While the 2008 national final season for the Eurovision Song Contest is about to come to an end, nine live shows were held last week, among them another six national finals. Let's take a look back on what has happened and how the list of songs and singers keeps filling.

Israel

Israel's Kdam 2008 was held over two stages with the performances shown on Monday and the voting show being held on Tuesday. Boaz Mauda had performed all songs and the one chosen is Kailu kan composed by Dana International with lyrics by her and Shay Kerem. It is, which has become kind of on Israeli tradition, performed in Hebrew and English.

Greece

"Never change a winning formula" must have been the motto in Greece when Kalomoira was the winner of the national final on Wednesday with Secret combination. Although only three singers took part, it was one of the longest national finals – but also one of the most spectacular ones inluding the representatives of various other countries and many show acts.

Georgia

Georgia chose its second representative in the Eurovision Song Contest on Wednesday. Diana Gurtskaya, who took part in the Belrussian national final in 2007, was the winner of the televoting getting almost 40% of the calls. The lyricist is Karen Kavaleryan, who already wrote the lyrics to the Ukrainian entry this year Shady lady. It is the second year running he is taking part for two countries and already the fifth he country he represents as a lyricst, which marks a record in the contest.

United Kingdom

On Saturday, the first big four country (and first country directly qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest final) chose its representative: the United Kingdom. In one of the most complicated selections that only consisted of one show, Andy Abraham was chosen to represent the country, which used to be very succesful but has only finished twice in the top ten in the last ten years, with the song Even if, co-written by the singer himself.

Latvia

The results in the Latvian national final were anything but a surprise: Pirates of the Sea, who had won the televote in the first semi final with about four times as many votes as the runner-up, will go to Belgrade with their song Wolves of the sea. One of the members of the group is Roberto Meloni, who already represented Latvia last year as part of bonaparti.lv.

Sweden

Sweden was the only country with a semi final on Saturday. In the fourth Melodifestivalen heat, the two favourites were chosen to go forward to the national final on 15th March: Linda Bengtzing and 1999 Eurovision Song Contest winner Charlotte Perelli. Another two acts went to the second chance round which will be held this week.

Finland

Both the second chance round and the national final were held on Saturday so that we heard all 12 songs in the Finnish selection again after all. However, none of the second chance contestants made it to the top three. The winner was the band Teräsbetoni with Missä miehet ratsastaa. If the lyrics are not changed to English for Belgrade, it would be the first Finnish entry performed in the national language since 1998.

Belgium

The second and last semi final of Belgium's Eurosong 2008 was held yesterday. From the five representatives, two were chosen by televoting: Ishtar and Sandrine. Furthermore, the jury has chosen Brahim to get the wildcard for the national final to be held this week.