Eurovision 2008 - SemiFinal 1 - Tuesday 20th May - Rolling/Polling

Andorra's is SO GOOD. Norway's is a grower. Slovenia's is not bad, though Ms Dremelj had a far better song fail to qualify to rep Slovenia 2 years ago that sounded like "Girls On Top" by Girl Thing, and why not?

Azerbaijan's is nutty and amusing, RUssia's is not as good as it should be given its pedigree and MY GOD is this goingg to be aload of shit on the night. Very very bad year.

After 10 consecutive years of obsessive pre-research (and 5 finals attended in person) I'm taking a year off this year, as I'd quite like to come to the thing afresh for once. And, yes, various people have been saying that this is a bad year.

That said, I have already seen the Norway, Poland, Armenia and Romania entries performed live, at that big do at the Scala the other week. And of those four, Norway comes out on top.

DUSTIN FTW "GO ON YA GOOD TING!"

I am teh schtoopit! Have also seen the Bosnian entry performed live, and it's a bit of an OMGWTFLOL classic.

The Belgian entry is being performed in a made-up language ("Ishtarian"). They've done this before, you know.

The Finns have gone Heavy Metal again, bless 'em.

These are the on-the-spot live blogs that you need:
http://community.livejournal.com/oneurope_live
http://akoe07.livejournal.com/
http://schlagerblog.blogspot.com/

Right, my picks to go through here:

Armenia - the new FYROM, based on last year's contest
Russia - produced by Timbaland. In the tradition of massively overbudgeted Russian stuff, is destined for third in the final
Ireland - massive feathered condom = RATINGS
Bosnia - my second favourite in the competition, hoping it comes runner-up to France overall. Never happening in a month of Sundays
Finland - they have their niche, and they mine it like bastards
Greece - haven't heard it yet, but it's Greece, so it's going through
Azerbaijan - beginners' luck usually works, and this one is... memorable, if nothing else
Belgium - odd enough that it might do something. Again, standing out from the crowd will help
Slovenia - I can't remember this one, but I'm fucked if I'm tipping that Estonian piss

Norway will be the first martyrs of this year's competition, conveniently ignoring them having possibly the worst opening couplet I've ever heard in Eurovision. Or anywhere else. Poland will come 11th, because Poland ALWAYS come 11th. Wooden spoon is, I reckon, under lock and key for Moldova (though if the ESC is doing this two semis thing to try and keep neighbouring countries apart, why are they in the same one as Romania?)
Poland

Yeah, that's actually nine, isn't it? Romania as the 10th, then. No real reason.

ok my guess at top 10, before voting (no order):

Netherlands
Azerbaijan
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Armenia
Norway
Slovenia
Romania
Greece
Israel
Andorra

Last place to Estonia, only just beaten by Ireland.

7/10, not bad, tied with Mr. Swygart.

YOU SUCK, EUROPE.

Andorra was so good!

Interesting that, especially Norway getting through. I really had my fingers crossed for Belgium, I fear they got a bit overshadowed by the Azeri coming right after. The dress accounted for Slovenia, probably. Ireland and Estonia I am pretty glad to see the back of, kind of hurt by not having any real song to speak of.

Of those that got through - Poland and Romania won't do anything. Finland kind of lacked shifts and catches, they mainly got through on their fireworks. Being in Finnish didn't help. Greece and Armenia were horrible vocally, but friends of friends etc. will see them go top ten on the night. Russia are far too dull to win, Timbaland quite possibly pulled that production out of his arse, and Dima's non-stop mugging did not go with it at all. They'll come third.

Israel and Norway I don't know about. I didn't expect the Norse to get through at all, and don't imagine they'll do much in the final, but getting over that hurdle... hmm. Israel I have a sneaking suspicion will go top ten.

Yr big winners were clearly Azerbaijan and B&H. The GOBLET OF BLOOD really got the crowd's hackles raised, and the relentless volume and force of the Azeri ought to definitely put them top 5. Bosnia... I reckon they might win the whole thing. Their staging was excellent, the spot where the song stopped and it cut to that overhead shot and they both went "Whoo!" was easily the shot of the night. 14/1 to win and that looks like massive value.

Overall - man, Eurovision hosts in general are not the most talented bunch, but this year's pair were... were they pissed? Or just bored? Or horrifically smug? Or all of them? The backstage hosts were quite fun, going up to Israel: "If you fail to qualify, will your country forgive you?" The stage is rather nice, though.

Oh, and Caroline Flack can naff right off.

Other than the Norwegian one, which I this time seriously consider the best at least in this semi final (and surely a grower, yes - it wasn't originally my favourite in the Norwegian preselection), I quite liked the Moldovian entry, which was a nice ballad and somewhat different.

I have yet to hear any of the entries in the second semi final, but out of the "big five", I really, really, really like France.

Ireland: Have they actually had a single thought about the proportion of the voters in all these countries that actually understand English reasonably well?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Ireland: Have they actually had a single thought about the proportion of the voters in all these countries that actually understand English reasonably well?

Of course. The chorus was in French. :)

I got the impression that the Estonian number was some kind of satire too, although the lyrics were probably lost by most of the viewers, save maybe for the Finns....

I was out reviewing Girls Aloud and FORGOT TO TAPE IT. Jee-zus. But happy that Bosnia and Norway got through.

Oh well, I guess Norway and Azerbaijan getting through is good enough that the final won't be ENTIRELY one toilet break after another.

If Sweden and Ukraine get through too, there will be enough decent numbers in the finals. France are there already after all.

The French entry is shit. Sorry everyone, it's going to come bottom 5.

The Swedish entry feels kinda rote to me, though it'll be sung well at least. I just can't see how Sweden can have basically every flavour of cheesy schlager and dance-pop available at the Melodifestivalen but it still sends really functional-no-matter songs like this year's, "Invincible", "Las Vegas" etc.

"Las Vegas" was a disaster and also proved not to be functional at all.

azerbaijan was last night's winner by many miles. B&H, finland and belgium were pretty fun too.

we watched on video. poland, andorra, greece and estonia all fell prey to the FFWD veto. russia survived only due to spectacularly unbelievable levels of shitness. what was with the richard clayderman-alike ice skater?

The Russian entry is actually produced by Timbaland. Guess that helped it a bit too.

russia survived only due to spectacularly unbelievable levels of shitness. what was with the richard clayderman-alike ice skater?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeni_Plushenko
(but yeah, as to what he was doing there...)

The Belgian entry is being performed in a made-up language ("Ishtarian"). They've done this before, you know.

The one who wrote this song, actually did that trick himself at the previous Eurovision contest. Or sth.
I can't remember correctly...

the made-up language thing is presumably because of the not-inconsiderable tensions between french- and flemish-speaking people in belgium. they don't get on, y'know...

i wonder if stevienixed knows... ;)

the wink means he's belgian and I'm stating the bleedin' obvious?

yup. except he's a she :)

oops. sorry.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

did Timbaland use the name Jim Beanz on the Russian song?