Eurovision 2010 - 25/27/29 May 2010 - Norway

Definitely think one of the better songs won - and by God, that Kristine was irritating.

Salem looked like he'd take a lead but the points were all over the place this year - Ola getting forgotten by the public! Darin also looked like a possible contender at one point - but the bottom 3 stayed pretty much constant. Performance wise, Peter was the most dependable, as was Darin, and probably Ola (but what an annoying little twerp he is). Still think it's criminal that Alcazar weren't in the final, but hey ho - the country works in strange ways.

It'll be interesting to see how Anna does in Norway. It is quite an understated song - not really a "power ballad" per se - but maybe this is what Sweden needed, after the past two catastrophes (good songs; bad results).

Meanwhile - having just listened to our song, at heart it's a nice little pop song but the production values are TERRIBLE - it's like he's rushed it through (which I'm sure he has ,considering he was only named as the writer about 2 weeks ago). I hope it's going to have more thrown at it - it's missing a snare drum, more padding, and the backing track is VERY ropey; there are some really odd key changes that I don't like. Having said that, again the best of a bad bunch won, the rest f*cking back off to Italia Conti. It's all just a bit too hotch-potch at the moment...

The best song definitely won in Sweden tonight and it'll be criminal if Anna doesn't do well in Oslo.

Interesting results. The international juries seemed to prefer Salem (though I wonder how representative they really were) - and I suspect that might not be far from the truth in the wider Eurovision sense. You never can tell with Eurovision - but I think Timoteij would either have done brilliantly or tanked... (VERY catchy chorus)

Anna, though, is immensely likeable as a performer, and the song is pretty good, not bubblegum pop (which doesn't do well in Eurovision - though most Brits seem to ignore this fact when they talk about a "typical Eurovision" song) - but it wasn't my personal favourite, though I can see why it appealed to the Swedish public's sense of lagom.

Peter Jöback's performance was brilliant - but I'm not sure the song quite worked.

I'm gutted Alcazar weren't in the final - they are real MF stalwarts and deserve to get to Eurovision together sometime (though Andreas has already for Switzerland in Six4One)

My personal favourite tonight in show terms was probably Ola - the production really worked for the energy of the performance and the song - brilliant steadicam sequence, great cutting on turns (which could have been car crash bad if either Ola or the TV team messed it up) and a nice (not quite impromptu - far too well covered) walk onto a thrust into the audience. It's probably the only song I'm still humming - and I could have seen it registering well with viewers at home if it had the same level of energy and production in Oslo.

And I didn't find Christine annoying at all - though I'm not sure if my Swedish language and perception is good enough to work out if Dolph was bad, or ironic. Måns has been excellent throughout - and I'm glad they've given him a chance to sing on a couple of occasions - because he's a great performer. He also comes across as a very natural presenter. Wouldn't be surprised to see him do more stuff.

Loved the Sweden v Norway interval act - beautiful for Eurovision and Melodifestivalen fans - as were the little cameos from performers who had been knocked out earlier (Neo sweeping the stage, Kalle fiddling during one of the location films etc.)

Can't believe Melodifestivalen is a major reason why I started to learn Swedish! (It's a great language to learn if you have read Olde Englishe stuff and speak German already...)

Oh - and what HAS happened to Stallone's face?

(And did anyone see the beautiful "View to a Kill" opening on Andra Chansen - that really is clever production, with a simple idea executed really, really well. Typically Swedish)

The interval act was fantastic. Can you imagine the BBC persuading as many past eurovision participants from, say the United Kingdom and Ireland or France, to take part in such a sequence

What's happened to half the thread?!

and so 'issues' arise in the Ukraine and in four days they are to redo the entire selection process ....

more….

www.eurovision.tv

Can you imagine most Brits REMEMBERING their previous participants (apart from those that won) - let alone those of other countries, or those in some cases who didn't even get to Eurovision.

I liked that everyone was singing along to every single of the songs from both Sweden and Norway in Globen for the interval act!

They went CRAZY for 2000 entry:

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/9489/vlcsnap2010031722h08m54.png http://img294.yfrog.com/img294/9489/vlcsnap2010031722h08m54.png

and I liked the remix of the previous winning song that they do each year. It was made rather special with Melena appearing as well.


Shame that Manboy didn't win!

Can someone do the same here please!

Ukraine have NOT submitted their entry on time. They have been fined as a result, rather than being disqualified. More to follow

www.eurovision.tv

EUROVISION 2010
Semi Final 1
25-May-10
RUNNING ORDER DRAWN 23-MAR-2010

1  Moldova
2  Russia
3  Estonia
4  Slovakia
5  Finland
6  Latvia
7  Serbia
8  Bosnia and Herzegovina

9  Poland
10  Belgium
11  Malta
12  Albania
13  Greece
14  Portugal
15  Macedonia
16  Belarus
17  Iceland

EUROVISION 2010
Semi Final 2
27-May-10
RUNNING ORDER DRAWN 23-MAR-2010

1  Lithuania
2  Armenia
3  Israel
4  Denmark
5  Switzerland
6  Sweden
7  Azerbaijan
8  Ukraine

9  Netherlands
10  Romania
11  Slovenia
12  Ireland
13  Bulgaria
14  Cyprus
15  Croatia
16  Georgia
17  Turkey