Eurovision turned out to be a bit of a damp squib this year. There were a few great performances (Ukraine's Tina Karol stood out), dolphin men doing forward rolls and a rapper on a scooter but, all in all, the quality was a bit hit-and-miss. The highlight of the evening was a fierce interval performance of Mambo by Elena Paparizou which, as Wogan pointed out in a rare perceptive moment, showed that she could have won it all over again had she wanted to. The victors, Lordi, may have divided opinion but i'd much rather have their catchy, Kiss-inspired, pop metal than the alternative - Dima Bilan's rather insipid effort.

I saw Bilan live once. In an otherwise forgettable set he provided one moment of hilarity when, as he tried to rip his jacket off in a dramatic New-Kids-On-The-Block manner, he got it caught on his watch and had to spend the rest of the song with it limply hanging off one arm and getting in the way of his dance routines. If that wasn't bad enough, he was followed on stage by one of the most astounding performers i've had the honour of seeing in my life. Dressed in furry pelts and looking every inch the Siberian hunter, Pelageya Khanova was in a completely different dimension to everything else on the bill that night. Waving her hands in front of her mouth and banging on her own chest to modulate the pitch, she made sounds that seemed to alternate between the celestial and the animal. Her precocious talent led her to make an international debut at the Edinburgh festival at the age of twelve and record a stunning collection of Russian folk songs at fifteen. At nineteen she's unquestionably one of the most exciting vocalists in the world. Ranim Rano is the most modern-sounding song on the CD, borrowing, oddly-enough, from the theme to Mission Impossible.

Pelageya - Ranim Rano

All of which, in a roundabout way, brings me to Tina Karol's improbably-named compatriot Katya Chilly (pictured at top). I'd often wondered what would happen if a singer with a similar sort of ability to Pelageya combined those feral folk vocals with electro pop. Her new album Ya Molodaya, answers those questions. You'll have to be the judge of whether or not it works. At the very least it's interesting and different. Excellent hair too.

Katya Chilly - Pivni