Last week was the first major week in the national final season of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with four live shows being held. To keep you updated, we will take a look back at the live shows that have been held so far. To make sure that you won't miss anything, every week starting next Monday, we will take a look back at the previous week.

Weeks 1-5

The first official televised show in order to select a song for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest was the first Maltese semi final, which was held on 9th December. Some other countries have kicked kicked off their national selections since.

Belarus

It looked like Belarus would be the country to open the 2010 national final season. The program Musical court kicked off on 20th November and it was organised by channel ONT, which was supposed to take over the responsibilty for the Eurovision Song Contest from BTRC. However, this did not work out and BTRC therefore launched its own selection and is currently looking for songs. Musical court was also not an "official" national final show as it was only supposed to select a song that could "represent Belarus in any international contest". After five semi finals and a final, the contest was won by Artyom Mihalenko with the song Don't play in love.

Malta

Malta kicked off its selection on 9th December with the first semi final being held. Another four semi finals followed over the next weeks so that a total of 30 songs has been presented so far. The last semi final will be held tomorrow with another six songs competing. There were no direct qualifiers from each semi final – instead, a total of 20 songs will be chosen by televoting and a jury out of all 36 to compete in the grand final on 20th February.

• Live report of the first semi final here.
• Live report of the second semi final here.
• Live report of the third semi final here.
• Live report of the fourth semi final here.
• Live report of the fifth semi final here.

Netherlands

Technically, there has been no televised show in the Netherlands so far. However, the demo version of the Dutch entry was presented on radio by its composer Pierre Kartner on 18th December. Ik ben verliefd (Sha la lie) will be performed in six different versions by six different performers in the country's national final on 7th February.

• You can read more about the song presentation here.

Albania

Albania was the first country to hold its national final this year. 48th edition of the annual Festivali i kenges was held over four days. On 24th December, the 18 songs that had been chosen to compete in the grand final were presented for the first time. On 25th December, a semi final was held for newcomers. Another 18 songs competed and a jury chose two of them to compete in the grand final: Goldi Halili with Tirana brodway and Iris Hoxha with Zërin tim ta ndjesh. On the third night, all 20 finalists presented their songs in new versions along with other famous artists, before the final was held the day after. At the end of the show, Juliana Pasha was chosen by the jury to represent Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song Nuk mundem pa ty.

• Live report of the first presentation show here.
• Live report of the semi final here.
• Results of the semi final here.
• Live report of the second presentation show here.
• Live report of the final here.
• Complete results of the final here.

Norway

The host country of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 launched its televised selection MGP (Melodi Grand Prix) last Friday with the first semi final being held. Seven acts presented their songs and the telvoters decided to send 2008 representative Maria Haukaas Storeng to the final with her entry Make my day. The other qualifiers were band Keep of Kalessin with The dragontower. Another two acts were chosen for the second chance round.

• Live report of the first semi final here.
• Results of the first semi final here.

Finland

Another Nordic country launched its selection last Friday as the first semi final of Euroviisut was held in Finland. Five acts competed and three of them were chosen for the final: Amadeus with Anastacia, Nina Lassander with Cider hill and Pentti Hietanen with Il mondo è qui. The two acts that were eliminated are still in the running for the jury wildcard, which will be given to one of the six non-qualifiying acts from the three heats.

• Live report of the first semi final here.
• Results of the first semi final here.

Iceland

Unfortunately to those who have to spell it frequently, Söngvakeppni sjónvarpsins returned as the Icelandic national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 on Saturday. The first five acts presented their songs and it has been decided by televoting that Írís Holm and Matthías Matthíasson will compete in the final with their songs The one and Out of sight respectively.

• Live report of the first semi final here.
• Results of the first semi final here.

Switzerland

It had already been announced that Michael von der Heide would represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song Il pleut de l'or and on Saturday, the song was officially presented during the SwissAward.

• You can read more about the song presentation here.

Week 6: The preview

Wednesday, 13th January	Malta	6th semi final
Friday, 15th January	Finland	2nd semi final
Saturday, 16th January	Norway	2nd semi final
Iceland	2nd semi final

Songs already chosen for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-46lj-rl0Ac&rel=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTcAerUAyQg&rel=0