MTV News Round-up 17/05/2004

*** Singer Ruslana won this year's Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine, while UK entrant James Fox came 16th with 29 points. Fox has since blamed political voting for the final placings, as the Balkan countries gave each other a vast majority of their votes, while the French entry received its only 12-point score from Monaco.

*** Daniel Bedingfield claims that God warned his parents that he would be involved in a car crash. The 24-year-old singer broke his neck in a crash in New Zealand in January when his jeep overturned. "God told my parents I was going to be in a crash three weeks before it happened. He told them I wouldn't be paralysed or brain damaged but it would be serious. After that they kept begging me not to drive but obviously I did."

*** Ash performed a midnight gig at the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street in London to celebrate the release of their new album, 'Meltdown'. Four hundred fans witnessed the 50-minute set. The band will carry out in-store signing sessions across the country this week to promote the new album, before hitting the road for a full tour later this month.

*** Green Day's new album, 'American Idiot' will be released this autumn, the band has announced. The trio is expected to play new material when they perform at the Reading and Leeds festivals on August 27-29.

*** Supposed lesbian Julia Volkova " one half of Tatu " is pregnant. Long-term boyfriend Pasha Sidorov is the father, though he already has a wife and daughter. "Obviously we will not be celebrating a wedding," Julia told Russian newspaper Zhizn. Julia and bandmate (and supposed lesbian lover) Katina topped charts worldwide after their steamy antics in the video for 'All The Things She Said'.

CL