No geek
is an island

It’s that time again: tonight is the final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

I missed both semi-finals and haven’t had time to listen to the contenders, so I’ll be watching tonight (at the local LibDems’ annual Eurovision party) with an open mind.

One of my two predictions for the contest has already come true: Ireland’s abysmal entry by Dustin the Turkey was knocked out in its semi-final. My other prediction is to disagree with the BBC’s tiny and unrepresentative Eurovision panel that Sweden will win. Although Charlotte Perrelli has won before, her entry this year, Hero is - based on the short clip I’ve heard - nowhere near as good as her 1999 winner Take Me to Your Heaven.

In lieu of my usual reviews, you can get a rundown of tonight’s songs from Liberal Revolution, and a quick guide from Mike.

I’ll probably live Twitter the show. You can find what will no doubt be pearls of wisdom (”What *is* she wearing?!” will be par for the course) at twitter.com/willhowells or by texting follow willhowells to 07624 801423.

It’s Eurovision time again - hurrah!

This May there will be not one but two semi-finals - that’s three Eurovision TV shows in one week. My my. The UK, of course, goes straight through to the final, regardless of how badly we did last year.

But before we can do that, we need a song, and tonight’s the night we get to decide who will represent us in Serbia. Not for the first time, I won’t have a chance to vote in the selection, but it’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to make.

Once again, the singers include a healthy share of has-beens, but this year reality TV shows are represented in even more abundance than before - and the format positively encourages it.

There are six contestants, divided into three pairs: solo acts, groups, and, ahem, Joseph versus Maria. A studio jury, headed by Terry Wogan, will choose one act from each pairing to face the public phone vote, along with one of the remaining three. Then, in a second show tonight, the two acts receiving the highest share of the vote will sing again before one of them is chosen as our entry, again by public vote.

So who are these audacious songsters?

The solo acts are X-Factor loser Andy Abraham with the passable Even If and former EastEnder Michelle Gayle with Woo (U Got Me). Michelle Gayle has had the most previous success of all the acts, although the only time I’ve seen her was a couple of years ago and she was doing a PA in a club in Blackpool.

Even If is pleasant enough background music, but there’s nothing special about it (a statement that can be applied to most of the entrants). Woo (U Got Me), as it’s slightly silly name suggests, is more fun and, were I part of Terry’s team, I’d probably put it through ahead of Even If.

The two groups acts are both all girl groups. LoveShy (they didn’t learn from Hear’Say, did they?) have a reality TV provenance, but I’m not familiar with them so I’ll let Pop Unlimited explain:

Popstars: The Rivals rejects Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley still haven’t taken the hint. Refugees from Clea, who miraculously managed to release three albums, the new duo LoveShy are in the running with Mr Gorgeous. […] I’m not sure they’ll really cut it live.

The other group is trio The Revelations with a track called It’s You. Group member Annika is from Sweden, which can only help.

Mr Gorgeous is, to my surprise, quite catchy, contemporary pop with something of a Girls Aloud sound. It’s You has a very sixties feel to it, which apparently is the group’s style. Either could probably be an OK Eurovision entrant.

Which leaves us with Any Dream Will Do failure Rob McVeigh with I Owe It All To You and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? failure Simona Armstrong with Changes.

I Owe It All To You begins like a million Shayne Ward/Westlife/Steve Brookstein written-for-male-reality-TV-show-winner snoozefests (that’s an actual genre). It comes slighly to life about 60% of the way in, but that’s one-and-a-half minutes too late. Missed opportunity for a Eurovision key change towards the end too.

Changes is marginally better but nothing exciting. I’d probably choose it ahead of IOWATY, but I wouldn’t let either of these anywhere near Belgrade. My only advice to voters: pick one of the other four.

You can listen to clips of all six songs on the BBC’s Eurovision website. Eurovision: Your Decision, with Sir Terry Wogan and Sir Claudia Winkleman, is at 7pm tonight, with the results show at 9.30pm. Happy voting!

In honour of Paul Walter’s recent Spooks puzzler (answer here), I have one of my own.

It’s about the character of Sholto who was in Monday’s BBC One episode. The actor who plays him appeared alongside one of the regulars in an episode of another major TV series. Which one, and why was the Spooks regular’s appearance in that series particularly notable?

Incidentally, Ros states that Sholto used to be a government minister. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be about the actor’s previous role in Spooks - as a peer - but it could be a sly reference to his playing a minister in State of Play.

On Wednesday on was a panellist on Up Front, internet TV station 18 Doughty Street’s daily half-hour news discussion show. It was my first time on the programme - having previously been on other Doughty Street shows - and my first time on with Conservative presenter Donal Blaney.

You can watch it in the 18DS archive here.

Bit of stream of consciousness listy catchup.

• Enjoyed Eurovision. Went to a fun bash in Lewisham. Not too keen on the winning song but the outcomes were mostly fair despite the predictability (due to shared cultural backgrounds of different countries, natch) of some of the voting.
• Busy busy busy last week. Helped Andrew set up running blog here. Sponsor him online.
• Sprained my ankle. Grr.
• On Thursday, I was shooting video at a LibDem reception for IDAHO day. You can see some of Stephen Williams’ remarks on YouTube here.
• A day off on Friday - yay! Waited in for cable repair man. Had a slot somewhere between 8am and 1pm - he turned up after 2pm. Lucky I took the whole day off… Finally have cable again, but reckon the guy who came around a week earlier could have fixed it.
• Followed the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill debate on BBC Parliament (Freeview) while I waited. A shameful Bill pushed through mostly by Labour MPs (including many on the payroll vote), although introduced by a Tory. New online campaign against it at: ourcampaign.org.uk/foi
• With cable back, caught up on The Apprentice.
• Also with cable back, and therefore broadband restored, got slightly addicted to online Scrabble. My username is whouk if you fancy a game.
• Went to see Magicians and John Shuttleworth on Saturday, both of which I enjoyed although wasn’t bowled over by either. My brother texted to warn me not to see 28 Weeks Later.
• Have been spending too much on eBay.
• Followed a very nice birthday lunch on Sunday with more online scrabble, this week’s Doctor Who (fairly good) and gentle trip to Sam Smiths pub.
• Sad about Cutty Sark. Contribute to the restoration here.
• Wordpress 2.2 is out. Will upgrade soon.

Gosh, last night was surprising. Switzerland out, Andorra out, Norway out, Israel out, and, er, all three acts I’ve featured this week - Norway, Estonia and Belgium - out.

Which big-hitters does that leave then? With a string of Eastern European countries qualifying from the semi-final, the chances to be leaning their way. The odds will be shortening on Serbia’s powerful ballad. Belarus’s catchy number - which actually came across better live than on the video - must stand a good chance. Qualifying puts both Latvia’s Il Divo knock-off and Georgia’s upbeat wailing in good positions, while early tips Russia and Germany still look strong. The BBC reports that Sweden - with their glam rock number - are third favourites, and that Ukraine are favourites to win. Sigh.

But that’s not until tomorrow. Today, it’s back to “Then and Now”, and the country currently fifth favourite at the bookies’: Greece.

Greece won with their 2005 entry, so last year’s competition was based in Athens, co-hosted by Sakis Rouvas. Two year’s earlier, Sakis was Greece’s entrant, finishing third with a dramatic bodice-ripping performance of Shake It!:

(Anyone else think Sakis has something of the Stephen Talls about him?)

This year’s contender from Greece is London ex-pat Sarbel, who already has a successful Hellenic pop career. His catchy, English language song, which should have an energetic live performance in the Sakis mould, is Yassou Maria: