Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Tonight's the night when the Eurovision song contest officially moves from Turin, Italy to Liverpool, UK. At the same time the allocation draw takes place following the reveal of the slogan and art work for the coming contest ( see previous post ) AJ Odudu and Rylan will be hosting this event that is also watchable on Youtube .

Ukraine received the incredible 28 times 12 points, 8 times 10 points, 2 times 8 (North Macedonia, Malta) points and once 7 points (Serbia) or 431 out of 468. That is certainly something that won't be repeated very easily. The European television audience really felt a need to support Ukraine and all I can say to that is Slava Ukraini! But the juries supported Ukraine as well. Poland, Moldova, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania gave them 12 points and Germany, Iceland and France 10 points, and they got 192 points in total, placing fourth after United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain.  What comes to the separate voting results by juries versus televotes it's remarkable how different they are. They totally agreed only on Spain (3rd) and less than five place difference on Armenia, Italy, Ukraine, UK, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic and the very bottom ones. Moldova has a difference of 18 places, and big differences also for Portugal, Norway, Australia, Azerbaijan and Switzerland.  An...

Who will it be? Will it be Ukraine after all or despite all will they not win? Is it Sweden? Italy doing a double? Spain? My bet is United Kingdom if it's not Ukraine. I would like to believe it's not Ukraine but if it is it's all fine, I like the song and performance and it would be anyways one of my favorites this year. Then again I would hand over the trophy to Italy and be super happy, it is after my favorite song this year. Sweden's win would be a huge let down for me, and Spain just isn't strong enough song wise even if Chanel herself is a real star and a winner.  Norway was a joint winner with UK in my own Home Poll but I don't think it's a winner come Sunday early hours. I had a strong feeling about the Netherlands when it was released but somehow it hasn't convinced me on stage after all which is a shame. Fan favorites Poland and Serbia won't have the European wide appeal to win either I think so I suppose it really is between those who hav...

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!

The results are in and another ten acts made it to the grand final on Saturday tonight. From my prediction only Georgia and San Marino didn't make it. Both performances will live on forever as Eurovision performance craziness and weird stuff but such stuff I adored. If the first semi-final went by without any visible technical hic ups this second one had several but nothing major. Laura Pausini had slightly better make up and hair but still a far cry from her natural pretty look and I keep asking myself Why? Perche???? Most everyone will draw second half as there are only 2-3 places left in the first half, lol Belgium draw second half, Czech Republic first..... Azerbaijan second half, Poland second half. Finland first half (sigh....) Estonia second half, Australia second half.... Sweden second half, Romania first half. And finally Serbia second half.  Check out the acts that made the final below and their performances:

Here we go again. I got only seven right in the first semi-final but eight out of my wish list so maybe I should have listened more my heart than my mind, but let's see how it goes tonight. This is even more difficult tonight as both Finland and San Marino are in it, and for obvious reasons I want them both in the final and even if I do believe they both will do it there's always a little uncertainty lurking around.... In fact I feel a bit like Achille on his bull.....  Strangely this one feels even more difficult than the first one as it seems my mind and heart are even more divided.As of the usual qualifiers Azerbaijan, Malta and Australia in my books don't deserve it this time. Azerbaijan has a very good singer but the song is just meh, unoriginal and heard a million times before. Even more so is Malta and sadly Emma doesn't sound so good live of what I have heard. Then Australia... well, I'm a bit tired of these personal struggle tell all stories (same goes for ...

After a wonderful show with no technical hick ups or whatsoever, perfectly in time the first semi-final is over in Turin's PalaOlimpico. Now all you haters shut the f*ck up and apologize!  The stand out moment was as expected Diodato's Fai rumore. Switzerland drew 1st half for the final, as did Armenia. Iceland got 2nd half, as did Lithuania! Portugal drew 1st half, and so did Norway... Greece got 2nd half, Ukraine first. Moldova's train stops at 2nd half and finally Netherlands ... 1st half. The finalists are: :

It's time. Every year this is hard, some years harder than the others but this year takes the prize. Out of 17 semi-final one entries each one is a possible qualifier, except Denmark, in either my prediction or in my own preference list. It's also harder than usual as I haven't been following that closely and haven't seen too many videos as usual and most performances are still a mystery to me on stage. Let's see better. I would say Ukraine, the Netherlands, Greece, Norway and Armenia are sure qualifiers. with Moldova and Portugal quite surely doing it. That's seven.Then we have Albania, Latvia and Lithuania that are fan favorites, but will juries and televoters fall for them? Albania is shouty show number with questionable rhythm changes and might end up way too chaotic for a general viewers. Besides history has proven angry ladies don't do well at Eurovision. Latvia is fun and colorful and great audience pleaser in the arena but does it work on telly? Lith...

  Now that was something else! The corridor shots in Reggia di Venaria, Torino were such beauty that I hope they are actually used for something during the shows. I would have used them for postcards for sure! Enjoy!