Semi-Final 1: One Jury Favourite and One Televoting Champ

/ eurovisiontimes

  Semi-Final 1 – At the official press conference with the EBU today, some details about last night’s results at the first semi-final. Apparently one song was the jurie’s runaway favourite and only made it due to their support, while another song only made it due to strong support from the televoters. Guesses anyone?Furthermore, the dates for the Eurovision Song COntest 2013 were announced. It will probably be held on May 14,16 and 18, 2013. There are discussions about a smaller scale for future contests and to restructure the rehearsal times to reduce financial costs. he 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 is equally approaching and several broadcasters have been approached to organize a Celebration.

Source= eurovision.tv

195 thoughts on “Semi-Final 1: One Jury Favourite and One Televoting Champ”

  2. thank you togravus for your your remarks about voice of reason….I think I am, I am unbiased and here to make my own fair comments…:-)

  3. Jurie’s runaway favourite smells like Denmark to me ( The Danish acts have been enjoyng fame and glory with juries since 2009 anyway so why not? ) Then it could be Iceland , they were drawn early and is highly possible they failed with televoting like Norway last year…Albania is out of question simply because juries wouldn’t give the crown to anything sung in native language.

    Strong televoting support ( not winner there necesarily ) smells like Russia , Romania , Greece , Moldova and maybe Ireland but definitely NOT Cyprus…I think Moldova is the most possible candidate !
    Hungary is out of question regarding both scenarios mentioned above !

    • lol to the argument about Albania and the jury vote really Donnie :P The jurie bashers come by with the most..interesting stuff I have to say from time to time…Although I do of course hope Albania was not anywhere close to win the jury vote for very different reasons of course..

      • The danish argument could be right indeed though..Soluna’s performance was too subtle imo to have any serious impact to televoting especially because she was competing before Russia..

          • Please tell me we are not talking about hat gimmicks in Soluna’s performance while ignoring obvious hair styling gimmicks in another well known by now performance :P

            • Oh yes, Rona… that thing on her chest was obviously the tail of whatever thing living on her head + her Disney’s Maleficent costume. Her look + the death scream = horror movie.

            • As I said before, to me Rona looked like one of those desperate women of the house of Atreus with a bit of Medusa added (the hair snake …) … but I can perfectly understand that Greek mythological aesthetics are not everyone’s cup of tea. To each his or her own.

            • If she wanted a Medusa snake-look then I think dreadlocks and only 1 “snake” was the wrong way to go. Oh I’ve heard of Medusa and I’ve read Greek mythology, but to me it resembled Maleficent and Dracula a lot more than anything else. Perhaps it even resembled a weird halfway noose? :D The song was certainly depressing enough for it. :D Sorry, I’ll stop now.

            • Dracula is actually a quite good reference too. Rona would have blended in perfectly with Francis Ford Coppola’s movie. :)

            • Soluna’s hat had a story as well..Something to do with her father’s friends to whom it belonged or something…Sounds much more meaningful to me compared to the..bee nest probably ?

            • I am so glad that it isn’t either or for me when it comes to Rona and Soluna. I like both, and Soluna’s father is from Stuttgart too. :)

            • Where do you know that from Toggie.. the only thing written on pages are that she has swiss-german family..
              btw Soluna sang her son very well, the song is in the category i am not very fond of.. But as everybody knows here radiofriendly song tends to do well.. I heard other songs that had been submitted for DMGP, but they too alternative and didnt get a change to participate at all

        • I disagree with you about Denmark. I think she was very, very refreshing to see and hear after many gimmicky acts and sleazy/cheap girls (Cyprus, Greece, Austria)… Soluna came across as the most likable and down-to-earth girl of semi 1 to me + she can sing, the song is a solid (though boring) effort and she showed that she could at least play an instrument rather than show her panties.

            • Oh duh, as if I didn’t KNOW that… but the point is she HELD a guitar and pretended to play it… which is a better image to portray than showing your crotch IMO.

            • Apperently you seem to be rude for some reason…haven’t your mother told you to leave hate speech aside?

            • I haven’t said anything hateful to or about you. Didn’t your mother teach you not to make things up? I think you were rude to me first BTW… and besides, when you are hating on a “hater” – that makes YOU a hater too. You made it personal first by mentioning me while I mentioned singers, lol. At least stop taking everything I say about ONE poor Cypriot entry so goddamn personal. I liked Cyprus in 2010 and 2011, but not 2012. Get over it.

