I'm hoping for Iceland, Sweden, Albania, Ukraine, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Belarus, Latvia, Georgia, Cyprus and Switzerland
JAH posted:
Tumble Tower posted:
GEORGIA - "Peace Will Come"
A song about peace, i.e. a protest song, IMO. Protest or political songs don't normally do well, so will it qualify? Got a catchy title "Peace will come", I was singing that without the words in front of me last weekend when I listened to this on the Eurovision website.
Clearly you didn't watch in 1990.
I did watch the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990, it came from Zagreb, of the then Yugoslavia (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).
The winner was "Insieme: 1992" sung by Toto Cutugno. That was a definitely a political song - about uniting together Europe in 1992.
UK - is this our attempt to recreate the 2001 winner for Estonia - "Come on Everybody"
Germany - that sounds quite a catchy Eurovision song. Could win, it's better than most of what was on tonight. Depends on how it compares to what qualified on Tuesday.
France - A 1960s style "Hippy Hippy Shake" type song. Not sure that'll do well.
Spain - C'est tres terrible. Nul points por favor!
Serbia - a reasonable ballad. Would like to hear the whole thing.
By the way, I've just switched off as they're about to announce the ten winners. I missed Tuesday's semi and preset my HDD/DVD recorder to record it, I've yet to see it. I'm hoping to see it tomorrow, but in the meantime I don't want to accidentally see who qualified on Tuesday (the names are bound to be already in place in the scoreboard, and they'll just fill the remaining ten spaces as they announce the ten).
Firstly, the BBC are the worst of the lot with these patronising disclaimers - and indeed completely talked over the recap of Iceland with information that could have waited until the end.
Secondly, this semi-final idea is awful - it means virtually all songs are seen before the night itself and will seriously dilute the main show. They should just have a one-off B-final, where perhaps just the winner progresses and the next few secure a slot in the main show next year, with the bottom few from the main show relegated.
And thirdly, did anything ever materialise about plans to have a US version on NBC I think?
Also, if the UK or Ireland ever want to do well again I think they've got to have the rule back where acts can only sing in their countries language.
As for the presentation, generally pretty damn good from the host broadcaster - loved the flags idea and the graphics as a whole. Not too keen on the stage though - I think it's too big and makes the acts appear too far from the audience.
Firstly, the BBC are the worst of the lot with these patronising disclaimers - and indeed completely talked over the recap of Iceland with information that could have waited until the end.
They got the message through though - don't vote until you're told. If people are that stupid that they need it in big letters, then those patronising disclaimers are needed.
There were two recaps, Brekkie, and the second was shown completely clean. The song was also completely clean. So there's no problem there.
Brekkie posted:
Secondly, this semi-final idea is awful - it means virtually all songs are seen before the night itself and will seriously dilute the main show. They should just have a one-off B-final, where perhaps just the winner progresses and the next few secure a slot in the main show next year, with the bottom few from the main show relegated.
Can't see how that would work - some countries take their selection process very seriously, and at least the idea of two semis means that all of the songs are at least seen on an international stage and do have some exposure, even if they don't get to the final (unlike the hoo-hah that was 96).
The B-final idea also means that you have several countries in the middle zone between the top few and the bottom few - what would you do with them? That constitutes a semifinal of about 30 countries still!
Actually agree with you on RTS's hosting of the event - though don't about the stage. IF anything it seems really small - in performance space terms, it's not quite the size of previous years.
Secondly, this semi-final idea is awful - it means virtually all songs are seen before the night itself and will seriously dilute the main show. They should just have a one-off B-final, where perhaps just the winner progresses and the next few secure a slot in the main show next year, with the bottom few from the main show relegated.
Can't see how that would work - some countries take their selection process very seriously, and at least the idea of two semis means that all of the songs are at least seen on an international stage and do have some exposure, even if they don't get to the final (unlike the hoo-hah that was 96).
The B-final idea also means that you have several countries in the middle zone between the top few and the bottom few - what would you do with them? That constitutes a semifinal of about 30 countries still!
