Rating: 4/5.

The 58th annual Eurovision Song Contest has already kicked off in splendid style in Malmö, Sweden, where the semi-final saw The Yorkshire Times' favourites Natalia Kelly (Austria) and Hannah (Slovenia) evicted alongside Klapa S Mora (Croatia), Who See (Montenegro), Despina Olympiou (Cyprus) and Moje 3 (Serbia), but with 17 more acts set to fight it out for a place in the final tonight, we decided to take a listen to the compilation CD to see if the kitsch contest has any potential global hits hidden away.

While the Eurovision Song Contest has become somewhat synonymous with trashy europop, the 2013 line-up in surprisingly credible. In the wake of some credible winners over the last few years, from Lena's Lily Allen tinged 'Satellite' (even though her sensational 'Taken By A Stranger' was overlooked at the 2011 competition) through to last year's winner Loreen's dizzying 'Euphoria', it appears that Europe is finally taking the competition seriously again.

Though it is clear that most of the 39 entrants have veered towards emulating last year's definitive electro-tinged pop sound, with Denmark's Emmelie de Forest ('Only Teardrops'), Slovenia's Hannah
('Straight Into Love') and Sweden's Margaret Berger ('I Feed You My Love') offering the finest cuts, it is those who break the mould that really stand out from the crowd.

Though there are stand-out moments in the shape of Gianluca Bezzina's playful 'Tomorrow' (Malta), Roberto Bellarosa pop perfection 'Love Kills', Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson blissfully beautiful 'Ég á Líf' (Iceland) and Dina Garipova's Disney-driven 'What If' (Russia). But it is Netherlands' Anouk who offers the album's stand out moment - the spine-tingling 'Birds', there is a big possibility that the Eurovision is about to take a very credible turn in the future.