As the Jury show was leaked in full (sigh) and I couldn't resist watching it once (or maybe twice in parts) during the Saturday afternoon as warm up for tonight's grand final it's a good excuse to share some impressions and opinions. And a prediction.
First of all it was very nice and nostalgic to an old fart like me to hear and see again on stage Io senza te, one of my all time favorite Eurovision entries, as well as Canzone per te, a song that I still remember by heart and also Cinema that I remembered surprisingly well even if I never was a huge fan. Only proves the fact that when you are young your memory works so easily! The opening was nice playing on the Nemo's broken trophy but the final line delivered by Sandra could have been delivered a bit funnier somehow.
Sandra is doing solid job while Hazel is letting it loose. Michelle is a nice add to the final line up as and I just love this grandmother (!!!) and her sense of humor I can excuse her Volare as well. That was a pure example of Italian entertainment television. In good and in bad. So sad she didn't blow the alp horn herself in the end later in the show!
In this jury final most everyone seemed to deliver, some more than others. Tommy Cash managed to come across kinda likable and his smile in the end tells it all; he's human after all and broke away from the role for a few seconds. JJ seemed a bit excited and had one mistake just before going to the up beat part. Greece gives heavy 1944 vibes. And the costume change is the best and most surprising of many this evening. Not so sure what I think about the break BEFORE and AFTER Sweden though....
Without being patriotic the longest applause was for Erika Vikman after Finland. And she really gave an excellent performance in every little detail from winks to finger pointing. In fact the audience was shouting "Erika! Erika! Erika!" in true Käärijä style in Liverpool 2023! Sandra and Hazel has some trouble getting back to their thing - promoting the CD and DVD - over the shouts. Great response also to Switzerland, Portugal and Sweden.
And Käärijä was there with Baby Lasagna and stole the show with their mash up and new joint single
Euro dub. Few minutes of pure solid fun. And yes, it's Käärijä's third year in a row in Euroviison stage!
I have written about the stage before and yes, I love it. One of the best ever. The back LED looks beautiful most of the time and the arch gives variety and different angles to performances. Some use it better than others though.
The voting rehearsal with Hazel's comments was pure comedy. Let's see how much of that we will have in the live final. I suspect not so much as she was really going loose. There were a lot of hick ups, as there were delays with the props during the whole show but that's why there are rehearsals. There was a long pause between the Dutch postcard and performance for example.
I wasn't quite prepared for Nemo showing so much skin in their performance. Another "unexplainable" outfit and look choice.
*** So, the prediction ***
With a twist. I have grouped the songs in random order in 5s and bottom 6. Let's see how this goes!
The most uncertain I'm about Italy and San Marino but I am optimistic. The biggest surprise could be though Portugal. And Netherlands if it flops. Armenia's qualification was already a surprise but it really works on stage, so...? They manages to create this captivating 3 minutes from nothing really.
Top-5:
Austria, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, France
6th to 10th:
Estonia, Israel, Netherlands, Italy, Albania
11th to 15th:
Luxembourg, Ukraine, Greece, Malta, San Marino
16th to 20th:
Iceland, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Armenia
21st to 26th:
Lithuania, Spain, UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway
UPDATE: Well, that didn't go well, did it? That was the most insane votin I have ever witnessed starting already with the juries: I mean don't they have some rules to follow somehow? They were voting neighbours as any televoter and giving 12s to Germany for example - the poor girl didn't hi one note I think.... Oh well....
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