Well, OK - UK did make a good choice this year, they had a rather strong final, suprisingly. I guess Terry got tired of coming at the bottom at their own accord. That said, neither of the entries were as strong as last year near-winner Cyndi (announced as such by the overenthusiastic Wogan only to find out he was fed the wrong result through the earpiece). Andy The Binman is perhaps the best singer of the lot, but The Revelations had a much catchier song. This will do well in the charts but poorly in the ESC.
Malta - what an amateurish attempt at currying favor with the Eastern voting block. The worst part is, that it will probably be successful - even if more with currying favor with the traditional Malta-voting Western audience. Air Malta, here we come! The last time the Maltese entry was worth writing home about was Chiara's second appearance (third time lucky? Come back, Chiara!). Interestingly, the little country can do so well despite its minuscule population as they are incredibly musical. OTOH, by now every other Maltese had a former contestant as a music teacher at some point in life
The bare mention of Armenia and Czech Republic among "best" makes me want to puke. Armenians have long proven they have no musical taste whatsoever, not to mention talent. I have warm feelings for the nation still, but their results compared with the quality of their entries keep my knickers twisted in anger.