All eyes on Moscow as Eurovision takes the stage

THE 2009 Eurovision Song Contest kicks off in Moscow tonight as one of two semi-finals gets under way prior to the grand final on Saturday.

Having won last year, Russia gets to host the contest for the first time and has promised that it will be a spectacular affair. The official opening ceremony was held in the city’s Olympiski sport arena yesterday and was performed by Lys Assia, the winner of the first contest for Switzerland in 1956.

This year, Ireland’s hopes rest with Sinead Mulvey and Black Daisy, an all-girl pop group from Dublin. The Irish entry, Et Cetera, will be heard in the second semi-final on Thursday, along with the entries from 18 other countries on the night. Overall, 42 countries will take part in this year’s contest.

Sinead came very close to representing Ireland in the Eurovision in 2005 when she made it to the national final. She was delighted when her dream came true this year as her performance with Black Daisy saw Et Cetera top both the public and jury vote in this year’s Irish Eurosong final.

“I have been a Eurovision fan for as long as I can remember,” said 21-year-old Sinéad. “Representing Ireland in the Eurovision is truly a dream come true for me and I can’t wait to rock Russia with Black Daisy and Et Cetera!”

However, the bookies have not looked too kindly on Et Cetera’s chances of winning. Norway’s entrant Alexander Rybak is the favourite to win while Black Daisy is ranked 28th in the odds.

Missing from this year’s events will be the barbed BBC television commentary of Terry Wogan. His place will be taken by fellow Irishman Graham Norton. “It’s a huge honour. I’ll be trying not to hear Terry’s voice in my head and do my own comments,” said Norton.

Another major change this will year will see the return of jury voting in an effort to curb bloc voting by neighbouring countries.

This year, 50% of the result of the Eurovision final will be decided by music industry juries in each of the 42 participating countries.

Proof that, though often scoffed at, the Eurovision is still alive and well is Google’s interest in this year’s contest. The search engine has launched an application to track the popularity of entries and broadly agrees with the bookies.

Using the Predictor gadget available on iGoogle pages, it also ranks Norway first but places Ireland at a disappointing 36th which indicates that we are unlikely to make the final.

The Predictor is available at www.google.com/eurovision where you can find the latest news about the competition and watch YouTube videos of the participants.