Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The first semi-final of the 64th Eurovision song contest in Expo Tel Aviv, Israel has just ended and the combined jury and televote has given us the ten qualifiers for the final: Cyprus, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Belarus, Serbia, Australia, Iceland, Estonia, Greece and San   Marino ! I'm only surprised for Belarus, have her social media followers voted en masse in the ex-Soviets or what? Estonia also a minor surprise as it has been ranked so low by most everyone, I kinda started liking it in the end.... and San Marino has been certainly helped by the Turkish disapora and cult like status the song and the state have achieved... Therefor it's game over for these unsuccesful seven: Montenegro, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Portugal and Georgia . I'm very sad to see Poland, Hungary and Belgium out. Montenegro and Finland were quite obvious, as was Portugal after the rehearsals started but a minor surprise is Georgia didn't make it in the...

Christer Björkman and co. have finally given birth to the running orders in the two semi-finals, based on the draws that determinated which one, and which part for each country: first or second. It may have been a bit trickier this year than usually as the draw throw was kind what comes to gender and genre.... and it has taken awhile! It's worth remembering Christer & co. know so much more than we do, as also the staging, props etc have an effect on staging so if something sounds off at this point may have an explanation once the rehearsals on stage start! Cyprus gets the honor to open the contest in 2019 with up tempo Replay , followed by Montenegro, Finland third, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus, Serbia, Belgium, Georgia, Australia, Iceland, Estonia, Portugal, Greece and San Marino will get everybody go na, na, na when closing the show. I'm not so sure about the pairing of Slovenia and Czech Republic and Australia with Iceland and even Portu...

  Last night saw the first semi-final with its losers and winners, and it has also caused some interesting action in the betting market. Cyprus and Norway (yet to perform in semi-final two) battle about the top place, while Israel that has been reigning the odds since it was chosen until the first rehersals, is now fighting with France for the 3rd and 4th place. France has been going up and down, and now is on the rise again and yet to perform live. Behind them sneakily Lithuania has jumped up some ten places to fifth after last night's performance and qualification for the final. Behind them three pre-rehearsal favorites Estonia , Czech Republic and Bulgaria keep their slight downward movement letting Sweden (yet to perform) pass them. Behind them we have another battle team: Italy (yet to perform)  vs. Finland , constantly changing positions. Also Moldova (yet to perform) is right behind them occasionally making it a threesome Austria is on the rise as we...

We have the first semi-final qualifiers for the Saturday's final. Azerbaijan and Armenia are both out while Finland and Ireland for example are in :-).  This blogger got 8/10 right, and that didn't include Finland and Albania - I had Azerbaijan and Armenia in instead even if I started having serious doubts about Azeris after hearing and seeing the performancee, while Armenia sounded great but it wasn't enough this time... I'm particularly happy for Lithuania and Ireland. Azerbaijan missed the final for the first time, Armenia second. Ireland re-enters the final for the first time since 2013, Finland 2014 and Czech Republic makes its second final ever. And Greece fails the final for the second time.  Here they are:

EBU (and Christer Björkman) have given birth to the Eurovision song contest 2018 semi-finals running orders over the Easter, taking account the variety of music styles and artists, as well as the props they're going to use to make the show entertaining and variable. Not forgetting trying to give everyone a moment to shine.  Azerbaijan is a good opener with its easy catchy up tempo number for the semi one, as is Norway for the second one. Cyprus and Ukraine are both playing with fire most propably with their act and will leave a mess on stage so they can close the show (and then we will see where to place them should they qualify for the final).... Alexander Rybak also being the opener of the second semi-final has the honor to have the 1500th entry in the Eurovision since 1956. Maybe another reason for that slot, being the only previous winner in the contest this year.  First Semi Final recap Second Semi-Final recap

  This year it  happened to Georgia and Serbia. The dreadful 11th place in the semi-final. As for Georgia it was pretty clear with 16 points missing but Serbia lost only with 3 points, and Switzerland was only 4 points away from a possible qualification. Let's have a look at the closest miss outs over the past years. The 2011 edition was very close with three songs one point shy of qualification, while in 2016 the qualifiers were more than clear with a huge margin to the 11th ones in the semi-finals. Bulgaria 2012 - Sofi Marinova - Love unlimited The only tie so far with Norway that qualified having been voted by 11 countries, while Bulgaria only by ten. So Norway qualified for the final and Bulgaria was left out.... Malta 2011 -  Glen Vella - One life -1 point (placing 11th in the first semi-final) Armenia 2011 - Emmy - Boom boom  -1 point (placing 12th in the first semi-final, tie with points with Glen Vella) Belgium 2011 - Withloof Bay ...

So, Finland flew away from the 10th place in the bedding odds. As 10th it was overal last night and 5th in order to qualify for the final behind Portugal, Sweden, Armenia and Belgium. Same for Georgia, out as 14th overal, Iceland 19th, Czech Republic 20th, Latvia 21st but Montenegro was already 27th and in theory out like in reality.  The support and shokh after non qualification has been overwhelming and even those few who didn't like the song have been surprised to say the least. (Add a few odd "I told you sos" as always though) Finnish media took on the fact it's third year in a row we didn't make it. All are praising Norma John and the peformance and wonder why. Norma John themselves have been composed and calm in their comments: "Of course it would have been nice to be in the final but what can you do? No explanations!" says Lasse in HS . "There are worse things in life than dropping out of Eurovision final" continues Leena with a...

