Florin - the manager of EM is taking part again at a contest dedicated to bloggers in Romania. The prize is a place in the Green Room with the participants and the chance to reveal interesting things about the voting and interviews.

Last year, he won the competition and got the chance to experience this for the first time. Support Florin by visiting his blog here. 

Good luck from EM Family!

As many of you may know, Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov have been already selected by BNT to represent the Balkanic country in Malmö. They are remembered for giving their country their best position so far, 5th, achieved with "Water" in Helsinki 2007. The captivating chants of Elitsa combined with the percussion of Stoyan were the formula for success, and BNT is confident on a similar or even better result this time.

Today, the three candidate songs were announced; they were selected from a field of five songs submitted by the duo. All of them were written and composed by Elitsa Todorova and associated acts. In a live show, they were announced.

The Eurovision fans and experts have already talked about each song, and we are able to tell you which are the favourites already!

Samo Shampioni (Only Champions)
Petio Kostadinov has contributed with his bagpipe skills for this song, which explodes with a lot of rhythm and emotion. It is already the favourite of many, and some have pointed that the chants Elitsa does in the middle of the song are very reminiscent of "Water", their 2007 entry. It is also the song with more percussion, out of the three contestants.

WRITTEN BY: Elitsa Todorova, Kristiyan Talev
COMPOSED BY: Elitsa Todorova, Kristiyan Talev
ARRANGEMENTS: Stoyan Yankoulov, Kristiyan Talev

DZUPAJ, LIBE BOSO (Jump, Barefoot Sweetheart) feat. Skiller & Jahmmi
This song is the second favourite for Bulgaria. It is actually an innovative concept for Eurovision somehow. When have we seen rap, dancehall and Bulgarian traditional music and chants together, with a few influences from Beatbox, Reggae and Hip-Hop? Seriously, where? It sounds like the song that would represent Jamaica in Eurovision (supposing they could participate), if Bulgaria was hosting. A good example of globalization.

WRITTEN BY: Elitsa Todorova, Tsvetelin Grudanski
COMPOSED BY: Elitsa Todorova, Tsvetelin Grudanski
ARRANGEMENTS: Stoyan Yankoulov, Skiller

KISMET (Luck)
It seems that that's what this song will need (luck) in order to represent Bulgaria. Few people have actually liked it, as most do not fancy the idea of having a chillout folk song. Interestingly enough, this one seems actually the strongest one vocally. Bagpipes do not lack here, as well as the characteristic Elitsa's chants. As part of the performance, there's a nice typical Balkanic choreography.

WRITTEN BY: Elitsa Todorova
COMPOSED BY: Elitsa Todorova, Bistrishkite Babi
ARRANGEMENTS: Stoyan Yankoulov, Dzhonatan Tesej Kintar

THE FINAL VEREDICT?
Definitely, there's not a winner in this national final, so for sure, we won't be going to Sofia for 2014. However, a top 10 might be possible with any of the two favourites (given the overall lack of high quality of the chosen entries so far) and a meaningful performance. After all, just this duo could perform this genre (Bulgarian fusion folk) and do it well.

From now on, and until March 3rd, the songs will be broadcasted through TV and radio. That night, the national final, will have the three songs being performed live behold a small audience and the special jury in the BNT Studios. The televoting outcome (50% of the final ranking) will come from SMS and telephone voting. The other 50% comes from the special jury, composed by five people, which in fact, will be the same jury for Bulgaria in the actual Eurovision.

Bulgaria has been drawn in the first half of the Second Semifinal. As such, votes may come from Armenia, Finland, France, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Malta, Romania, Spain. If succesful, it'll be the second time Bulgaria performs in the final of Eurovision (the last time was with "Water" in 2007).

The voting for EM 27 Song Contest started since yesterday and continues with the disqualification of Estonia. The broadcaster sent a song that is currently competing for the honor to represent the country at the real Eurovision Song Contest while our rules strictly blocks eurovision songs. 

After an extremely tense National Final, Cascada came out on top and will represent Germany in Sweden at Eurovision 2013!

There was tough competition from LaBrassBande, who received all 12 points from the Radio Viewers, but lost points from the Jury, and only recevied a single point! Cascada maintained good scores throughout, and thanks especially to the jury and public vote, are going to represent Germany!

You can listen to the entry here

Tonight is the eagerly anticipated German National Final.

12 songs will battle their way to try their luck in representing Germany at Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Sweden!

You can tune in to watch the final HERE at 20:15 CET. The final will be broadcast live from Hanover, Germany!  Anke Engelke is also going to be the presenter tonight (she presented Eurovision 2011 in Dusseldorf!)

      This is the line-up of tonight's show:

1. Die Priester feat. Mojca Erdmann - Ave Maris Stella
2. Finn Martin - Change
3. Mobilée - Little Sister
4. Blitzkids mvt. - Heart On The Line
5. Betty Dittrich - Lalala
6. Ben Ivory - The Righteous Ones
7. Saint Lu - Craving
8. LaBrassBanda - Nackert
9. Nica & Joe - Elevated
10. Mia Diekow - Lieblingslied
11. Söhne Mannheims - One Love
12. Cascada - Glorious
    

The songs will be voted in 3 sections tonight. The first third of the votes comes from the public televote. The second third consists of a jury including  Tim Bendzko (pop singer), Roman Lob (German 2012 Eurovision representative), Anna Loos (pop singer), Mary Roos (schlager singer) and Peter Urban (radio host and German Eurovision commentator.
The third and final area of voting comes from a German radio poll which has been voting for the songs already for 1 week!

I think it's highly important to note the singing position of Cascada, a widely known eurodance act which will be performing live. I know that this song is anticipated to win, due to Cascada's well known success, and especially this draw position of singing last is highly in their favour!

You can listen to a "sneak peek" of the songs when they practised their songs earlier today HERE

I have to say, my top 5 songs have to be (in no particular order):
 - Mobilee - "Little Sister"
 - Saint Lu - "Craving"
 - Nica & Joe - "Elevated"
 - Cascada - "Glorious"
 - Mia Diekow - "Lieblingslied"

As to who may win, I have no idea, but my money is on Cascada. 
I would be nice to see not such a obvious choice from Germany however!

What do you think? :)