The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet gave its readers the chance to judge all of the 42 songs this year, and not surprisingly The Ark from Sweden tops this chart. Surprisingly however Finland�s Hanna Pakarinen is the clear number two – closing in on number one – followed by Sarbel from Greece, Eirikur from Iceland and the Russian girls of Serebro.

Hanna Pakarinen can now take a deep breath and relax. She hasn’t been doing so great in the various Internet polls and betting. Some criticism has come from the home front as well, but at least the Swedes seem to love her. The readers had a chance to give from 1 to 5 points to each song, and she was beaten only by Sweden’s own The Ark who got 3,57 as an average vote. Hanna was a close second yesterday with 3,52. Today Tuesday the voting has become more exciting as Hanna has reached 3,57 as well and is now sharing the first place with The Ark. Her video on-line at Aftonbladet site is also the most watched. Sarbel from Greece received 3,04 points, Eirikur Hauksson and Serebro from Russia completed the Top 5. See the current chart here.

“We must do as good as a show as possible to be remembered,” says Hanna who will perform fifth in the final. “We will do something that will stick in people’s minds so they will still remember me when the voting starts”.

“Wow! That’s amazing!” commented SonyBMG’s Kimmo Valtanen from Las Vegas when he heard the news. “We now have the experience with Lordi behind us so we know where to go from here. Lordi wasn’t doing so well in polls and betting last year until the very last moment so everything is possible,” he remembers. “However the Eurovision Song Contest is such a huge mystery, you can never predict what will happen on Saturday night.” He firmly believes in Hanna Pakarinen and her song. “After hearing and seeing the previews, I see now that besides The Ark from Sweden only Hanna can be clearly put into some genre."

"Thanks the Finnish people for a good choice," Valtanen concludes, "The choice was right and we are on a way to another success”.

Ukraine’s Verka Serduchka received the worse mark of all from Aftonbladet readers with an average of one point. Croatia’s and Lithuania’s entrants didn’t do much better in the newspaper's poll.