News: The Last Big Weekend for Announcements

With the deadline for countries to announce their acts edging closer and closer, this coming weekend will see five more nations reveal the acts they'll be sending to Moscow. There's definitely an 'Eastern European' flavour to proceedings though, with Estonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine and our Russian hosts all making their minds up.

Our very own Jade has got a busy weekend ahead too, as she travels to Russia and then to Ukraine to sing at each country's selection show. It will be Jade's first visit to Moscow, giving her a sneaky glimpse of what's to come in May.

All eyes will of course be on Moscow on Saturday Night (and not just because Jade's going to be there!), in order to check out Russia's chances of pulling off a win for the second year running. Only Spain, Luxembourg, Israel and Ireland have ever managed to win two consecutive contests, but with the might of Eastern Europe apparently on their side, could Russia be about to join them?

Will Estonia make it through the semi-finals this year? Despite not managing to get through to the final since the semis were introduced in 2004, Estonia are still desperate to take part and to do well. So desperate in fact, that even though an attempt was made to boycott the contest over political issues, the public stood firm and 66% of them voted to send an act to Moscow. But who will it be...?

It's Slovakia's first Eurovision in 11 years, so it will be interesting to see who they pick to be the first representative since Katarína Hasprová in 1998. That was the year the UK last hosted the contest, a time before we'd ever suffered our 'nil point' blow - could Slovakia's re-entry into the contest be a lucky charm for us this year?

Last year's hosts Serbia are selecting their entry in style at the Beovizija music festival. It's a huge event, with lots of special effects and famous guests. They are also, most importantly, planning to sing some songs from famous Serbian TV shows; we're not sure how this will help, but we're sure they've got their reasons.

After "Shady Lady" took them to a second consecutive 2nd place in 2008, Ukraine is hoping to claw its way to victory this year. With 15 finalists competing for the top spot, the competition, held at the National Palace of Arts on Sunday night, will be fierce. With a hugely successful run of entries in recent years, surely the Ukrainians have to be one of the favourites, don't they? Hopefully Jade's appearance at their national selection show on Sunday will knock their socks off!

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