The title is true, so I can't resist posting this forgotten faux New Romantic classic from The Mood. I have this on a picture disc 7" single!



And here's the reason for our road trip to Paris. Mylène Farmer at the Stade de France, tomorrow night. Formidable!

Labels: MylèneFarmer, Paris, StadeDeFrance, TheMood

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Chig is excited by the return tonight of his favourite factual programme on TV; Who Do You Think You Are? The new series starts with the fabulous Davina McCall examining the French side of her family. I've read about it in the current edition of the magazine that accompanies the series (I've subscribed since the magazine started) and it sounds merveilleux! Chig is also slightly amused that the BBC has scheduled this programme at 21:00, directly against Big Brother on 4. I know she's only involved in Big Brother on Fridays, but it's still Davina's programme. I wonder which one she'll be watching live tonight?

While we're on the subject of Big Brother, what is this nonsense they keep propagating about this being their TENTH anniversary week? Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of the UK's Big Brother starting, on 14 July 2000. The tenth anniversary will obviously be on 14 July next year. Is there no one in Channel 4 or Endemol with the intelligence to distinguish between a tenth series and a tenth anniversary? The idiots really are taking over...

Labels: Big Brother 10, idiots, WhoDoYouThinkYouAre?

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Big Brother should be worth watching on Friday. I can't wait to see smug Kris's face when Davina announces he's been evicted. Ha ha.

Labels: Big Brother 10

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Watching Michael Jackson's memorial service has reminded me to add a line to my will. Just in case I don't make it, let it be known now that, when you organise my celebrity-filled, non-religious memorial service, on no account must Mariah 'insincere' Carey be allowed anywhere near it. Thank you.

Labels: funeral, memorial, Michael Jackson

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Milestone UK number one singles

100th Do You Mind? - Anthony Newley (April 1960)
200th Help! - The Beatles (April 1965)
300th Knock Three Times - Dawn (May 1971)
400th Don't Cry For Me, Argentina (February 1977)
500th A Little Peace - Nicole (May 1982)
600th China In Your Hand - T'Pau (November 1987)
700th Twist And Shout - Chaka Demus & Pliers featuring Jack Radics and Taxi Gang (January 1994)
800th Bootie Call - All Saints (September 1998)
900th Lady Marmalade - Christina Aguilera / Lil' Kim / Mya / P!nk (June 2001)
1,000th One Night / I Got Stung - Elvis Presley (January 2005)
1,100th Evacuate The Dancefloor - Cascada (July 2009) TODAY!



Michael Jackson's 'Man In The Mirror' was leading the midweek charts every day this week, but Cascada's new single was closing in on it every day, at a rate which made it look as if they would claim today's number one spot and the 1,100th UK number one, and indeed they have. At least they're alive and available for any PR that the Official Charts Company may want to do with them. The OCC had to put up with Elvis Presley posthumously claiming the 1,000th number one in 2005, so they may have been dreading another dead artist claiming the 1,100th today. (And it's not as if Michael Jackson needs any more publicity at the moment.) The OCC could start by mentioning this milestone to Radio 1. Reggie Yates has presented the Top 40 for three hours this afternoon without mentioning this chart milestone at all, even when he announced Cascada as the number one at the end. The team behind the Radio 1 chart show really is useless.

Cascada are German and Elvis Presley was American, as were the four acts on 'Lady Marmalade', the 900th number one, so the last UK act to claim a 'century number one' remains All Saints, who secured the 800th with Bootie Call in 1998.

'Man In The Mirror' therefore fails to make number one (although there's always next week, with the continued Jacko publicity that his memorial service and funeral will bring in the coming days). This will no doubt surprise the many people who are convinced that it's number one already. Two of my colleagues last Monday informed me that Michael Jackson was number one. I pointed out that Man In The Mirror was number 11, the highest of his six tracks in the top 40, but "it was on Sky News" that Jacko had topped the chart, therefore it must be true, in their eyes. Sky News (and also independent radio) was quoting the 'Big Top 40', which was solely based on iTunes last week. It was not the official chart, which included the (admittedly minimal) physical sales and a much wider range of download outlets. Some people seem to think iTunes IS the UK's music retail industry, but it's not there yet, and history so far will not record a posthumous Michael Jackson number one.

