Saturday is Eurovision Song Contest day, when people from around the continent of Europe gather around the television to wonder what on earth people in other countries were thinking when they submitted this stuff!

I won’t be following the show live, but having seen the semis, here’s a few quick pointers for the show.

The consensus seems to be that there isn’t a stand-out obvious winner this year.  My bet, though, would be on Sweden’s Eric Saade, the Scandinavian Zac Efron, which is a big electropop stomper, looked great at the semifinals, would actually sell in the real world, but manages to be Extremely Eurovision at the same time.

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This won’t take long – it’s another dead week on the chart.

LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” is number 1 for the fourth week, but it’s dodged a bullet.  The highest new entry, at number 3, is “Where Them Girls At” by David Guetta featuring Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj.  It could very easily have been number 1, but there was a screw-up with iTunes that cost it a couple of days sales there.

This is a rush-release after a bootleg remix of the song was leaked, so there isn’t a video yet.  Supposedly somebody obtained the vocal track illegally and put out a dodgy version with a rubbish backing track that Guetta wanted to distance himself from.  Whether this is true or not, the record company has certainly used it as the promotional hook for the track.  There doesn’t seem to be an audio version on YouTube (of decent quality), but let’s be honest, it sounds like a lot of other recent David Guetta records, so you’re not missing much.  Here’s the official trailer from Guetta’s YouTube channel, which gives you the general idea.

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After last week’s deluge of new entries, it’s a relatively quiet week this time round.  Lots of climbers, not much in the way of new songs.

LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” stays at number 1 for a third week, making it the second single of the year to do so.  The biggest challenge comes from Bruno Mars’ “The Lazy Song”, which climbs from 15 to 2 in its second week.  But as of right now, LMFAO are still number 1 on iTunes (with no new releases anywhere in sight), so they could well manage a fourth week to match Adele.  Also climbing in the top ten, albeit only by one place, are Chris Brown at 4, Snoop Dogg at 5 and Katy Perry at 6.

This week’s highest new entry is “Guilt” by Nero at number 8, which is another dubstep crossover record.  This is at the more commercial end of the spectrum, given the radio-friendly vocal – many purists apparently prefer their dubstep completely instrumental, I hear – but it’s a great piece of production, with the slow build to a ridiculously overpowered bassline about a minute in.

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Late in the week, I know, but at least I’m still in time to get this post done before the new chart on Sunday.

“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO spends its second week at number one, and looks set for a third.  But even so, it’s a busy week, with ten new entries.  The turnover of hits has slowed down a lot in the last couple of years; swapping out a quarter of the chart used to be fairly routine, but we don’t see it as much in the digital era.

That’s the highest new entry – “Unorthodox” by Wretch 32 featuring Example, at number 2.  Does the video really need a definition of the word “unorthodox” in the first few seconds?  I have more faith in the viewers than that.  Anyway, this is the second hit for Wretch 32, who reached number 5 in January with “Traktor”.  It’s also the biggest hit for guest rapper Example, beating the number 3 peak of “Kickstarts” last year.

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