It was a weekend exclusively of pot 2 (i.e. the Nordics + Australia) selections, and a welcome breather given the hectic fortnight we’ve all just had in the Eurovision world.

Australia Decides, Final
In the closest Australia Decides yet, coming second in both the televote and jury vote was enough for Sheldon Riley to edge out hard-rockers Voyager (the televote winners) by just three votes (100-97) with his dramatic ballad “Not the Same”. Jaguar Jonez (the jury winner) finished in third place, six points behind Voyager at 91.

UMK (Finland), Final
In a weekend which worked out well for the bookmakers, The Rasmus comfortably won selection with their song “Jezabel”, topping both the jury vote and the televote. The other rock entry, Cyan Kicks finished second overall, ahead of Bess in third place, who couldn’t translate all the chart success she’s been having with her song to enough votes on the night.

Söngvakeppnin (Iceland), Semi-Final 1
The way the system works here is that the televote picks two qualifiers from each semi, after which the jury selects one of the left over acts as a wildcard. Probably to no one’s surprise Sigga, Beta and Elín were first through. The televote runner-up was Stefán Óli, which means it will be up to the jury to decide whether Haffi Haff and his song about volcanoes should be sent to the final.

Melodifestival (Sweden), Semi-Final 4
In the last of the standard semis, Klara Hammarström and Medina went directly to the final, while Anna Bergendahl and Lillasyster are the last two acts to book a second chance at a grand final berth in next weekend’s semi-final 5.

One more big weekend awaits, with Germany, France, Denmark, Serbia and Romania selecting their songs, while Sweden, Iceland and Portugal hold semi-finals.