rockefeller Street" - Getter Jaani Extremely hotly tipped in some places: and if an Estonian version of Katy Perry's your thing then this will make you very happy indeed. Upbeat catchy girl-pop, but I'd rather have something less derivative and American-sounding from one of the countries which I've always had a soft spot for since they joined the Eurovision family.

BELARUS: "I Love Belarus" - Anastasia Vinnikova So on we go to the Belarussian Katy Perry...but there's something appealingly bonkers about this shamelessly nationalistic three minutes...which replaced the equally shamelessly nationalistic and equally bonkers "Born in Belorussia" which was disqualified for being "political"!!