There are two new names in the Russian National final. Their names are well known to the Eurovision Song Contest audience.

Polina Smolova presented Belarus in 2006 but did not qualify for the semi final. This year she will try her luck with Russia. The other name is Sergey Lazarev. He takes part in the national final for first time but his name was highly tipped.

The Russian national final will be on March 8th and will start at 18.40 CET.

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Due to the political developments in Armenia the government has imposed a State of Emergency.

The Armenian national final that was scheduled for March 8th is canceled. The final was set to take place in Academic Opera but in this situation it will be filmed at a television studio. ARMTV’s spokesman said: “It will be unfair and not correct towards people who have recently lost their relatives during these latest developments in Yerevan to hold the concert. Instead, ARMTV is arranging a National Final TV Show. It will take place at the same day and at same time”.

The show should start at 18.30 CET this Saturday.

Expert jury appointed by RTCG - Montenegro broadcaster, has chosen the song thet Stefan Filipovich will perform. Among another 4 songs “Ne daj mi da poludim” has been selected. Composer of the song is Grigor Koprov, author is Ognen Nedelkovich and arranger is Vladimir Dojcinovski. The same song has been recorded in English under the name “Never forget that I love you”.

Probably the song will be performed on March 8th on televised show.

BBC will broadcast both semi finals on 22nd and 24th of May. The announcement was made on the UK final. The British public will be able to vote only in the second semi final. The show will be aired live on digital chanel BBC 3 as it is in recent years. The show on May 24th will be broadcasted live on BBC1.

Lorena C has filled the tenth place in the Spanish national final for Eurovision 2008. She has been chosen to replace Null System, who was disqualified for breaching Eurovision rules. She will perform her song “Piensa Gay”.

 The song “Mourning” by Null System have been disqualified from the Spain national final. The information was confirmed by the Spanish national broadcaster RTVE.

There was information from readers that the song appeared to have been available to purchase since July 2007. Investigation has been done and it was proved that Null System broke the rules.

The jury is working on selecting a new song to replace “Mourning”.

The Spanish national broadcaster will be airing the national final next Saturday. The show will be held in Madrid, in Avenida de Burgos in Estudios Bunuel. The show will start at 22.30 CET. It will be broadcast by TVE International America few hour later, too.

 In Eurocancion 2008 will compete 10 participants. 5 of the singers have been selected by the public through internet and another 5 have been selected by jury. The main idea of each one of them will be to take the golden ticket and to represent Spain in Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade.

A special show will organize the Andorran national broadcaster RTVA. It will be on March 12th with Gisela.

In special interviews, Gasela will talk about the promotional champagne of “Casanova” and will tell interesting information about the making of the video. The show will last 45 minutes. Later in Cataluña the show will be aired by TV3.

The Spanish broadcaster TVE has announced five singers who will join the public favorites in the national final for Eurovision 2008.

The jury favorites are:
Ell*as -”100×100″
Null system- “Mourning” 
Marzok Mangui- “Caramelo”
D-vine- “I do you” 
Innata- “Me encantada bailar”

The complite list for the Spanish national final on March 8th is:
Rodolfo Chikilicuatre - “Baila el chiki chiki”
La Casa Azul - “La revolución sexual”
Arkaitz - “Un olé”
Coral - “Todo está en tu mente”
Bizarre - “Si pudiera”
Ell*as -”100×100″
Null system- “Mourning”
Marzok Mangui- “Caramelo”
D-vine- “I do you”
Innata- “Me encantada bailar”

 The national broadcaster NDR revealed the five celebrities who will present the participants on the stage on the German national final which will be held on March 6th. The celebrities should convince the public to vote for them. The both semi finals will be aired.

Oliver Pocher (comedian) for Marquess
Marc Bator (news anchor) for the No Angels
This year the supporters will be:
Katja Ebstein (singer) for Carolin Fortenbacher
Kim Fisher (comedian) for Tommy Reeve
Tetje Mierendorf (comedian) for Cinema Bizarre

The UK national final will be hosted by Adrianes Chiles and Christine Bleakley. It will start at 20.00 CET.

Rob McVeigh said “I’m the only one with a ballad and I feel it would be a new approach for the country”. Simona Armstrong another participant said ” “I love singing, I love performing, if you like my song please vote for me”. These are their answers to the question ‘Why should you win Eurovision?”

Sirusho will represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. As many their countries, Armenia’s national final will give the chance the public to choose their song among 4 or 5 songs.

The national final will be on March 8th at 18.30 CET. The final will be hosted by Andre and Hayko and Felix Khachatryan. If the singer wants to perform her own song it will be allowed to sing it. That song will be released just before the Armenian final. About that she says:“It is important to choose the best song taking into consideration that people in Europe also vote according to their first impression. When the song is not good for the first time when people hear it, but it is “not bad” for the second time we have a completely different picture. So I trust that this selection will be interesting not only because of new songs, but the votes will draw the most realistic picture we want to have. Let’s see what happens.” 

TV Russia finally announced the participants in the Russian final 2008 for Eurovision Song Contest. A special jury shorted 25 finalists. They will compete on March 9th, in the Akademicheskiy Concert Hall at 21.20 Moscow time.  The winner will be decided by eight - member jury and televoting.

The full list of finalists is:
1. Andrei Makarenko (Nizhniy Novgorod)
2. Nora Adam (Moscow)
3. Natalia Terehova (Moscow)
4. Natalia Astafieva (Chelyabinsk)
5. Anna Mushak (Sankt-Peterburg)
6. A-Studio band (Moscow)
7. Alexandr Panayotov (Ukraine)
8. Prime-Minister band (Moscow, Ukraine, Mongolia)
9. Pierre Narciss & Jam Sheriff (Camerun, Nigeria)
10. Alexei Vorobyov (Tula)
11. Zhenya Rasskazova (Moscow)
12. Yuliya Mikhalchik (Moscow)
13. Aza Bataeva (Grozniy)
14. Anatoliy Alyoshin (Moscow)
15. Elena Gorbushina (Gorskaya) (Moscow)
16. Zhenya Otradnaya (Moscow)
17. Tamila Grischenko (Odintsovo)
18. Roman Bezhin (Moscow)
19. Alsou Zainutdinova (Kazan)
20. Dima Bilan (Moscow)
21. Max Lorens & Satsura (Belarus)
22. Monte-Christo band (Moscow)
23. Sabrina (Moscow)
24. BK band (Pyatigorsk)
25. Olga Vyarvus (Tiraspol)

Ukrainian national final was held and the audience decided Ani Lorak to sing the song Shady lady. She sang all five songs but the public chose the song composed by Philip Kirkorov with lyrics by Karen Kavaleryan.

The results are:
“Shady lady” - 14 points
“A dream for a brighter day” - 8 points
“I’ll be your lady” - 8 points
“Ya stanu morem” - 4 points
“Zhudu tebya” - 2 points

Tonight will be presented the 5 songs of Boaz Mauda on the broadcaster’s official site. The special show will be broadcasted by IBA. For the first time the songs will be performed to the public next week on Kdam-Eurovision, which is the Israel national final for Eurovision Song Contest 2008. The program tonight will start at 22.45 local time.

The songs in competition are:
“Ke’ilo kan” by Dana International and Shai Kerem
“Masa Haiyai” by Itay Pearl
“Hin’e Ha’or” by Ovadia Hamama -  A duet with Maya Avraham
“Bli ahava” by Henree
“Parparim” by Doron Gal - A duet with Oshrat Phaphir