What with Balkanisation and accession and the fall of communism and other forms of proliferation, there are just too darn many countries in the Eurovision Song Contest these days.  There are two qualifying heats, shown in hinterlands of the BBC’s digital channel offerings in advance of the big Saturday night finale.

And I had to watch it, and of course, Tweet about it:

• Moldovans kicking off the Eurovision qualifying heats on BBC 3 – spinning fiddle player, 80s pop feel- I like it
• Husband: Why can’t we vote in the Eurovision qualifiers? It’s only for loser countries?
• OMG Russian #eurovision entry makes me want to neck some vodka and throw myself into the Volga
• @paulhenderson is that a velvet smoking jacket that Estonian is wearing? #eurovision – that is some dire pop
• Slovakian forest death maidens – I love me some Eastern European turbo folk pop #eurovision
• C’mon the Finns! a pearlescent accordion is a brave choice. I like Finnish folk and it’s got the boy bouncing along.#eurovision
• Latvian girl in the bathrobe and gladiator sandals needs to keep her day job. Pitchy to say the least #eurovision
• Holy Hoppin’ Serbian in a pixie haircut. Is he sayin “Polka, polka, polka c’mon”? #eurovision
• Bosnia knows how to run a fog machine but not a rock band #eurovision
• Screaming and chomping on apples and headlocks in ballet folklorico dresses, What’s not to love about the Poland#eurovision entry?
• Wow. Belgium gives a stripped back honest pop ballad from a presentable young man. It’s good. Disqualify immediately. #eurovision
• Just the sentence “He came second in the Flemish X Factor” has made me LOL #eurovision
• Malta’s ingenue with her wavy dress is washing over me like drier lint #eurovision
• Now we know where all the surplus 70s Star Trek Klingon outfits went: Albania #eurovision
• Opa! be-hoodied greek dancing and a front man that’s a holiday romance you can’t retsina away #Greece#eurovision
• Portugal’s #eurovison entry so boring I can’t summon the snark. Nice hair, almost.
• Wise choice FYR Macedonia, you need some strippers to liven this one up #eurovision
• Iceland, je ne sais quois, wearing an interpretation of volcanic eruption in chiffon – standard pop fare#eurovision

…and I missed tweeting on the Belarus entry, a forgettable song, but impressive butterfly costumes.

During the phone in and tabulation I tweeted:

• I’m supporting Finland, Slovakia, Albania, Greece and Poland just to gawp at the pop assault again#eurovision

But my choices were largely not those of the European voters, alas Finland, Slovakia and Poland did not make the cut.

The winners of the first heat of the Eurovision qualifiers were: