Draw for the semi finals

Today the draw for which country will be in which semi final in Oslo was made by the EBU. The starting positions however will be decided in March.

Semi 1 (Tuesday 25 May)

Serbia

Finland

Russia

Greece

Slovakia

Bosnia-Hercegovina

Iceland

Moldova

Malta

Portugal

FYR Macedonia

Latvia

Belarus

Belgium

Poland

Albania

Estonia

Semi 2 (Thursday 27 May)

Switzerland

Lithuania

Georgia

Turkey

Ireland

Slovenia

Sweden

Ukraina

Netherlands

Bulgaria

Croatia

Denmark

Azerbaijan

Cyprus

Romania

Israel

Armenia

Spain and Germany will be voting in the first semi whereas UK, France and Norway will vote in the second semi.

Semi 1 + 2 result

Semi 1
1. Iceland
2. Turkey
3. Bosnia
4. Sweden
5. Armenia
6. Malta
7. Israel
8. Portugal
9. Romania
10. FYR Macedonia
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11. Montenegro
12. Finland
13. Belarus
14. Switzerland
15. Andorra
16. Bulgaria
17. Belgium
18. Czech Republic


Semi 2
1. Norway
2. Azerbaijan
3. Estonia
4. Greece
5. Moldova
6. Ukraine
7. Albania
8. Denmark
9. Lithuania
10. Serbia
----------------
11. Ireland
12. Poland
13. Croatia
14. Cyprus
15. Hungary
16. Slovenia
17. The Netherlands
18. Slovakia
19. Latvia

- Finland and Croatia made it to the final thanks to the jury.
- Macedonia and Serbia would have been through otherwise.
- Poor Macedonia being kicked out by the jury for the second year running in favour for a Nordic country.
- Czech Republic came last with nil points in semi 1. Latvia got 7p but was still last in semi 2.
- Fan-favourite Switzerland weren't even close. Shame!
- I feel sorry for Ireland as it was a close call for them.

Semi 2 result

I will have a word with the Swedish government about ditching Easter holiday in favour for a Eurovision holiday. I can't cope with working full time AND follow Eurovision at the same time. I am so tired. More than during a regular ESC-week on location, but without all the fun parties and people.

I didn't even have time to publish my predictions for the second semi, but I did put them on Facebook so there is proof of the countries I picked before the show. My prediction for the 10 envelopes were: Estonia, Ukraine, Albania, Moldova, Greece, Azerbaijan, Denmark, Norway, Croatia and Ireland. Adding "or possibly Lithuania on jury vote" instead of Ireland. So 9/10 or a shining 10/10 depending on how strict you are... I have never been THIS successful in my predictions in previous years. There are usually a few surprises.

The only surprise in the 2nd semi was the amount of bad singing. Gosh, it was painful at times. But I'm pleased that the Dutch fell out on their ears. Serves them right! Albania was the nice surprise. Kejsi was great despite the weird stage act. The 7 of us who watched the show together had a voting procedure of our own which was won by Albania.

Posh voted: Denmark 1p, Slovenia 2p, Ireland 3p, Ukraine 4p, Norway 5p, Moldova 6p, Greece 7p, Albania 8p, Azerbaijan 10p and Estonia 12 points.

Winners in semi 2:
Croatia
Norway
Denmark
Azerbaijan
Greece
Lithuania
Moldova
Albania
Ukraine
Estonia

Semi 1 result

Yay! Sweden got through! Lucky thing we were in the 2nd envelope as my poor nerves would have given up if it had been the last one. I wouldn't be surprised though if Sweden got saved by the jury yet again... After the final on Saturday we'll know the complete score from each country.

