Time to head East once more and it’s a mixed bag of guilty pleasures and what might have been for one of the most hotly tipped songs of all yet inexplicably didn’t win their national final.

Moldova

DoReDoS “FunnyFolk” (4th place in final)

Pure guilty pleasure this one – can’t make much more comment than that! Would have been a more distinctive entry than the song that won I think. This came 4th (of 16 songs!) in Moldova’s national final (O Melodie Pentru Europa).

Poland

Margaret “Cool Me Down” (Runner up)

I suspect that this is definitely a contender for the biggest shock result of any national final. This song was the red hot favourite, and not just to win the national final (Krajowe Eliminacje) – bookies had Poland as the favourite to win Eurovision based on this song. But all for naught. Since then, Poland has plummeted down the betting and is now a rank outsider. Given what’s been going on politically in Poland recently, maybe that’s no bad thing…

Romania

Romania staged a well produced and fairly high quality national final (Selecția Națională) this year, although the ultimate winner may be a bit disappointing, although is certainly different to most other entries this year.

Vanotek feat. The Code & Georgian “I’m Coming Home”

I’m a big fan of this one and would have liked to see it at Eurovision but in the end it was a runner up.

Mihai “Paradisio” (5th in final)

Not the return to the competition that Mihai would have wanted given his past success but worth putting in this list of best of the rest. For those of you who don’t remember Mihai, he gave Romania their second best result at Eurovision in Greece in 2006 with “Tornero” which turned into a big Europe-wide summer hit. Here’s a reminder if you’ve forgotten!