And Off We Go...

The first semifinal of Eurovision was last night. Now, already knowing that the Eurovision this year was going to be one of the worst in years was a big plus - otherwise I might have turned off the TV last night after the first few songs!

Everything about the contest this year seems a bit tired - the stage, the hall, the backdrops, the lighting are overall rather unimpressive, a lot of the songs are plain dreadful and very little effort seems to have been put into the staging of the songs.



Thankfully, Eurovision is always Eurovision and one can usually find some things to enjoy. Last night it seemed that there was more to laugh at (or stare at in complete and utter horror), but I did manage to find a few tracks to enjoy. The absolute worst of the evening: Montenegro, San Marino and Latvia (none of who got through, thankfully), closely followed by Russia and Austria!







Here are my votes from last night, based on the song quality, the performance and (of course) the outfits. The scale is 3-30. The underlined ones got through to the final and the ones in bold were my predictions to the final:

1. Montenegro - 3    (what an awful way to start the show - dreadful in every way!)
2. Iceland - 16   (boring song but well performed and decent outfits)
3. Greece - 26    (a fun and upbeat little number, much needed in this semi final!)
4. Latvia - 3    (my eyes, my ears - truly, truly awful! And I thought the video had been scary bad!)
5. Albania - 25   (I usually dont like these kinds of songs, but somehow this one works. Loved the outfit, great singer! One of the few songs were the staging was excellent)
6. Romania - 13   (I would have expected more from Romania - did not expect this to get through. The singer did pretty well though considering her earpiece problems)
7. Switzerland - 10  (semi-decent song, horribly annoying singer)
8. Belgium - 11   (way too sugary, nothing special - awful dress)
9. Finland - 14   (not bad really, but gets tiresome and the performance seemed a bit flat. Another awful dress)
10. Israel - 12   (Semi-decent song, ruined by an awful singer and some terrible outfits!)
11. San Marino - 3    (this one made me want to cry! The "song", the "outfits", the "singing")
12. Cyprus - 21    (OK, this is complete, shameless Eurotrash - but at least it's fun!)
13. Denmark - 11   (Better then the songs from Denmark usually are - still nothing special. Wanted to throw up on what the singer was wearing!)
14. Russia - 5    (A novelty act from hell - my ears were bleeding during the last minute. Why do people vote for s**t like this?)
15. Hungary - 16   (Not bad considering the rest, but a bit forgettable)
16. Austria - 7   (No no no! Song gets 1 point, the performance and some of the outfits get the rest!)
17. Moldova - 21   (This one I quite liked - fun song, fun outfits and a fun performance. In a word then: fun. Happy to see this one go through to the final)
18. Ireland - 18   (The song is a bit flat and so was the performance. I preferred their entry last year - but this is still better then most of the competition last night!)



So, here are the ones I liked (voted for all of them except for Ireland). More Eurovision tomorrow night when the winning song (Sweden) will be performed, and then the final on Saturday! Even the bad Eurovision years are still fun!