"I've always been very enamoured of Scandinavia not just because I love Abba," insists Julia Zemiro. "They were my first concert and first album and obviously that's a great Eurovision connection. But I love Danish and Swedish film, too.

"So I’m pretty excited to go to Oslo and just feel what the difference might be like."

RocKwiz host Julia Zemiro will soon pack her Eurovision suitcase and join ADbc's Sam Pang once again, after presenting together in Moscow last year.

"One of my favourite singers is Norwegian. His name is Thomas Dybdahl. I suppose you could say he's slightly Jeff Buckley-esque, but he sings in English," she says.

"Gee I'm hoping he does a guest appearance!"

Julia and Sam will present Eurovision 2010 from Telenor Arena with a dedicated SBS production crew, bringing an Australian perspective and again providing commentary in between the musical numbers. Together with her experience of Moscow 2009, Julia has the perfect mix of music appreciation and a sense of humour; she believes some of the entrants also approach it in good spirit.

"Most of the contestants that I spoke to, and I spoke to quite a few, realise that they're putting on a show. You can barely see it as a competition. Even the best song whatever that might be, has no guarantee of winning," she says. "But having said that, they realise that if they do win it’s an incredible opportunity."

The scale of Eurovision and the intense media presence makes the event unique. With its curious mix of pop personalities, politics, security, cultural and social boundaries, it's a challenge to any media crew.

"I think this year we're really going to be concentrating on getting back stage, trying to get an interview with everyone, which we did last year. We were back stage pretty much the whole time but last year the one person we didn’t get an interview with was (Norway's) Alexander Rybak. He was just so protected. We kept asking," she recalls.

"Our producer tried, I tried, Sam tried but there was always an excuse. At first you were kind of thinking, 'Is this just hype, all this stuff around this guy?'; and then of course he won by such an incredible margin. You think well obviously he was 'The Guy' after all," she says.

Well before she was cast in the Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision stage musical, Julia has always loved Europe's quintessential song contest. Born in France and raised in Australia, she acquired an early taste for foreign-language music.

"French pop and Italian pop have always been part of our record collection," she says. "I love hearing songs in other languages and I get more disappointed every year when there is just so much English and very little of the actual languages."

Eyeing the acts for 2010, Julia says there are some very slick and very contemporary, acts with not too many wild cards. She picks Iceland's Hera Bjork as an early favourite.

"Considering Iceland’s volcano could actually stop us from flying into Norway, I think it’s only fair to give them a vote of confidence. I thought Iceland were robbed last year so maybe they can win in 2010 with their big power ballad in English and French!

"It’s called Je Ne Sais Quoi which literally means ‘I don’t know what’. And there is a key change to die for." Of Azerbaijan's Safura, who sings Drip Drop she says, "Again, a big power ballad to start with, then completely undercut by ‘drip drop drip drop woah woah’ as a chorus and no real key change. And there's no goose bump factor like Hera Bjork."

At the other end of the scale she tips the Netherlands' Sieneke with Ik Ben Verliefd (sha-la-lie). “She looks like a middle-aged woman but is in fact only17!" she laughs."I think it’s the hair cut, so hopefully by the time she gets to Oslo, someone will have got to her with some scissors. It’s a very old fashioned sounding song, with an accordion and a ‘sha-la-lie-sha-la-la’ chorus which could be infectious. Go Dutch!"

But of course on the night it could be a completely different story. Such is the power and unpredictability of the Eurovision Song Contest.

"I just love the happiness of it," says Julia. "A friend of mine called it 'The happiest night of the year' and it kind of is."