DENMARK : Bryan Rice -"Breathing"

Our top choice of "One That Got Away" from the 2010 Eurovision selections comes from the Danish final, staged in Aalborg on February 6th. After being given a wildcard to the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, Bryan Rice's wonderful contemporary pop ballad "Breathing" made it to the super-final but narrowly lost to Chanée & N'Evergreen and "In A Moment Like This".  Despite losing out on the ticket to Oslo, "Breathing" reached the Top 3 in the Danish charts.

RTP expanded this year's Festival da Cancao to include an internet pre-selection and two semi-finals. The final certainly had more variety and a higher standard that previous Portuguese finals. Once again the 50/50 voting system produced a split result, and while Filipa will go to Oslo, the song that was the public's choice, with five times as many televotes was "Canta Por Mim" sung by Catarina Pereira. The uptempo pop track was written by the Babic & Coelho team that wrote "Senhora Do Mar" in 2008.

 NORWAY : Bjorn-Johan Muri -"Yes Man"

There is probably little doubt that for the second year in a row, the best overall national final was Norway's Melodi Grand-Prix, staged on February 6th. However unlike 2009, there is a lot less certainty that the best Norwegian song is going to Eurovision. While Bjorn-Johan Muri's "Yes Man" only finished a distant fourth in the  Eurovision selection, it has gone on to be a far bigger chart hit than "My Heart Is Yours", the song that won the ticket to Oslo.      

While Niamh Kavanagh's return to the Eurovision fray with "It's For You" scored a runaway victory in the Irish national final on March 5th, winning both the jury and televote, the song that came third was probably the most unexpected surprise in Eurosong 2010. Bosnian born, but Austrian based Monika Ivkic gave the Irish selection an unusual twist ith a very retro but still quite contemporary song with "Fashion Queen" and Irish fans have chosen it as their selection for OGAE's "Second Chance" contest.  

 RUSSIA : Buranovskiye Babushki  - "Dlinnaya-dlinnaya Beresta I Kak Sdelat' Iz Nee Aishon" (Long-long Birch Bark And How To Make Ayshon From It)

Despite the late withdrawal of 2008 Eurovision winner, Dima Bilan, the epic 25 song Russian final staged on March 7th was one of the best of the year, with a wide selection of musical styles. The performance that grabbed most attention came for the vocal group Buranovskiye Babushki, who's average age made them the oldest act competing in any national final. Their charismatic performance of the folk style entry, made them many fans, but unfortunately they still haven't recorded a studio version of the song.    

After ten years away from the contest, Slovakia returned in 2009 and despite not qualifying in Moscow, local interest in the contest was sufficiently high for sixty entries to compete in a series of qualifiers and semi-finals before the song for Oslo was chosen on February 27th. In a 50/50 voting system, there was a split, and it was Mista who was unlucky to miss out, after winning the jury vote, but coming second in the televote and therefore missing out in a tie break to Kristina and "Horehronie".

While the Maltese selection was probably more about quantity than quality, with thirty six songs competing in the semi-finals and twenty making the final, there were still enough good songs to make it one of the better shows of 2010.

Thea Garrett and "My Dream" was one of the easiest winners of the year, but with the song that came third, "Words Are Not Enough" sung by Tizians Calleja might have been a better contender in Oslo, will a stronger arrangement and choreography.

At times it looked like  the financial crisis may mean that Greece would not have a Eurovision entry in Oslo and certainly the national final, staged  on March 12th, did not have glitz or even the high profile guest-list of previous Greek selections. However it did provide far more variety and a much closer result than recent years, with the 50/50 voting system producing a three way tie. "OPA" by Giorgos Alkaios & Friends will go to Oslo as the winner of the televote, but had the jury had their way, "Polemao" by Giorgos Karadimos would have won.

As in previous years, the Croatian entry was chosen over two shows on consecutive evenings, with the public and a jury combining to pick the song for Oslo. Feminnem, were the runway winners and became one of favourites to win in May, but "Na Tvojim Rukama" (In Your Arms), the  song that finished 7th, has become something of a cult favourite,  although Franka Batelic's live vocals were disappointing, compared to how the song was originally showcased.

