TEKO 2017 – Voting in group 1 is closed! See the results of the group with Austria, Belarus, and Finland!
After three days, people cast 166 votes in our poll! Remind yourself of the entries:
AUSTRIA Nathan Trent – Running on Air
BELARUS NAVIBAND – Story of My Life
FINLAND Norma John – Blackbird
Without further ado, the winner is:
FINLAND!!!
image credit: eurovision.tv
“Blackbird” was written by Lasse Piirainen and Leena Tirronen, who are the members of Norma John. They secured the Finnish ticket to Kyiv after winning UMK 2017 on 28 January! The percentages of the results are listed below.
1st place: Finland – 69 votes (42%)
2nd place: Belarus – 62 votes (37%)
3rd place: Austria – 36 votes (22%)
This means that Finland has moved onto the duel stages and that Belarus is eligible for the second chance group. Come back tomorrow for the results of group 2!
The Eurovision Times 
close. Belarus could get to second chance round
My vote went to Finland and thus I am happy with the result but since I really like Belarus too, I hope that Naviband will get to 2nd chance.
Btw, great graphics, Nick. I love the world cup / grand slam tournament graphics most. :)
Thank you!! I’m going to try and keep them as up to date as possible, but if I’m honest, they’re what got me most excited about hosting TEKO myself lol
I agree with Toggie. Great job! Well done Nick !!!
Kind of dissapointed Austria did not do better especially after we got to see what a joyful person Nathan is..
Congratulations Finland !
he’s so niiiiiice, in every way, and quite a showman I actually now think it’s a sure Q
Boyfriend material for sure :-P
maybe a tad not slutty enough for me
Everyone fell in love a little bit this week with him, he’s so happy and friendly and having so much fun. I always love it when someone with a rather average song is a lovely person / character as it makes it more bearable lol.
I don’t mind his song. It’s one of the better of all the radio friendly boring stuffs lol
Well done Finland. Belarus may have a second chance most probably, sad for Austria especially when we have such rotten duels in two and three.
Love the whole graphic layout. it really looks fab! Great stuff Nick :)
Oops, I meant three and four of course!
I’m not surprised, but it wasn’t what I had hoped for. Anyway, good luck :-)
I agree with the results. It has been a close race between FIN and BLR on my list too (currently 6th and 10th respectively)
Although I voted for Belarus,I am happy with the result…Finland is also very good
I missed the deadline thanks to being in a remote corner of north Wales with no internet access, but would have voted for Finland so am happy with the outcome.
I’m satisfied that the result turned out to be very balanced. Well done to all three.
Pheww!That was close.Thank God Finland won.I think Austria could have done a little better.
Another live performance from Montenegro during Slavko’s recent visit:
Man, get rid of that braid as you are not comfortable whipping it around!
He dances like third tier drag queen. Self taught and obviously not a natural mover, but thinks he is the queen of the ball. This is very Heaven.
Heaven? Like Heaven Under the Arches???
Btw, have you seen the Slavko interview on Wiwi? He makes big fuss about that braid and the stage personality he crafted for ESC. He seems to be lovely chap but not the most convincing artist …
Yeah, Heaven under the Arches, every self proclaimed lil hot gay boys heaven 😃
I’m so sad that Slavko is not delivering. He is nice guy, deed is good in home market, but he is making a mess of it. He doesn’t have cultural understanding of camp. For Army of Lovers you need that among understanding contemporary culture. He is lost.
Well, I guess that it is not that easy to be up to date with a concept like camp if you live in Montenegro. It’s much easier for us in the North, West and Centre because we’ve been familiar with it since the 70s and 80s. Nevertheless, I applaud Slavko’s attitude and wish him all the best. And perhaps he’ll learn a thing ot two about camp in London and Amsterdam. After all, those are good places to begin understanding camp. :)
Btw, I really liked what Slavko said in the Wiwi interview (Gosh! Those Wiwiguys got on my nerves …): That he doesn’t understand why people would say that they “hate” a song. “Don’t like” was clear enough he said and added that noboday should “hate” a song because that song will mean sth to the artist and others. 12 pts.
Slavko surely will learn thing and two about camp as he has now entered the glittery ESC universe. I’m sure he will be doing club scene quite a lot all over Europe and why not. It has seen lot worse.
