After all it went by without major technical problems, the hosts were if not excellent good, the stage (heavily inspired by Helsinki 2007) and graphics were beautiful. Unfortunately the Arena seemed half full (also confirmed by Jaana)! The opening act was rather standard and will surely not go down in history as something to remember. Montenegro kicked off the show and did a very good smiley performance after the initial nervousness. Stefan once again provided great vocals. More amazing vocals followed with Israel's Boaz. Just perfection. A serious contender to win the whole thing, me thinks now. Estonia was the first one to use the too powerful windmachine and I was hoping it would blow them off the stage. Where there boos from the audience? Moldova followed and also Geta survived the windmachine that looked like a hurricane. Poor teddybear... San Marino gave a good solid captivating performance. Belgium looked as horrible as it sounded but after them Azerbaidjan was fantastic. A bit messy on TV screens maybe but it surely kept you glued to the screen. Rebeka from Slovenia followed and was delivering tonight. Unfortunately the director propably was sleeping and ruined it all. Norway followed and gave a good simple performance. Maria seemed a bit awkward at times with the coreography but was vocally strong. Poland had made a wise choise and left out the costume change. Isis performed well and came across likeble yet a bit nervous, but in a good way. Ireland entered and exit the stage with loud boos from the audience but performed ok. The vocals were adjusted and tuned down but the dancing guys were too distracting to the whole messy packet. And what an earth was Gisela wearing in her head? Did that thing keep her from singing well? Andorra made yet another horrible staging and this song went from plain boring and monotonous thing into embarassing bad. But it was all soon forgotten when Laka and his crazy sister from Bosnia-Herzegovina were hanging their laundry on stage with those elderly bridemaids. Absolutely fabulous! Armenia's Sirusho and her performance seemed somehow unfinished and she missed a note or two. This left a feeling this could have been so much better! Hind from the Netherlands had all the warmth Sirusho lacked and sung very well but was she lacking interaction with the cameras? Next on stage Finland and it was perfect. From the explosive start to using pyros the way they should be used: fitting the song and the rhythm, not just using them for the sake of using them (take note UK and Germany). Vlad from Romania was good but what happened to Nico? Very shaky vocals... Russia's Dima played his supermegastardiva role perfectly but gave a good Dimalike performance. The operasingers added to the song nicely but the iceskater was a useless gimmick. Apparently Dima has made more enemies this time around than fans... What happened to Dima anno 2006? (Don't answer...) Last on stage Greece and the book gimmick was completely wasted by the director. Kalomira looked very uncomfortable sitting on that stick in the beginning and in general was as artificial as any Miss Texas or Californian tits. After that the interval act was rather enjoyable with the wonderful Nebo from last year's Serbian selection (runner up) performed bigger than life. All in all a good show with happy ending. Shame for the Netherlands, Slovenia and San Marino...
After all it went by without major technical problems, the hosts were if not excellent good, the stage (heavily inspired by Helsinki 2007) and graphics were beautiful. Unfortunately the Arena seemed half full (also confirmed by Jaana)! The opening act was rather standard and will surely not go down in history as something to remember. Montenegro kicked off the show and did a very good smiley performance after the initial nervousness. Stefan once again provided great vocals. More amazing vocals followed with Israel's Boaz. Just perfection. A serious contender to win the whole thing, me thinks now. Estonia was the first one to use the too powerful windmachine and I was hoping it would blow them off the stage. Where there boos from the audience? Moldova followed and also Geta survived the windmachine that looked like a hurricane. Poor teddybear... San Marino gave a good solid captivating performance. Belgium looked as horrible as it sounded but after them Azerbaidjan was fantastic. A bit messy on TV screens maybe but it surely kept you glued to the screen. Rebeka from Slovenia followed and was delivering tonight. Unfortunately the director propably was sleeping and ruined it all. Norway followed and gave a good simple performance. Maria seemed a bit awkward at times with the coreography but was vocally strong. Poland had made a wise choise and left out the costume change. Isis performed well and came across likeble yet a bit nervous, but in a good way. Ireland entered and exit the stage with loud boos from the audience but performed ok. The vocals were adjusted and tuned down but the dancing guys were too distracting to the whole messy packet. And what an earth was Gisela wearing in her head? Did that thing keep her from singing well? Andorra made yet another horrible staging and this song went from plain boring and monotonous thing into embarassing bad. But it was all soon forgotten when Laka and his crazy sister from Bosnia-Herzegovina were hanging their laundry on stage with those elderly bridemaids. Absolutely fabulous! Armenia's Sirusho and her performance seemed somehow unfinished and she missed a note or two. This left a feeling this could have been so much better! Hind from the Netherlands had all the warmth Sirusho lacked and sung very well but was she lacking interaction with the cameras? Next on stage Finland and it was perfect. From the explosive start to using pyros the way they should be used: fitting the song and the rhythm, not just using them for the sake of using them (take note UK and Germany). Vlad from Romania was good but what happened to Nico? Very shaky vocals... Russia's Dima played his supermegastardiva role perfectly but gave a good Dimalike performance. The operasingers added to the song nicely but the iceskater was a useless gimmick. Apparently Dima has made more enemies this time around than fans... What happened to Dima anno 2006? (Don't answer...) Last on stage Greece and the book gimmick was completely wasted by the director. Kalomira looked very uncomfortable sitting on that stick in the beginning and in general was as artificial as any Miss Texas or Californian tits. After that the interval act was rather enjoyable with the wonderful Nebo from last year's Serbian selection (runner up) performed bigger than life. All in all a good show with happy ending. Shame for the Netherlands, Slovenia and San Marino...
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