When the list of finalists in Romania was initially released, there was quite a buzz going on with regards to the fact that one of the groups had a massive fan base behind them and had already gained recognition in the music industry. The group Mandinga had initally come in the top three true but did not win the playback phase of the competition but then performed great live and ended up being the winners with the song Zaleilah. In recent days, the popularity of the group has expanded far beyond Romania following two strong performances and therefore, it might be a case of a surprise at this years' music competition. This is actually the fourteenth appearance of Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest and following years of disappoinment, they managed to succeed on a number of occasions and have not failed to make the final in any of their…

One of the youngest participants in this years' Eurovision Song Contest is surely Iris, who will be representing Belgium with the song Would You? which won a two song national selection earlier this year held on one of the most popular shows in the nation. The track which is a beautiful ballad has been receiving a lot of praise and the artist herself has a brilliant vocal range to carry it off actually. Iris is competing in the first semi-final and will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of her Belgian counterpart Tom Dice who represented the country just two years ago with the beautiful track Me and My Guitar. Â Belgium does not have the most stellar of records in the Eurovision Sogn Contest unfortunately but nevertheless, have been one of the most consistent competing countries from the Western world continuously participating each and every year except when…

This year, Finland has to be one of the most underrated countries in the Eurovision Song Contest considering the great performance that Pernilla has been giving during her respective runs which have not been too easy considering the nature of her song which might be simple yet is still extremely emotional. The track which she is performing bearing the title När Jag Blundar was written by her brother as an ode to their mother and therefore, the sentimental feeling will surely be astonishing when it is performing following the likes of Belgium on the stage of the first semi-final. It will be quite interesting which ballad will ultimately stand out the most on the night. Finland have quite the history in the Eurovision Song Contest and until a couple of years back, they were the longest participating nation not to score a victory but Lordi did change that with their…

The favourite of this years' Eurovision Song Contest is Loreen who will be representing Sweden with the song Euphoria which has been written by none other than Thomas G:Son and Peter Bostrom, veterans of the competition. Yesterday, there was the first rehearsal for Sweden and despite it looking quite good on the screens, she failed to live up to the expectation noting that she has a cold at the moment and was therefore holding back vocally. Nevertheless, alongside her head of delegation, the 1992 representative Christer Bjorkman, she has managed to keep up all of her respective promotional appearances and has been receiving the rest of the international media for interviews and comments and that is why, our team in Baku, has met up with Loreen following her rehearsal. In the interview which is almost fifteen minutes long, one could notice that Juergen Boernig and Lilian Brunell spoke to Loreen…