Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The second semifinal is over and we have the full line up for Saturday's final. If the results of the first semifinal were somewhat surprising this second was a total chaotic surprise for most everyone. Had I done my list after the performances I would have dropped Czechia, Serbia and Australia from my list and had added Armenia and Lithuania and scored a lot better than my prediction list 6/10. From my wish list I got only 5/10 while the Home jury also got 6/10 right. The worst results probably ever! The show was somewhat more boring than the first semifinal except for Hazel who was letting it loose and can't wait what they combine with Michelle in the final at this point. The idea of the 2020 artists getting chance to perform their 2020 entries was nice and should have been done already in 2021. Or 2022. Or 2023. Or 2024... But why, oh why they chose those four who actually did return in 2021??!! WHY?? Why not giving a chance to Arilena Ara, Athena Manoukian, Damir Kedzo, San...

What a great show, I really liked it. Great stage, not so great graphics. Hosts were good and funny enough, opening and interval acts very enjoyable incl. Petra Mede and the Made in Switzerland thing, the message and homage to Celine Dion with the Class of '24. And the qualifiers all fine with me. Only sad for Slovenia but then again it was expected. The new announcement procedure worked fine, too. All seemed to go smoothly - except for Switzerland itself when the filming froze at one bit. Martin Österdahl & co were no longer in the arena but in a tiny little room somewhere out reach of booing and whistling. FUN FACTS: San Marino's Gabry Ponte becomes the first Sammarinese artist to qualify at his first try! All non qualifier songs in semifinals were sung in English rather than in the native language! Only Norway did in English, the others in native or mixed English/other language!!! 9/10 were songs from national finals, only Netherlands Claude qualified with internally se...

All is good that ends good. Israel didn't manage to win the televote being second to Croatia with 323 vs 337. Ukraine was third with 307 and France 4th with 227 and Switzerland 5th with one point behind. But Switzerland totally dominated the jury vote scoring 21 times 12 points and 365 total. France was second with 218 and Croatia 3rd with 210. Only nine countries manages to score 12 from the jury. Besides the 21 by Switzerland France 4 times, Portugal 3 times, Ukraine and Croatia twice and Luxemburg (from Israel), Ireland, Sweden and Cyprus (from Greece) once.  And here is the jury result: Here are the televotes: Croatia  337 Israel  323 Ukraine  307 France  227 Switzerland  226 Ireland  136 Italy  104 Greece  85 Armenia  82 Lithuania  58 Sweden  49 Cyprus  44 Estonia  33 Serbia  32 Finland  31 Latvia  28 Luxemburg  20 Georgia  19 Germany  18 Portugal  13 Slovenia  12 Spain...

 Eurovision thing contest! The jokes about Finland continued culminating in the interval act with a look how things may have happened in Helsinki (well, they mean Tampere...) had we won with people having sauna with Moomie whil Ievan polka plays and then comes in Käärijä for some Cha cha cha. Not no! Things didn't go that way. But the Swedes just lobe Eurovision so much. Another great and fun and lighthearted interval act created by Edward af Sillén and Petra & co. Just wonderful. I just laughed out loud when that section started. Great stuff!  The opening with Tattoo solarium was such fun, too! Less great the Allsång/karaoke thingy with Helena Paparizou, Charlotte Perrelli and Sertab Erener. I don't want to comment anyone's looks generally but what has happened with Helena and Sertab? make up team went wild or did they both go under same knife?  It was so nice to see bits of all those old entries, either big names that never made it or who scored null of badly plus t...

Today was The Day. The rehearsals started on stage in Liverpool arena for the Eurovision song contest 2023. As Ebu once again is using TikTok for the short tiny rehearsal clips I'm not going to care much of them. But here is a collection of photos and impressions and observations by your truly of the closed doors happenings. Mind you, I'm all in favor for this closed door policy: the delegations must have a little bit privacy and peace and quiet to polish their acts before they are given to the sharks aka fandom eager to criticize every tiny detail. And also I kinda like the idea we are given as little as possible to watch before the shows so there will be surprises and wow effect - if you have seen it all beforehand where's the fun? The first rehearsal is 30 minutes for each meaning 3-4 run through. After that the delegation gathers to a viewing room and changes are discussed and made for the next rehearsal with the local team. Ok, let's go! All photos are from eurovis...

Last night the dreams and hopes were crushed for additional eight acts and most notably for Achille Lauro under Sammarinese flag. It will be interesting to see if he was 11th or lower, and if so can we just think he would have qualified if Italy could have voted in this semi? This said let's have a look at their social media comments and how they took it, and their performances. Enjoy! After making a bit of a fool of himself during the show when joining the hosts he has set his mind already to other things: Like proposing his boyfriend who said Yes! See you on tour! Brooke published a teary video but no worries, she's moving on to bigger things!

Last night seven acts had to say goodbye to their dreams and hopes for the Eurovision glory, some of them expected, some not so much. Below are some comments by the artists published post-show in social medias while the others have kept silent so far..... Enjoy the videos once more!

For some reason I just couldn't be bothered to do the usual own personal ranking and review this year so I put the together a very own demoscopic jury of friends and relatives instead, that can be divided in three categories: pre-teens, 20/30somethings and 40/50somethings. They got together in separate gatherings in different cities over the week and here are the results!  All the comments are personal views of one or more reviewers and are ment to hurt no one. Especially the artists in question or the songwriters. Anyone's personal tastes cannot be disputed.  The points are the average in scale 1 to 10.  31. NORWAY  4,2 "Boyband energy and innocent clear voice" "The rhythm is too fast for this somehow" "What IS this look about?!" 32. RUSSIA  3,8 "I like the fact this comes from Russia for the things she represents! Equality and female power!" "The Russian folklore part is fabulous!" 33. CZECH REPUBLIC  3,7 "Video makes no ...

So, first of all everybody sung better than in the first semifinal I think. Artists seemed more relaxed and some did a very good job, maybe their best until as far as I know. The opening number was fun and funny how Fairytale sounded as it always does among this Ukrainian treatment :-) It was full of Ukrainian flavour and flowers. Not outstanding but entertaining and good. As for the performances Serbia came across a bit angry while Austria was relaxed and laidback as always oozing charm and likability. Macedonia totally stole the show with her A) pregnancy news in the post card and then B) marriage proposal in the Greenroom. Sadly it was too late to help her with the votes. Otherwise she performed very well tonight. I was pleasantly surprised. Malta did a great job as always and I was almost with a teary eye thanks to Claudia but  it was soon forgotten with Romania's gun power. It was good but I expected a bit more ooomph really. Netherlands went by, I can't get mys...