For those of you with Netscape extensions, I call this colour scheme 'Planet in Blue'!

The Preselection on March 20th and 21st produced some stunning results, especially the failure to qualify by Germany and Israel.
Officially the details are secret, but it is now known that Sweden won this contest overall, with Ireland someway behind in second place, and Turkey third. UK was 12th.
The real contest will have different juries, with 16 members instead of 8, and they will see the artists too, so everything could change.
ARD has previously announced that if Germany didn't get to Oslo, they wouldn't show the final. However they have relented - it will be shown later. Germany is the only country to have been in all 40 contests, but this record will now be broken.
Croatia was pretty brave. On Friday they had a scheduled documentary on their selection contest, the Dora. Had Croatia not passed pre-selection, this might have been more of an inquest.

Jury Report

Here is a report from a juror in the United Kingdom jury, who wishes to remain anonymous.
"There were 8 jurors in the UK jury. We heard the songs twice on Wednesday, and once on Thursday morning. They were presented mostly in alphabetical order of country. We had only the English title, and country. No lyrics were provided [different to the real final].
Sound quality was excellent, being fed from Digital Audio Tape into large speakers. Each of us voted on the last playing on Thursday morning, in the form of 12 points to the best, 10 to the next, 8, and so on [again different to the real final where each song is voted on - here only 10 songs got votes from each person]. There was the odd show of hands for a draw, and we were told the results were to be kept secret amongst ourselves.
After a long excellent lunch on Thursday, the results were faxed to Geneva. We were told to phone the BBC on Friday at 4pm for the final result, but when I phoned they were unable, or unwilling, to give me anything but that the UK was through.
I am stunned Germany, and Israel are out."

Jury comments

Here are the juror's comments on each song heard, with the English titles given.
It seems some versions presented had been changed since the national finals.
The UK jury's votes, and some other countries votes, are below this list:

• Austria - Cos you feel good - uptempo; pop-like
• Belgium - Life is a card game - Seventies style lively song; faster than on the Belgian contest
• Bosnia-Herzegovina - For our love - Ballad; good voice
• Croatia - Holy Love (or 'Holly love' as it said on the sheet) - Ballad, but singer screams harshly.
• Cyprus - Only for us - A fine ballad
• Denmark - Only with you - A very nice duet. Reminded of 'up where we belong'; not popular in the jury
• Estonia - Sound of Necklace - Catchy melody, but unpopular in the jury
• Finland - How fair the sky above us - Catchy, folksy song
• Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia(FYROM) - Only you - Awful; horrid voice
• France - May the children be born - Rather dull, Irish flavour ballad with panpipes
• Germany - Blue Planet - Very catchy, lively and modern; popular
• Greece - We turn our winter into spring - Ballad nice voice typically Greek
• Hungary - Fortuna - OK not unpleasant. Mentions Budapest, Copenhagen, Sarajevo
• Iceland - Shu-bi-do - Elvis gets a mention; pleasant. Manhattan transfer-like. Popular
• Ireland - The Voice - Very popular, but rather contrived. Riverdance meets Nocturne. Singer's voice weak
• Israel - Peace to the world - Female uptempo. Lively; you could imagine the dancing
• Malta - In a woman's heart - Unpleasant curiousity
• Netherlands - The first time - Mixed up, un-original, but OK
• Poland - I want to know ny sin - Almost as bad as last year, but opinions varied
• Portugal - Colourless heart - Pleasant, grows on you, but nothing special
• Rumania - Prayer for the peace of the of the world - Nice song, but another screechy voice
• Russia - Me its me - OK but boring. Throaty voice.
• Sweden - The Widerness Mistress - Much stronger than on the Melodifestival. Better backing, stronger voices. Opinions were mixed
• Slovakia - Till you have us - Male voice; forgettable
• Slovenia - The day of the most beautiful dreams - Nice melodic song
• Spain - What a desire - Strange!! jazzy
• Switzerland - My heart loves him - Sounds like Annie Cotton. Goes nowhere
• Turkey - The fifth season - Faster than on the Turkish contest; pleasant

Preselection Votes

Here are some of the votes for each jury, as I have them. There is some confusion over the UK votes. The version I have is from a reliable source:

  
  Jury ->   UK  Dutch Ireland Portugal
Belgium      7    -      4       6
Cyprus       2    -      -       -
Denmark      -    -      2       -
Estonia      -   10      -       -
FYROM(Maced.)-    1      -       -
France       -    -      5       4
Germany     10    -      -       -
Greece       -    -      -      10
Hungary      -    5      -       -
Ireland     12    6      -       3
Malta        -    -      6       2
Netherland   -    -      3      12
Poland       1    8      -       -
Portugal     6    4      -       -
Rumania      -    -      1       -
Russia       5    -      -       -
Slovenia     4    3     10       -
Spain        -    -      -       5
Sweden       8   12     12       8
Switzerland  -    2      7       7
Turkey       3    -      -       1
UK           -    7      8       -

Thanks to some 'reliable souces' for all this news.

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