A story of love and compassion

Finally - at the last hurdle, some good news. The good people of Sweden have come up trumps. In a year that was otherwise going to be dominated by comedy entries, old men and, well, dustmen - Sweden returned to its roots and is doing what is does best by selecting the 43rd song for this year’s Eurovision and doing it in style.
Charlotte Perrelli won with “Hero” - a proper schlager-pop-stomper to set your nerves a--jangling. She’s got previous too, having won Eurovision for the Swedes in 1999 with Take Me To Your Heaven.

By the way - the draw for the running order in the semi-finals and finals has been done and the UK are up second. So at least we can get Andy Abraham out of the way early doors. We’re also casting the first votes, so really the UK’s presence will basically be missed entirely this year, as everyone will be assembling for the start or just coming back from the loo break before the voting.

The Swedes are up second in their Semi, which feels quite early to me (out of 19 songs). They have some strong competition too - Iceland and Malta are both in this semi (Thursday). We’ll be bringing you more on them soon, though. First, enjoy Charlotte - and I guarantee you’ll be singing this by the end.