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Well two out of five isn’t bad. Is it? I knew my favourites wouldn’t match those of the 42 Eurovision juries and voting public. I was at least correct in Norway winning, Alexander Rybak fiddling like a man possessed right into the Eurovision record books with the highest ever points tally of 387. It was well-deserved; even though we knew he’d win months ago, he put on a good show, and his self-penned entry Fairytale did more than enough to get 12 points from 16 juries.

My other prediction that was almost correct was Turkey. Hadise came fourth with Dum Tek Tek, one place higher than I had her ahead of the final on Saturday night. I had Iceland sixth, but Johanna put on a belting performance of Is it True? bagging her second place, and making me realise that the song was much better than I had first thought. Another emotive performance came from France’s major-selling artist Patricia Kaas, taking her beautiful Et S’il Fallait Le Faire to eighth place.

I wasn’t quite so hot with Ukraine, Sweden, and Greece. Ukraine came a more than disappointing twelfth, 10 places below where I had placed Svetlana Loboda, while Greece was seventh (I had them fourth). Blonde diva Malena Ernman finished 21st out of the 25 competitors, her Swedish blend of soaring pop opera not impressing many; surely the biggest injustice of the competition, but such is the erratic Eurovision voting.

In South Woodham Ferrers, we had Ukraine first, Norway second, Estonia third (we weren’t so off the mark with that one – Urban Symphony came sixth), and Iceland and Sweden fourth and fifth respectively. The UK coming fifth was a pleasant surprise, and Jade Ewen did sing the big song very well (even though it wasn’t the right one), her respectable finishing place finally giving this country a least a shred of credibility. We had her down as seventh.

Any surprises? Azerbaijan coming third was the big one, especially as we had them 21st.  Bosnia did well, too, coming ninth, ten places higher than our nineteenth. But above everything, 2009 was the year that the ‘song’ was put back into the Eurovision Song Contest. Listening to the official CDs, there are very few songs which manage to hold off the ‘skip’ button, surely a sign of this year’s show being one of the most memorable (along with the $30m LED screen stage, and the accurate and honest Graham Norton UK commentary).

It was almost as memorable as enjoying the festivities at Mark’s. After the fat lady (Malta’s Chiara) had sung signaling that it was all over, we had a good old sing-along to our favourites once more, before skipping through a few of the 2006 entries. Degrading into watching comical old 1980s TV footage (including some of Bill), just after 01h00 Nik and I said our goodbyes and headed home. The journey was even memorable, too, after the exhaust fell off the car, scraping along the road and attracting glances and shouts from passing drivers. A non-forgetful night in more ways than one; we can’t wait for Oslo.

I blame Sakis Rouvas’ travelator and magnetic boots. And the dreadful mixing that appeared to blight every song in last night’s Eurovision 2009 second semi-final. Far from being the better qualifying heat, all if did was to highlight songs which didn’t rely too much on an electronic sound. Yes, just as with the first semi on Tuesday there was spectacle, but for the second time, one of my favourites didn’t make it through.

Zoli Adok representing Hungary really should be there on Saturday evening. Last night, the song was still one of the best, but the backing track seemed all over the place, with the weak vocal levels which had blighted the night’s proceedings up to that point suddenly too strong. The result wasn’t flattering; his vocals were just audible, the backing vocals too overpowering, and the backing track sounded lost in the fabled disco that he sings about in Dance With Me.

Before the last qualifier was announced, the fight was thought to be between Adok and Rouvas from Greece, and, unsurprisingly, it was Rouvas who got through. With countless singles and albums to his name, once more it shows that an artist’s pop status in Europe plays a part in the competition. His performance wasn’t any better than Adok’s, and although he used more stage craft for his weaker song, he’s a Eurovision legend, and that’s more than likely what cemented his place in the final.

But, my other favourites Moldova and Estonia qualified, as did likely winner Alexander Rybak from Norway. Fiddling for all he was worth, Fairytale was popular in the arena, and seeing it among all the other 41 songs last week at preview night, it does have victory written all over it. It’s not my overall favourite, though; Svetlana Loboda and Ukraine have the best song in the competition, and the disjointed but excellent Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl) will be there on Saturday, too, Loboda’s spectacle last night guaranteeing her a place.

