It's the Worldovision Song Contest

The ding-dang-a-dong world of the Eurovision Song Contest is to encounter a global rival next spring in the form of a new ITV competition for The Most Popular Song in the World. The final of the new contest will take place in the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Mike Mansfield, a television producer who is managing the project, says he is expecting "a huge, fab, global show that will be something everyone can look forward to".

Between 20 and 25 countries are expected to take part - including America and Brazil. It is hot competition from across the Atlantic that is perceived by some Eurovision fans as essential if Ireland is to be toppled from its dominant position in the international world of song contests.

The project - commissioned by ITV's director of programmes, David Liddiment - will also be broadcast on the internet and the public will be able to vote via the net.

The global song contest will attempt to raise the quality of songs through the involvement of the record industry. Leading record companies, including Sony, EMI and Universal, are discussing the idea and will select the performers and songwriters for the entries - a development which is expected to result in fewer Boom Bang a Bangs and Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley's so familiar to viewers of the Eurovision contest.

The new show will be plugged extensively by ITV in Cannes next week at the MipTV international programme sales conference.

In recent years The Eurovision Song Contest has been straining at the seams - with an explosion in the number of entrants and the questionable inclusion of Israel as a European country.

Aficionados of the genre have long been arguing that it was only a matter of time before the pressure got too great, and the whole song contest concept went global. "There's one worrying question though," said one Eurovision-lover. "We know America can do the songs, but can it really compete with Europe on kitsch?".