Douze points if you remember these Sunderland links to Eurovision

Get ready for another night of Eurovision music.

The countdown is on to this year’s grand final on Saturday in Sweden and we are celebrating with a look back at all these Wearside links to the epic contest.

Derek had some fun with Eurovision

It was only last year when Sunderland man Derek Buckham produced his own song for Europe - and gave himself nil points.

His light-hearted tribute was called Have Some Fun.

In 2015, seven local schools made it through to the finals of a Eurovision Song Contest-style competition.

They all sang in foreign languages

The Year Four youngsters took part in a Song for Europe foreign-language music event at the Durham Gala Theatre.

Pupils at Castletown Primary School and St Mary’s RC Primary in Meadowside sang in Italian.

Children from the city’s Ryhope and Diamond Hall junior schools, along with Houghton’s Bernard Gilpin Primary, hit the right notes in French.

Wearsider who sang in the final

Singing in Spanish were children from Newbottle Primary Academy and Our Lady Queen of Peace RC Primary at Penshaw.

Tell us if you remember who won the competition.

In 2011, former New College Durham student David Bryan had his dream come true when he performed at Eurovision - for Romania.

The 26-year-old had been working as a binman but he always dreamt of being a pop star.

He was spotted doing karaoke by music manager Florin Budeu in Romania and was signed up to join a touring cabaret band.

Tell us more

His band, Hotel FM, was chosen by the Romanian public to represent their country in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Bob Marshall from Sunderland completes our links. In 1999, he co-wrote one of the songs which was in the running to be Britain’s entry.

Bob was the manager of Marlowe’s Bar in Holmeside, but he also played a part in the song You’ve Taken My Dreams, which he penned with John Miles junior, the son of top North East musician John Miles.

But it was a tune called Say It Again which won through to the finals where it placed equal 12th at Eurovision.

Did you know, you can follow all the latest Eurovision news on the Sunderland Echo’s dedicated online page to the competition.

Here it is. Tell us about your favourite Eurovision memories by emailing [email protected]