My diaspora's bigger than yours...

Marija Serifovic (the one on the right) will be singing a dreary old ballad for Serbia in Helsinki. And in some polls, her sleep-inducing effort is tipped to be a front runner. I hope not, because it's so plodding and dull that I almost slipped into a coma when I tried to listen to the whole thing.

Even more worrying than that, in order to manipulate the voting, it appears that she'll be relying on Serb televoters living outside Serbia to phone in and vote for her. I read at doteurovision today that apparently a Serbian government official has called on Serb televoters outside the country to call in and support her, regardless of what the other songs are like. According to doteurovision, Marija "thanked the minister for his support".

In my opinion, this is exactly what Eurovision doesn't need. It's supposed to be a song and performance contest. Not a "my diaspora's bigger than yours" contest. And neighbourly voting doesn't need any encouragement anyway, it's already thriving. Good grief, whatever happened to good old British notions of fair play and simply voting for the best song on the night, rather than blindly voting on the basis of nationality!

Having read this news, I definitely won't be voting for this entry. In fact, you could stick a thumping electro beat behind it, make her sing three times faster, add a key change and a cheesy dance routine, and I still wouldn't vote for her.