He's able and he's willing

One of these two men is representing Belarus in Helsinki... Relax, it's not the long-haired, beardy one with last season's sunglasses, but Dmitry Koldun (the one smothered with Belarussian bling). In fact, his song is not half bad and could well walk off with the title on May 12th.

If you've never heard of him then you're not alone. But apparently he won a Belarussian Pop Idol-style show in 2004. Not content with this, he went East and won the sixth season of the hit Russian show, Star Factory. Now he's reached the heady heights of becoming Belarussian entrant to Eurovision. But before you sneer at his chances, take a look at the video. It's a rock-pop number, in which Dmitry takes every possible opportunity to dazzle us with those perfectly whiter-than-white teeth of his. If nothing else, he obviously has a good dentist. And if you're not too taken with the song, you also get to watch the Belarussian answer to Paul Daniels and Debbie Magee in the clip, which makes for a creepy experience. It is cold in Belarus, so you'll notice that most of the extras in the video are shivering uncontrollably... unless that's an overenthusiastic attempt at shoulder-shimmying. The stand-out lyric in the song must be the line "when you cast your loving potion all over me"... and they say the Scooch entry is too smutty!

Come May, I think you'd have to be brave to bet against this winning the title. And whatever else happens, Dmitry is almost certain to receive 12 points from Russia.