Eurovision 2013 - 14/16/18 May 2013

The BBC's coverage tonight has been diabolical. Usually I like their coverage of the contest, and the first Semi Final was great. *THIS*, however is appalling. Cutting credible music acts for stupid videos produced for the Eurovision website. Discussion about the presenters hair for a whole minute to pad time, and then cutting out Lynda.

Pathetic.

I must say, SVT's production of this has been second to none! The take this kind of stuff so seriously and it shows.

If only the blooming BBC would stop cutting out bits that people might actually want to see!!

Viewers are treated like idiots when it comes to the BBC and Eurovision - from the way they chose the act to represent the country through almost every element of the broadcast. They don't believe audiences can sit through interval acts or the presenter waffling on when that is half the charm of Eurovision, and I know it causes problems for some but surely anyone who knows they'll be affected by strobing etc. should be responsible enough to know to watch what is essentially a concert is probably not healthy for them - so no need for the warnings all the time. The voting thing is ridiculous too - don't know if it's more annoying having constant reminders not to vote when they provide no voting number or when they provide a voting number then spend the next two hours telling people not to use it. Good though that Eurovision itself has returned to a voting window after the last performace rather than opening the lines throughout.

As for tonights show - not as strong as Tuesdays IMO but way more bonkers. The one from tonight I thought might have a shot at doing well on Saturday got knocked out.

It's now over one and a half hours since the results of the second semi-final were announced. Here's a comparison of my desired qualifiers and the actual finalists:

My desired qualifiers: San Marino, Azerbaijan, Malta, Iceland, Israel, Georgia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Armenia, Hungary .

Actual qualifiers (in order of announcement): Hungary, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, Norway, Iceland, Armenia, Finland, Malta, Greece.

Bold entries represent the actual qualifiers that match my preferences.

OUT: San Marino, Israel, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Albania.

I've put my reactions to the results in some detail on my blog, but the following is an abridged version.

I'm gutted and deeply upset that neither Israel nor San Marino reached the final. Both were excellent songs which deserved to be in the final. At the other extreme, I am appalled and disgusted that Greece made it through; their entry sounded to me like trash sung by drunken yobs and, in my opinion, didn't deserve its place in the final.

I'm so overjoyed that Iceland's soothing ballad (or should I say lullaby?) qualified, it's the one I most wanted to reach the final tonight and most deserving of its place; I'd like it to be Iceland's first ever win on Saturday. I'm glad Latvia, F.Y.R. Macedonia and Albania are out as I disliked their songs. So that means there'll be no ex-Yugoslav country in this year's final. Who will the five ex-Yugoslav countries (Croatia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia) plus Albania now vote for on Saturday night? They won't be able to vote for each other like they tend to.

I have complained to the BBC about it. I'm probably overreacting with it, but it has irritated me and they aren't going to know unless somebody tells them. I'll await a response with interest...

So people with photosensitive epilepsy shouldn't be given the chance to watch Eurovision? Next you'll be calling for the scrapping of in-vision signing because it slightly inconveniences you.

I thought the opening act of the 2nd Semi was terrific, although if they'd managed to get the paint trails to exactly follow the bikes a little more in-synch it would have been the icing on the cake.

The stage with the arch reminds me a little of one of the Dublin shows (I think, 1997) and I'm not at all bothered by the downscaling of the event. To be honest although Moscow was an amaayzing ( ) spectacle the contest has got so large, the live event element of the show has, for me, been a little lost in recent years. The best Eurovisions have been when the live audience has been at the heart of the show. Although Oslo had an enormous audience which was slightly disconnected from the stage, they clawed it back by that superb FlashMob-type interval act.

I very much like the reintroduction of DVE moves, twitches etc. Have there been any split screens this year (I haven't caught all of the semis). Melodifestivalen had a particularly smart 5-way split screen during "Skyline" by David Lingdren 46s into this link:
.

The Swedes certainly know how to do music on television in my opinion.

Roll on Saturday!

Just catching up on Semi Final 2 online with SVT and whilst BBC Three were doing their usual stuff we missed out on a nice little VT looking back through the years which showed off Petra's personality and comedy stylings.

Plus the Darin and Agnes performance was good to see.

Here's the running order for the final tomorrow night (remember, decided by producers this year- not by a random draw):

Great news for Ireland. They've really got a good chance this year with a good song and performer. Bet RTE are sweating though!

Who reckons France are going to complain about this beings they've been put in 1st place on purpose. Must say it's a very interesting idea for the placements to be up to the producers, something that could prove to be quite controversial depending on the results.

Apparently second position is the real curse - so theoretically, Lithuania won't be winning.

Nice - but copybook blotted by the in excusable crash out zoom, and steadcam operator caught in the spotlights at .26secs in.