It's most unusual to hear one of the songs in a Belarus final before the actual show, but here is one that has leaked out before the February 10th selection. Gunesh Abasova is a former soloist of the Belarussian Youth Pop Song Theatre and a prizewinner in numerous contests in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine. 26 year old Gunesh is of Azerbaijani-Turkish origin and represented her home country at the big song festival in Vitebsk, Belarus in 2005. She also took part in last year's national final of Eurovision. "Connect The Hearts" is a high energy rock flavoured song and would certainly be a very different choice from the two previous Eurovision entries from Belarus. In a very unusual process, the public chooses its three favourites in Belarus, and these are then judged by a panel of experts, who decide which of the three is best for Eurovision. 

While all of the songs I've previewed so far have been in studio versions, here's a live performance from last Saturday night's first Icelandic semi-final. Regína Ósk has no shortage of Eurovision experience, having competed in the 2003 Icelandic final and having performed as a backing singer at the Eurovision Song Contests in 2000, 2001 and 2003. She was also part of the Icelandic delegation in Kyiv. Regina sailed through to this year's Icelandic final with this most wonderfully melodic song and when she sang the high notes, I felt a shiver run down my spine. While it's still very early days in Iceland, let alone the entire Eurovision season, I'm pretty certain that this will be one of the best performances and songs which we're likely to see this year. Like all the other Icelandic songs, should "Þér við hlið" make it to Athens, the song will be translated into English. The Icelandic final is on February 18th, and will also be transmitted live on the internet.