Jackson has however, shattered Presley's record of seven concurrent top 40 hits, with an incredible thirteen of today's Top 40 being by him, up from last week's six entries. All of them climb today and four of them are in consecutive positions #32 to #35. 'Thriller' almost outpeaked its original 1983 peak of #10, but fell away towards the end of the week to land at #12 today. 'Man In The Mirror' at #2 has easily surpassed its original peak of #21.

Michael Jackson hits in today's Top 40:

02 (11) Man In The Mirror

10 (25) Billie Jean

12 (23) Thriller
13 (28) Smooth Criminal

19 (30) Beat It

25 (45) Black Or White
26 (50) Dirty Diana

32 (67) They Don't Care About Us
33 (38) Earth Song
34 (47) The Way You Make Me Feel
35 (44) You Are Not Alone

38 (48) Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

40 (57) Bad

Michael Jackson has also replaced himself at the top of today's album chart, as 'The Essential' pushes 'Number Ones' down to #3, with La Roux's eponymous début album entering at #2. 'King Of Pop' at #5 completes three top five albums for Jacko.

While I was listening to the Top 40 via the earpiece on my mobile, I was multi-tasking, watching the amazingly long Wimbledon final between Federer and Roddick. Pete Sampras was there to see Federer rub Sampras's name from the record books as he moved up to fifteen Grand Slam titles, beating the record of fourteen titles which they held jointly since last month, when Federer won the French Open for the first time. Federer has now won six of the last seven Wimbledon titles, only one behind Sampras himself, while Andy Roddick has lost three Wimbledon finals, all to Federer. I felt so sorry for him. He's never won it, and this looked like it may have been his best chance ever. Federer didn't break Roddick's service at all until right at the end, as he only won two earlier sets on tie breaks, whereas Roddick had won his two sets by breaking Federer's serve twice. It's all part of the glorious unfairness of tennis, where you can win a match by wining fewer games overall, or by breaking your opponent fewer times. Roddick was in tears after losing the final set 16-14. It's not surprising, the poor thing. This picture says it all.

Labels: charts, Number One, Wimbledon

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The top eight albums on the UK's iTunes yesterday were all Michael Jackson or The Jacksons, with a similar situation in most countries that have iTunes, so it's no surprise that his 'Number Ones' album has rocketed from #121 to #1 in the official UK chart today. The compilation originally topped the chart on release in November 2003, so this makes it the third biggest gap for the same album topping the UK chart, behind two longer gaps for ABBA's Gold album.

In the singles chart, Michael Jackson has smashed The Jam's record of having thirteen singles in the top 75. He has twenty in total; 16 solo, 3 by The Jackson 5 and one more by their later incarnation, The Jacksons. Six of them have made the top 40, leaving him just short of the record of seven consecutive top 40 hits, held by Elvis Presley. It was close though, and who's to say it won't change next week? Today's chart covers seven days of sales, with only the last 48 hours being post-Jackson's death, so the impact could continue next week.

La Roux claim the UK's 1,099th number one today, with Bulletproof. The 1,000th number one was an Elvis Presley re-release. Could it be that Michael Jackson will continue the posthumous trend and get the 1,100 milestone next week?

These are the six Michael Jackson tracks in today's top 40:

11 (RE) Man In The Mirror - Michael Jackson. (The only Jacko track to reach a new peak in the Top 40 today, surpassing its #21 peak from Feb 1988. Also made #55 in Nov 2008, after Diana Vickers performed it on The X Factor.)

23 (193) Thriller – Michael Jackson (#10 in Nov 1983. #35 in Nov 2008. Always lurking around the bottom of the top 200 anyway, this now becomes the biggest ever climber to #23.)

25 (RE) Billie Jean – Michael Jackson (#1 in Feb 1983 for 1 week. #11 in Mar 2006.)

28 (RE) Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson (#8 in Nov 1988. #19 in Apr 2006.)

30 (RE) Beat It – Michael Jackson (#3 in Apr 1983. #15 in Mar 2006)

38 (RE) Earth Song – Michael Jackson (Jacko's biggest-selling UK single. His only million seller. Entered at #1 in Dec 1995. #1 for 6 weeks. Also #34 in Jun 2006.)