            • You have been hateful in general. And I really do not care if you liked Cyprus in 2010. What I do not like is the social racism you deliver here with regards dancing habits etc. Stop moaning about it, if you can’t stand it then just switch to another programme. If you are sensible person do it once.

            • I can watch what I want and I can have my opinion on what I think is good AND bad… It doesn’t make me hateful, it makes me able to both love and hate – same as every other person on the planet. If it bothers you so much then why don’t YOU try to skip my comments? It’s simple if you are a sensible person… just read my username and then skip it before you read it. Stop moaning about it. Seriously, take your own advice.

            • What you can’t understand is that when you comment on smth you don’t like you are all about hate and harshness. Have you ever thought this is not normal?

            • Oh and you just prove that you’re in the wrong by that comment because I did not hate on Romania who’s also a girl and also danced… but she sang better even when she has problems. You see, I am able to appreciate dancing too and by girls too. I am such a “social racist”, lol.

            • Double personality always. But I expect to here the best from you tmr. When you are going to give credits to voiceless Max while bushing at the same time some others. Isn’t that double standards?

            • Actually, it is normal. You all do it. The only reason you have such a problem with ME doing it is probably because you just don’t like me. That’s OK, but please stop always bothering me about it. Especially since it won’t make me stop doing what I want to do. I like to comment my opinion as much as you do. Don’t pretend to be better than me either because you make negative comments AND you give rude comments yourselves. Come on, you JUST did. The difference is that I always comment about the topic and in general regarding the artists/songs/entries whereas you make it about ME. You and certain other members like to do that. So take your own advice and be less negative/hateful yourselves (“if you have nothing nice to say then don’t say it at all” – why give me the lecture and not follow it yourself??? Hypocrites, that’s what you are. At least I am honest about it) and skip my comments because I won’t stop. End of.

            • I never said Max was a great singer! He has the song to make up for it. Ivi does not for MY taste. You live in a world of make believe, but I’ve come to expect it. :)

            • You are such a psycho finally. Yourself said that Max is excused to be bad vocally butr others can’t. Obviously this does not make sense for most of the ppl but apparently it does when it comes to your silly mind.

            • You can tell whether someone can play the guitar or not just by the way they hold the instrument and move their fingers … at least if you play the guitar yourself. Soluna certainly knows how to play the guitar. :)

            • None said that she can’t. But certainly it is pointless to put this forward and start comparing it with other entries. Soluna had a mainstream radio-friendly song so the only thing she could is to pretent playing the guitar. Others had an up-tempo song and therefore they danced. Unavoidalbe when you dance you show your body parts etc. Ppl with common sense are able to understand this unless you are a bullheaded (not you obviously Toggie, some others).

            • “when you dance you show your body parts”

              That depends on your choice of dress. Ivi didn’t show anything I did not want to see whereas EE did. Elena was somehow inbetween.

            • Actually, she did play the guitar. There was just no microphone (following the rules) to add it to the audio.

            • Still was fake, this is what I mean. And anyway as I said I do not judge the whole act based n a single music instrument…

    • Hmm!@Donnie.you may be right.I didn’t think of Denmark earlier although i would be disappointed if Denmark didn’t make it to the televoting top-10…I,for once,voted for Soluna.

    • Donnie? LOL

      It can’t be Denmark or Iceland. I am sure they did well with tele-voting.

      Also LOL with that bunch of countries…Romania, Moldova, Ireland and Greece had mainstream esc songs that could score well with juries as well. As for Cyprus, it might not be the winner of tele-voting but around many blog spots it amased ppl (personally I fail to see this); therefore it can be tele-votng and jury ”champ” alike.

      Personally the duo for me is more than clear Albania (remember France 2009) and of course Russia (if ”Molitva” won over ”Verka” why not for example Iceland, Greece, Cyprus).

      • Dino ,
        First of all congratulations to Cyprus ! I still believe Cyprus and Hungary were the #9 and #10 to get through meaning neither of them got huge support by any side let alone runaway jury favorite…
        You insist that it can’t be Denmark or Iceland.Could you really imagine “Haba haba” scoring 9th in televoting in last year’s semi? Or Denmark 2011 achieving 18th in Final with televoting?
        And I can’t see Albania being the runaway jury favorite.Sorry.Juries don’t fall for non English ballads when there’s English and disney stuff to vote for instead.Even Patricia Kaas who you mentioned was supported less than Jade or Yohanna f.e…

        • But where are the English ballads then. We lost both Belgium and Finland. As for Denmark it did 3rd with tele-voting during the semi (semi is smth different than final). Also ”Haba haba” (along with Turkey) I expected it to fail with juries :) I do not remember if you saw my email.

          • All I wanted to point out is that televoting can be unpredictable especially if combined with a song in early draw.The same way “Haba haba” failed with televoting last year , it could happen to “Never forget” this year ( I am NOT comparing these 2 songs )and no one could have predicted both cases beforehand…
            I have the impression the hint was that the run away jury winner got through that’s why Denmark got in my mind simply because they have been scoring top marks with juries since 2009.If we are not talking about run away jury winner but only about some little jury help ( 4th to 10th ), then it could be Compact Disco…
            But in no real life Albania 12 could score more points than Denmark 12 with juries imo…
            PS : I didn’t get your email reference

  4. I think it is Hungary. Albania is so overhyped that I think it was both televoters’ and juries’ choice whereas Hungary is so mediocre and bland that it smells “jury” to me. :P I also fear they unjustly knocked out Israel from the final by being the 10th qualifier while Israel only ended up on 11th. :( They were so great!

    Moldova could be the one rescued by televoters… at least I hope so because I want Russia to be like by both viewers and juries.

    Moldova and Albania were the worst qualifiers to me… Moldova for being too childish, silly and repetitive and Albania for being the ugliest song and the most pretentious screaming I’ve ever heard = a true horror entry. I know she has her fans on this blog so thank you in advance for the thumbs down, but it is worth it: Albania was AWFUL to me! :P

    The rest were very expected, but Greece and Cyprus were trashy live. Bimbo girls with the worst voices, even Jedward sounded better and that’s saying something. They also got a lot of vocal help from backing singers though, same as Eleftheria. Ivi on the other hand really could have used some vocal help… LOL! Romania disappointed a little, but I will cut her some slack since she had trouble with her ear piece.

    Overall it was an OKish night with Russia being the happiest moment, but disappointing that my favourite failed to qualify. Fingers crossed for Serbia, Turkey, Netherlands & Slovakia now!

  5. I have just watched the press rehearsal recap for semi 2 and read some live blogs on the jury rehearsal … which were quite confusing bacuse blogger 1 thinks that artist XY was out of tune whereas blogger XY reports “flawless vocals” etc. … Nevertheless, I will try to come up with a final prediction later.

    • I noticed the same thing..Even the AKOE bloggers have vast disagreements here (although they are not always that objective..)..The 2nd semifinal will be a tricky one to predict, especially the balkans..Not to mention I cannot predict the fate of The Netherlands in any possible way..

      • Or Croatia. Nina was one of the few where everyone agreed that her vocals were flawless. Plus she is well known in the FYR countries. The only other flawless vocals everyone agreed on were Filipa’s and Zeljko’s … not even Eva’s or Kaliopi’s were unanimously lauded. Semi 2 is a tricky one for sure, at least if you take vocals seriously. Unfortunately, last night told us that good vocals do not amount to much result-wise … :(

  6. togravus
    what do you mean by a” colourful small bunch”? !, anyway, I understand as you mean real business here or?!!! am here just to say what I think before ESC, that’s all…:-)

    • I meant that we are all different, have different taste, different priorities, different predilections and different abysses … and that we should respect each other. Celebrate diversity!

  7. What i don’t like watching the recap of the dress rehearsal is that Ott went for an over the top vocal performance.He should have kept it simple IMO.

  8. I feel bad about Finland not making it… pretty song with good lyrics and finally a song sung in Swedish in Eurovision again. IMO the best of the Nordic entries this year along with Iceland. We Nordic countries seem to get punished by singing in our languages, but I applaud them whenever they have the guts to.

