Germany tipped for Eurovision win

Eurovision panel's top 10 songs

Germany has been tipped to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki by a BBC panel.

Roger Cicero's swing entry came ahead of songs from Switzerland, Serbia, Georgia and Spain in the top five.

UK hopefuls Scooch rated 19th out of the 42 songs, while Montenegro, Portugal and Armenia finished at the foot of the table with no points.

Eurovision singers - including two past winners - joined fans from across Europe on the BBC's unofficial jury.

Tipped to qualify

The other songs that attracted the 11-strong panel's support and made it into the top 10 were Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Belarus and Russia.

EUROVISION PANEL TOP FIVE 1 Germany 2 Switzerland 3 Serbia 4 Georgia 5 Spain

Ireland, who have won Eurovision seven times and are the contest's most successful country, finished in 29th place.

Songs that missed out on the top 10 but are tipped to qualify from Thursday night's semi-final by the panel are Moldova, Denmark, Latvia and Hungary.

Six countries from the panel's top 10 will also have to perform in the qualifying event.

The semi-final will feature 28 countries battling it out for just 10 places in Saturday night's main event, joining 14 countries that qualified automatically.

The Eurovision professionals who sat on the panel included Belgium's 1986 winner Sandra Kim - the country's only contest winner to date.

Belarussian singer Koldun could put his country into their first final

Richard Herrey, along with his two brothers, secured Sweden's second contest win in 1984 with the song Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley.

Romania's Mihai Traistariu and Andrius Mamontovas from Lithuanian band LT United, who enjoyed top 10 finishes at last year's event in Athens, also cast their votes, along with Nicki French, the UK's representative in 2000.

Prominent members of contest fan clubs from six countries including Malta and Russia also returned their verdicts.

Each panel member chose their personal top 10 and countries were awarded points accordingly, resulting in the definitive list.

Panel members were not permitted to vote for their own country.

The semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest takes place on 10 May and will be screened on BBC Three at 2000 BST. The grand final, on 12 May, will be shown on BBC One from 2000 BST.