Here are his other tracks in the top 75:

44 You Are Not Alone
45 Black Or White
47 The Way You Make Me Feel
48 Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
50 Dirty Diana
55 I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
57 Bad
58 Ben
65 ABC - The Jackson 5
67 They Don't Care About Us
71 I'll Be There - The Jackson 5
72 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
73 Rock With You
75 Blame It On The Boogie - The Jacksons

And the rest of the top 200:

78 Heal The World
85 Off The Wall
86 Can You Feel It? - The Jacksons
92 I Just Can't Stop Loving You
95 She's Out Of My Life
96 Ain't No Sunshine
97 You Rock My World
99 One Day In Your Life

106 Scream - Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson
109 Human Nature
111 Rockin' Robin
112 Who's Lovin' You? - The Jackson 5(?)
115 Remember The Time
117 Give In To Me
118 Liberian Girl
119 Leave Me Alone
120 Will You Be There?
125 P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
135 Stranger In Moscow
149 ???
172 The Girl Is Mine (Not sure if this is the 1982 version with Paul McCartney or the one with Will.I.Am from last year.)
177 Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) - The Jacksons
190 Blood On The Dancefloor

Labels: charts, Michael Jackson

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Selections from the UK's iTunes top 100, as of around 13:00 today.

13 Man In the Mirror - Michael Jackson
30 Thriller (Single Version) - Michael Jackson
32 Billie Jean (Single Version) - Michael Jackson
40 Beat It (Single Version) - Michael Jackson
48 I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
49 Ben - Michael Jackson
51 Earth Song (Radio Edit) - Michael Jackson
53 You Are Not Alone (Single Version) - Michael Jackson
56 Black or White - Michael Jackson
57 Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson
59 The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
62 Smooth Criminal (Radio Edit) - Michael Jackson
64 Dirty Diana - Michael Jackson
65 Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
69 Off the Wall (Single Version) - Michael Jackson
75 Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Edited Single) - Michael Jackson
76 Man In the Mirror - Michael Jackson
78 Bad - Michael Jackson
88 Liberian Girl - Michael Jackson
89 Ain't No Sunshine - Michael Jackson
91 They Don't Care About Us (Edit) - Michael Jackson
92 Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Single Version) - Michael Jackson
96 I'll Be There - The Jackson 5

Labels: charts, iTunes, Michael Jackson

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Jacko's tour title turns out to be prophetic, a bit sooner than intended. Gone at 50.

.

I feel sorry for La Roux. 'Bulletproof' was heading for number one this Sunday, but will Jacko now do a Lennon/Presley?

Labels: Michael Jackson

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Here are the first two:

Labels: Big Brother 10, Charlie Drummond

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Quote of the night on election day and the Big Brother launch, from Davina:

"And remember, people died for your right to chat shit about Big Brother."

And with that, on with the show.

1. Freddie, 23
Privileged, Tory voter and anarchist. Family employs two gardeners.
“It’s time to be a young playboy.”
Wearing mad fur hat.
Talking out loud when in house alone, showing off.
From “Staffordshire and Shropshire, like,” he tells Cairon later.
Bisexual, with a preference for women but, "after a few tequilas, all bets are off".
Gemini.

2. Lisa, 41, unemployed. The third legitimate housemate, simply because she answered the phone.
Lesbian converter of straight women, she says.
Red mohican.
Sounds Brummy. I must know people who know her.

3. Sophie, 20, model.
Did nude stuff for Playboy.
“I’m clever.”
Had implants six weeks ago. Wobbly when climbing steps!
Single. Has two chihuahuas.

4. Kris, 24, Visual merchandiser. The fourth legitimate housemate, chosen by Lisa.
For All Saints in Manchester.
Originally from Shrewsbury. Went to Manchester, fashion studies, dropped out, modelled in New Zealand. Went to Ibiza and got the All Saints job.
Big hair.

5. Noirin, 25. The second legitimate housemate, chosen by Rodrigo to have her eyebrows shaved off.
Irish, from Dublin. Religious, tries to follow the ten commandments.
Exhibitionist. Displayed her fangita in a club.
Former athlete; sprinter. Has done a reality TV show before.
Straight and "really unlucky with boys".

6. Cairon, 18, student.
Born in UK, moved to America when aged one.
“I feel weird just wiping my own ass, you know what I’m sayin’?” (When asked if he is gay.)
Attracted to big women.
Fave word = shorty.
Studying music at college. Youngest in house - birthday 5 July.

7. Angel, 35, professional boxer and artist
Russian.
Tough and fit. Was a 'rockstar' - in1992 won award for most promising artist.
Dressed with top hat, skirt suit and cane.
LATER: Boy oh boy, is she bossy! She's leading them in a military-style exercise session in the garden and they're all scared stiff of her!

8. Carly
Another blonde. Scottish. Dated a Scottish 3rd division footballer.
Dropped out of uni after 3 weeks.
Taking two breast fillers into the house.

