THE Eurovision Knockout 2016 – The votes have been counted in Duel 1! We have a winner in this close heat which saw Russia and Croatia go head to head for a chance to go through to the quarter-finals. Check out who won now…
Results of Duel 1:
Russia 49%
Croatia 51%
So it’s Croatia’s Nina Kraljić singing ‘Lighthouse‘ through to the quarter-finals.
The Eurovision Times 
I can’t say i’m really surprised knowing how the regulars vote but it seems that Russia didn’t get enough support from the silent voters either.Good luck to Croatia in the bext round.
Yes!
Yeahhh congrats Nina :-) !
Now, the real thing (quoting Montenegro this year) :
Russia will achieve top 3 (at worse) in May
Croatia will struggle to qualify :P
This will not struggle to qualify. A performance like that is definite top-10 material.
The same thing was said about Slovenia 14. Vocals are good but the singer lacks any essence of stage charisma imo
Slovenia 15*
Slovenia 2015 very much qualified. Their problem was bad camera shots and a stage presentation that was A) too empty for such an upbeat song and B) too much focused on the singer’s silly gimmick with the headphones. Plus a very early position in the final. Simply put, Marjetka erroneously thought she had charisma and bet the bank on it. Croatia does not bet on something like that.
“Lighthouse” is not an upbeat but an epic sort of song that can focus on a bare, spectacular vocal performance, accompanied by equally breathtaking camera shots and background. Since The Voice is the best approxomation of production values at the actual ESC, I think this video is the proof that this approach would work.
Song is not that instantly likeable either (for people listening for the first time on the big night)
You are blond?!?!?!
I am dying my hair blonde like Christina…I have light brown hair naturally😎
I bet you are naturally beautiful like Christina too! Maybe even more so 😀
Christina’s boobs are fake 😊
Of course they are. There are different defenitions of natural beauty in America 😃
svim against the stream…
swimm against the strim ♫♪♫
In related news, Sergey lip-synchs through the MadWalk fashion event in Athens last night:
Interesting result. I would have thought that the silent majority would have given Russia the win here.
Betting odds update : France (with shortening odds) is a breath away from Russia now (which has drifting odds). If that pace continues,it should overtake it before Friday imo.
Changes in betting odds are of little importance atm.The real deal is when the rehearsals begin and of course the semis performances from which Russia will get a boost unless they’re really bad.There’s also the possibility of a new favorite.France will be a questionmark till the night of the final but so was Italy last year and they won televoting by a landslide.
Everyone will have 2 rehearsals before the semis so we will know quite a lot about France as well before the main esc week. And people may say it does not count, but the running order in the final will play a big role. If France draws a 2nd half and a position of 19-25 it will be set to provide a stronger challenge for the trophy.
So, the closer we get to eurovision week, the more solid a victory for Russia seems, right?
I’m afraid that, as France, by default, cannot “invest” in their own live performance (no gimmicks etc), they can only expect (and hope) that Russia will be extremely bad.
The Netherlands did not invest to any gimmick to skyrocket in the betting odds after the semi in 2014 though.
Yes, and they ended as runner up. I’m talking about the victory :)
But they started from a very low early prediction. France is already 2nd which imo means some good rehearsal impressions can lead to a first place in odds and the contest.
Not necessarily.Last year Sweden had the ultimate gimmick performance but Italy with no gimmicks won televoting.
You are missing the same point with Guitar though: both NED in 2014 and ITA in 2015, did not win in the end :)
Hmm…I never mentioned the Netherlands though.That was a different case.Italy didn’t win because the juries placed it 6th.Not that it’s impossible to be wrong but i feel France is more jury-friendly that Russia this year.
Guitar did. Time will tell I guess.
I’d call Il volo a gimmick incarnate … but we will never agree on this particular issue. :)
No we won’t. :)
Plus,Oxi was talking about visual gimmicks anyway.
Me too. :)
I believe Italy’s strong asset last year was a damn catchy and epic song sung by 3 good-looking and strong vocalists.
