12points.tv

++ First impressions of this week's MF songs  ++  Do we have Jedward's real songtitle now? ++ MGP Come Back for Alexander Rybak ++..

The Irish are going to bring their entries out in the open, this afternoon. The 5 songs for the national final on 24 February will be presented in the RTÉ radio show Mooney (listen here). Among the contestants there are two Eurovision veterans: Donna McCaul (Ireland'05) and Jedward (Ireland'11).

News Round-up of the day. On thursday we will know who won the 50th aniversary of the Festivali i Këngës.

Albanian broadcaster TVSH will start tonight with the first of four shows leading to the country's representative in Baku. The Festivali i Këngës is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. Tonight and tomorrow 14 artists each will try to win one of the 16 tickets for the national final on 29 December. On 28 December a special show fill feature winners from the past of the festival.

The broadcast starts at 20:30 CET, and a webcast is promised, but we have no details about that yet.

News Round-up of the day. 40 songs in Finland are still in the race to become the country's hope in Baku.

You can listen to all songs here. Among the most liked songs, a jury will select 12 songs that will get a propper radio version. Liking is easy, just press the Tykkään button underneath the clips. The Finish final will take place on 25 February in the Helsinki Ice Hall.

News Round-up of the day. A source close to the Jedward brothers revealed that the twins have received 100´s of songs.

For the second year in a row the Jedward brothers are going to be trying to represent the Irish republic in the Eurovision Song Contest. Their manager Louis Walsh apparently is listening to all the songs, submitted from all over Europe, as he is desperately looking for a song that is better than last year´s entry Lipstick.

News Round-up of the day. Internal selection still possible, says EBU's Event Supervisor Sietse Bakker.

Earlier this year the EBU's reference group decided that participating countries no longer were allowed to internally select their Eurovision entries. We've now already seen examples where it is clear that the rule has not yet been effectuated (Belgium and Serbia to name a few). Our Dutch partner Songfestivalweblog.nl interrogated Sietse Bakker about this and found out that as long as the reference group has not decided about the exact details of this new measurement, it will not be validated yet. This means that the new rule is not yet applying on the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.

News Round-up of the day. The Jedward Brothers released their new music video today, wow oh wow.

They are joined in the clip by American Pie actress Tara Reid, whom they met in Celebrity Big Brother, earlier this year. Watch the clip below.