9. Marcus, 35, window fitter
Wolverine. Nutter.
Arse and soles of feet are “out of bounds”
“I think I’m cool as fuck.”
Fave word = quagmire

10. Beinazir, 28, receptionist
Muslim. Hasn’t been to mosque for years.
Named after Benazir Bhuto.
Taking 149 pieces of jewellery into the house.
"Dippy" and "clumsy".

11. Sophia
“Portable pleasure” at 4’11”.
In banking. Has lupus.
“Fun-loving, fierce, feisty…”
Screamer.
Passionate Eurosceptic.

12. Rodrigo, 23, Brazilian. Became the first legitimate housemate, by answering a call to the diary room.
From Sao Paolo.
Omnisexual. “Britain is turning me gay.”
More BelAmi than euroboy.

13. Charlie Drummond, 22, customer services adviser.
Mr Gay Newcastle 2007.
Two of my friends have apparently slept with him.
Geordie chav.
Looks buff, but intro VT implied he may be a bit of a twat.
More euroboy than BelAmi.
"I'm Charlie, like the drug", he tells Angel.

14. Saffia, dental nurse
Baby of 7 months, child of 6.
Would consider lesbianism.

15. Sree, 25, SU president (Hertfordshire Uni)
Hindu from India
Cute. Loving his accent.
Wearing Union flag shirt, waving Indian flag.
My favourite.

16. Siavash, 23, events organiser
Eccentric. Hairy. Born in Iran. Father was politician, so family had to leave. Moved to Sweden, then UK.
“Uniquely good-looking. Everybody fancies me.”
Full of himself.
Lots of booing.

Labels: Big Brother 10

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Chig has now voted in the Euro election, despite not having bothered to check his poll card first, which would have saved visiting the two usual polling stations and having to come back home to see that it's in a completely different school today. Doh! Turnout extremely low in Balsall Heath, apparently. The nice man said it's normally 43-44% in our ward. It looked more like 10% today, on the pages I saw his colleague flick through. On some pages there were just a handful of names crossed out (as having voted), with three columns per page of voters.

Now bring on Big Brother!

Labels: Big Brother 10, elections

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Will we be seeing this proper Charlie later with Davina?

LATER: Yes, we are!

Labels: Big Brother 10

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If you're not sure which party best represents your views in the European elections today, why not go to VoteMatch and answer thirty quick questions? It will then give you your score for all the main candidates in your Euro constituency. (Top Tip: I recommend you leave all parties highlighted at the end, rather than choosing who you might vote for, as it then gives you a whole set of results.)

My results contained some shocks. No surprise that the Greens come out on top, given that I'll be voting Green, as I always have done in Euro elections, and I've voted for them since they were the Ecology Party. But the Lib Dems would be my only second choice, but they're fifth here, reflecting the fact that they're just a bit too Euro-enthusiastic in some aspects for my liking. I would never vote for any of the others, so seeing Libertas(!) in joint second with the new Jury Team and the Tories in fourth is a bit of a shock. Still, it's not domestic policies, but my score for Labour just sums up how detached I am from them these days.

Green Party 51/62

Geoffrey Coady (Jury Team) 39/62
Libertas 39/62

Conservative Party 34/62

Liberal Democrats 33/62

UK Independence Party 31/62

Labour Party 21/62

I just hope people don't vote for the three homophobic parties; the English Democrats, the BNP and the Christian coalition. Nasty, nasty parties, all three of them, for a variety of reasons. But I fear Sunday night is going to contain some hard-to-swallow results for the country, not just for Gordon Brown before he resigns on Monday.

But first, we probably have to watch the Tories take control of all four of Labour's county councils tonight. For once, I won't be staying up for it. It's too depressing. (And I'm on early shift at work on Friday.)

Labels: elections, Europe, Green Party

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Chig is saddened to hear that a link with the past has finally been broken today with the sad death of Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic. She was rescued from the sinking ship as a baby, and reached the grand old age of 97. I feel an appropriately sombre tribute is due.

But no, there's always a Eurovision connection. Let's have this instead.

'Titanic' by Frederik



You might think that a jolly pop song about 1,517 people dying when a boat sank, by Finland's answer to Engelbert Humperdinck (meets David Hasselhoff) could be inappropriate. But no, for Frederik, songs about sinking boats are his speciality. Here's another one he made, about the tragic sinking of the MS Estonia ferry in 1994, which killed 852 people. Frederik's capacity for songs about seafaring disasters is truly astonishing. How was he overlooked when Ferry Aid was put together?

