The 2008 national final season for the Eurovision Song Contest keeps going on. No less than ten live shows will be held on Friday Saturday and Sunday. Five countries will select their songs for Belgrade, two will continue their search for Belgrade and one country will kick off its selection.
Slovenia
The two semi finals and the final of EMA 2008 will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. Again, a total of 20 songs will be presented with the top five of each heat going straight to the national final. In 2007, Alenka Gotar managed to bring Slovenia to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since the introduction of the semi final in 2004, so the expectations should be high.
Latvia
Eirodziesma 2008 will kick off on Saturday with the first semi final being held. The selection procedure is the same as in Slovenia, there will be two semi finals with 10 song takíng part in each, the top five will be chosen to go forward to the national final. This system has been used since 2005, partially succesfully as in 2005 Latvia reached the final and finished fifth and in Helsinki the country reached final where it finished out of the top ten.
Denmark
After two semi finals and two second chance rounds on Danish radios, Denmark will eventually select it participant for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The remaining ten songs will be presented and the winner is to be chosen by regional SMS voting. After a surprising top ten finish in 2005, Denmark was not very succesful in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest and had to stay in the semi final in Helsinki.
Estonia
Estonia is one of the two unlucky countries that were eliminated in all four semi finals broadcast so far. Nevertheless, the popular national final Eurolaul will decide over the winner again. Like in recent years, ten acts will perform one song each and the winner will be chosen in two rounds of televoting with the first selecting the top three. This national final will be broadcast on eurovision.tv.
Lithuania
More or less surprisingly, this year's semi finals of the Lithuanian national selection were held without any major problems. Four songs of each of the three heats were chosen by televoting to qualify for the final, where they will meet the two pre-qualified acts. The winner will be chosen by televoting.
Azerbaijan
The first entrant ever for Azerbaijan will be chosen on Saturday. The broadcaster promises a spectacular show, which will also be broadcast on eurovision.tv. Three acts all compete to become the country's debutant act.
Iceland
The third of four semi finals in Iceland will be held on Saturday with another three acts competing. Two entries will go forward to the national final on 23rd February, the third placed entry will be eliminated for good.
Belgium
The second of four quarter finals is to be held on Sunday with another five acts competing. Again, the top two will be chosen by televoting while the third and fourth places entries will be still in the running to get one of the jury wildcards. The last placed entry will be eliminated for good.
