Down to the last two countries on the list of Eurovision contestants, Ireland and the UK. Am I saving the best for last? Let’s take a look.

Jedward is representing Ireland with the pop song, Waterline

Glitter boots! Okay, so here we have identical twins singing a boy band song while dressed in Michael Jackson’s discarded wardrobe from the eighties. I hadn’t heard of Jedward before this. Apparently, they are an almost overnight phenomenon in Ireland and the UK, after having placed sixth on the X Factor. They also represented Ireland in the 2011 Eurovision competition with the song, Lipstick. They came in a respectable eighth place. So why send them again? Well, they won their national competition. I actually like the 2011 song, Lipstick, better than Waterline. As performers, their voices blend well and they have high energy. I never liked boy bands, not even when I was a tween, so Jedward doesn’t do much for me. I can see they have a potentially strong voting block, so I wouldn’t count them out of the finals.

Engelbert Humperdinck is representing the United Kingdom with the ballad, Love Will Set You Free

It’s hard to think of two performances more different than those of Jedward and Engelbert Humperdinck. Most of all, I appreciate EH’s lack of hype. He doesn’t need it as he such an established performer. He can hold the stage with just mood lighting and a single guitarist. Very impressive. As I watched this, it reminded me, just a bit, of Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt. This doesn’t have the same raw power, but this song ends with real emotional impact. EH sounds great and his voice is still strong. The UK deserves its spot in the finals with this performance.

That’s it! Through the list. Whew! I’m very impressed by the variety of the performances. It’s not as easy to pick favorites as I thought it would be. I’ll be posting my Eurovision top 10 later.