Having won twice and contributed several evergreen classics to the contest, Italy settled into a long-term absence from ESC in the late 1990s. After (or perhaps despite) many years of pleading by fans, the country finally returned to competition in 2011 - and promptly...

Israel have had rather mixed results in the semi-final era so far with 5 out of 10 qualifications to the final, but they last qualified in 2010, and they haven't been in the top 10 in the final since Bo'az Mauda in 2008 - which is their worst run of results since they...

These line-up check pieces usually begin with a recap of the country's recent ESC history, but in this case it might be more appropriate to look at the composer's track record, because Jonas Gladnikoff - who has a hand in the 2014 Irish entry - has been a regular in...

Iceland haven’t had it easy in the last decade: With the exception of one silver medal, courtesy of Yohanna and Is It True in 2009, all their entries finished either in the bottom half of the final, or – between 2006 and 2008 – didn't even qualify. Will this year's...

In Malmö, Hungary scored its best result since 2007 (Unsubstantial Blues), as ByeAlex recorded a decent top 10 finish with Kedvesem. In the years before, the country was less successful, despite delivering strong entries including fan favourite Kati Wolf. For the...

Representing Greece in Eurovision is not an easy gig. With a 100% qualification record and having finished out of the top ten only once in the last decade, no Greek artist wants to be the first one to break the spell. They had a momentary glitch when Eleftheria...

Germany is still the most recent Big 5 country to have won the contest. After Lena's victory in 2010,  the central European nation managed to score two further top 10 results, but it was less lucky last year, when its result wasn't as glorious. Was the bad result...

Georgia's context in recent ESC history consists of glamourous parties at Eurovision, Georgian wine, disturbing national finals, strong entries, decent results and Anri Jokhadze. This year - just like last year - broadcaster GPB is trusting in the benefits that an...

As one of the "Big Five", France qualify directly for the final and they haven't done particularly well recently, with Patricia Kaas giving them their one solitary top ten place in the past ten years. They are hoping to reverse that trend this year by sending the...

In 2006, Finland briefly found its way out of its eternal status as a Eurovision underdog by winning the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. Ever since, the Nordic country has returned to the "wrong" half of the scoreboard - or remained stuck in the semis....

After a disastrous start to the semi-final era with five straight non-qualifications between 2004 and 2008, Estonia's qualification record has been pretty decent the past few years, having reached four of the past five finals - so will 2014 keep their good record...

Denmark joined the Eurovision family in the contest's second edition back in 1957 and has scored three victories, most recently (of course) with Emmelie de Forest's Only Teardrops last year. This means the country is automatically qualified for the grand final in...

In Malmö, Belgium just managed to achieve a left-half-of-the-scoreboard result for the second time since nearly winning the contest with Sanomi in 2003, but unfortunately the country is rather used to missing the final. This year, Flemish broadcaster VRT tried a whole...

Belarus were one of the first countries to choose their song for Eurovision 2014 way back in January, which seems like a lifetime ago. After a close battle, TEO won the ticket to Copenhagen on his second attempt at going to Eurovision, the first being in 2009. TEO,...

Does Azerbaijan want to win Eurovision again? Because if they do, and if they’re willing to put in the usual work behind the scenes to optimise their chances, then we could very easily be heading back to Baku. If you're getting a sense of déjà vu, that's because those...

After a series of unsuccessful attempts at Eurovision - apart from Nadine Beiler (who at least reached the final) - Austria is now trying their luck again with an internally selected artist. Austria have sent arguably the most controversial artist in this year’s...

Still one of the more recent countries to join the contest, Armenia enjoyed an extremely strong start to their ESC career, finishing in the top 10 on each of their first five appearances. However, things have since gone downhill: first there was Emmy's...

In the past two years, Albania has experienced both extremes - getting stuck in the semi (in 2013) after getting a top 5 result (in 2012). However, the majority of Albanian entries have reached the final, so that should be the more likely fate for the Mediterranean...