Songs assessed - and countries drawn!

You've all been waiting very patiently, but we're pleased to say - the countries have been drawn. Those of you have RSVPd in the affirmative to your invitations have been allocated a country for you to represent at EUROfiasco on Saturday 26 May and you can see the list here.

We also spent last Friday night doing the now-annual full review of all this year's entries - some of which we were very familiar with, others much less so. From Montenegro - who will be singing at about 8.05pm on Tuesday 22 May... and maybe never again... - all the way through to the last of the Big 5 to perform on Saturday - 42 countries in total. Yes, it took a while. But we now have the final EUROfiasco Top 10 - and we'll be revealing that over the coming weeks. But not yet!

So - to the countries. Most of you know the drill by now - please "come as your country" through the medium of food, drink and costume. The first two are to be served to everyone during the 3 mins (plus 30second postcard) that your country makes its performance, so the less complex the better - but ingenuity is always welcome. As is stuff that tastes delicious.

Your outfit - well, we've seen some classics over the years. Your inspiration can come from anywhere, whether the country itself or this year's performer (which you can discover more about via the Eurovision website - here's the list of all of them, and here's the YouTube channel with all the videos). There will be prizes for the most creative efforts... scattered through this post are some reminders of those who have won or come close, to spur you on to victory.

As you all know - only the Big 6 are guaranteed to be in the final on the Saturday. We've done our best to pick countries that we think are likely to be there, based on the betting as well as our own expert assessments (ahem). But anything can happen in Eurovision, and normally does, in a bad way. Fear not - we will twin countries if yours isn't represented, in the spirit of European harmony that Eurovision was established to engender. So you can go food, booze and costume shopping in full confidence! Or, if you're not planning to get you EUROgear sorted until nearer the time, we will update you all after each semi with details of any fallers and who we've twinned your country with.