Results...

Well, the first semifinal of the 2011 Eurovsion contest is over. And I must say that there were some very unexpected results! These are the songs that will go on the finals:

• Serbia (Running order position in the Final: 24) - Unspectacular, but not totally unexpected
• Lithuania (Running order position in the Final: 4) - Very boring and very unexpected
• Greece (Running order position in the Final: 9) - Decent track, ruined by the performers
• Azerbaijan (Running order position in the Final: 19) - Decent track, looked good, sounded flat
• Georgia (Running order position in the Final: 25) - Absolutely dreadful and very unexpected
• Switzerland (Running order position in the Final: 13) - As expected
• Hungary (Running order position in the Final: 5) - As expected - although the act could have been better. Still my only fave from this semifinal, and the only one I voted for.
• Finland (Running order position in the Final: 1) - Boring beyond belief, but will probably do well.
• Russia (Running order position in the Final: 10) - Bad song, horrible act and a "singer" that looks like a gay pornstar!
• Iceland (Running order position in the Final: 21) - Very boring and forgettable, helped along by a sad backstory.

The biggest shock (besides Iceland, Lithuania and George going to the final) was the fact that massive favourite (although not mine) Norway did not get through. And neither did Turkey, which has always done very well (and even though their song was nothing special, it was certanly better then, say, the one form Russia). Out of the rest that didnt qualify, I felt that Albania did a very good job with a quality song and it would have been nice to see them pass instead of one of the more horrendous ones.

Overall, I thought it was a very weak show. The stage was nothing special, the presenters were surprisingly stiff and dull, and the songs were very weak overall. Techincal problems were apperant in many countries. In many countries the sound went on and off during the first 5 songs (none of which made it to the finals) - for example: in Spain, less then a minute of the song from Norway could actually be heard during the broadcast!

Here in Iceland we had to indure a hystercial woman commentaitor, screaming and crying when our song got through - you would have thought that we had just won the whole damn thing. Still, she was better then the idot we have been stuck with in the last years, who makes watching Eurovision feel like a chore! And speaking about the commentaitors, appernantly a lot people have been complaining about the UK ones - I guess Mr Norton wasnt available...

One can only wonder the results we will see tomorrow. It is a much stronger lineup,and hopefully the best tracks will actually go on to the final, and the (mostly) trash songs that got through last night will finish at the bottom on Saturday. We will see...