'Estonia' by Frederik

Labels: Eurovision, Finland, Frederik, Titanic

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Today, 17th May, is Norway's National Day. Could it possibly have started any better for Norway? It was about fifteen minutes into the National Day, Norwegian time, when they won Eurovision for the third time last night/this morning. Congratulations to Norway and congratulations to Alexander Rybak who celebrated his 23rd birthday this week. Not only did he perform 'Fairytale', but he wrote it too. With his record score and record winning margin, with points from every single one of the other 41 countries, it was a phenomenal victory, although he didn't quite beat the 'percentage of available points' record which the UK still holds through Brotherhood Of Man in 1976, so he's not quite the biggest winner ever.

Congratulations too to Jade Ewen and the BBC team. Achieving the UK's first ever fifth place was just fantastic (and I don't just mean because it filled in a gap in our record of the last 52 years!) It made for such an enjoyable evening for us, as points rolled in for the UK from a fantastic 31 of the 41 countries. All that touring by Jade paid off, as did her flawless performance. (Although someone told me that Jade was hit in the face by one of her violinists during the song. Did you see that?)

Jade has entered the official singles chart at #50 (up from #103 last week, which must have been cherry-picking from the Eurovision album, as Jade's single package wasn't released until this week). The CD is out tomorrow, but #50 is already nearly twenty places higher than Andy Abraham managed last year with his Eurovision single. Jade is now also in the iTunes top twenty at last, after a steady climb all week.

I had a fantastic Eurovision night, with the party at the Wellington, then seeing Jessica Garlick and Scooch perform at the Nightingale and chatting with all of them, before I made it home for 5:30am, but the late night and the alcohol have enabled the cold which had been stalking me for the last few days to well and truly take hold today. It has bunged up my nose and ears and nearly knocked me out, so I'm having an early night as I can hardly breathe.

More facts, figures, observations and photos later this week.

In the meantime, Alexander Rybak has jumped from #204 on the UK iTunes chart yesterday to #4 today. Sixteen of the 25 Eurovision finalists figure in the UK iTunes chart today, as listed below. Funny how we gave Turkey our 12 points and yet they're so low down the iTunes chart, isn't it?

Norway #4
UK #15 and #254
Iceland #33
Germany #75
Estonia #86
Sweden #88
Azerbaijan #91
Turkey #94
Finland #107
Portugal #121
Ukraine #124
Armenia #125
Denmark #147
Greece #168
Moldova #207
Russia #216

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Norway

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You have to feel for those who are attending the Eurovision final in Moscow tonight, especially the performers, as the show starts at 23:00 local time, scheduled to finish at 02:15. That means the winner's media conference will probably start at around 03:00 and finish about 04:00. Then there's a party... Good luck, all of you!

My each way bets for tonight, placed before the semi-finals, are on these five countries to finish in the top four. Obviously at least one of them will fail, but it won't matter, especially if Armenia make it again. (They were fourth last year.)

Song 08 Greece
Song 09 Armenia

Song 11 Azerbaijan
Song 12 Bosnia-Herzegovina

Song 20 Norway

If Bosnia don't make the top 4, I will be surprised and a lot poorer. My ten bets for Thursday's semi-final produced a return of £37.04, after betting £38, so despite getting eighto ut of ten right, Ilost 96p overall. I did better on Tuesday, withonly seven right but a profit of nearly £16. At least I'm in profit overall, so far.

I'm worried that there are now nine countries which I think could win and the more I think about France, the more I think it could be them. I hadn't realised until this week that Patricia Kaas is famous in the East as well as Western Europe. She received a gold disc for album sales in Russia in her Eurovision media conference this week. Her performance seems to stop everyone in their tracks, being described as "stunning" and "mesmeric". A second win for France, with Paris next year, would be wonderful. It just won't win me any money.

But I've only narrowed down the potential winners to eleven countries. Ha, ha. I don't think the fourteen not listed here have a chance, but won't it be funny if I'm wrong?

The potential winners are, I believe:

03 France
08 Greece
09 Armenia
11 Azerbaijan
12 Bosnia-Herzegovina
15 Estonia
18 Turkey
19 Albania
20 Norway
21 Ukraine
23 United Kingdom

The UK votes 20th tonight, out of the 42. We're after Lithuania. Will we reduce our usual recent points for Greece and Turkey in favour of Alexander Rybak for Norway? Will we also give middle points to the Swedish popera? Possibly yes in both cases.

