As the National Final season winds to a close, often times the biggest news to come from the delegations between their selection and Eurovision itself is the release of their Promotional Video.  They might be a simple edit of live performance footage, or they might pull out all the stops and put together something that would make people wish that MTV hadn’t replaced music videos with “Jersey Shore”.  (Or maybe that’s just me…)

Over the past few days, a number of countries have presented their preview clips, and you can expect many more to follow in the coming weeks.  Let’s take a quick look around Europe, shall we?

From France, Anggun’s “Echo (You and I)” has everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it, from underwear-clad male models to Jean Paul Gaultier to a random pig hanging around…I have no clue what’s going on, but I’m still enjoying this!

Over in Ireland, the irrepressible, hyperactive Doublemint twins (aka Jedward) have released a video for “Waterline”, incorporating a backstage look at their National Final.  Hold on to your high-tops, kids, it’s going to be another wild ride!

Turkey‘s Can Bonomo has revealed the nautical-themed video for his klezmer-meets-sea-shanty-meets-indie-love song, “Love Me Back”. Suddenly, my temptation to hop on a boat and sail to İzmir has never been higher…

The lovely Gaitana from Ukraine is using her song, “Be My Guest”, not only as her Eurovision entry, but also as an anthem for the upcoming European Football (for my American readers, Soccer) Championships, which will be taking place in her country and neighboring Poland this summer.  Much like Svetlana Loboda’s 2009 promotional clip for “Be My Valentine“, it looks like Gaitana has taken clips from various other videos and spliced them together creatively!

Finally, Israel‘s Izabo has released their video for the bouncy, summery “Time” with an equally fun little video that feels like a better-executed version of the clip that Daniel Diges recorded for Spain’s 2009 entry, “Algo Pequeñito“.  Those of you with a fear of clowns, turn away from your monitors.