Iceland was very, very good tonight! Gave up hope on Switzerland even though I voted for it. Feared it would get lost and I was right. Bosnia must have won the semi. Chiara was boring and I didn't even have her in my personal top 10 tonight. Elena from Romania sang really well and lifted the song. Bulgaria was awful as always. Almost as bad as the presenters. Who was in charge of the camera and lightning crew? Felt like they were more interested in showing off the big stage than focusing on the singers and the mood of the songs. During some of the performances there were not enough light on stage either. Maybe they put everything on Malena...

I will miss Switzerland in the final but am happy to have picked 9 out of 10 entries yesterday. Tonight when we all made our own top 10 after seeing the show my votes were as follows. Macedonia 1p, Romania 2p, Portugal 3 points, Turkey 4p, Armenia 5p, Sweden 6p, Finland 7p, Iceland 8p, Switzerland 10p, Bosnia 12p.

The actual 10 countries were
Sweden
Armenia
Turkey
Israel
Iceland
Romania
Finland
Portugal
Malta
Bosnia

Bring on the 2nd semi!!!

Goodbye?

Now the votes are cast and while one country is the winner, quite a few feel like losers and that they have been had. For a while, there will be talk about who will come back next year and who will drop out.

The Netherlands have been very keen in the past on declaring that they won't take part unless they qualify, but they already confirmed participation next year. But what about the others?

My guess is that most of this year's 43 candidates will show up in Russia next year, but there are some question marks. Hungarian MTV likes taking part as long as they get good placings, so will they get cold feet now? Andorra failed to qualify again, is the international exposure of being seen worth it or are they getting tired of never going through? Tiny San Marino, did they enjoy the experience despite their last place in their semi?

There were also some talk about Azerbaijan only going to ESC once and that would be it, but won't they want to continue after their excellent placing?



Alma Cardzic - Goodbye - Bosnia-Herzegovina 1997
=18/25

Semi final shocker!

When you see the complete results of the semi finals, there are quite a few things there to make your jaw drop or at least to make your eyebrows go up more than usual:

SEMI 1

01. Greece 156
02. Armenia 139
03. Russia 135
04. Norway 106
05. Israel 104
06. Azerbaijan 96
07. Romania 94
08. Finland 79
09. Bosnia-Herzegovina 72
10. Poland 42
11. Slovenia 36
12. Moldova 36
13. Netherlands 27
14. Montenegro 23
15. Ireland 22
16. Andorra 22
17. Belgium 16
18. Estonia 8
19. San Marino 5

SEMI 2

01. Ukraine 152
02. Portugal 120
03. Denmark 112
04. Croatia 112
05. Georgia 107
06. Latvia 86
07. Turkey 85
08. Iceland 68
09. Albania 67
10. FYR Macedonia 64
11. Bulgaria 56
12. Sweden 54
13. Switzerland 47
14. Malta 38
15. Cyprus 36
16. Lithuania 30
17. Belarus 27
18. Czech Republic 9
19. Hungary 6

Lucky break for Sweden, thanks to the new rule that nine songs qualify through televote and the juries select the tenth "Hero" was not out on its ears already in the semi.

Horrendous to see Hungary last in their semi. What were you thinking, televoters?

Non-qualifyers, semi 2

When I think of the non-qualifyers of the second semi, I can't help feeling a bit sad. Quite a few fine songs disappeared here, and I will miss some of them immensely in the final.

If the good people of Lithuania, Czech Republic and Cyprus feel surprise in addition to their disappointment, there is no need to. Their failures were apparent to the rest of us, as they all had quite good songs but covered them up in loads of incomprehensible details. Lithuania - the outfit and the sick notes? Czech Republic - that disgrace of a DJ and the sick notes? Cyprus - well, what is there to say, really? Neither of them truly awful, but none of them good enough to make a real impact.

Malta was a fan favourite from the word go, but I would lie if I said anything else that I am quite happy to see it lose out. Now is the time for the Maltese to ditch these songwriters and find someone to write them solid entries again, like the ones they used to compete with. No more silly novelty from you, thanks.

