ATHENS 2006 : PREVIEW VIDEO REVIEW PART 3.

Elena plays the bird in the gilded cage in a very modern and stylist promo video. The catchy song is now in English (which is apparently how it will be performed in Athensin May), and the production is much fuller. This is a rather busy video that tries to fit a lot into three minutes, and the switching between the colour footage and the black and white alternative is quite unnecessary. Given that Elena is a good live performer, this is certainly one of the dark horses in this year's contest.

There's a wafer-thin storyline element in this video, which really only serves to act as a somewhat of a distraction, and the split screen footage is very passé, but otherwise this is one of the better preview videos. Fabrizio looks great and as always Malta gets a little boost to its tourist industry. The video also compliments the song very nicely, and the re-arrangement is stronger than before. Dismiss Malta's chances at your peril!

This is taken from the second Moldovan selection show, but at timesit looks  like it was filmed on the set of "Saturday Night Fever".  Arsenium has obviously also been down to the local H+M where he found a rather garish green and black sweater and a pair of boots to ponce around in. Natalia and the supporting girls do some of the silliest dancing seen this year, and the whole thing looks like a school talent show. It's quite dreadful, and ineeds a big improvement for Athens.

Alternating between Severine in the recording studio and the preparations for the live performances, this is a simple but quite effective video. There's a hint of what the dance routine will look like and there's a brief glimpse of the promised men in grass skirts, and the overall feel is very summery and rather tropical. This is by far the strongest contender Monaco has sent to Eurovision, since its return in 2004.

This is the lively performance from the National Songfestival, but this isn't served well by coming after Monaco, and thankfully they will not be back to back in Athens. This is very entertaining and the girls look like they are having fun as they runn around the stage singing, dancing and playing every musical instrument in sight. The staging looks superb and even if the routine is a little overly complicated, this is another song that should not be completely ruled out.

If you are going to do a national final video, this is how it should be done. Christine looks amazing in what can only be described as a big white frock and the staging is very complimentary to the performance of the song. The Oslo venue which staged the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest and there are shades of Eimear Quinn's performance of "The Voice". Some have described this as very old fashioned, others say "timeless" and it will be interesting to see how it does in Athens if the performance is a strong as this.

Another national final peformance, which is a bit of a disappointment considered the status of Ice Troje, and the excellent promo video that was done for their 2003 song. In oine detail it outdos Norway, with two big white frocks, not to mention Michael and the Real McCoys white suit. To be honest, this is a rather messy presentation of the song ranging from a tracking camera on the rap to a more operatic staging for the main part of the song. I would expect this to be a lot better in Athens.

The fourth video in a row to be filmed at the national selection, and this is by far the weakest. This is like a very bad Spice Girls pastiche, completely with the skimpy outfits and alternating vocals. The problem is that  ten years on this looks very dated and the vocals are off at times and the choreography is very childish. When you add the rather sparse staging the whole effect is very amateurish and here's another performance that needs major rework before Athens.

Here's an odd one. Mihai performs the new arrangement of his song while walking through an underground maze full of circus acts and other assorted weirdos. At times its rather dizzying with one too many camera effects and I'm not sure that the overall impression really does much to sell the song. I like the idea, but the execution is a bit off-putting. On the other hand, credit where's it's due so top marks for effort.