This weekend beings us one of the last hectic Saturdays of the preseason, with three National Finals (Estonia, Lithuania, and Spain) and Sweden’s Second Chance round.  Let’s take a look at what we can expect from this busy day:

Sweden: Before we can get to the Globen, there’s one more show in Melodifestivalen to get through.  The Andra Chansen round takes all of the songs that placed third or fourth in their respective Semifinals and pits them against each other in a series of tournament-style duels.  Out of the elite eight songs that we’ll hear tomorrow, only two will live on to compete in Stockholm in next weekend’s Final.  By bracket, the duels will consist of:

• Dynazty – “Land of Broken Dreams” vs Top Cats – “Baby Doll“
• Andreas Johnson – “Lovelight” vs Timoteij – “Stormande hav“
• Lotta Engberg & Christer Sjögren – “Don’t Let Me Down” vs Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern
  “Jag reser mig igen“
• Sean Banan – “Sean den förste Banan” vs Youngblood – “Youngblood“

(Looking at the tournament bracket, my money’s on Timoteij and Sean Banan, but absolutely anything can happen!)

Estonia: The Final round of Eesti Laul will see the ten qualifying acts from the two Semifinals show their stuff one last time before a split jury and televote narrow them down to two Superfinalists.  From there, a pure televote will determine who has the honor of following in Getter Jaani’s footsteps.  In running order, the songs are:

1. Loss Paranoias – “Valedetektor“
2. Teele Viira – “City Nights“
3. Liis Lemsalu – “Made Up My Mind“
4. August Hunt – “Tantsulõvi“
5. Lenna – “Mina Jään“
6. POP Maniacs – “I Don’t Know“
7. Traffic – “NASA“
8. Tenfold Rabbit – “Oblivion“
9. Birgit Õigemeel & Violina – “You’re Not Alone“
10. Ott Lepland – “Kuula“

(This year’s Eesti Laul has proven very difficult to predict, with three Estonian Idol winners in the running (Liis, Birgit, and Ott), as well as a Eurovision alum (Lenna was part of Vanilla Ninja, who sang for the Swiss back in 2005).  Perpetual also-rans Traffic and Rolf Roosalu (part of POP Maniacs) are also vying for the ticket to Baku, and I can honestly say that there’s not a song in the bunch that I personally dislike.  It’s going to be a great night, and it will be available for live viewing on Eurovison.tv)

Lithuania: After four rounds of Semifinals, the last stretch of the Lithuanian selection process is in sight.  Twelve songs were picked via a jury/public vote, while two extra songs were given a wild-card pass to the Finals.  The lucky fourteen are:

• Beissoul – “Why“
• The Independent – “Baby“
• Multiks – “Star“
• Vytautas Matuzas – “Take it back“
• Alive Way – “Amazed by you“
• Katažina – “Euforija“
• Monika – “Happy“
• Vig Roses – “Come back home“
• Bekešo Vilkai – “Letter by letter“
• Donny Montell – “Love is blind“
• DAR – “Home“
• Simona Milinytė – “One of a kind“
• Greta Šmidt – “The one” (Wild Card)
• Sati – “Light is the one” (Wild Card)

(It seems that the three entries that have gotten the most buzz are Beissoul’s “Why”, Vytautas Matuzas’s “Take it Back”, and Donny Montell’s “Love is Blind”.  Lithuania is often a tough contest to predict, but Donny’s been trying to represent his country for a few years now with some pretty strong entries, such as “Let Me” and “Running Fast“.  This might just be his year…and, like Eesti Laul, it will be streaming live on Eurovision.tv, so feel free to check it out!)

Spain: For the first time since 2006, Spanish broadaster RTVE has chosen their artist internally.  However, that doesn’t mean that the public won’t have their say!  Three songs are in the running for Pastora Soler to take to Baku, and a split jury/televote will pick the perfect song for the 33-year old pop-flamenco artist.  The candidate songs are:

• “Ahora o nunca“
• “Quédate conmigo“
• “Tu vida es tu vida“

(With these small semi-internal selections, the artist generally has his or her say in which songs are offered up to the public.  Pastora has been performing since childhood, and knows who she is as an artist, so any of these three songs could serve her well.  But Spain hasn’t had a huge, female-led ballad in quite a while, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for “Quédate conmigo”.)

What are you looking forward to?  Who are you rooting for?  Join the conversation, and leave me a comment!