I’m totally here with you and Slavko about hating songs in ESC. There is so much hate and hate talk around the world that it really shouldn’t have room here. After all even the worst songs are harmeleds and done with love to fabulous sports we call ESC.
12 points indeed.
And yes, wiwidudes drive me crazy!
ZIMBABWE:
I’m glad African countries can’t vote in esc.
So am I and I’m glad they got Verona!
These are first points to Norma Jean too, right?
I don’t remember.This is separate from the actual OGAE voting.
I think it’s still nil ☹️
After 3 OGAE groups,yes it’s still 0 pts.
I’m a bit worried. I have totally forgotten that “likes” in ET really doesn’t nesessarily count that much in ESC. It’s doing so beautifully here.
I think it’s generally liked among fans but the live performance could make it or break it.I think she doesn’t have a big stage charisma,tbh.
No she doesn’t, she is a muscian, but her vocals are pitch perfect, which is not that usual in ESC. Live lifted up in UMK, so let’s hope for the best. And let’s hope YLE won’t fuck up the staging.
Can we vote them instead?
Estonia, Malta, Georgia, Slovenia, Denmark. They love dated stuff down there in Zimbabwe. This might sound a bit harsh … but it looks like a typical closeted gay vote from the 80s. ;)
well, at least they have Eurovision to come out :p
Do you implie that Estonia is kingdom of closeted 80’s gays? 😃
*runs for cover* LOL
Shouts from hide-out: “It sounds like Modern Talking …”
Its so does. I do not dislike it.
I don’t dislike it either. It’s in 22nd place with 7/12 on my list.
There’s a band called Modern Talking I suppose?
It’s the project that brought Dieter Bohlen to fame here in Germany. *sigh*
Wath at your own risk:
Sounds like quite a lot of mainstream pop from the 80’s. Quite kitch, but it doesn’t do any harm; it could have been worse. But it’s clearly not something I would want to listen to myself.
Never been a fan of Dieter’s Lieder anyway, but it is not so that I feel uncomfortable by it…
Indeed. I don’t like it but I don’t mind it. The public person Dieter Bohlen is much worse that his harmless pop songs. He’s such a redneck …
Exactly! It sounds very 80’s German “disco” pop. Surrender! 😃
Meh. How does “Verona” sound like Modern Talking? Dieter und Thomas are much catchier…
I think that “Verona” is extremely catchy. I find myself singing and humming it in all different appropriate and inappropriate situations, and I listened to the song only 3 times. LOL
Nothint dated about Denmark.
And oh yes let’s make fun of LGBT people potentially participating in this poll in a country they are killed by mob groups and prosecuted by the law…
Noboday made fun of anyone. Case closed!
I should become the representative of those OGAEs in Europe.
The London Eurovision party official channel has only uploaded Bulgaria:
gawd <3
He is 17 we are good – I refuse to take any judgement for saying he is hot af.
LOL wait a bit more….8 months left😂
Damn ! Alright assume I wrote this comment in 8 months then – project it in the future :D
Wait, 8 months left for what ? He turned 17 in March :D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristian_Kostov
Damn…time flies 8-12 doesnt matter ;)
oh yeah, he is cute, not “hot”, he’s just very good imo!
They have a great balance of a telegenic young guy to bring in a solid televote, plus solid vocals to get the juries on their side too. Even if he doesn’t top the scoreboard, he may pull a top-5 just because of a high result on both sides w/ little disagreement on either one. Dare I say second youngest Eurovision winner potential?
He did have some issues with his vocals.I just don’t see the winning potential in this song.It’s a nice ballad and he has a nice voice.Other than that,nothing to go wow about.A top-3 with televoting and winning the jury vote could propel him to victory if the juries trash Italy.But i can’t see why they would vote Italy down.
Yes, Dimitri, I also think that his live vocals are a bit convoluted and it’s very easy to make a mistake.
There are parts that sound screechy.
to lose…do…wire.He was struggling.On the other hand,he has a very good stage awareness unlike Blanche who would feel much better singing in the studio or the set of her official video.
I agree. I am very curious too se how those two will fare in May.
I believe Bulgaria will do better.More mainstream and he loves big stages.
