Many of you know how much of a fan I am of the Eurovision Song Contest. I take the whole thing very seriously and get highly involved in the event in the run up to the international broadcast. As many do, I enjoy a nice night in front of the television with my friends and colleagues, alongside a nice few bottles of booze to wash down the festivities, but I am keeping a close eye on the competition alongside that, with constant blogging and 'tweeting' amongst other sources of input. This year is no different, as I'm starting the ball rolling again ahead of the show.

Today I reactivated my presence and account with Eurovision.tv, the website provider for the contest, where news and other media sources are delivered by the staff, press and some fans. On this website I will be venting my thoughts again, and engaging in the contest, whilst sharing my opinions and feelings on the performers and the general news that comes from Oslo, Norway; the host country this year, after their ground-breaking win last year with Alexander Rybak's Fairytale. If you don't know it, or didn't hear it last year, it's the song played on RTÉ Radio 1's Mooney programme when they give out the telephone numbers for the daily Mooney's Money competition. It did also get a bit of airplay after the win last year, but it hasn't been shifting much broadcast time since then, as it never really became a popular track for radio in Ireland, unlike other parts of the continent.

Where I probably won't be this month, sadly: The Eurovision Press Centre

On the website, as stated, I will engage with the public and press, but I will post my updates here also, on my personal blog (or wherever you end up reading this article) . This way I will be sparking, hopefully, some input and conversation with fellow Eurovision fans, and my regular blog readers. And, due to the fact that everybody seems to be on Twitter, I'll be posting there too. Yep, there's no escaping it over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, I won't be travelling over to Norway this year for the contest, so I won't be living it up in the press centre (see picture) or fan-zone. However, I will be getting some feedback from some Norwegian friends who will share their thoughts and news with me, as well as my regular daily trawling through press releases that I receive.

If you're a fan, or you've somewhat an interest in the event, hit me up, and like any other thing relating to music, I'll gladly talk with you about it until the cows come home. If you're not interested, well, sorry- but you did read this entire article about it.

If you're one of those interested parties, I enclose a remix of Ireland's Niamh Kavanagh's It's for You. It's just been released and it's, er, interesting. Some argue that it's better than the original. What do you think?

If you can't see the video, click here.

[Thanks to Brendan B.]

(Images copyright of ESC, as posted on their Flickr account)