How’s the capital doing? :)
Windy and smelly. I always forget that you smell the sewers almost everywhere here. That’s a thing unheard of (unsmelled of …) in pristine Stuttgart.
Under certain circumstances I can tolerate (even enjoy) windy weather. Not so sure about smelly air though :D
However,those were 2 songs that were very different one from the other.This year the 2 favorites are songs of the same genre performed by 2 male performers.Could they cancel each other and have another winner?
We have to be realistic and realize that Russia obviously has a voting head start Sweden does not. And now with televoting gaining more power that will only be enhanced even more. That said it remains to be seen how the juries will react. The french entry is objectively more contemporary and current than the russian one so will the “chart potential” factor weigh heavily against Russia ?
Yes,Russia will be popular in many Eastern European countries and pts from the Baltics will be pouring in now that the juries can’t negate televoting(which is fair tbh).
We will disagree on that (televoting impacy) heavily as you know so let’s leave it there. By definition Russia has the following sets of 12p in televoting : Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and..not sure about Ukraine. 10p from Moldovan televote (12p if Romania does not each the final) and a probable 10-12p from Israel,Cyprus and Greece. So that’s already 124-132 easy televoting pts. Given who qualifies and who doesn’t, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, can also give 7p-8p to Russia (televoting I mean) so that’s another 42-48 pts which adds up to 166 – 180 pts and that regardless of the actual performance. With added points from northern and western Europe, Russia can’t go below 250 pts in televoting imo, that’s the lower televoting ceiling imo. It’s going to be very tough for France…
I believe that if France is a winner eventually it will win.If it’s a year without an outright winner then televoting king Russia will get the crown.
*France does not sorry
Surprisingly French song is well accepted by people around me and it is the most rotated ESC 2016 song by local Radios .
But who’s gonna grab the Armenian 12 pts?Sergey or Amir? :P
Jamala most likely!! She is known here for being half Armenian (her mother is)! That is enough to grab points from here + I’m sure jurors will vote for the song aswell!
*bad live, I mean.
We’ve just kicked out the ESC winner 2016 …
Most probably, yes.
I prefer to say that we’ve just kicked out a melodyless song hiding behind a lavish production.
Alas, that isn’t a contradiction …
Yes, it should be. :(
As expected. Judging by the comments on the actual duel page I expected Nina to win more. Guess the silent voters do play a part but not as big as people on here think.
(Or the ET, bend/curve/whatever morgan calls it, is driving them away???)
Am sad My No1 is out, but happy my No2 is through to the Quarter Finals, guess you could say I’m 49% happy, 51% sad :D
Hello Max
Maybe they do not like over rated song? Maybe they prefer nice Croatian song. I told you Russia will not win main event, it does not even make it to 2nd round on official Eurovision sites competition.
So,Greece and the Czech Republic are the only songs we haven’t heard live.Plus,we need to listen to a better quality video of Armenia.
Iveta released a video from her rehearsals:
https://hy-am.facebook.com/IvetaMukuchyan/videos/1115757238484505/
She will perform surrounded by 5 backvocalists
(among them: the composer of the song Lilith Navasardyan, the winner of the first season of the Voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svXf5tZlcFo and my favorite Voice contestant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4CIfEzOPOE). !
https://z-1-scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12987227_1115635921829970_4397666004622835562_n.jpg?oh=1b92b52a4d4e75fe051de328246730a3&oe=57B7372F
It’s a nice acoustic version.I have already reported on her backing vocals.it’s good that they chose 5 backing singers.
So Greece is taking it as seriously as the Czech Republic this year. I hope when they finally have to sing live they will do better than the time they started their so-called career playing at weddings. Somehow I doubt it…
lol.All i know is they will be dancing on stage.The rap parts may be tricky.Let’s hope it won’t be a total embarrassment.
we have seen Australia live? Czech Republic I’m really eager to!
Yes,even though the video was not so good.
What a nice surprise, after a long day. :) Congrats!
Unexpected.