Round-Up after First Semi-Final

Well what a night!

Before I start I should tell you that I’m probably not going to get to update Je t’adore as much as I’d like – I leave for Heathrow from Belfast today and should arrive in Serbia Thursday at noon.

Last night’s Semi-Final is proof that the new system has worked, with a fair ratio of countries making it through.  Most notably both Scandanavias: Norway and Finland pulled through and if you consider Greece and Israel to be Western then that’s 4.  Poland are from Central Europe leaving 5 from Eastern Europe, all of which were sound and strong entries which we were expecting to qualify anyway.

As well as this, only one of the three novelty entries made it through, for which we, as Eurovision fans should be thankful.  To add to this, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s entry really was the strongest novelty in the first Semi-Final, and I could not be happier Estonia failed with the lacklustre attempt.

There has been much speculation over who the jury entry was, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to stick with my initial prediction on that one and suggest Norway picked it up.  But there’s absolutely no shame in this whatsoever – the jury’s are judging on a professional term, rather than the televoting Europeans.

So just to recap who made it through, in the order we found out:

1. GREECE (no surprises there)
2. ROMANIA (again, we were expecting that one)
3. BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA (I placed a bet on this earlier that day)
4. FINLAND (probably the biggest shocker in the envelopes, but after having seen the huge fireworks display they gave us, I did have a sneaky regard)
5. RUSSIA (again, it was definite)
6. ISRAEL (the next surprise – I wasn’t expecting it but it showed Europe were voting for a song)
7. AZERBAIJAN (I was expecting this one too… Armenia was the only definite left to come in three envelopes)
8. ARMENIA (and there it was! But who would be the last two? – my fingers were crossed for Poland and Norway)
9. POLAND (happy days!!)
10. NORWAY (even happier days!!)

So the result was a sound one.  Of them all I really wanted to see Poland in the envelopes, as they were one of my big favourites this year, and wanted to see them live in the Final on Saturday night.  The big disappointment I think was for Netherlands, and had they have qualified it would have surely proved that there were no flaws in the new system.  Maybe next year there will be two jury votes per Semi-Final; something I hope they do.

As for the draw in the Final, after the show a press conference was held where each country’s delegation answered two questions and then drew their position. 

1. GREECE drew 21^st, which was another fantastic draw for them near the end of the show, Kalomira should definitely be top ten.
2. ROMANIA drew 1^st up.  Usually I would consider this a good draw, but for a faster, more upbeat song.  I think this will scupper any chance Romania has of winning.
3. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA drew 6^th place, which wasn’t the best draw they could have asked for, they needed something a little later in the day.
4. FINLAND drew 8^th place, which again, will scupper their chances.
5. RUSSIA drew 24^th, and it doesn’t get much better than that – definitely in contention to win now.
6. ISRAEL drew 7^th, right between loud, brash entries from Bosnia and Finland, so this should stand out, although I’m not sure it has a strong chance, it’s still a very early draw.
7. AZERBAIJAN get 20^th, another great draw, 25^th is the only remaining of the final 6 slots on Saturday.
8. ARMENIA get 5^th place – quite poor, they won’t win from here and it’s certainly the poorest draw they’ve had to date.
9. POLAND get 10^th, the same as the Semi.  I wish this had have been better, but they were never in contention for the top spot anyway.
10. NORWAY pulled 25^th – and it doesn’t get much better than that.  Norway could be looking at a top ten finish, or possibly a surprise victory.

As you can see this only leaves 3^rd, 9^th and 11^th-18^th places for the second batch of Semi-Finalists.  With each of the last 6 positions, 20^th-25^th gone, it really has put a cat among the pigeons.

Well, I’m going to finish getting my things together for Belgrade.  I should have internet access in my room, so I’ll hopefully be in touch soon.  Enjoy the rest of Eurovision 2008 if I’m not!!

Simon

Eurovision Round-Up 20/05/08 – Just before Semi-Final #1!

I’m writing this with 20 mins until the first Semi-Final kicks off – and I can’t wait.

After having seen what’s happened in the past few days, these are my qualifiers:

1. Russia
2. Armenia
3. Romania
4. Greece
5. Azerbaijan (No change in my top 5)
6. Netherlands
7. Norway (Norway should make the top ten, the presentation has been pristine)
8. Bosnia – Herzegovina (in place of Slovenia who seem to have performed poorly in the past few rehearsals).
9. Poland

That leaves a few for the jury/lower end of the top ten public vote should any of the above not make it.  There’s still Slovenia, but Andorra seem to have been written off.  Israel also seem to stand a strong chance, so we’ll have to wait and see.  Ireland might also make it through on the public vote.  The presentation needs to be really colourful for this to work as not many East European countries will get Dustin’s jokes on first listen.  The Finnish song has also grown on me, and it’s very hard to predict for Estonian chances.

I’ve placed my bets on the above 9, and am really hoping Norway, Netherlands and Poland make it through.  At least one of them is bound to.

The prediction poll on the site places the countries in this order:

1. Greece 12.9%
2. Russia 9.9%
3. Armenia 9.6%
4. Romania 7.2%
5. Norway 7.1%
6. Ireland 6.1%
7. Andorra 5.9%
8. Azerbaijan 5.2%
9. Slovenia 5.2%
10. Poland 5.1%

If these were the 10 qualifiers it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but Bosnia are bound to go through and I’d love to see the Netherlands there.  I’m not expecting big things from Andorra tonight as I’ve heard her vocal been compared to that of the last Monegasque entry…

Enjoy the show tonight and keep visiting the site!

Simon