Here they are: Moldova Azerbaijan Greece Sweden Portugal Poland Armenia Australia Cyprus Belgium Georgia, Albania, Montenegro, Finland,  Iceland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Latvia out. WTF?!

Oh dear, why is this so hard? Anyways, here goes: Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Sweden for sure,  Then I'm very unsure with   Cyprus , Moldova, Poland   and  Slovenia.   I pick up Moldova and S lovenia . UPDATE After the songs: I want to add Cyprus, but who to drop? Australia and Belgium didn't convince really..... Who I would like to qualify however are Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal,  Slovenia and Sweden (but also Armenia, Cyprus and Latvia instead of some songs in the Semifinal 2 but what can you do?)

Here we go again, moment of truth. The juries have voted already last night but the televoters have their say tonight and in the end of the show we have the ten finalists while for eight delegations it's game over.  Trying to guess the finalists is harder than ever, I have like six sure entries and seven maybes when writing this, and I may change my mind before the show starts, and then again during the show. It's a very good year! And that's a problem, I like 13 songs out 18 a lot, and they are  not necessarily the ones I think will qualify, so.... sigh. But more about that later.... What I have seen it's going to be a great show, but that bloody break just before Finland! Not happy. Not at all. It breaks the flow and Finland would have been such a contrast after Montenegro, but than again, I'm confident we will make it anyways because it's just so fantastic! We will get to see also one minute footage of the last night's performances of Italy, Spain and...

We travel from Sweden to Latvia, and from Serbia to Israel in this year's Eurovision song contest semifinals. The production team has tried to make the best of the outcome of the allocation draw  that took place in January where the coutnries were divided into semifinals, and into their first or second half. And I think they did a pretty good job. I always thought Sweden is as obvious opener as Finland was last year. What could have been better last year than a happy cheerful uptempo invitation to sing it away? Nothing. If the staging then fall flat on stage, well... it's not SVT's fault. This year the TV audience will be amazed by the Swedish choreography that starts backstage and Robin enters the stage well into the song and engage in this Dressman advertising kind of staging. Fans and Swedes will know it, about 99% of the watchers in Europe wil see it for the first time. A great opener indeed. I was also hoping as late as possible slot for Finland and coming afte...

People haven't been exactly kind in social medias after Finland's Sandhja's Sing it away was shown on television last night, even before the results were in and Finland was out from the final on Saturday. Chatrooms are filled with nasty comments and critic, and some constructive views of what went wrong. Some are demanding the whole YLE's Eurovision team to be sacked, some blame Sandhja and her backings singing out of tune. Her dress gets a lot of critics as well, so does the whole team lookwise. Everyone's opinion seems to be it was too plain and simple, and it's not enough just to walk on stage and dance it away when you have the world's largest stage and the most imaginative props and lights in use, if you want to. One doesn't have go to the Russian way but at least something. Anything! It seems it worked in arena but on tv screen no. To this blogger this seems a dejà vú from 1978 when Seija Simola was crushed in media and eventually her long and...

Sandhja tells YLE today about her feelings the day after. She says she has hopped off the Bubble and is feeling good if worn out. Last night after the emotional post-broadcast where a tear or two have been shed in the backstage the Finnish team entered the press center smiling and singing. After that off to the EuroClub with the intention to party on and dance it away but so many people wanted to tell how unfair it was and take photos and all that so she didn't manage to dance a lot really. Then just off to bed and after good sleep and proper breakfast today's a new day. Now she feels just empty, has given it all. She tells she can feel it in the girls, too, and therefor they have decided to meet up only next week to talk it over. Now she just wants to eat and sleep and think about something else. Being inside the bubble was so intense. She thinks this whole Eurovision has been a school; how to deal with pressure and stress, huge audience, media.... very important for he...

Since the semifinals were introduced back in 20014 Finland has now qualified seven times, and not qualified six times. This is however only the second time Finland fails the final two years in a row, the first being the first two semifinal years 2004-2005 and then Finland came and won it all the year after. Let's hope that's a good omen for 2017.  I still stand by our choice and think she was the best. I don't think any of the UMK2016 finalist would have done any better. I'm talking about fan favorites Saara Aalto and Mikael Saari. UMK2016 was great but none of the songs was really outstanding with that special "it" that would have made miracles. To prove the point none of them have become even a minor hit.  As for the running order, I totally understand why Sing it away was chosen as the opener. This said, it wouldn't have done any better elsewhere in the running order I suppose. I'm always saying less is more and keep it simple, but this st...

Hungarian Freddie was very thrilled and happy, "we gave it all" and he just wanted to make his country proud.  Nina Kraljic from Croatis is still in shock. She says some people back at home wanted her to fail and now she made it to the finals for the first time in seven years. Douwe Bob from the Netherlands said he got what he wanted from those 10 seconds. And he, like everyone else on that table, is aiming to bring home the trophy. He believes he has a strong song and that less is more. Iveta Mukuchyan from Armenia thanks the production and how it was so nervous to wait for the name even if everyone was saying she will slay in the semifinal. She takes nothing for granted, and feels so priviliged to be right here and now. She wants to enjoy every second. And then she's asked about the flag.... Sergey Lazarev of Russia admits he was feeling nervous and has a lot of pressure on his shoulders. Then he invites everyone to Russia to see they are not h...