Hungary was a surprise to see out - Csézy sang really well and the whole act looked brilliant. I hope her native folks will be nice to her when she comes back home, and that they treat her like the goddess that she is. FYR Macedonia was also an unpleasant surprise - they sang well and Tamara looked great. At least we will have an end to the headless discussions about FYR Macedonia going through whatever they contribute with.

Belarus, well. Not bad. But not really good either. Being pale is not a good quality when the people are let loose to vote.

And then the two I really shed tears for: Bulgaria and Switzerland. What happened? Paolo wasn't all too vocally convincing, but he landed in the right spots, and I thought the song would be strong enough in its own right to advance. And Europe - you voted for trash like Denmark and those horrid pirates of Latvia, but kept the magnificent Bulgarian scratch-fest out? Shame on you! I hope you all have bad dreams tonight. The signal sent out by the failure of Bulgaria is that it won't pay off to be modern and different. I hope very few countries take notice of that for next year.

Semi 2: what can I say?

Mixed emotions is the least I can claim to have after the second semi final. I am very happy for some finalists and left speechless when it comes to others. Somehow it seems that the uniformly good taste that marked the result of the first semi is now somehow shaken in its foundations. The burning question is really which one of these were selected by the juries...

My prediction after seing all 19 countries perform wasn't the strongest ever, as I only got six out of ten right: Iceland, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Croatia and Portugal.

Well, this is what I think of each qualifyer (in order of appearance):

ICELAND
A very welcome sight in the final, where we haven't seen them since 2004. They sang well and kept their dancing under control - a well deserved success.

SWEDEN
I will not lie to you - after seeing all 19, we were in serious doubt. The performance wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be and we feared people would forget about "Hero" before it was time to vote. Was this one selected by the jury?

TURKEY
Felt like a sure qualifyer from the word go, especially when they looked and sounded way better than in the previews. Fairly engaging rock that will do reasonably well in the final.

UKRAINE
Ani Lorak couldn't lose, could she? Good thing they called her first - she was as sure in the final as a Finnish flop in the 90's. Impeccable on all account except the vocal - not as 100% as one would have expected.

ALBANIA
I really wanted this one to pass on, but didn't expect anyone else to understand. Olta was wonderful and acted like a different person compared to that shy little girl that won the Albanian final in December. Did the jury pick this one?

LATVIA
And this is where it all went wrong. In my list, this is the worst out of all 43, and Europe votes it into the final instead of, say, Bulgaria or Switzerland. What is wrong with you people? Fun for Latvia, but horrendous for the rest of us. If the juries picked this one, they ought to be taken down.

CROATIA
A good decision to put this one through. Old man 75 Cents was almost as over-heated as I feared, but the whole package still came across as totally charming.

DENMARK
And again, I understand nothing. Weak, repetitive, bleak, uninspired, boring... (did I already say bleak?) It is great to have all five Nordic countries in the final for the first time since 2000, but this ditty makes no sense to me. The juries had better not picked this one.

GEORGIA
The lady did the trick by singing really well, and making our jaws drop with that rather intriguing dress trick - the best one since Marie N back in 2002.

PORTUGAL
Again - great fun for Portugal, who are very welcome back on the board for the first time since 2003, but I still don't understand an inch of this. Over-worked, fake passion and quite a lot of drama, and Europe bought it. Or was this the jury choice?

Finlande douze points

And well, Finland is in the final. A bit unexpected, if you ask me, and it does feel peculiar - after all these times we wanted Finland to get to the final and failed, then the Finnish contribution makes it when I am less keen on it.

It doesn't matter much, though. It is a relief to have Finland on the scoreboard in the final for the third year running. This has not happened for many a good year. It is also good for public interest at home, it will improve the ratings for Saturday's final and it will, once and for all, kill any misconceptions of Finnish being an "impossible" language to sing in.

One of the reasons Finland made it to the final is surely a certain roughness; while many others kept flashing more or less genuine smiles all over the place, desperate to be loved, Teräsbetoni didn't care for being liked at all. And that quality hit home in the semi, let's see how many points they gather in the final.

I just worry a bit what the national final will look like next year. Will we have 12 rock acts singing in Finnish? All I ask for is a little bit of diversity, and for Finland to do a new genre next year. For a change.

Non-qualifyers, semi 1

Overall, I am more than pleased with the outcome of the first semi, but the world is not a totally perfect place, and I feel sorry for a few of the non-qualifyers. A few of them would have deserved a spot in the final as well. And some of them did clearly not.

Montenegro, Moldova and San Marino should not feel too surprised to see themselves relegated. They all performed well and made the most of their three minutes on stage, but a blind could see that these songs would not reach out to a large enough audience to proceed to the final.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, could be asking themselves why nobody is voting for them anymore. Hind sang well, was very charming and did everything right, but probably the whole package was a bit too polished and inoffensive to grab any attention. Andorra suffered the same fate - good but not good enough. Maybe Gisela would have done better with a real dress instead of wrapping herself in metal. Also Belgium tried to hard to be sweet and appealing, and probably ended up annoying more people than they pleased.

Slovenia was a bit of a surprise not to see in the final as well. It seemed very welcome in the mix, Rebeka sang well and even the silly stage act seem to come across quite well on the screen. Less is more, Europe said and decided not to vote for it.

And as for Estonia and Ireland... There are no words to describe how happy I am to have neither of them pass on. Shame on you both, get a grip and contribute decent songs instead of messing around like this. We are willing to forget and forgive, as long as you promise never to do wrong like this again.

Semi 1: not too bad, eh?

I can hardly remember what countries I predicted beforehand, but we did predictions also after seeing the entries on telly, and then I had a new bunch of songs.

The ones I thought
Israel, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Greece.
Not too inaccurate, I must say. I had two things wrong and eight countries right. I am particularly happy about Ireland and Estonia losing out, proving there are still things such as sensibility, taste and fairness in the world.
I feel genuinely sorry for the Netherlands - this time they really deserved going through. And I wonder if Andorran television is beginning to have second thoughts about entering the ESC.

But the finalists!

ISRAEL
Fantastic to have them through, as Boaz sang very sweetly and the song is enchanting. Also good to see that being drawn as #2 doesn't automatically stop you.

AZERBAIJAN
They did well live, but I thought the cocktail would prove a bit too much for the average viewer. It seems the average viewer is capable of more than I thought.

NORWAY
I got really nervous about Norway as they were in the last envelope. For a while, I thought they had failed and was prepared to cry bitter tears. Maria was brilliant and sang really well.

POLAND
There is something about Isis Gee that is a bit scary: especially the teeth and the drop of sweat that came off her during the song. But she sang like a marvel and the song is truly worthy of a place in the final. Most probably the choice of the jury, though.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
The stars of the night! Wonderful, brilliant, wacko, hysterical and very, very good. They can still win it!

ARMENIA
A video went around Youtube of Friday night's rehearsal, where Sirusho sang quite flatly all the way through. Tonight she sounded a lot better, and danced with more gusto. But it feels like the director of the show is not her best friend - lousy camera work on this one.

FINLAND
What happened here? Finland in the final for the third year running? I don't understand a thing, but it is good for the domestic ratings. I am contented. But I hope Teräsbetoni won't do too well, for the sake of next year's national final.

ROMANIA
Classy and good, but I had hoped for something more. Even more drama and prettier clothes. But still, surely a contender for Saturday night.

RUSSIA
I don't think the stage show really worked. Frenetic, too many things happening, too much acting. I just get bored and distracted, but it was expected that people would like this.

GREECE
Just like Armenia, the director seemed not to be too keen on this one and missed the big trick with the book. Wouldn't surprise me if it was tonight's winner, though. Better vocal performance than the Greek final suggested.

Now it is time to head for bed, more analysis to follow tomorrow...