  9. I have also watched press rehearsal recap of semi 2…most of the participants seem to have prefered the color black:) Zeljko looks so hot as usual and my Bonomo is sailing his ship with big enthusiasm:) Really wish to see Lithuania in the final :)

    My Wish List for Thursday
    1-Serbia
    2-Macedonia
    3-The Netherlands
    4-Malta (instead of Bulgaria)
    5-Portugal
    6-Sweden
    7-Turkey
    8-Estonia
    9-Lithuania (instead of Norway)
    10-BiH

  10. @Togravus
    you are right, I fear it is becoming less of a “song” contest these days more than a neighbourly/vote vote for the act eg Russian grannies etc..I wonder how much more I could standof that re esc and just say, hey i’m giving up on ESC these days…personally speaking..

  12. All right, my wish list for semi 2 hasn’t changed. Here is my prediction now:

    2 certain finalists: Serbia, Sweden
    4 likely finalists: Ukraine, Turkey, Estonia, BiH

    … and then I have 5 songs in my “in with a chance” category. I pick …

    Macedonia (because Kaliopi is a strong and experienced live singer and a star in the FYR countries)
    Portugal (because Portugal has made it with every serious effort since 2008. Plus Filipa obviously gets better with every performance and apparently nailed it tonight)
    Slovenia (because Eva is very young and a very good singer. There is the Molitva vibe too)
    Norway (because of the good draw, the dancing routine and Tooji’s looks)

    I leave out Croatia although I personally love both Nina and her song.

    5 unlikely qualifiers: Netherlands, Malta, Belarus, Georgia, Lithuania
    2 are definitely out imo: Bulgaria (… :( …), Slovakia

    Good luck to everyone!

    • I agree!My 10th qualifier for now is Portugal.I don’t know whether Malta or Lithuania could steal their place though.Things we become more clear while watching the semi.

      • I would love too but I can’t for two reasons:

        1. Joan will need at least some jury support and her vocals were apparently rather shaky tonight.
        2. I still think that it is a big mistake to come onto stage in full costume. People will think “oh what a silly gimmick” and don’t pay attention to Joan’s pleasant and innocent song, in particular after two strong, honest and straightforward performances coming before her …

        • Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh it has to pass through! She is my No2 tmr. I tend to have bad record the last two years with the country I rank as second in a semi. I lost Sweden (2010) and Norway (2011). Yesterday it was Cyprus :p But thank god it is in.

          • N° 2 on my list normally comes 2nd in the final. Turkey in 2010, Italy in 2011 (although I sometimes have Italy 2011 ahead of Lena in 1st place …). Good news for Estonia, I guess … although I don’t think that it will happen … and perhaps my list will have changed Saturday night too.

  13. Pingback: The Results from Eurovision Semi-Final One | JOYEurovision

  14. All in all I think semi 2 is stronger, seem to have better vocals and much less gimmicks (but many bad outfits I noticed). I hope for:
    Turkey, Slovenia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, Netherlands… and Bulgaria and Belarus (because I liked their original version and it’s still in there somewhere) to some extent. Even Estonia has grown on me lately. That’s more wishes than I had in semi 1. :)

  15. Oh semi final 2 predictions..Kill me now lol ! Really where to begin from ? My wishlist is :

    1) Sweden
    2) Bosnia & Herzegovina
    3) Slovenia
    (my personal top 3)
    4) Norway
    5) The Netherlands
    6) Serbia
    7) FYR Macedonia
    8) Belarus
    9) Portugal
    10) Slovakia

    But that says little to what the actual result will look like…I can be 100 % certain only about Sweden and Serbia, which most probably will take the first two places in the semi. And then the party begins..It could be anyone except Bulgaria and Malta imo. And then 14 countries for 8 places..

    – Turkey is probably in, sufficient neighbouring and diaspora support in the semi..
    – Slovakia is probably out even though it could get the rockish votes this year..
    – Ukraine ticks all the televoting boxes, Gaitana has an impressive voice so probably in..
    – Norway is probably in, Tooji does everything right in this one and the song is strong enough to win votes even from the southest parts of Europe..
    – Slovenia is strong, really strong. Eva communicates her strong wonderfully and she will qualify imo..

    And the remaining 9 are the hardest ones..4 to go through and 5 to fail..

