Your National Final Guide for the Next Week: 3rd - 9th February

Welcome to your first weekly national final guide! Every week, I will be keeping you updated with what's going in the world of Eurovision selections that will be being held across Europe! So, here's your guide for all the selection events from the 3rd to the 9th February.

Saturday 3rd February: Malta, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden

Tonight, Malta will be selecting their act for Eurovision 2018, using their selection process Malta Eurovision Song Contest. Over the past few weeks, Jack has interviewed several of the MESC participants ahead of the national final and we are now excited for them to perform tonight! 16 artists will perform at the national final, all hoping to represent Malta in Lisbon. The show will be opened by AIDAN's "Dai Laga" and the show will be closed by Petra with "Evolution". We wish all the artists the best of luck! You can watch the show live at www.tvm.com.mt/mt/live at 21:00 CET tonight!

As well as Malta selecting their act, Hungary and Lithuania will also continue with their selection processes and Latvia and Sweden will be starting their selection processes this evening. You can keep up-to-date on all the latest news about tonight's national finals over on our Twitter page. If you want to follow the national finals yourself however, Lithuania's Eurovizijos and Sweden's Melodifestivalen both start at 20:00 CET and Hungary's A Dal and Latvia's Supernova both start at 20:30 CET.

Sunday 4th February: Switzerland and Romania

Tomorrow, we see the sixth song being selected for Lisbon! This time, it is Switzerland's turn to select their song for the contest. Switzerland hasn't qualified for the Eurovision final since 2014, so they are making sure they select the perfect song to help them qualify this year! Six acts will be taking part in Die Entscheidungsshow tomorrow evening - Zibbz, Chiara Dubey, Naeman, Angie Ott, Alejandro Reyes and Vanessa Iraci. The winning entry will be decided by both a public televote and an international jury vote - we can't wait to see who wins! You can watch the national final tomorrow evening from 20:00 CET.

If you're not interested in Switzerland's selection, Romania will also continue their Selectia Nationala semi-finals tomorrow, also at 20:00 CET. Tomorrow, 12 more acts will battle it out for their place in the final on 25th February, but only three acts will be lucky enough to get a space. You can watch the semi-final live tomorrow at www.tvrplus.ro/live-tvr-international or on TVR's YouTube channel.

Tuesday 6th February - Friday 9th February: Italy

Italy's Sanremo Music Festival will kick off this Tuesday with the first of five nights in a week-long national selection process. Night 1 (Tuesday) will see the presentation of the songs, Night 2 (Wednesday) will see the first 10 songs being performed, Night 3 (Thursday) will see the next 10 songs being performed and Night 4 (Friday) will see the twenty acts perform a duet with a famous Italian artist. It is truly a week of music that can't be missed!

Wednesday 7th February: United Kingdom

As well as the second night of Sanremo in Italy, Wednesday will also see the seventh national final of the 2018 national final season - Eurovision: You Decide, the selection for the United Kingdom which will be hosted by UK Eurovision semi-final commentator, Mel Giedroyc and former Eurovision winner, Mans Zelmerlow (Sweden 2015). Six acts will take part in the contest - Goldstone, Jaz Ellington, Liam Tamne, RAYA, Asanda and SuRie. As a Brit myself, I'd like to wish all the artists good luck! Make sure you choose well UK!

Friday 9th February: San Marino

2018 marks ten years since San Marino debuted in Eurovision in Belgrade, and since they've debuted San Marino have always internally selected their Valentina Monetta... their act I'm sorry (just four of the times it has been Valentina). But this year there are no Valentinas and no Monettas around for San Marino's first ever national selection for Eurovision. 11 acts will take part in the selection from all across the world - ten of which are from Europe and one from Africa! Each artist will take part in both heats, performing one song in each of heats, but of course, only one act can be chosen for Eurovision - who will it be? It's most likely that Zoe Straub (Austria 2016) will be the writer of the song whichever is chosen as she has written 20 out of the 22 competing entries! We wish all the acts the best of luck!

And, there you have it, the national selections for the next week starting from tonight. There's plenty to look forward to including Malta, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all selecting their entries this week! We asked our followers on Twitter which of the national finals they are most looking forward to this week and 67% of you said that you are most looking forward to Eurovision: You Decide (United Kingdom) - can the UK finally choose an act that will make the top 10 for the first time since Jade Ewen in 2009? We'll soon find out! Have a great week all!