It is going to be an exciting week: no less than nine live shows will be held all over Europe tonight, on Thursday, on Saturday and on Sunday. Three countries will choose their songs for Belgrade, four countries will continue their search and one country will kick off its selection.
Belarus
The Belarussian final will be held tonight. The four acts that have been chosen in the semi final exactly one month ago will compete against each other to become Belarus' fifth representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. Of course, the expectations are high after the country has reached the final of the song contest for the first time in 2007 to achieve a top 10 placing.
Malta
Both the semi final and the final of Malta Song for Europe 2008 will take place this week. The first show airs on Thursday with 17 songs competing. An expert jury will choose the eight best songs to move forward to the national final on Saturday, where the eventual winner will be decided by televoting (80 %) and a jury.
Norway
The third an last semi final in Norway will be held. Again, six songs will be presented and televoting chooses the two songs to go directly to the national final and the two entries to enter the second chance round. This semi final includes among others Lene Alexandra who is currently in the lead of the esctoday.com poll.
Bulgaria
The semi final of the Bulgarian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest will be held on Saturday. It is a complicated line-up: it includes nine songs from the EuroBGvision heats that were chosen by televoting, another five songs from these heats that were chosen by a jury and four additional wildcars entries that went directly to the semi final. Nine of these semi finalists will be chosen by a jury to go to the national final on 23rd February, where they will be joined by another three, "new", wildcard entries.
Czech Republic
Eurosong, the Czech national final, will be held on Saturday. The country debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest and finished last in the semi final with only one point. Ten acts will compete for the ticket to Belagrade and the winner will be again chosen by SMS voting.
Lithuania
The third and last semi final will be held in Lithuania on Saturday. Eleven music acts will compete for the final four spots in the national final on 2nd February, where a total of 14 songs will be presented.
Iceland
The second semi final of Laugardagslögin will be held on Saturday. Three songs will be presented and the top two will go forward to the national final on 23rd February.
Belgium
Belgium's Eurosong will kick off on Sunday with the first quarter final being aired. The formula is the same as in 2006, but this year five instead of seven songs will be presented in each heat. The top two songs will be chosen by televoting to go forward to the semi finals. The third and fourth placed entries are in the running to get a jury wildcard for one of the semi finals.