The last five countries to vote are all from Eastern Europe, so if it's neck and neck between, say Norway and Bosnia, the Eastern country will win. A Western country will need to have a commanding lead after Denmark votes 37th in order to win.

Something you should know about Jade Ewen. The UK entry was given away last week as a free CD with Russian OK magazine, so lots of Russians have it. This was arranged by Universal, her record company. I've also read that it has SOLD another 100,000 copies in Russia. I'm expecting big points from Russia later, if not some of her former satellite countries too. Putin promised it to Andrew Lloyd Webber, after all.

Another thing you should know is that MTV Russia had a poll three or four weeks ago and viewers voted the UK winner of all the 42 songs. The winner! Is it any wonder we're slightly excited?

Here in the UK, Jade has at last sneeked into the midweeks at #69 in the official UK chart, taking sales up to Thursday night into account. She's up to #43 on iTunes, where Alexander Rybak's 'Fairytale' has also sneeked in at #204, being cherry-picked from the Eurovision compilation album.

Whatever you're doing tonight, have fun and enjoy what promises to be a spectacular show, with better presenters, Cirque du Soleil and a flying Dima Bilan, plus some close voting, I hope, made more unpredictable with the input of music business juries deciding 50% of the vote from each country, with televoting accounting for the other half.

If you want a pointless prediction, I'll go with this:

1st Bosnia-Herzegovina
2nd Norway
3rd Greece
4th France
5th Azerbaijan
6th United Kingdom

23rd Spain
24th Romania
25th Germany

I'll be watching at the Wellington in Brum with about 20-30 people crammed into the pub's small back room, before popping out later to see Jessica Garlick and Scooch at the Nightingale. It should be quite a night!

Labels: Eurovision 2009, final

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The banned Slavic Pride parade (as it had been renamed) in Moscow 'sort of' took place earlier today. I awoke to the news (on Five Live) that Peter Tatchell had been arrested there. It's nothing less than I expected, but given that the mayor of Moscow had banned the Pride parade but approved counter-demonstrations by right wing groups with a history of attacking these gay events, I salute the bravery of Tatchell and the Russian people who took part. Around 20 of them have been arrested.

The Toppers, from the Netherlands, had vowed to boycott tonight's Eurovision final if the Pride parade was attacked today, but they didn't make the final anyway. Kudos to Malena Ernman though, representing Sweden tonight, who has spoken out in favour of the parade and said she would be proud to call herself gay for the day. We love Sweden.

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Moscow Pride, Slavic Pride, Sweden

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Jade Ewen at last night's second dress rehearsal for the Eurovision final tonight. Big in the hall, apparently, although the stage crew is having difficulty bringing her staircase on stage in time, so they had to cut to the green room in the rehearsal. Barring a croaky voice or Jade falling over in her high heels, I really think we're heading for the UK's best result since 2002, when Jessica Garlick came third. Anything worse than top ten will now be seen as a failure, but I think we could really be top six and, with the wind in the right direction, yes, I think there's a possibility of winning. Brace yourselves, Cardiff! Fingers are very firmly crossed.

Photo (c) All Kinds Of Everything 2009.

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Jade Ewen, UK

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...is Mike's article in today's Guardian. The online version is here. Very good it is too, as he previews ten of the songs in tomorrow's final.

It's perfect reading while we sit and wait for streaming (or YouTube) of the UK's media conference in Moscow today (13:30 BST, 16:30 Moscow time). Jade Ewen, Graham Norton, Diane Warren and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber all at once! It should be good.

UPDATE: ESC Today's report on the UK conference is here.

Labels: Eurovision 2009, UK

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Scandal in Spain.

Spanish TV (TVE) has broken the Eurovision rules. They showed last night's semi-final, in which the Spanish public was due to vote, with an hour's delay, preferring to continue with a tennis match from the Madrid Masters instead. Consequently, it was impossible to have a televote, so Spain's points (still a secret until early Sunday morning) were determined by the five music biz people who made up the Spanish jury.

No one bats an eyelid when a country like Andorra has a televote that's too small and the back-up jury vote is used instead, but for one of Eurovision's Big 4 to do this intentionally, with a population of forty million people represented by five, because of a tennis match, this is scandalous. Spanish Eurovision fans are furious!