Just as on Tuesday, though, there were some real qualifying surprises. Slow songs from Croatia and Lithuania are through, as are Albania, Azerbaijan and Denmark with their more uptempo numbers. So, the stage is set for one of the most intriguing Eurovision finals since my love for the contest was reignited, with enough of my favourites left in the competition to make it genuinely exciting.

Top five? It’s no use ignoring Rybak and his fiddle; he must be unstoppable now, but second place deserves to go to Loboda and Ukraine (for the third consecutive year), with Malena Ernman and Sweden a close third. I predict Sakis Rouvas and Greece in fourth – he’ll be a strong contender – with Hadise and Turkey in fifth.

Estonia and Spain will also do well, even though we’ve not seen the latter’s performance yet, and the former will be performed in native tongue. The best balladeers are Iceland’s Johanna and Malta’s Chiara who may score highly, such is the usually erratic Eurovision voting. All this will be wholly inaccurate of course; to find out who sings to victory, tune in tomorrow night.

This came as a surprise, and you have to give it time to grow on you. After the success of Ani Lorak last year, Ukraine have gone for the same formula – Svetlana Loboda giving all red-blooded males something to think about. Lorak is a major artist in Eastern Europe, and although Loboda has had mild success, she’s not as well-known. So, Ukraine has pulled out all the stops.

At first, Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl) sounds like eight songs put together, and the video looks like eight songs put together. But, that is its appeal. The more you hear the song, the more you like it, and the more you see the video, the more zany and twisted it appears, leaving you more intrigued. The combination could prove to be an unbeatable one; it’s already grown on me over the last few days and has now usurped non-qualifier Andrea Demirovic’s entry to be the favourite song of the 2009 contest in my affections.

The multi-cut video clip will be hard to replicate on stage, but we do know that Loboda has the cogs from the clip, semi-naked dancers, and her drum-playing skills to make an impression, all of which she’ll use to full effect in tonight’s second semi-final, and, if she gets through, Saturday’s contest proper. Ani Lorak did phenomenally well last year, coming second. Does the same fate await Svetlana Loboda and her dirty trumpets, or will she go one better?

Okay, so I got it wrong. Andrea Demirovic did her best, but it, or her stage show just wasn’t enough. Being first couldn’t have helped, either, as she had more than likely slipped off the judges’ radar by the time the other 17 songs had been sung in Moscow last night. They were all vying for a place in Saturday night’s final, of course, and while Demirovic and Just Get Out of My Life didn’t get through, Malena Ernman from Sweden did.

An absolute belter of a performance, Ernman really performed the song, and although her stage set and projections were minimal, she used them to – quite literally – blinding effect. The stage was black with minimal lighting for the verses of La Voix, but dazzlingly white and bright when the chorus kicked in. Announced as the second country to get through (though not in points order), it would have been an injustice if she were on the plane home.

Which made Demirovic’s no-go even more galling, especially as the green room kept closing in on the disappointed singer as the last two finalists from yesterday evening were announced. And there were some real surprises. Bosnia-Herzegovenia, Finland, Israel, and Malta are all there on Saturday night, as are Iceland, Portugal, and Romania. I’m pleased that Turkey is through (thanks to an almost explosive performance), but Armenia was the shock of the night, although the song was better than I remember from preview night.

We did the whole voting thing, with the BBC’s semi-final score cards, and unsurprisingly, our top fives didn’t necessarily tally with those on-screen. I had Sweden first, Turkey second, Iceland and Montenegro joint third, and Portugal and Bosinia-Herzegovina joint fifth. I seemed to be allocating higher scores than Nik most of the way through, but they balanced out in the end. Thursday’s second semi is arguably the better one, though, with at least a handful of our favourites all hoping to qualify for Saturday’s showdown. Will we be more in tune with the judges and voting public then?