The interest in Eurosong 2004 keeps rising. More than a quarter of the Flemish population watched the second semifinal last Sunday! With 1.642.000 viewers Eurosong 2004 was the second most watched programme of the week. Tonight the third semifinal takes place in Flanders, Belgium.

Some big names in the third semifinal should guarantee another success for Flemish broadcaster VRT:

Astrid – Don't you stop the music
Raffaele – Freakin' destiny
The Acrolls – The happy song
Roxane – Television game
Garry Hagger – I will choose you
Marjolein – Say love
Spring – Jan zonder vrees

Idols participant Astrid opens the third semifinal with Don't you stop the music, a disco song written by the Paelinck brothers. Next on stage is Raffaele, a discovery of Eurosong 2002. Raffaele�s success is based on the unique mixture of English and Italian in his songs, which already delivered him several hits. With Freakin' destiny his aim is to do better than in 2002, thus reaching the final.

The Acrolls see to the funny intermezzo with the self-written The happy song, a singalong guitar pop tune. The more shaggy work is for Roxane. The former Miss Antwerp who could count on a lot of airplay for her first three singles performs the electropop song Television game.

Lots of references for Garry Hagger, who scored a number one hit right after he won the Soundmixshow in 1995. In 1996 he finished fourth in De Gouden Zeemeermin, the show in which Flanders chose a song for the Eurovision Song Contest. This year he sings I will choose you, a ballad written by John Terra, composer of two Belgian Eurovision songs: Liefde is een kaartspel, performed by Lisa del Bo in 1996 and Like the wind, performed by Vanessa Chinitor in 1999.

Then it's time for a Paelinck song again, sung by Marjolein. Say love is the title of her song, a combination of funk and gospel.

Top of the bill tonight is Spring, one of the most popular groupes in Flanders at the moment. The groupe exists of four actors of the soap serial Spring, aired on VRT�s youth net Ketnet. Spring already scored three huge hits in Flanders. Their first single was number one in the Flemish single charts for eight weeks! Their debut album Spring is number one in the album charts at the moment for already eight successive weeks. At Eurosong 2004 they sing Jan zonder vrees, a pop song in Dutch.

The third semifinal of Eurosong 2004 takes place tonight at 20.15 CET and is aired on TV1. You can expect the results on esctoday.com tonight, right after the show.