The Aftermath

It's all over. All those months of preparation and... it's all over. Serbia won with "Molitva" and, I must be honest, I didn't think it would be quite strong enough to be the winner. But it even overcame Verka and scored rather well from the west (not the UK, although we did give it 5 in the semi-final!). Let's see what I said about "Molitva" when I first heard it...

"...a very nice song indeed with a beautiful melody [but] the weakest of that three [FYR Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia]"

Again, a really accurate point from me. And talk about misreading Bulgaria, I can't believe they came in 5th! Every year there's always one that takes me by surprise.

Still, there's a lot of happy fans because Serbia won. Simply because it shows that a non-English ballad can still win in the televoting era which was beginning to look impossible! It's not as good as Lejla or Lane Moje though is it? Still, she did well last night. As for the west, well... Big 4 in the bottom 6 wasn't good. And highly political voting too. Although there was some very bizarre votes last night! My favourites being...

12 from Ireland to Lithuania
0 from Andorra to Spain
12 from Albania to Spain
5 from Albania to Ireland
12 from Georgia to Belgium (in the semi final!)
0 from UK to Ireland

And of course let's not forget the 12 points from Malta to UK. That absolutely made my YEAR! It was worth coming 22nd for. You don't often see many 12 points come our way these days so thanks Malta! And Ireland of course, shame it wasn't reciprocated. Although everyone I spoke to was amazed at how spectacularly awful Ireland was.

Just listening to the UK Top 40 - Scooch are #5! So there's some justice...

Congratulations to Serbia, we all thought Ukraine were robbed, and this is my 100th blog post. What a centenary. What a Eurovision!

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Aah, well done old Marija Serafovic. It proves that a ballad CAN still win Eurovision these days. Even if you're not the prettiest girl in the class.

I will write a more indepth blog entry tomorrow - still reeling for the fact that the UK scored our first 12 points for 5 years :-)))))

Oh, and to Sasa, who told me about three months ago that Bulgaria would go top 5... I've started eating my hat already x ;-)

Vampires Are Dead

So, yeah, western Europe aren't very happy with last night's results. Apparently there's a very nasty atmosphere in the air in Helsinki with fans and delegations from a lot of countries rather angry that no western country qualified. I hope Svante is in some sort of safehouse.

I did, however, get 7 out of 10 right. Lucky I played that FYR Macedonia card, I'm starting to think they are invincible. Did NOT expect to see Moldova, was surprised to see Georgia and laughed when Bulgaria qualified. I must say I was told on this very blog that Bulgaria would do well while I was too busy slagging 'em off. Well, you can't get it right all the time.

But did they deserve to go through? Well I'm sad that Israel didn't make it, I'm very sad Malta didn't (great song!!) and was a tad surprised that Switzerland didn't go through, but it was one of the weakest performances of the night. Denmark - well, not much to say except THEY WOZ ROBBED!

On the other hand, Hungary thoroughly deserved to go through, as did Slovenia, Latvia and Serbia. Turkey also, even though a lot of people still aren't keen on this. And Belarus was brilliant, best performance last night.

Now just in case I can't blog again before the final tomorrow, I will make this prediction now.

- At this moment in time, 19.22 on 11/5/07, if I had to say a name to win I would say Ukraine. I'm thinking it could be a direct Balkan fight between Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Latvia.
- Serbia won't come much higher than 5th.
- Ireland, UK, Spain and France will not do very well. Germany will probably come about 16th.

And so finally - who do I WANT to win? Well... my fave song tomorrow will be Belarus. Good luck to Koldun and good luck to Scooch. As someone said today, could a western win save this contest? Because right now something needs to save it. I tell you, it's being killed... :-(

On the brightside, it's The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 tomorrow!!! So bring on that block voting, in the words of Wogan - "we'll show Johnny Foreigner what for!"

Kiss of Death...

This will be my last post before this evening's semi-final. It's hard to believe that I started blogging about Eurovision 7 months ago. And here we are, semi-final time again. Ay, ay, ay...

Anyway, from all the stuff I've read, heard and seen, here are the ten countries I predict to qualify tonight...