    • Belarus : I don’t think they will qualify with the current stage presentation although the vocals were improved during the jurie rehearsal..
      Croatia : I don’t think it will qualify and it may be my biggest miss..She is well known but I can’t see the point here despite the good vocals..
      Bosnia & Herzegovina : It may be wishful thinking but Maya can do it. I read all the best for her performance during the jurie rehearsal..The beneficial position is a factor but I don’t know if this subtle ballad can beat the epic rest of the balkans..I want to be positive.
      Lithuania : extremely good position but I doubt Donny can do it..If there is a dark horse in this semi this is it though..
      Estonia : I have read mixed reports about his recent rehearsals…I think Ott is convincing enough to do it though..
      Portugal : a marginal fail, I really think the balances are thin for Portugal..But it’s very marginal this one..
      The Netherlands : I want Joan so badly in the final but it won’t happen under the current circumstances and what I read..
      FYR Macedonia : Kaliopi is a marginal case as well..I think she will just make it though..
      Georgia : And last (in general that is after the Montenegrin and Austrian elimination) Anri..He will make it. There. I said it. Televoting will love this, enough to make it qualify. Daring and sad as it may be I believe it’s true.

        • I would never chicken out :) ! I just wanted to think about it a little more..And still till tomorrow evening everything can change…I’ll deal with my utter predicting failure in this semi if it happens (quite possible) with dignity lol ! :D

      • Anri? So you believe Elaine Dove from AKOE? Do you know that she has the worst record of the whole bunch when it comes to predicting results?

        • I noticed..! She got a 7 in the first semi for crying out loud..But I had formed this opinion from the first rehearsals already..It may be that the world is coming to an end and that..act qualifying is an indicative, I don’t really know..

      • Regarding semi 2
        Definite qualifiers : Sweden , Serbia , Estonia , Turkey , Norway
        Most likely : Slovenia , BiH , Ukraine
        Borderline : Netherlands , FYROM , Lithuania ( one of them will be out )
        ———————————————————————————————–
        Probably not : Portugal , Croatia , Belarus
        Non hopers : Malta , Slovakia , Georgia , Bulgaria

  16. The Albanian song reminds me of Poland 1996, it’s the same formula. A dark, painful, soaring and vocal-depending ballad that’s a bit too sophisticated even for jury members. I’m not so sure that Albania was the jury favourite. I think Rona got several of televoting points too (though probably not from Scandinavia). Yes, I actually think that Denmark might have been the one.

  17. The second semi-final is a bit more difficult to predict than the first one. At least I have my own wish list.

    1. Serbia
    2. Estonia
    3. Portugal
    4. Sweden
    5. Bosnia & Herzegovina
    6. FYR Macedonia
    7. Croatia
    8. Netherlands
    9. Slovenia
    10. Slovakia

    11. Bulgaria
    12. Turkey
    13. Malta
    14. Ukraine
    15. Lithuania
    16. Norway
    17. Belarus
    18. Georgia

    But I’m sure that Turkey and Ukraine will make it (and probably Norway too), and I’m also quite sure that Slovakia won’t.

  18. One comment on eurovision official site led me to video on youtube with “official results”… It is about some Greek people commenting finalists in order from 11th to 1st.
    According to it ranking is like this:
    11th Israel ; 10th Hungary ; 9th Ireland ; 8th Iceland ; 7th Albania ; 6th Moldova ; 5th Denmark ; 4th Cyprus ; 3rd Romania ; 2nd Greece ; 1st Russia…
    It can be true, although Greece is too high for 50/50 vote; but i can see it winning televote, also i see both jury and audience vote for Russia, Romania and Cyprus… Denmark as usualy voted from both,while Moldova or Ireland can be the ones supported by televote only. Albania is too low with this ranking for 50/50 (must be in top 3 by jury) vote so it can be the one which jury pushed to final. I can see Island on 8th place because of weak live performance (which always affects ballads- and then they look both boring and messy), and Hungary probably was around 9-12 place by televote and 4-8th place by jury.
    So this “results” can be real… Only thing illogical is Greece at no2 (but not impossible)…

  20. I got 9 out of 10… I had Israel instead of Hungary…
    The best performances of the evening were Albania, Russia and Ireland imo… Cyprus and Denmark had outstanding performances as well…
    I’m shocked that Hungary made it… Greece was simply disgraceful and would NEVER have made it if it had started for another country…

    in the second semifinal, I’m wishing for JOAN and Loreen…
    my prediction is:
    Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Netherlands, Ukraine, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Estonia, Norway and Bosnia-Herzegovina…

      • You’re right – the twins are not good singers either, but I think both the performances were staged in a very good way – Russia pretty much like in their national final, Ireland made the decisive changes in the last second… with this performance and starting number 23, Jedward can be a Top5-contender…
        Albania and Greece would have been my guess, too, btw…

          • yes, absolutely… and I guess we were both totally thrilled with Rona making it through… ;)
            btw what’s your prediction for the winner?

