Like last week, ten shows will be held all over Europe in the 2008 national final season for the Eurovision Song Contest. Three countries will choose their entries for Belgrade, three countries will kick off their selections and another three will continue theirs.
Norway
For the first time this year, a live show will be held on a Wednesday: the last chance round of Norway's Melodi Grand Prix. The third and fourth placed entries of the three heats will be presented once again and the top two will join the six songs already chosen for the grand final on Saturday. Last year, one ofthe last chance entrants – Jannicke Abrahamsen -was very succesful in the final finishingsecond.
Finland
Euroviisut 2008 will kick off on Friday with the first semi final being held. Four songs will be presented and the top two are to be chosen by televoting to go directly to the national final on 1st March. The third and fourth placed entries will enter the second chance round on 29th February.
Hungary
The Hungarian national final will be held on Friday. 15 songs – all in Hungarian – will be presented and the winner will be chosen in two rounds of voting: in the first round, a jury will choose the six best songs, and from these six the winner will be chosen by televoting. The winner will have to follow in the footsteps of Magdi Rúzsa, the runner-up in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest semi final and who placed 9th in the final.
Latvia
The second semi final of Eirodziesma – one of the few shows with no webcast – takes place on Saturday. Again, ten songs will be presented and five of them will go straight to the national final on 1st March. Two of those songs will be chosen by a jury and the other three by televoting.
Sweden
One of the Eurovision Song Contest's most popular national selections will kick off on Saturday: the first semi final of Swedish Melodifestivalen is going to be held. Like in recent years, eight songs will be presented in each heat. There will be two rounds of televoting, the first round will select the top five. In the second round, the top two will be chosen to go forward to the national final on 15th March while the third and fourth placed songs will enter the second chance round on 9th March.
Moldova
From the 37 songs submitted to the broadcaster TRM, twelve have been chosen to take part in the national final this Saturday. In the line-up, we can find some singers who have already taken part in previous Moldovan national finals. The country's fourth representative in the contest will be chosen by televoting(1/3) and two different juries (1/3 each).
Romania
Romania, a very popular Eurovision Song Contest country in recent years, will kick off its national selection on Saturday. The selection follows the same procedure as in 2006 and 2007 with two semi finals being held including 12 songs each. Half of the songs in each heat will go directly to the national final on 23rd February. Hopefully, the selection will face less disqualifications and withdrawals than last year when only eight songs remained in the final.
Iceland
The fourth and last semi final will be held in Iceland. Another three songs will be presented and the top two will complete the line-up of the national final on 23rd February. Next week, there will be a special show looking back on the total of 16 qualification shows.
Belgium
The third of four quarter finals will be held in Belgium. Again, five songs will be presented and 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.
