The Danish search for a song that can bring them into the Eurovision Song Contest final kicks off tonight and for the first time ever this is done over 3 weeks including two qualification heats.

Update

The first four entries that reached the final round were now announced:

• Danni Elmo – Meaning of life
• Jacob Andersen – Listen to love
• Annette Heick – Copenhagen airport
• Annika Askman – Fly

A detailed review on the show will be provided later tonight.

The greater effort DR has put into its national selection seems to have added some more variety and the line up for the two qualification heats looks very interesting. We still haven’t heard the songs, but judging from the list of names, Denmark might be in for something big this year. The 16 acts divided into two heats include many well-known singers as well as songwriters. Based on the kind of music these artists normallyproduce ,it does indeed look like a bigger variety musically than has been achieved before.

Tonight, 8 songs will be performed, out of which four will qualify directly for the grand final held on 10th of February. Next Friday four more songs will qualify in the same way leaving two positions open to wildcards that will be selected by two radio stations. As usual in Denmark it is 100% televoting deciding the results.

LIVE VIEWING
They show will be broadcasted live on DR1 at 20:00 CET tonight. It will include a 30 minute break where the TV news will be on. At 21:30 the show will continue in order to announce the winners.
Previously DR has not wanted to set up a webcast for people abroad, but due to pressure from the fans they have given in and the show can therefore be watched live by clickinghere.

UPDATE
esctoday.com has spoken to officials at DR and they cannot explain at this point why there are problems connecting to the web broadcast. They suspect that the problem is to do with too many people trying to access the live broadcast but no definitive answer can be given at this time.

Fans in Denmark are also complaining that the picture on the television broadcast is breaking up too.

The 8 songs for the first qualification heat, including phone numbers to use in order to vote, are:

Song nr. 1: Paparazzi – Christoffer Brodersen
To vote by phone call 701929 01
To vote by sms: Sang 01 to 1212

Song nr. 2: Listen to love – Jacob Andersen
To vote by phone call 70192902
To vote by sms: Sang 02 to 1212

Song nr. 3: Flammer indeni – Dariana & Olau
To vote by phone call 70192903
To vote by sms: Sang 03 to 1212

Song nr. 4: Copenhagen Airport – Annette Heick
To vote by phone call 70192904
To vote by sms: Sang 04 to 1212

Song nr. 5: Meaning of life – Danni Elmo
To vote by phone call 70192905
To vote by sms: Sang 05 to 1212

Song nr. 6: On top of the world – Heidi Degn
To vote by phone call 70192906
To vote by sms: Sang 06 to 1212

Song nr. 7: Fly – Annika Askman
To vote by phone call 70192907
To vote by sms: Sang 07 to 1212

Song nr. 8: It ain’t for the money – Camille feat. DJ Mary
To vote by phone call 70192908
To vote by sms: Sang 08 to 1212

The hosts will give the green light for the voting to start after all 8 songs have been performed.

Whoever wins the Danish final on 10th of February will have to start in the semi-final due to Sidsel’s Twist of love which didn’t end in top 10 at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.

Click here to read more about the participants.