            • oh absolutely, i actually kept going “it has to be albania” for all the 6 first enveloppes and literaly jumped and clapped loud when it was Albania lol

              before the rehearsals i thought it was a three way race between Loreen, Nina Z. and Can now I think Can ridiculed his performance enough to lose some juries vote while Serbia’s professionalism goes up my list. I still expect this to be a Loreen/Nina fight with Grannies scoring unfairly high. If, even with a 50/50 Russia wins this, I might consider dropping esc :o

            • I predicted the three horse race as well between Sweden, italy and Russia… in this order… but actually, I might change this in the last minute before Saturday evening… somehow the feeling grows more and more that Italy takes the trophy because they just give the whole package – class, song, simplicity, perfect artists are both of them Nina and Loreen in any case -…
              somehow when I saw the second rehearsal, I got a feeling that the Netherlands could become the HUGE surprise… despite the feathers… but now she has to go through first…

              dropping ESC? don’t be silly… I didn’t drop it after those ten final qualifiers in 2007 or the Russian victory in 2008… so you won’t let go as well… we’re addicted ;-)

            • oh and I always said, since even long before the rehearsals, that I thought Netherlands would surprise everyone in the top 10 but everyone laughed at me and now I’m not so sure anymore :(

            • yes, for me, too… btw. I had France in first place in 2007… I so loved this song…
              I was at a “betting party” two weeks ago and I put Netherlands in 8th place – right after Greece getting their usual place ;-) – and everybody was like “oooh” ;-)… I also had Denmark in 5th place – not so sure about it anymore…
              but then I also had Israel in spot Nr. 4 and they’re already out :( …
              maybe Albania will become the big surprise and go straight to Top5…
              like I said, after Tuesday, I’ll rank the Jedward twins much higher than I thought as well…

    • Do you really think that the decline of Europe’s common man has declined to an abyss where they would vote for Greek undies? I’d rather have random 5 people from some countries voting for that for sure. Oh my, I am Cassandra … LOL

      • I fear it may be the case sadly yes. Oh how I hope televote went for Russia while juries hated it, but I’m sure juries had it 8th or 9th… so the real case of love by televote, hate by juries is more Greece I think… while Albania clear favorite by the juries, no doubt imo

        • You guy still think the jury has excellent taste of art LOL tey are a biased as televoters…maybe Russia won Jury votes…I can expect this from them seriously;)

    • Mermaid and Dino, the article says “one song was the juries’ runaway favourite and only made it due to their suppor”: who is it? It can’t be Greece as it surely got points from the televote and do you think Albania was in the top 10 of televote too? Then which song is it?!?!

  22. Here are my lists. This semi is very hard to predict, but one thing is for sure, with 5 former Soviet countries and 5 former Yugo countries, Portugal is out of the picture, regardless of how well Filipa and her backing singers perform. ALKOE says that if this a song contest, Portugal should reach the final. This semi will prove that sometimes it isn’t. Good luck to all hopefuls. :)

    Wish list
    B&H
    Estonia
    Portugal
    Serbia
    The Netherlands
    Bulgaria
    Slovenia
    Macedonia
    Croatia
    Turkey

    Prediction
    Sweden
    Norway
    Estonia
    Slovenia
    Serbia
    Macedonia
    Ukraine
    Turkey
    Lithuania
    Georgia/Belarus/Malta/B&H

      • Shevek

        I doubt Lithuania can qualify. And also having 4 possible qulifiers it is not serious prediction…lol limit it to one. Georgia and Malta stand no chance.

            • Shevek it will not! Belarus too. There is room for Portugal as well. But you know already I do not like Portugal. I guess Portugal will be just missing out case. Along with FYR Macedonia you are a 50-50 case in orediction.

