In possibly the least surprising result of the season so far, “Forever” by Alekseev tonight won the right to represent Belarus at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

Already announced as the televote winner by some distance, Alekseev won the jury vote too – much as expected beforehand. It was the presentation of the results that caught the attention rather than the identity of the winner. The assembled singers on the stage barely had time to move out of the way before the big screen simply flashed up the combined televote/jury score, and that was that. No announcement by the hosts, no tension. Oh well!

Alekseev will perform in the first half of semi-final 1 with “Forever”, or at least with something (you can never be quite sure with Belarus).

Meanwhile, over in Greece, there was supposed to be a national final – at least according to some sources. Nobody was entirely sure. And even then, would it have three songs? Five songs? Which songs?

In the end, after various entries dropped out of the running due to withdrawal, disqualification or possibly a mixture of both, there was just one contender left standing – and today that was duly announced as the song to represent Greece at ESC 2018.

Following on from Demy and her slice of unashamed pop last year, it’s a return to more typically Hellenic sounds with Gianna Terzi and “Oneiro mou”. See what you think below: