Azerbaijan

1st Semi Final of the Eurovision Song Contest tonight - hooray!

"I didn't know Azerbaijan was in Europe..."

It's not.

Azerbaijan (or moreover the Public Broadcaster, ITV) is a member of the European Broadcasting Union.

That's also why Turkey, Georgia, Armenia et al. can take part, why Morocco entered once back 1980 (and never tried again), and why Lebanon selected a song to represent them in 2005, but on realising they'd have to broadcast Israel's entry and pulled out.

Tonight's show (in my humble opinion) is the weaker of the two semis this week. Hoping for Cyprus, Russia, Iceland and Romania to make it to Saturday's grand finale...but this is Eurovision - anything can happen!