              I guess this:

              Serbia, the Netherlands, Ukraine (seigh), Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Estonia, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

              For the tenth qualifier I am still puzzled. Portugal can do quite well with juries but it is destined to fail in tele-voting. FYR Macedonia on the other hand can count to many neighbors and some jury help. Therefore it might have an advantage over the others.

            • But don’t forget. Cyprus 2010 and Switzelrand 2011; But both had better songs than portugal has this year, IMO.

            • I don’t think so. Those songs were sung in English. Even if we had sent the darling of the fans, Sweden 12, we would be eliminated. These countries vote for each other no matter what, Every year good (or not so good ones) songs are dumped in favour of their songs.

          • I so hope you’re wrong in this case… ;)
            “Joker” imo is on the best way to become the worst Eurovision entry ever – worse than Piero or Marcin Mrocinski…

            • I can understand your point. However, that’s the lay of the land in today’s ESC.

            • Exactly, nothing will be worse than “Party for Everybody”, which belongs down there in the 7th pit of hell alongside “Flying the Flag”, “Leto svet”, “Pirates of the Sea” and some others …

            • Of course we agree, there always is truth beyond personal taste in the arts … although many people are too lazy to seek it and stick with their gut reaction instead … a frequent and highly deplorable flaw of character which necessarily leads to massive televoting support for the grannies this year.

            • Objection, your honor!
              I have Russia in fifth place because they’re simply cute and their constant being out of tune is adorable, but I hated all the other songs you’ve mentioned…
              btw I hated Dancing Lasha Tumbai as well although this political story around it is nice to tell…

            • haha ;-)…
              wow, togravus, I never thought you’d be so elitist ;) … “highly deplorable flaw of character” – oh là là…
              live and let live…

            • What is adorable about being out of tune in a song contest?

              Btw, you have just proven a point I made the other day. People vote for the grannies not because of what they do but because of who they are. That is positive ageism, but it is still ageism imo. Plus, who they are has absolutely no relevance when it comes to judging the quality of their act. (I grew up with post-structuralism … and I will never ever get it out of my system … LOL)

            • oh Jesus, just let go once in a while ;-)… no offence though…
              the Grannies are out of tune, their song is cheap and of course, they play with their age – but if the whole package makes me laugh and smile all the three minutes, I never question that… and that doesn’t mark a flaw of character…
              I guess it would be a mistake putting my feelings in categories when it comes to the Song Contest… in French literature, alright, but we’re talking about a Trash Festival…
              obviously, the only difference is that they make me laugh and don’t bring you similar positive feelings…

            • I actually do not dislike certain aspects of the song, such as parts of the orchestration.

  23. @ Max, I like to joke around a bit once in a while. Btw, I firmly believe that we need an elite atm if Europe wants to pass the bumpy road ahead without major damage.

    • absolutely right… so the first step should be to bash the Russian grannies ;-)

      (I understood – I hope you got the wink out of my lines as well… ;-) )

      • Of course I understood … and it is only opinions anyway. Even if I say that in art there is truth beyond personal taste, that is only another opinion, and not necessarily a superior one.

  24. Pingback: The Results from Eurovision Semi-Final Two | JOYEurovision

  25. As someone who really loves music, when I sum everything up…. All the songs, all the performers, singers…everything, I can only say that it’s the shittiest music contest in the Universe. Every year I try to watch it, hoping that MAYBE, just MAYBE the songs will be on a higher level (considering the fact that there’s a jury involved now), but nope! It’s crazy how MOST of the songs sound soulless, no spirit, no emotions, absolutely blank.
    Not to put everyone on the same category, there are always good songs and good singers, but the majority seem like they’ve lost track….or career. The thing that I’ve noticed is that most of the EX-Yu republics always send good songs (especially Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia). About this year’s contest I’m definitely routing for Albania…. it’s different, it has soul, it gives you goosebumps and chills when you hear it, and Rona she’s just…. absolutely amazing! I know that it seems a bit dark and tragic and dramatic and whatever else you wanna describe it, but that song has a huge power in itself, and I think that’s what music is about, EMOTIONS, SOUL,…. not dancers, or light show, or naked singers who think that they’re singing.

    “Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.”
    ― Johnny Depp

    “Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart..”
    ― Pablo Casals

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