I concur. Let’s see what the rehearsals will bring to the table. Bulgaria 17 is more ESC-friendly on paper.
I don’t see the televote breaking heavily in favour of any conventional love song, no matter how “modern” the sound. There is no way he will do better than Poli Genova with the public. I guess his televote result will be in line with Frans or Aminata (6th to 8th) with an overall result around 5th or 6th. Note that he doesn’t fly very high in online voting or OGAEs despite all the betting hype.
Finland won and Belarus was a close second! The perfect result in my book. :)
:)
Except for the last one he chose great songs but his vocal limitations become very obvious imo.
Hey! Nice :D
Woo hoo!
“They might scare the blackbird
But they cannot stop him sing”
A betting odds site’s article on Belgium after the live performance:
It’s always nice to read this betting analysis, though it’s hilarious that they are pretending to be objective but most of the time fall flat in just channeling their subjective taste.
This was the best part:
“It’s a strong ballad and Bulgaria looks like remaining popular in the betting market, especially because the team behind Kristian are maximising their PR and seeking to generate hype around this entry at every opportunity.”
Yeah, right, really? Is this domain reserved to Sweden? It’s called marketing.
MadTV in Greece has put his just-released video on heavy rotation, an unmistakeable sign there is a paid-for promotion campaign. Note that, as far as I remember, this pre-contest exposure through MadTV has happened with only two other non-greek entries in recent years: Aram MP3 and Sergei Lazarev. Incidentally neither of them won despite enjoying great betting hype.
Boy Kostov’s record company is doing exactly the right thing. ESC is just a gate to turn him into a big pop star in Russia and ex Soviets. I love the detailed work they are doing.
Beatiful Mess could be in any music channel, it fits the flow of current soundscape. Both Sergey and Aram3 were just ESC spectacles. Sergey flopped even in his home market. That’s the key difference between the three.
As Francesco is taking each and everyone by the storm (Robin take notes!), I’m actually pretty sure we are heading to Italy.
Ιf RAI actually wants it, which is a big if… Downside of having a national showcase like San Remo is that they are not much interested in anything else. It does seem like Francesco wants it a lot though.
It’s totally understandable that Italians put San Remo above ESC. Still such a shame that RAI is probably lobbying in EBU not to win once again.
Their HoD said that in case they win,they’ll hold a bidding contest among different cities.
Check out at 5:00.Croatia could look like that on stage.lol
https://youtu.be/265cbux5Qz4?t=11s That’s what they want to do.
Well if TEKO is on then I’m thinking that it’s finally time for me to listen to this year’s ESC songs! :D
Unfortunately I missed the 1st group (but I will vote in the rest of them), but what a great start! I liked all 3 songs and my vote would’ve gone to Finland so I’m glad for the winner too. Belarus is my close 2nd as well, lovely song! :)
It’s a pretty strong year imo. Of course there is a lot of generic stuff but there are 9 to 11 songs I really like, and Finland and Belarus are among those. :)
Yay! First time ever I am rooting for Belarus in ESC. :)
Nice to hear! The first 3 songs definitely got me excited for this year! And yeah, I think this might be Belarus’ best song yet. :)
Have you listened to Belgium?I think you’ll really like that.
Nope, just finished listening the 2nd group. So Belgium is good again, nice!
as people said it’s a good year: Portugal, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Italy, Bulgaria, Fyrom all have great songs, and a lot of good entries, like Finland, Belarus, Latvia, Sweden, even Ireland and Australia… a surprising year in many aspects!
That sounds promising! I decided to discover them as we go on with TEKO group by group.
It is an ok year imo. Not great, not bad. There is a bunch of great, contemporary, well performer songs but I am afraid if a couple of very mediocre to awful favourites grab a victory this will overshadow the overall progress.
Hmm, I have no idea about that yet, I don’t think I’ve heard any favourite so far, but I’ll see once I’ll finish listening them all.
FdlC19 has kicked off ;)
The 2 scriptwriters for this year.The sound interesting: http://esctoday.com/143754/eurovision-2017-alex-worrall-and-tim-telling-are-the-scriptwriters/
Brendan-rosy cheeks-Murray is in Israel too and i suppose we’ll get to hear Ireland 2017 live tomorrow: