The Eurovision Countdown Begins! (and another brush with showbiz!)

Some of you who have been reading for a while may remember that I am a bit of a fan of the annual naff-fest that is The Eurovision Song Contest.

The contest is now in its 52nd year, growing larger every time new countries get added to tha European Union. I must admit I have no clue where some of the new countries even are! As a result of this growth, the contest now has a qualifying round which some countries have to go through.

The Finnish band Lordi won the contest last year with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" with a record 292 points. "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was the first ever hard rock song to win the contest (Eurovision is normally associated with cheesier pop music). This was also Finland's first victory in Eurovision after 40 years of participation, and I hated it!

In the UK, we start the competition with a qualifying show to find our entry. It used to be called "Song For Europe" but was renamed a few years ago as "Making Your Mind Up", a flashback to the days of Bucks Fizz, (the UK winning song in 1981) and when the rest of Europe still liked us enough to vote for us!

(There's a link there especially for you Vic!)

This political voting that always takes over the judging is one of the things that I actually enjoy about it! Booing at the ridiculously obvious favouritism makes me chuckle!

"Nil pwah to ze stoopid English!! Haha!"

I had a bit of an odd introduction to one of the tracks last Saturday night. I was at work, and at about 10pm 4 unfeasibly good looking guys came in, all obviously friends of Dorothy (2QT2BSTR8 as the t-shirt used to say). They really were quite stunning, and fit! They looked like dancers.

At the end of the evening they were the only customers I had left in the restaurant, and were all up practicing a dance routine (I got that right!).

They were having a little bit of trouble with this routine, they couldn't remember the tempo of the music. One of them then asked me if I wouldn't mind putting on their cd so they could run through a quick rehearsal.

I asked what they were rehearsing for. "We're on at GAY in about an hour!"

"Really? Who are you dancing for?" I asked

"One of the Eurovision entries, the girl that used to be in Atomic Kitten" replied the stunningly pretty, blue eyed bit of totty who was now taking his sweat top off while he spoke to me, and the intro to the song began.

"Oh right! Brilliant!" I said as I tried to remain cool and keep my eyes ahead, "Liz McClarnon isn't it? So are you gonna be doing "Making Your Mind Up?""

"I don't know what the songs called to be honest" he said, completely misunderstanding the question. Bless!

"No, I meant the competition actually not the song. It's what the preliminary round's called"

"Oh right! Yeah we are!" He laughed, flashing a beautiful smile.

So there they were, with Liz McClarnons' song blasting out over my speakers, two of them dancing through the routine, while the other guys, one of whom turned out to be the choreographer, watched and laughed about the thongs the guys were going to have to wear on stage.

I was very tempted to suggest they tried a quick dress rehearsal, but refrained! I was at work after all!

Anyway, I organised a taxi for them to get to their gig, and wished them luck. As they left, the choreographer thanked me for all my help, the second time this week I had a good shoulder patting!

They appeared in the red tops the next day here.

"Making Your Mind Up" is on BBC this Friday, 17th March.

YOU KNOW WHO I EXPECT YOU TO VOTE FOR!!