• Israel
• Belarus
• Switzerland
• Denmark
• Serbia
• FYR Macedonia
• Hungary
• Slovenia
• Turkey
• Latvia

Of course, this will be the closest semi-final ever, so my predictions may be wrong. I'm unsure about Israel, but if they pull it off it could do well. I'm also playing the safety card of FYROM, but this could also not happen. Some people have been saying Croatia's started looking good! Madness.

I got 9/10 in 2004, 7/10 in 2005 and 9/10 last year. 10/10 this semi-final? I doubt it. There are loads of other countries - Bulgaria, Norway, Andorra, Malta to name a few - that could qualify just as easily. Let's see what happens.

Good luck, Europe!

The Finishing Touches

Apologies for not blogging on yesterday’s second finalist rehearsals. From the sound of it, not much change. Ireland’s backdrop is now a flower (much better) and Scooch have dropped the gigantic union jack that was flying behind them. Instead it’s now polka dots in the colours of the flag which is a bit more subtle, and doesn’t shout UK ARE THE BEST to all of unimpressed Europe.

Today, the first dress rehearsals took place for the semi-finalists, the first time the “general public” were let loose! So what went down well?

- It seems the biggest cheers of the evening were for Bulgaria and Latvia! Now I slated that Bulgarian entry and said it would flop… hmm. Time for hat eating perhaps?
- Belarus didn’t go down as well as Cyprus. Interesting.
- Edsilia Rombley turned in a very good performance.
- Everyone couldn’t wait til Albania finished, and Croatia got the quietest applause of the show.
- Serbia was “very good” but not blow-your-head-off-this-could-win “very good”.
- Norway went bigger than Portugal and could qualify. Malta could also qualify. Things are also looking good for Andorra and Hungary.
- Dark horse alert! Belgium went down very well and could really come through on Thursday.
- Austria got an OK response. Mutton dressed as lamb, methinks, but the audience are no fools.

There’ll be another rehearsal this evening, AND tomorrow. As if you couldn’t get enough semi-final action.

Meanwhile, Svante Stockselius has been outlining some admin for the Eurovision winners. They’ll get to go on a winner’s tour of Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Greece! They will also have their footprints set in Helsinki as a sort of shrine.

In the show itself this year, the voting will be FIFTEEN minutes long, not ten! Also there will be two reprises just in case you miss one.

And of Eurovision in the future well… big news. Eurovision Song Contest 2008 will carry the same format as this year, but from 2009 there will be TWO semi-finals. It was rumoured that this would happen and that the two semi-finals would be regionally based, i.e. western and eastern Europe. However, this will not happen, the countries taking place in each semi-final will be determined by a draw. Which is unlucky if Netherlands come up against all the Balkan countries for example. It’s unclear whether the Big 4 will automatically qualify in 2009 :-/

Oh, and next year’s Eurovision will take place on Saturday May 24th with the semi-final on Thursday May 22nd.

*Phew*. Well I think that’s it! Oh, except one thing…

NERLY EVERYONE IN HELSINKI IS SAYING THAT VERKA’S GOT IT IN THE BAG. SHE WILL WIN BY AN ABSOLUTE MILE. THERE IS NO CHANCE FOR ANYONE ELSE.

Be afraid Europe. Be very afraid.

The Eurovision Flight Takes Off!

Today, the 14 qualified finalists rehearsed for the first time, the UK being among them! So what's it like? Well, the backing singers don't appear on conveyer belts (boo) but they are prominent in the performance which features airline metal detectors, airline seats as well as the trollies! The backdrop may be their downfall though... a G-I-A-N-T union flag, dispersed with aeroplanes flying in all directions. It's certainly patriotic.

Conflicting reports about it though - some say it was fantastic, some say it was awful! Some say it'll get 0 points, some say it'll win! I've seen the vid of the rehearsal and it sounded OK to me. I just don't like the backdrop - when it's not the union flag, it's just white planes on a black backdrop. However, this will certainly look effective and I'm now very excited about it all! They're doing tongue-in-cheek but they're doing it well.

And as for the other finalists today...

