Ten songs from the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final have advanced to tomorrow's (May 20) final in Athens, but pre-contest favorite "Je T'Adore" by Belgium's Kate Ryan is not among the qualifiers. More surprising, the nursery-rhyme like "We Are the Winners" by LT United from Lithuania, considered by many to be one of the worst Eurovision entries of all time, made it through to the final.The semi-final of the 51st Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast live Thursday night to over 100 million viewers throughout Europe. After the 23 songs were performed, phone lines were opened for 10 minutes. As the show drew to its close after two and a half hours, hosts Sakis Rouvas and Maria Menounos opened 10 envelopes containing the names of the countries that had received the highest amount of votes from viewers.The first envelope opened contained a card with "Russia" written on it. That was not a surprise, as Dima Bilan's "Never Let You Go" is one of the favorites to win the competition on Saturday night.Other countries that qualified were Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine. Armenia is a first-time entrant.Finland has failed to qualify in previous semi-finals and has never placed higher than sixth in the final competition. Heavy-metal monster-outfitted act Lordi (described as a cross between Kiss and the Klingons) could give the Finnish their most successful entry in Eurovision history with the pyrotechnic-laden "Hard Rock Hallelujah." Ireland, the country that has won the most contests, is back in after not making it out of the semi-final last year.
Lithuania's "We Are the Winners" was one of two songs in the semi-final that made direct reference to winning Eurovision. The other, "Congratulations" by Iceland's Silvia Night, did not qualify. The Icelandic song, as well as the entire presentation, was meant as a joke but Europe didn't get it, as indicated by the loud booing in the hall during the performance Silvia Night, a character on a television show in Iceland, had offended many by singing an expletive in her song, and by cursing the television crew during rehearsals. When warned by the European Broadcasting Union that she would be disqualified if she sang the expletive during the live broadcast, Night replied, "I'll f***ing say what I f***ing want." On the night, she sang, "I'll freaking win" as she had intended all along, but it was too late to appeal to televoters. It also didn't help that during a press conference she had one of her bodyguards physically remove a journalist for looking her in the eyes. The "journalist" was an actress, but it wasn't reported that way on Greek television.
Other countries that didn't qualify for the Eurovision final were Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. Anzej Dezan had also been a favorite with the Slovenian entry, "Mr. Nobody," but the absence of Belgium remains the biggest surprise. "Je T'Adore" was not only a fan favorite, but a panel of experts assembled by BBC News in the United Kingdom had selected the Belgian song as the winner among all 37 entries.Viewers have a wide choice of music to choose from, including country (Germany), new age (Norway), a cappella (Latvia), retro '60s pop (Denmark), rap (United Kingdom), cool jazz (Spain), dance pop (Malta) and ballad (Ireland) as well as Finland's heavy metal entry.

It was Aug. 17, 1982, and row upon row of palm-sized plates with a rainbow sheen began rolling off an assembly line near Hanover, Germany.An engineering marvel at the time, today they are instantly recognizable as Compact Discs, a product that turns 25 years old on Friday — and whose future in an age of iPods and MP3 players is increasingly in doubt.Those first CDs contained Strauss' Alpine Symphony and would sound equally sharp if played today, says Holland's Royal Philips Electronics NV, which jointly developed the CD with Sony of Japan.The project that brought digital audio to the masses was a risky technical endeavor back then, said Pieter Kramer, the head of the optical research group at Philips' labs in the Netherlands in the 1970s."When we started there was nothing in place," he told The Associated Press at Philips' corporate museum in Eindhoven.The proposed semiconductor chips needed for CD players were to be the most advanced ever used in a consumer product. And the lasers were still on the drawing board when the companies teamed up in 1979.
In 1980, they published what became known as the "Red Book" containing the original CD standards, as well as specifying which patents were held by Philips and which by Sony. Philips had developed the bulk of the disc and laser technology, while Sony contributed the digital encoding that allowed for smooth, error-free playback. Philips still licenses out the Red Book and its later incarnations, notably for the CD-ROM.The jump into mass production in Germany was a milestone for the CD, and two weeks later the companies announced their product was ready for market. Both began selling players that fall, though the machines only hit U.S. markets the following spring.
Sony sold the first player in Japan on Oct. 1, with CBS supplying Billy Joel's 52nd Street as its first album.The CD's design drew inspiration from vinyl records: like the grooves on a record, CDs are engraved with a spiral of tiny pits that are scanned by a laser — the equivalent of a record player's needle. The reflected light is encoded into millions of 0s and 1s: a digital file.Because the pits are covered with plastic and the laser's light doesn't wear them down, it never loses sound quality.Legends abound about how the size of the CD was chosen: some said it matched a Dutch beer coaster; others that a famous conductor or Sony executive wanted it just long enough for Beethoven's 9th Symphony.But Kramer said the decision evolved from "long conversations around the table" about which play length made the most sense.It was a massive hit. Sony sold more players, especially once its "Walkman" series was introduced in 1984. But Philips benefited from CD sales, due to its ownership of Polygram, now part of Universal Music Group.The CD player helped Philips maintain its position as Europe's largest maker of consumer electronics until it was eclipsed by Nokia in the late 1990s. Licensing royalties sustained the company though bad times."The CD was in itself an easy product to market," said Philips' current marketing chief for consumer electronics, Lucas Covers. It wasn't just the sound quality — discs looked like jewelry in comparison to LPs.By 1986, CD players were outselling record players, and by 1988 CDs outsold records. "It was a massive turnaround for the whole market," Covers said.Now, the CD may be seeing the end of its days."The MP3 and all the little things that the boys and girls have in their pockets ... can replace it, absolutely," said Kramer, the retired engineer.But Kramer said it had been satisfying to witness the CD's long run at the top and know he had a small hand in its creation."You never know how long a standard will last. But it was a solid, good standard and still is," he said.  This report is provided by usatoday.com