Last weekend, the national final season for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest continued. Another ten live shows were held all over Europe in nine different countries. For those who missed some of the shows, let's take a look back on what has happened.
Norway
Both the last chance round and the national final were held on Wednesday and Saturday respectively. In the first show, the results were surprising when Tinkerbells and Ole Ivars went forward to the final and early favourite Lene Alexandra was eliminated for good. In the national final, Maria Haukaas Storeng was the clear winner in the superfinal, where the final four entries were performed again. She will take part in Belgrade with the song Hold on be strong written by Mira Craig.
Finland
The first Euroviisut semi final was held in Finland. Four songs were presented and Movetron and Kari Tapio were the two acts to go forward to the national final. The remaining two acts will enter the second chance round.
Hungary
On Friday, the Hungarian national final took place. 15 songs – all in Hungarian – will be presented and the winner will be chosen in two rounds of voting: Csézy won the national final with Szívverés, only one point ahead of the runner-up. It is already known that the song will be performed in English as Candlelight in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Latvia
The second semi final of Eirodziesma – one of the few shows with no webcast -took place on Saturday andagain, ten songs were presented and five of them went straight forwardto the national final on 1st March. Two of those songs were chosen by a jury and the other three by televoting.
Sweden
One of the Eurovision Song Contest's most popular national selections will kicked off on Saturday: the first semi final of Swedish Melodifestivalen was held. Like in recent years, eight songs were presented in the heat. Christer Sjörgen and Amy Diamond won the two tickets to the national final while Suzzie Tapper and E-type and the Poddles will take part in the second chance round.
Moldova
From the 27 songs submitted to the broadcaster TRM, twelve had been chosen to take part in the national final last Saturday.The country's fourth representative in the contest will be Geta Burlacu with the song A century of love. She wasn't the clear winner as she finished only second inthe televoting. She wasthe favourite of the expert jury but has only been seen third by the TRM jury.
Romania
Romania, a very popular Eurovision Song Contest country in recent years, kicked 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 went directly to the national final on 23rd February.
Iceland
The fourth and last semi final was held in Iceland. Another three songs were presented and the top twocompletedthe line-up of the national final on 23rd February: Ragnheiður Gröndal and Mercedes Club. Haffi Haff was eliminated from the competition.
Belgium
The third of four quarter finals was held in Belgium. Again, five songs were presented and the top twowere chosen by televoting to take part in the semi finals: Geena Lisa and Nelson. Di Bono was eliminated from the competition for good.
Stay tuned for a preview on what will happen this week.