It's even worse than it sounds, because Spain had originally been due to vote in Tuesday's semi-final, with Germany and the UK. Only two weeks ago, they asked for permission to vote in the second semi-final instead, so that Spanish TV could show a political debate. This raised a few eyebrows, as it was the first case of a country choosing which show to vote on when the competing songs were already known. It also left Portugal and Andorra in despair, stranded without their usual points from Spain. (Portugal survived and made the final. Andorra didn't.) Nevertheless, the EBU consented to TVE's request but now it has been a complete waste of time as they didn't bother to show last night's semi-final in real time.

Spain has broken the rules, which oblige any voting country to show the programme live, but will anything happen? Will the EBU dare to punish one of the Big 4? It would be unfair to punish Soraya, who closes the Eurovision final on Saturday, with one of Spain's best songs for years. Maybe they should be forced into the semi-finals next year? Or maybe Spain should be replaced in the Big 4 by Russia (or Sweden!) Maybe that's what Spanish TV is trying to achieve anyway?

Labels: Eurovision 2009, scandal, Spain

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(Blogged live, while watching the draw on eurovision.tv)

The countries in bold are tonight's qualifiers, in the slots they've just drawn in the conference hall in Moscow. Rather charmingly, the numbers are on bits of paper inside Matrushka dolls. Thankfully only one doll.

Alexander Rybak from Norway pulled out the draw he needed - 20th slot. Of the slots still available tonight, only 21st could have been better.

It's now a very slow start to the final. For those who think the French song is also dreary, they'll have nodded off until Sweden wakes them up at song four.

Ukraine drew the prime slot that was left, at 21. Saturday's final certainly builds up to towards the end now!

01 Lithuania
02 Israel
03 France
04 Sweden
05 Croatia
06 Portugal
07 Iceland
08 Greece
09 Armenia
10 Russia
11 Azerbaijan
12 Bosnia-Herzegovina
13 Moldova
14 Malta
15 Estonia
16 Denmark
17 Germany
18 Turkey
19 Albania
20 Norway
21 Ukraine
22 Romania
23 United Kingdom
24 Finland
25 Spain

Labels: draw, Eurovision 2009

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But first, as I fear he won't get through tonight, here's my Sexiest Man of Eurovision 2009 award. It goes to Zoli Ádok, who will look very good singing and dancing with a vest on tonight for Hungary. Sadly, his song's a bit mediocre, but if people vote for the best hunk in a vest, he could be in luck. Zoli's the one on the left by the way. The one on the right is the lovely Franko from the OnEurope blog team. Franko has been having his picture taken with almost all of this year's contestants (32 out of 42 when I last asked) and the results are all here on his Flickr photostream.

Predictions then.

Qualifying for the final from tonight's second Eurovision semi-final in Moscow.

Dead certs:

Norway - CORRECT
Azerbaijan - CORRECT
Greece - CORRECT

Quite likely:

Moldova - CORRECT
Albania - CORRECT
Netherlands - WRONG
Denmark - CORRECT

Next most likely:
Ukraine - CORRECT
Estonia - CORRECT
Latvia - WRONG

So that's my ten. In Tuesday's semi-final, I struggled to find seven songs, after seeing the performances, that I wanted to progress to the final. In tonight's semi-final, there are fourteen I'd like to see go through, so there is bound to be some disappointment.

I haven't done any big bets tonight, but I've put between one and ten pounds on each of the ten above, just for the sake of it.

Sadly, tonight's hosts in Moscow will be the same as Tuesday's. Reports from Moscow say they're even worse in rehearsals, and the performers are having more trouble singing in tune too.

If the BBC doesn't show the interval act tonight, I'll probably withhold my licence fee, after they deprived us of t.A.T.u. with the Red Army Choir on Tuesday, doing my favourite t.A.T.u. song, Not Gonna Get Us. I'd been looking forward to it, but we got a pointless interview instead.

BBC Three, 20:00 BST.

Labels: Eurovision 2009, predictions

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The physical release of Jade Ewen's 'It's My Time' was supposed to have been this week, but it's been postponed to next Monday instead, obviously so they can put 'Eurovision 2009 winner' stickers on the CDs. The download was released on iTunes though. As physical sales only account for around 2% of singles sales nowadays, the delayed CD release shouldn't be preventing Jade from storming the charts on Sunday then, should it?

Let's see how the Radio Edit has been doing in the iTunes chart so far this week.

