Last night, Sunday 26th April 2015, London hosted their annual Eurovision Preview Party – London Eurovision – at the glittering Cafe de Paris in the heart of the West End. The venue was packed with Eurovision fans and press, all eager for a night of Eurotastic entertainment from a number of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, plus some names from previous years scattered throughout.

The London Eurovision party has been growing each year, and this year, the show which was
expertly hosted by the wonderful Nicki French (UK 2000) and Paddy O’Connell (former UK Semi-Finals commentator), saw a staggering 16 acts from this years contest, along with 7 guest acts from previous years or national selections.

The show was kicked off by Kitty Brucknell. Kitty was a contestant from the UK X-Factor, who also tried to represent both Switzerland and Moldova at this year’s contest. She entertained the crown with a selection of hits, including Euphoria, and ended with her entry for the Moldovan national selection. She was followed by Ray Caruana, who led the group Live Report in 1989 for the UK. He performed the song “Why do I always get it wrong?” which earned the UK second place in the contest.

The hosts – Nicki French & Paddy O’Connell	Kitty Bracknell	Ray Caruana

The first act from this year was from Hungary. Boggie performed her entry beautifully, showing that she certainly has the vocal capability in a live setting. The audience certainly seems to get behind her, even though the entry is very gentle for this type of setting.

Next up was Mélanie René from Switzerland. She really go the audience going with a few classic pop hits before wowing the crowd with her entry Time to Shine. She certainly shone on stage, and when talking to a few of the audience members after the show, they found themselves liking the song much more than they had before, naming her one of the favourites from the night.

Germany’s Ann Sophie came on next. She sang both of her songs that were entered for Germany this year. The audience all seemed to agree that she chose the right one to take to Vienna.

Boggie	Mélanie René	Ann Sophie

Next on to the London stage was the Czech Republic. Marta and Václav certainly know how to work an audience and had them eating out of their hands. They not only performed the Czech entry for this year, but also each performed a solo song too, not only showing off their vocal abilities but their personalities too.

The hosts for this year’s contest then took over the stage. First the Austrian entry, The Makemakes came on to perform their song “I am Yours”, followed by the winner from last year, Conchita Wurst, who performed her winning entry “Rise like a Phoenix” along with 2 of her other songs, “Heroes” and “Unstoppable”. London certainly loves Conchita.

Marta & Václav	The Makemakes	Conchita Wurst

Austria was followed my Moldova. Eduard Romanyuta performed his uptempo entry “I want you love” which certainly got the audience moving.

Aminata from Latvia took to the stage next, performing 2 powerful songs, including her entry for this year “Love Injected”. Although she sounded fantastic, the audience did not seem to take to the Latvian entry as well this year and they seem to enjoy “Cake to Bake” at last year’s event.

Amber from Malta followed Latvia. She also chose to warm up the audience with a few songs before presenting “Warrior” to them. The UK will always have a soft spot for Malta and the audience really did enjoy her performance.

Eduard Romanyuta	Aminata	Amber

Greece then took over the stage, with Sarbel from 2007 performing his song “Yassou Maria”. Sarbel then introduced this years Greek entrant ,Maria Elena Kyriakou, onto the stage and she performed her ballad “One Last Breath” beautifully.

Sarbel	Maria Elena Kyriakou

The country to receive the biggest cheer on the night was without a doubt Sweden. First the 1992 entrant, Christer Björkman performed his entry “I Morgon Är en Annan Dag” before introducing Måns Zelmerlöw onto the stage to perform “Heroes”. If the crowd in London were anything to go by, Sweden is definitely on course to their 6th victory.

Finally the UK entry took to the stage. Electro Velvet performed their entry “Still in Love with you” and were rewarded with a great reception from the crowd. Alex and Bianca seem to have much more on-stage chemistry and certainly seem to be winning over the UK audience. Will the UK finally be on the left hand side of the score board in Vienna?

Christer Björkman	Måns Zelmerlöw	Electro Velvet

Knez from Montenegro was next singing his gorgeous entry “Adio” The audience loved it, and sang along as best they could.

Guy Sebastian representing Australia took to the stage to thunderous applause and sang 3 songs. Although he sang beautifully, the stage presence let him down slightly. He’s clearly enjoying himself though and I am sure he will do Australia proud.

Giannis Karagiannis from Cyprus was up next with his entry “One thing I should have done”. He knows how to work an audience and London certainly seems to love his entry.

Knez	Guy Sebastian	Giannis Karagiannis

Cyprus was followed by a previous Maltese entrant. Kurt Calleja from 2012 took to the stage to perform a few songs, including his entry “This is the night”

The next 2015 entrant on stage was Elhaida from Albania. She performed he entry “I’m alive” for the London crowd. Although the audience really enjoyed it, Elhaida did miss a couple of the big notes in her song, which clearly left her very disappointed by her performance.

Kurt Calleja	Elhaida

The final 2015 performance was from Norway. Mørland and Scarlett were utterly charming with the audience and performed “A Monster Like Me” flawlessly. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and it should certainly fare well in Vienna.

Finally the host Nicki French finished off with her 2000 entry “Don’t play that song again” rounding off a fantastic evening.

Mørland and Scarlett	Nicki French

The winners from the night certainly seemed to be Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Australia and I am sure they will score highly from the UK voting come Vienna.