One down, one to go. :-) I thought it was a great show on the part of the NDR ... not so great on the contestants' part. I was quite surprised by several of the performers. (Poland, I'm looking at you. o_O) Several of the singers, or in fact most of them, did worse and some even much worse than I had expected. I really thought Poland had a chance of getting through, until about twenty seconds after she started to sing. And Croatia ... !! Don't get me started. They might as well not have had her even sing, but just put a sack full of cats on stage and have her hit the sack with a stick. That seriously wouldn't have sounded any worse.
A lot of people have been really surprised here in Norway because we didn't make it through to Saturday. How could this have happened?? Well, I'm sure there were several reasons. Stella's black. It was an African song from a Scandinavian country. It may be true that it sounds a bit too much like Waka Waka, which I've heard both Norwegians and Swedes say today. She can't sing for shit. #2 is a pretty bad slot.
I'm not really that bothered, though. Of course I love seeing us in the final, but the show is so much fun anyway that I don't really care that much. :-) See, I'm a real fan. ;-) I have friends who watch it provided that we're in the final - if we're not, they won't bother. But I could never dream of such a thing. I root for the entries that I like, not ours ... at least not because it's ours. Yesterday it was Serbia especially, and also Hungary, that I wanted to get through, so I'm happy. Although in fact it doesn't really matter, because it's France that I'm really rooting for, and they're in the final anyway. I can hardly wait for Saturday ... !!
A few people have been saying around here that this is because of the east countries, because they never vote for us. (How quickly they forget ... !) Riddle me this, then: If the east countries don't vote for the west, how come both Iceland, Switzerland and Finland got through? If you understand Norwegian, you can hear more of my thoughts on this issue in the latest edition of the Saltklypa podcast, here.
I've also heard people say that we 'deserved' a spot in the final and so on ... that there were 'at least nine songs that were worse than ours'. Wow, what an accolade. I'm not so convinced by that though. Us in would mean someone else out. Who would that be? There are only ten slots available from each semi.
Ten slots, and Azerbaijan, Hungary and Serbia were obvious, so that's down to seven. Lithuania was well deserved and I have to say shows that talent is in fact rewarded in the ESC, despite what people say. They were in an excellent slot, #17 ... Evelina is a very good singer, head and shoulders above everyone else in this semi, and especially coming after SO many who sang so badly, she really stood out and I'm sure was a welcome relief to more ears than mine. ;-) So they definitely deserved it. That leaves six. Finland absolutely deserved it, their entry is very original in the lineup this year and their singer did a great job. Which leaves five.
Switzerland has a really good song this year, it was well performed, the presentation is very charming, the singer is pretty good and the entry is quite original this year. I wasn't hoping for much by way of results, because it's them :-) but it was definitely one of the better entries last night and deserves to be in the final. Four places left. Russia has some issues this year but the song is definitely catchy and tailored to appeal to the younger crowd in the audience, which is a huge section of it in the east. They've put in a real effort and IMO deserved to get through. Three left. Iceland is also pretty original this year, the guys are very charming and their story just beats everything. So yeah, good for Iceland. Two left, and it's one of these places that might have been ours, but did we really 'deserve' it so much more than Georgia or Greece?
Yeah, I think we did a little more than Greece. :-) But other than that, I don't really see anything particularly wrong with the list of finalists so far. This was a very even semi and it was hard to tell where the chips would fall, but IMO the choices were mostly pretty spot on. And I'm so happy for Switzerland. :-)
The really big surprise for me was that Armenia didn't get through. That's a first. Also a first for Turkey, although that surprised me less, because their singer was so weak and their presentation pretty crazy. But Armenia's out, wow. I didn't see that coming. Some heads will roll in Yerevan pretty soon. ;-) And maybe people will think twice about the diaspora theory now.
One thing I'm really looking forward to, except of course the final, is seeing all the scoreboards on Sunday. I wonder how we did. Did we get any points at all? :-D
One thing we deserve credit for, though, is trying new things. I like that about us. Some countries mostly just send the same song over and over. We're at least trying some really new things every so often. I'm proud of us for doing that and I'm not disappointed in our entry this year either. It was a good effort and well worth a try. But next year we have GOT to send some death metal ... !!!
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I was surprised how bad Stella actually sounded on Tuesday. Not many right notes there... For me the song's weakness was in that it wasn't afro enough and didn't really stand out from all the other up-/mid-tempo pop songs of the night. But I still would've thought it would've had gone through.
I don't get Lithuania's place in the final as the song's such an awful bore. A matter of taste, I guess. :)
Most of the singers sounded really bad. :-D I think that's why Lithuania got through - the song's not that special but it was such a huge relief to everyone to finally hear someone who could really sing. ;-)
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