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Today NRK started their quest for Eurovision 2012. Norway seems determined to get the contest back. The Norwegian broadcaster has started the difficult the difficult task to find Norway's ESC hope in 2012. With Alexander Rybak's victory only two years ago, the Norwegians have not given up hope yet, after two years of not having been too successful. Didrik Solli-Tangen did not have the country return to the top ten in 2010 as all Norwegians expected, and catchy Haba Haba by Stella Mwangi did not even manage to make it to the final! 2012 will bring new chances!

The Norwegian and the Oslo Tourist Boards are very happy about the results of the Eurovision Song Contest as it has brought them millions of free promotion. Innovation Norway has counted the number of tv reports all around Europe, about Oslo and Norway in the period before and after the contest and come to a number of more than 10,000 tv programmes. According to Visit Oslo that's 134 miliion Europ worth of free publicity! They already see growing numbers of bookings and tourists coming to Oslo. Source NRK

News Round-up of the day. Rumours, don't we just lost them, according to a Norwegian fansite, Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak might return next year. 

Returning as a lyricist that is, writing a song for Maria Haukaas Storeng (Norway 2008). Rumours say the two of them will be invited as wildcars in Melodi Grand Prix, the Norwegian edition....

News Round-up of the day. Ben Cramer (Netherlands 1973) tries to get a ticket to the Dutch national selection with the song Zonder jou (Without you). He said this in a interview with RTL Boulevard.

540 songs were submitted to UMK, the Finnish national selection. This is a new record. The highest number of songs submitted was in 2005 whit 503 songs. Last year 277 songs were submitted.

Baku kicks off with a lot of fire and a lot of paisley...

Buta Palace was Baku's hotspot tonight for a multitude of events, all within the runtime of an approximate 2,5 hours. The key to Eurovision is in Baku, we have a venue, artwork, a slogan and we know what the competition is for our favourite countries...

News Round-up of the day. It was never really sure if they were gonna participate, now they have a singer.

Number two in the 2009 edition of Pop Idol in Slovakia, Miro Šmajda, will represent her country in Azerbaijan next May. A song has not been selected yet.

++ 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).

++ Don't play that song again ++ Graham Norton believes in Jedward ++ No Fairytale ++ Engelbert enters at 64 in UK charts ++..

Another rehearsal day has come. All rehearsals can be seen here. This will be the first day the big five and Azerbajan will rehearse. And also tonight the official opening party will be held in the Euroclub. Opening parties are the official kick off of the Eurovision week, where the hosting city welcomes the delegations. Yesterday evening Eurovision DJ Lars Peter dared to play an Armenian song in the Euroclub, Apricot Stone. He survived this, but the dancefloor emptied immediately. Today the Euroclub management has told the Eurovision DJ's that this is strictly forbidden from now on.

++ Results from Bulgaria, Latvia and Iceland ++ Miro # 1 in Bulgaria ++ Alex and Alex in Danish jury ++ Lisa Stokke ++..

During the first heat in Iceland yesterday evening an old acquaintaince managed to get through to the final. Jónsi (Iceland 2004) is trying to represent his country for the second time, in a duet with Greta Salóme (not related to one of Spain's last winners, as far as we know. On the eurovisionsite made by Icelandic broadcaster RÚV, you can listen to all songs and even watch the show. Apart from Greta and Jónsi's Mundu eftir mér, Blár Ópal's Stattu upp also made it.