This year's Swedish Eurovision selection was again one of the biggest and successful in terms of the impact it made in the local music charts, however however many felt that it lacked either the quality or the typical musical fare associated with the event.

Anna Bergendahl's country-style ballad, "This Is My Life", the hot favourite, duly won the ticket to Oslo but the song that finished second "Keep O Walking" by Salem Al Fakir would perhaps have been a more contemporary choice for Eurovision. 

Financial difficulties threw a major question over Lithuania's participation in Oslo. However after a sponsorship agreement with telecoms company Teo LT, LRT organised a major selection, with three semi-final preceding the final on March 4th.

In a very close contest, Aiste Pilvelyte once again narrowly missed out on the Eurovision ticket, finishing second, with "Melancolia", one of the most dramatic and vocally challenging songs in this year's selections.    

Ten songs competed in "Krajowe Eliminacje" the Polish Eurovision selection on February 14th. Unlike previous years, only Polish performers were able to compete in the selection and preference was given to songs written by Polish songwriters. 

Anna Cyzon was born in Kraków, but spent most of her life in Canada. Her contemporary song "Love Me" which has shades of Lady Gaga in its performance, finished 2nd in the the televote, albeit a long way behind Marcin Mroziński and "Legenda".

Latvia had a slimmed down selection process, dropping the semi-finals and going straight to a ten song final on February 27th. There were two rounds of voting, which ended in a tie, with Aisha's "What For" and Dons rather quirky "My Religion Is Freedom" sharing the top spot. As "What For?" had been the favourite of the public, Aisha got the ticket to Oslo, with Dons (aka Arturs Singirejs) losing out, despite one of the best vocal performances seen in any 2010 national final.

Having had their 2009 entry disqualified, Georgia sat out the contest in Moscow, but were one of the first countries to confirm their participation in Oslo.

Well known local singer Sofia Nizharadze was chosen as the performer and she sang six potential Eurovision entries in a special selection show on February 27th. Only the winner was announced and Sofia will sing "Shine" In Oslo, however "For Eternity" was widely rumoured to have finished second.

March 6th saw one of the longest national finals of the year when fourteen songs competed to represent Moldova in Oslo. While Olia Tira & The Sunstroke Project and "Run Away" won both the jury and televote, the runner-up was also one of the more memorable performances of the year.

Pasha's "You Should Like" featured four backing performers, two in wheelchairs and while the idea might seem contrived, it actually worked quite well.

Harel Skaat was one of the first singers chosen for Oslo, when the IBA made an internal selection for Israel's 2010 Eurovision performer.

When the four songs in the Israeli selection were unveiled, it was clear that "Milim" (Words) was the hot favourite and it duly won he maximum points from the televote and juries, the song that came third was one of the best songs in any national final this year.

Having had some of the more controversial national selections over the past decade, this year RTVSLO decided to let the public decide to the entry for Oslo. Another rule change saw all the songs performed in the Slovene language.

The runaway winner (scoring over four times as much as any other song) was "Narodnozabavni Rock", but the runner-up by Nina Puslar, might well have had more international appeal and certainly had some of the best choreography of the year.

There were few big shocks in this year's national finals and the biggest one probably came in Estonia. Lena Kuurmaa was the lead singer of the popular Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja that represented Switzerland in Kyiv in 2005. Now pursuing a solo career, her song "Rapunzel" was the hot favourite to represent Estonia in Oslo and it duly won the first round of voting, however in the two song "super final" it lost out to "Siren" by Malcolm Lincoln.

One national final that seems to have attracted little attention is the Armenian selection staged on February 14th. Nine songs competed for the votes of a jury and a public televote.

While Eva Rivas won the jury vote, the public's choice was the uptempo dance song "Hey (Let Me Hear You Say)". The duo had an elaborate publicity campaign, prior to he final, which included endorsements from Madonna and Ricky Martin and were clearly disappointed following the result.    

Serbia wins the the award for the "small but beautifully formed" 2010 selection, with only three songs competing for the ticket to Oslo. However with all three being written by local composer and band leader Goran Bregovic, the standard was remarkably high.

Emina Jahovic just lost out on getting to Eurovision in the public televote with "Ti Kvariigro", but in honesty, all three songs in the Serbian final, would have made a fine entry.

