EUROVISION SONG CONTEST - 'POLITICAL' VOTING OVERSHADOWS EUROVISION

'POLITICAL' VOTING OVERSHADOWS EUROVISION

This year's Eurovision song contest sees Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka leading the odds in an east-European dominated field.

Bookies have the outrageous Verka ahead of Marija Serifovic from Serbia, but it seems either way the contest is unlikely to be heading back to Britain any time soon.

Thursday's semi-finals were dominated by eastern European countries. Belarus, FYR Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Moldova were the ten countries to get through.

They join the top-ten placed countries from last year's competition as well as automatic qualifiers France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

But their strong presence means it is more than likely that political voting will once again raise its ugly head, to the dismay of popular radio presenter and long-time Eurovision pundit Terry Wogan.

"It's a pity it's not about the songs any more," he told BBC Online.

"There's a definite Baltic bloc and a Balkan bloc and they've been joined in recent years by a Russian bloc. I've said it so many times it has become a cliché. We won the Cold War but we lost the Eurovision."