The Month of May is all about the Music

This week, why not join some 200 million people joining in with May’s Month of Music, let us unite with the peoples of the 41 countries taking part in the fabulous event that is the 64th Eurovision Song Contest.

The first semi-final will take place on the 14thMay, with the first 17 countries to compete being Cyprus, Montenegro, Finland, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus, Serbia, Georgia, Australia, Iceland, Estonia, Portugal, Greece and San Marion.

The second semi-final will take place on 16thMay when Armenia, Ireland, Moldova, Switzerland, Latvia, Romania, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Croatia, Malta, Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Norway, Netherlands, North Macedonia and Azerbaijan will contend for a place in the final.

The final will take place on 18thMay and the 26 countries who make it through the semi-finals will be joined by Israel, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom on the night.

The one thing that you can guarantee with Eurovision is there will be a variety of acts, tunes and genre, and at least one song for everyone. Israel is hosting the event this year, after Netta won in 2018 with her empowering Japanese style anthem ‘Toy’.

This year we have a wide selection from Iceland’s ‘anti-capitalist BDSM techno band, Frances LGBT YouTube star Bilal Hassani, a four-piece Polish folk band called Tulia, some major retro vibes from Montenegro with a little number that would not have been out of place back in the 1990’s, indie pop from Czech Republic and Australia is offering up an opera star.

Since debuting in 2015, Australia is now a permanent fixture at Eurovision. I know, you are all going to point out (what with our geography lessons this year very much focused on find places on the map) - that that Australia is not in Europe. It’s a long story – just go with it! Australia has had a fairly good track record in the finals - whereas, we haven’t!

Don’t expect the UK to do well on the night- basically we have done poorly for quite some time now.

But Eurovision is not about the UK winning or losing - it is about the music. Weird and wonderful it may all be. I would like you to take part if you can. Firstly, by watching the final event. You don’t have to watch the whole 3 nights - just the final, if that is what you want. And even then, you don’t have to watch the voting at the end. You don’t even have to watch it in real time either, but I would like you to score your favourites 12 points for your first choice, 10 points for your second best, 8 points for the third, and so on 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point to your tenth choice. We will count up your votes and see who we think is the best!