Ukraine had two separate selections this year, following a change of management at NTU. In the end they managed to pick a song for Oslo, at the third attempt, having missed the submission deadline and having to pay a fine.

Though it only finished fourth in the Ukrainian final, "Tiny Island" sung by Zlata Ognevich is one the best performances in any national final in 2010. Unfortunately Zlata has so far only recorded the song in Ukrainian.

Finland was one of the first countries to select its 2010 when ten songs competed over two rounds of voting in Tampere on January 30th.

The result of was quite close, with folk duo Kuunkuiskaajat winning 48,139 televotes, less than five thousand more than the runner-up, Nina Lassander's "Cider Hill", a old fashioned female sung folk style ballad, a type of song that would find favour in several other countries, this year.

While Paul Seling and Ovi with "Playing With Fire" was the runaway winner of the Romanian ticket to Oslo, gaining the maximum points of both the public televote and jury, the national final staged on March 6th was one of the best of the year.

The runner-up in the Romanian final was the catchy pop song "Around Around" performed by Catalin Josan. Catalin previously finished fourth in the 2008 Romanian selection.

This year's Icelandic final managed to stretch fifteen songs into three semi-finals and a final before Hera Bjork and "Je Ne Sais Quoi" won the ticket to Oslo On February 6th.

The song which lost out in the final was the ballad "One More Day" sung by Faroese born singer Jogvan Hansen. The song was co-written by well known local entertainer Bubbi Morthens and Óskar Páll Sveinsson, who also co-wrote "Is It True?", the 2009 Icelandic entry. 

After Spain in 2002 and Ireland in 2003, Germany used a high profile national talent hunt to pick its 2010 Eurovision performer. The final of "Unser Star Für Oslo" (Our Star For Oslo) was a showdown between two young female singers and four songs and the runner-up was Jennifer Braun and "I Care For You". As with Spain and Ireland, the selection show proved to be a very successful national launch pad for new performers, but the jury remains out on whether this is the best way to select a singer for the large international stage.  

As is now traditional, Albanian television staged the first Eurovision selection of the year and on December 27th, twenty songs competed in one of the longest national finals we've seen in the build up to Oslo.

With a telephone system that has previously proven to be a issue for televoting at Eurovision, it was a jury alone that chose the entry. While  Juliana Pasha was the clear winner, 2004 Albanian entrant Anjeza Shahini came close to making a comeback, finishing in second place.  

There were few major surprises in this year's Eurovision selections, but one country that did provide a shock result for many was Spain. In the build-up to the final of the Spanish selection staged on February 22nd, the hot favourite was Coral Segovia and her overly hyped song "En Una Vida" (In A Lifetime). However after a somewhat less than tuneful live performance Coral finished a distant second to Daniel Diges and "Algo Pequenito" (Something Tiny).

Bulgarian broadcaster BNT  opted for an internal selection to choose its performer and back in October it was announced that local star Miroslav Kostadinov, better known as Miro would perform the Bulgarian entry in Oslo. Miro had previously finished 2nd in the 2007 Bulgarian final as part of the group Karizma. Miro performed five potential entries on February 28th and while the public's clear favourite was "Angel Si Ti", the runner-up, "Twist And Tango" received a strong 27% of the vote.

For the second year in a row, the Macedonian final proved to be the biggest cliff-hanger of the year. As with many countries, the song was selected using a mixture of a jury and a public televote. However this let to tie with the jury choosing Gjoko Taneski and "Jas Ja Imam Silata" (Give Me The Strengh) as its winner and the public choosing Vlatko Ilievski and the ragtime inspired song "Srekja" (Happiness). In most countries, the public vote takes precedence, but in Macedonia, the jury winner gets the Eurovision ticket.

Constantinos Christoforou represented Cyprus in 1996, the last time the contest was staged in Oslo. He returned in 2002 as a member the group One, finishing 6th in Tallinn, with "Gimme" and he returned again in 2005 as a solo artist. With such a Eurovision record, Constantinos started as the pre-selection favourite in the Cypriot final, staged on February 7th, however he lost out to Welsh born singer Jon Lilygreen and the Islanders, finishing second with he ethnic flavoured ballad "Angel".