• Bosnia&Herzegovina kicked off rehearsals. It's safely in my top 5, but a lot of people can't see past this just being 'nice'. Starting the show is a difficult draw cos there's nothing to contrast it to. However, I think it's great and vocally it's brilliant. It will get votes, but it's not a winner
• D'NASH of Spain also sounded good today but it's typical boyband fodder in the cursed 2nd place. Not even the backing singers drumming upside down Cornettos could turn this one round I don't think. Contender for bottom 5.
• Ireland has been well received with some people very enchanted by its performance! They're playing up to the instrumental, Cathy's vocal are sounding fine (by her standards anyway) but the backdrop, a sort of orange honeycomb, has not been so well received by everyone.
• Finland passed without any sort of interesting note. This is going to bomb.
• Lithuania are sticking with a winning formula with their infamous screens silhouetting the instrumentalists as they did in the national final. It's a nice classy performance but perhaps a bit too subtle for the Eurocrowd.
• Sarbel still can't dance, which is unfortunate for Greece because they've given him a head mic (no no no...). It's like Martin Vucic all over again! However, I still think it'll do well, but his lanky figure is not helping the highly choreographed piece.
• The Ark are glamming it up for Sweden with, again, mixed reports. The stage is black and white with a bit of purple, and apparently the spinning disc works a treat it seems. Some say this'll do well, others say it'll just get lost in the mix.
• The French song is coming across as very strange. And it is strange. It's a strange song being performed in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The flower backdrop is nice. I just don't get it.
• Russia got mixed reactions with some saying it was very strong, and others saying that its rather static performance lets it down - the three are standing behind mics simply belting it out. But I'm glad they're not trying to ruin it with any gimmicks or breathless choreography! This could pay dividends. Serebro performed well though today, it bodes well
• Roger Cicero was dressed all in white for Germany with their jazz entry going down well! It's pretty much as it was in the national final but the last chorus is now in English as 'Guess Who Rules The World'. Vocally sound, performance good, not much to improve on.
• Verka Serduchka is convincing more and more people that he/she/it could win - and I'm amongst that number! Ukraine haven't changed much from the national final performance - he's in the same sparkly silver outfit and the Dancing is still as silly as ever. He missed a few camera shots but people don't generally care. This could be the winner. Holy moly.
• There's nothing about the Romanian rehearsal anywhere. This is because everybody at all Eurovision websites, including eurovision.tv, buggered off to the Welcome Party! Not only this but UK, Romania and Armenia had their press conferences cancelled because of this! I did read about Armenia though. Their stage presentation looks beautiful. Two trees are onstage, meant to be giving the impressin of burning, and people are on the floor playing instruments. I still think this is a dark horse, it's a great moody ballad.

So that sums up today. Same countries rehearse tomorrow - hopefully a bit more info on Romania and Armenia and we'll see what Scooch have to say in their press conference! Something to mull over, Sir?

Bits And Bobs

Thought I'd just do a bit of a tit-bit stream as the rehearsals seem to be overshadowing the important issues...

- bonoparti.lv have turned up safe and well! It transpires that their absence was due to them going to sing at an international flower festival in Estonia. But slapped wrists for not telling the Latvian delegation where they were.

- Teapacks probably won't pull out. It does seem that all their suggestions were ignored though, and most people are on their side! It seems the YLE bigwigs may have a part to play in not listening to the Packs of Tea...

- Scooch have said their bon voyage after a barnstorming gig at G-A-Y, and a performance on The National Lottery People's Quiz with Michael 'the ball' Ball.

- Guri Schanke has been speaking about her striptease and her endless practising of it to avoid her boobs popping out. I don't know why she's trying to avoid it, it might get her some points from the 'Dad vote'.

- Olivia Lewis has revealed her dress for the semi-final; a yellow floating number which looks rather good. Fans are also in full play in the Maltese entry. As they are in the Danish and Portuguese performances. Fan-daby-dozy.

- Anonymous are just winning more and more support to suggest that they may be anything other than anonymous come Thursday.

- Marija Serafovic admitted today that her song, Molitva, was a prayer for everything in the world and sex. Jeez...

- Nobody could give a flying Fabrizio Faniello about Czech Republic.


Not much else happened today - Belgium was looking a bit stronger, Turkey was looking good... in fact most songs seem to be coming across as solid. Quite who will qualify on Thursday is still very much a mystery.

But from tomorrow we need to put our mind forward to the Grand Final as Bosnia&Herzegovina-Armenia rehearse tomorrow! How will Ireland transfer to the ESC stage? Will The Ark glam out the stadium? And just HOW will Scooch get on? All shall be revealed in about 24hrs time...