Results of the Mediterranean and Former Soviet Polls!!!!

The results of our 4th and 5th Poll are in!! Here are what they look like -

Mediterranean
France - 40%
Israel - 21%
Spain - 20%
Greece - 16%
Turkey - 16%
Malta - 10%
Portugal - 4%
Cyprus - 2%
                               (Overall amount of votes - 83)
So Amaury Vassili from France and Dana International from Israel will proceed to our Big Poll!

Former Soviet
Estonia - 47%
Azerbaijan - 26%
Russia - 19%
Belarus - 15%
Georgia - 9%
Latvia - 9%
Armenia - 6%
Lithuania - 5%
Ukraine - 5%
Moldova - 1%
                                  (Overall amount of votes - 72)
The qualifiers of the Former Soviet Poll are Getter Jaani from Estonia, and Eldar & Nigar from Azerbaijan.

So here is what our Big Poll line-up looks like now -

Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Serbia & Sweden

Our last two polls are "Remaining Eastern Countries" and "Remaining Western Countries". This is the line up for those two polls -

Remaining Eastern - Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia
Remaining Western - Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom.

Make sure you vote on our last two polls!!!!

Israel

Israel

Artist - Dana International

Song - Ding Dong

Draw - Semi-Final 2, Place 12

Sharon Cohen, better known as Dana International was born in 1972, and is arguably one of the worlds famous transsexuals. As well as this, she was also the winner of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, with her smash hit single, "Diva". Sharon was born as Yaron Cohen, but at the age of 13, she came out as a transsexual. In 1993, she released her first album, "Danna International". (After the first few years, she dropped a "n" out of Danna). In 1995 she tried to represent Israel at Eurovision, but failed to do so, coming second in the pre-selection. In 1998, she successfully represented Israel, and won the show, as well as winning the hearts of many european nations. After this her fame boomed, and Sharon became famous all over Europe, as well as having Israel's most selling single in 2007, "Love boy". She also wrote the song that represented Israel in 2008 "The Fire in Your Eyes", that was sung by Boaz.

It was announced that Dana International would return to K'dam, and after a great national final, she won the show with the song "Ding Dong".

Dana International wrote the song herself, and it is performed in both Hebrew and English.

Current Betting Odds (William Hill) - 80/1

My Prediction - A lovely song, with a beautiful meaning. I definitely think this will progress to the final. Placing between 8th and 22nd.

                                        בהצלחה

Revamped Versions!!

Over the past few weeks we have seen many of the songs for this years ESC develop. Lets take a look at some of the new "revamped" versions of some songs.

First up is the Norwegian entry, "Haba Haba". I think they have done an excellent job with this! They grab you into the song by starting with a snippet from the chorus, and they have added much more of a beat to the song, so now it really has a brilliant african feel to it.

Next we have a former Eurovision champion, Dana International. Her entry has been given more of a dance/electronic feel to it, which I think will work in Israel's favour!

Comeback nation, Italy, have also released the new version of their entry, under the new title "Madness of Love". This includes both Italian and English lyrics. My only concern is that by adding english lyrics, it may of taken away the Italian charm of the song......

Slovenia, Iceland, Albania and Hungary recently released the english versions of their entries for Eurovision too. Do you think they have improved?