Yep, but those countries aren't going to continue to continue to take it as seriously if they keep getting knocked out at the semi-final stage.
It's not fool proof and with all systems there are flaws, but say this year with 43 acts you'd have say 24 straight into the final (based on performances last year), leaving 19 in the B-final.
The winner would progress to the main show (giving the B-final some added importance), with the next 6-8 guaranteed a slot for next year, with the bottom 6-8 in the main show relegated. If numbers grew further you'd get to the stage where those at the bottom of the B-final are eliminated for the next year before returning the year after, though unless more European countries split up, it shouldn't get to that stage.
It's not that revolutionary an idea after all - it's worked for football and most other sports for many years.
If not I think they should at least go back to the system from the last couple of years - it's better than having the two semi-finals where only the "big four" are guaranteed a slot at Eurovision, along with the winner. TV companies are going to become less interested in the main event if every year they have to go through an extra hurdle to get there.
Firstly, the BBC are the worst of the lot with these patronising disclaimers - and indeed completely talked over the recap of Iceland with information that could have waited until the end.
I dunno - in the current climate anything with a whiff of phone voting has to be squeaky clean. This overrides the content. It may not be pretty - but currently it is deemed very important - for understandable reasons.
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Secondly, this semi-final idea is awful - it means virtually all songs are seen before the night itself and will seriously dilute the main show.
I agree that there is a degree of dilution - but if you look at the viewing figures it isn't on a huge scale. In the UK the audiences for the semis are tiny in comparison to the final (5%ish) - and many countries won't be showing both semis, just the one they can vote in. You don't have to show both - just the one you can vote in.
It has been an attempt to shake-up the bloc-centric voting - with more Scandinavian countries going through (and remember the ESC is effectively a Scandinavian production...) and even Portugal (though Benelux countries can't be happy)
Feel genuinely sorry for Malta - they really go flat out every year.
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They should just have a one-off B-final, where perhaps just the winner progresses and the next few secure a slot in the main show next year, with the bottom few from the main show relegated.
Doesn't work in the "flat playing field" approach though. I think they'll give the dual semi a few years - though the balance of televoting/jury may change from 9+1? (Odd to have just one jury wildcard in each semi)
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And thirdly, did anything ever materialise about plans to have a US version on NBC I think?
Not heard anything - probably languishing in development hell... Can't see it translating in the same way.
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Also, if the UK or Ireland ever want to do well again I think they've got to have the rule back where acts can only sing in their countries language.
That isn't going to happen... English is far more universal a language than it was 20 years ago. Not allowing Scandinavian countries to sing in English is pretty insulting when most of the population speak it better than native Brits...
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As for the presentation, generally pretty damn good from the host broadcaster - loved the flags idea and the graphics as a whole. Not too keen on the stage though - I think it's too big and makes the acts appear too far from the audience.
Yep - though RTS don't really have much to do with it. The Swedes are running the show as per usual. It's the same Swedish director who did quite a few of the ESCs in the early 00s, as well as Kiev in 2005, and I think does Melodifestivalen pretty often. Luckily he has Serb heritage...
Certainly the Swedish entry bore a resemblance to the Melodifestivalen coverage - just as Swedish entries in previous "Sven" contests have...
Ukraine's vocals were much weaker than I was hoping for.
Was surprised how well Georgia came across - and Portugal was massively better than the preview video. She may not be a looker but she can hold a tune - as can her backing singers.
There was a common theme tonight of weak backing singers who were too busy flinging themselves around the stage.
Thought Malta came across really well - really gutted for them that they didn't get through.
Really chuffed that Iceland got through though - they deserve to get to the final and they really seem to be having the best time. Not easy to start the contest - and I thought their vocals were pretty good. They've also massively improved their staging since the Icelandic TV final.
I think this year's final has a number of good songs. Sweden & Iceland will be the countries I'm gunning for this year. Surprised Andorra, Switzerland and Malta were left behind this year in favour for some rather dull Eastern European countries... bloc vote, shock vote etc etc!
UKRAINE
