As things start to heat up in the lead-up to this year's Eurovision Song Contest, two of the top favourites to take the Grand Prix in Athens are getting serious with the promotional and commercial activities.

Just back from a promotional tour that took in Greece's capital and host city, Sweden's Carola will be pleased to hear that her song has spent its second week at the top of the Swedish Music Charts, while Evighet has shot to the number nine spot in Norway in its first week of release.

At the same time, Belgian entry Kate Ryan has released details of her forthcoming tour of Europe. The gruelling schedule starts at the beginning of April and whisks Kate off to the following countries:

7 April: FYR Macedonia
8 April: Croatia
9 April: Slovenia
11 April: Cyprus
14 April: Greece
15 and 16 April: Malta
19 and 20 April: Sweden
21 April: Latvia
22 April: Lithuania
26 and 27 April: Ukraine
28 April: Poland
29 April till 4 May: Germany
(Tour dates subject to change.)

The promo tour is becoming one of the regular features of the modern Eurovision Song Contest, with the participants of the UK, FYR Macedonia and Slovenia being only a few of those who will try to spread the word over Europe during the coming weeks. Fans can expect some fierce battles to win the public's favour!