By Sunday night: made #93
By Monday night: fallen to #110
By last night: up to #68

UPDATES
Wednesday night: up to #62
Thursday night: up to #59
10:00 Friday morning: up to #52
Friday night: up to #43 on iTunes, but now appearing in the official chart's midweeks (up to Thursday night) at #69.

Not exactly setting the world on fire, is it? If Polydor/Universal had released the song as a download in March, when Jade won Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, it would easily have gone top 5 on the back of the TV exposure and, with the way singles sales work these days, it would still be hanging around and having a resurgence now. I expect it will go much higher than #68 eventually but still, an opportunity wasted. So far.

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Jade Ewen

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Дмитрий Шепелев (Dmitriy Shepelev) was easily the best thing about the hosts of last night's Eurovision semi-final. He looked even hunkier than this picture and his silliness in the Green Room was easily forgiven, compared with the two main hosts, Andrey Malakhov and Natalia Vodianova, who were atrocious, as per usual for Eurovision. He has spent the last ten days hosting nearly a hundred media conferences for the assembled hacks, so he deserves a pat on the back. I would be happy to give him one.

Russia had a year to prepare for this, but only announced the hosts last week. Did no one want the job? The lack of preparation showed through as clearly as the lack of a scriptwriter. If they had one, they must have wasted all their time writing that twaddle for the opening sequence, which wasted five minutes of my life. We have to put up with the terrible twosome again on Thursday. They should promote Dmitriy to the main stage and get rid of the bouffant man. Luckily, we have completely different hosts for Saturday's final, in the sexy shape of Alsou, who represented the motherland in 2000, famously accompanied by equally sexy British dancers David and Will, who Wogan memorably described, with a talent for accuracy which sometimes deserted him, as "big girls' blouses". Alsou will be accompanied by the splendidly named Ivan Urgant. Perhaps he will live up to his (almost) surname and just get on with the bloody thing.

Here's another picture of Dmitriy Shepelev, this one in the Eurovision media centre, courtesy of eurovision.tv. Every day that goes by makes me wish a little more that I'd gone to Moscow. Sigh.

Labels: Dimitriy Shepelev, Eurovision 2009, Дмитрий Шепелев

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Ideal size for hosting Eurovision 2010.
Ideally located to suit BBC regionalisation policy.

Hosts: Jessica Garlick & James Fox.

Sorted.

Labels: Cardiff, Eurovision 2010

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Excellent news for Jade Ewen and the UK, as two dancey numbers which haven't a hope of winning have just been drawn before her and after her in Saturday's final. This is the best we could have hoped for. There's now no likely winner near the UK at the end of the show. Dare we hope? Dare we?

The media masses in Moscow have apparently gone into a UK-based frenzy following this draw. Andrew Lloyd Webber clearly convinced Mr Putin to allow weak songs to be drawn around us to make us look even better. Spasiba!

The line-up for Saturday's Eurovision final now looks like this. Tonight's ten qualifiers are in bold. The Big 4 and hosts Russia were already drawn into place. The other ten places will be taken by Thursday's qualifiers.

01
02 Israel
03 France
04 Sweden
05
06 Portugal
07 Iceland
08
09 Armenia
10 Russia
11
12 Bosnia-Herzegovina
13
14 Malta
15
16
17 Germany
18 Turkey
19
20
21
22 Romania
23 United Kingdom
24 Finland
25 Spain

Labels: draw, Eurovision 2009

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Qualifying for the final from tonight's first Eurovision semi-final in Moscow.

Dead certs:

Armenia - CORRECT
Turkey - CORRECT
Bosnia-Herzegovina - CORRECT

Quite likely:

Malta - CORRECT
Portugal - CORRECT

Next most likely:

Belarus - WRONG
Switzerland - WRONG
Romania - CORRECT
Sweden - CORRECT
Bulgaria - WRONG

So that's my ten, in a very unpredictable semi-final tonight. This semi-final is far, far worse than Thursday's. I struggle to find ten songs I want to put through to the final from tonight's eighteen. On Thursday, there are far more deserving songs.

I have serious bets on Armenia, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina qualifying tonight. If they do, I'm laughing. I also have smaller bets on Portugal and Malta, plus a wildcard bet on Belgium, despite reports of bad rehearsals (see also Sweden), on the basis that the whole of Europe loves Elvis.

Have fun tonight if you're watching with the lovely Paddy O'Connell on BBC Three, 20:00 BST.

Labels: Eurovision 2009

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