Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Ireland

Slovenia:
Hope everything goes as it should, she's been having problems with her cage in rehearsals ... :-D
I like this song. The song itself should definitely be finals material. But the presentation is weird. What is the red thread in this supposed to be? If there's a story here, I'm totally missing it ...
But as the lady says, to hell with it! :-D I'm almost sure we'll be seeing this on Saturday.

Norway:
Love can be hard sometimes
Yes, it can catch you off guard like bad crimes
This is what is known in my language as an 'emergency rhyme' ...
Ballads are always risky. But at least our performer can actually really sing. I love that she's not totally skinny like so many of these songstresses are (not just in the ESC but generally). Her performance is better here than it was in our national final where she smiled way too much. A pretty good presentation ... although it would perhaps have been better if she'd done it completely by herself like Malta's Chiara did three years ago.
It's a pretty good song. I'd say we've got a chance - let's say fifty-fifty. Supposedly Maria & Mira, the composer, are super popular down there after these two weeks ... but they always say that. ;-)
Regardless of how this goes, we can hold our heads up this year. This is not a bad song. I'm gratified to see this after how we embarrassed ourselves last year.

Poland:
Another ballad - not so good for Poland. And this singer isn't quite as good, and the song a little more boring. The Easterners may like this, they like 'big' ballads ... and some in the West may like it too, I suppose. It's basically standard pop. I think it's too standard to get very far. My guess would be that we won't be hearing this on Saturday. I may be wrong, but I really don't see where the hook is that will make people remember this.

Ireland:
Certainly not a good thing that the song is being booed before it starts. Used to be that no one got booed at all, that wasn't done in the ESC. Was it Macedonia who started that in 2005? I know he got booed (which he deserved, and his daddy too) and that was sort of unheard of then. Anyway:
Presentation: they've recreated the video, basically, so like Azerbaijan, not too many points for creativity. Visual effects as annoying as the beat of the song.
I don't like this. I think it's crap. This, Estonia, Latvia - gags. Me no like. I seriously hope, and believe, that this won't be heard of after tonight. But it may, perhaps. I don't discount it entirely ... because people are, famously, idiots.
We'll see in an hour! :-)