Baltics bumped from Eurovision contest

Neither Latvia's guitar-driven duo of Fomins & Kleins, nor Estonia's heavy ethnic Neiokõsõ, nor Lithuania's lovelorn duo Linas & Simona have made it past the semifinal of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. The three Baltic countries were among 22 nations competing in the semi-final. Ten of those proceed to the final, based on telephone voting across Europe, according to the song contest’s official Web site. The semifinal winners, which include several Balkan and Mediterranean lands, are Serbia and Montenegro, Malta, the Netherlands, Albania, Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Greece and Cyprus. Those 10 will join 14 other countries already in the final because of their previous performance in Eurovision or because of their size. Those already in the final include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Turkey won the right to host the contest because it won the 2003 Eurovision competition, which was hosted by Latvia.