Are we ready for Eurovision '08?!

[PriceTags]

Next week is Eurovision week! And this year, it's bigger than ever!

43 countries.
2 semi-finals.
1 final.
1 winner.

The theme for this year's contest is Confluence of Sound. The first semi-final opening act will be based on former Eurovision winners, the second will be based on the culture of Serbia, and the final will be based on the girl who brought them Eurovision: Marija Serifovic.

It is on at 8pm on Tuesday and Thursday on BBC Three, with the Grand final on BBC One at 8pm on Saturday next week.

The UK is allowed to vote on Thursday (please vote for Malta), and on Saturday (obviously).

We are sending Andy Abraham, former binman and X Factor runner up to sing in the final for the UK - we sing in Slot 2.

In a new rule, the top 9 from each semi-final will go to the final, plus the highest ranked song not already in the Top 9 from the back-up juries.

We have plenty of Eurovision familiar faces this year, from Latvia one of the members of last year's Bonaparti.lv returns as a member of Pirates of the Sea, one of the late Tose Proeski's backing singers from 2004 returns for FYR Macedonia, Russia's 2nd Place from 2006, and favourite to win this year Dima Bilan returns, plus Sweden's winner from 1999, Charlotte Perrelli (nee Nilsson) return.

There are two newcomers this year: Azerbaijan and San Marino, who will both perform in the first semifinal. Azerbaijan are sending Elnur and Samir, two of their biggest stars, and San Marino are sending MiOdio, who hope to bring Italian music back to Eurovision.

Numerous controversies and tensions have arose this year: the stage is too slippy, making Charlotte Perrelli from Sweden panic in her new fancy shoes, and Paolo Meneguzzi take a nasty tumble in the last rehearsals. Dima Bilan wants a fancy ice stage, meaning the EBU have had to put an advert break between the Russian and Greek songs to give the technicians time to change the set, making Greece get annoyed at Russia. Then Russia got annoyed at Greece because the Greek media were saying that Dima wanted to withdraw.

Charlotte Perrelli is also annoyed at San Marino, because one of the members of MiOdio barged into her press conference and asked her to marry him.

This year is the year of the novelty act, with Estonia sending their song 'Leto Svet' from three of Estonia's best comedians, Bosnia & Herzegovina sending a nonsense songs from their best comedian Laka, Ireland sending a puppet to sing to give Ireland 12 points, Belgian band Ishtar singing their song in a made up language and Spain sending Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with his song telling people to Dance the ChikiChiki.

There will be 19 countries per semi-final, with 25 countries in the grand final, including United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Serbia. These countries are due to rehearse today (17th May).

The voting will take the same form as the last two years, with points 1-7 automatically appearing as the spokespeople congratulate the presenters on an amazing show, then they read out their 8, 10 and 12. United Kingdom will present their votes first, with Denmark voting last.

There are videos of all the songs on the BBC's Eurovision website which can be seen here.

I recommend you watch Azerbaijan (Seaman's favourite), Bosnia & Herzegovina, France, Ireland, Malta, Russia, Sweden (My favourite) and Switzerland.

I hope you enjoyed my guide ^o^!

[Joshuae]

I'll just watch the final

[buttons]

i liked that michelle i fink, the runner-ups song better. we are gonna be crap as usual.

[Judge Judy]

I am ready for Sir Terry

[Kardan]

I'm always ready ^^

There's usually a large discussion thread on the forum

[360]

It's just a poor excuse for politics

[PriceTags]

It's just a poor excuse for politics

It wasn't invented for politics. It was invented to bring a war-torn Europe together through the medium of song.

[PriceTags]

The first semi-final is tonight *excited*!

We'll be able to see the stage for real for the first time, the video postcards (which this year feature people dressed in the colours of the flag of the next country), and the graphics.

Remember, us in the UK won't be able to vote tonight.

[Rixion]

I'll only be watching the final too.

[PaintYourTarget]

I'll watch the news Sunday morning before work to see who won.