I’m a day late! Again! Yay for me. Well, that’s because I had to work and was only able to watch it today. Was it worth it? Yes and No. The overall quality of the singers and songs seemed to be better and we had less silly acts, but this resulted in more boredom, you know. For the most part it was pretty appropriate for the masses, many ballads, many danceable stuff and generic pop-songs. I guess the second semi-final was better quality wise, but the first one was just overall more entertaining. At least they had Loreen, oh and Alexander Rybak…. oh my god they had Alexander Rybak, I think I might take minute off to fangirl over Fairytale (although the poor guy is probably sick and tired of singing this song). Best 80 seconds of the show.
1. Serbia Zeljko Joksimovic – “Nije Ljubav Stvar”
Unlike the first semi-final, the first act in the second semi-final was actually pretty good and when I say pretty good, I mean, he was pretty amazing. I was very impressed, he’s a good singer with a good song that I ended up liking a lot, it was a very nice start into the show. The background people trying to look like they’re playing instruments, still look stupid and just walking around the stage is not very creative, but who cares? The song was good.
Result: in the Finals
2. F.Y.R. Macedonia Kaliopi – “Crno I Belo”
Macedonia was ok, they just had the problem that their song was kind of similar to Serbia, but not as good. The singer did her best, but her voice was not as impressive as it could have been. Still a good singer though. At one point she destroyed my glass when she hit a very high note for a short time, but I’ll forgive her. I didn’t expect her to advance to the finals, because her song was too similar to Serbia who did a better job.
Result: in the Finals
3. Netherlands Joan Franka – “You and Me”
And yet another one of our dear neighbors. Our commentator said the Netherlands really wanted to advance to the finals after several useless tries, but as soon as I heared this song, I was actually doubting that a lot. First of all, what’s with this weird headdress? Just because she’s singing about Indians doesn’t mean she has to look like one and then she’s singing a song in the style of Texas Lightning. Ok, congratulations for trying something different and thanks for being one of the weird entries in this semi-final.
Result: kicked out
4. Malta Kurt Calleja – “This Is the Night”
Aww, look at him, such a cute and charming boy. No, really, I ended up linking the singer a lot, he does look very charming and his song was ok. It was another danceable track with more useless eh eh eh eh-stuff in the middle of it and nothing too outstanding. It’s not completely aweful and if you’re into this kind of stuff, it’s nice. I have to admit that I ended up paying more attention to the singer than the song.
Result: in the finals
5. Belarus Litesound – “We Are the Heroes”
Ok, now, what was that? I expected rock, I got (once again) pop, the song was… well it was there, nothing special and actually one of the worse song of the evening, but the real question was about something entirely different. What’s wrong with those microphone… things? They probably wanted to get the audiences attention off the music and on the equipent and while they kind of succeeded, it didn’t make the song better.
Result: kicked out
6. Portugal Filipa Sousa – “Vida minha”
I think they tried folklore dirge… or something and it was nice listening to something different between all the standart-pop-stuff, but unlike Albania (who also did a dirge), they just weren’t impressive enough to catch the audience enough. I somewhat liked it, but it wasn’t as dramatic and emotional as Albania was in the first semi-final. Even Angelina Jolie’s leg didn’t help, but Angelina is an acress, so they should’ve seen that comming.
Result: kicked out.
7. Ukraine Gaitana – “Be My Guest”
The Ukraine seemed to test their possible hymn for the upcomming UEFA European Football Championship here, at least that’s what it sounded like and even the text would fit. It’s one of those feel-good-party-songs that gets into your ear and sounds a lot better the more alcohol you’ve drank. Also I think the singer would probably make an amazing soul-singer, she does sounds a bit similar to Anastacia and has a good voice. I thought it was a shame she was performing Euro-Trash instead of an emotional soul-track.
Result: in the finals
8. Bulgaria Sofi Marinowa – “Love Unlimited”
Bulgaria is yet again another example of the right artist and the wrong song. Our german commentator said she was actually a really good folklore-singer and at some points of her song, this did come through and made me wonder, why in the world she had to sing a trashy Disco-song. It fit her as good as her clothes did: not at all. I guess they tried to play safe and messed it up.
Result: kicked out
9. Slovenia Eva Boto – “Verjamem”
I think she was the youngest participant in this years contest and her age was… 16? She did a pretty nice job, especially for her age. Even if you’re a naturally good singer, if you don’t practicve, you’ll never become truly great, so I do have quite some respect for her. Aside the fact that I thought one of her background singers overshadowed her. The one who did the “ahhh”-sounds at the beginning, I thought she was great.
Result: kicked out
10. Croatia Nina Badric – “Nebo”
I’m sorry, I completely forgot her song. All I remember was her having some weird dress. It was connected to her finger, well, we’ve all seen this before, but the weird part was it’s shape. I was probably so distracted by this, that I forgot to listen to the song. And here’s the problem with the second semi-final: most songs aren’t really bad, but it’s all the same and at some point you forget to pay attention.
Result: kicked out
11. Sweden Loreen – “Euphoria”
And finally: Loreen. I haven’t listend to even one of the songs beforehand, so everything was new to me in both semi-finals. All I knew about Loreen was that she’s one of the favorites to win and while I had mixed feelings about that, she taught me better. Yeah, her dancing was all like “Look at me being awesome”, but her song was so great, I really really liked it. Hell, I even got goose bumps, only Albania managed that before, who’s still my favorite, but Loreen really impressed me.
Result: in the finals (of course)
12. Georgia Anri Dschochadse – “I’m a Joker”
Thank you Georgia for being one of the wtf-acts and spice up the somewhat boring second semi-final. Too bad your song was aweful. Weird songs can be good and they can be bad and this one was bad. Really bad. It pretty much changed every 30 seconds and was all over the place, first he played drums, then piano (for show) and it just left me utterly confused. after Loreens great performance, I was just left in one big feeling of wtf.
Result: kicked out
13. Turkey Can Bonomo – “Love Me Back”
Can was the darling of the audience that night, no doubt, they loved him. His background dancers were a bit weird and one of them tripped over his clothes when he tried to breakdance and wasn’t the boat they created just too cute? The song itself wasn’t my cup of tea, I didn’t liked and I can’t understand why it’s so popular. If I remember correctly, there was some controversy about him in Turkey, because he’s jewish and he said he wanted to represent everyone in Turkey, so I do feel sympathy for him, but it wasn’t my song.
Result: in the finals
14. Estonia Ott Lepland – “Kuula”
I remember Estonia’s song from last year, “Rockefeller Street”, and it was one of my favorites, it was stuck in my head for weeks. It was weird, but at the same time pretty amazing, I loved it, don’t judge me. This year, they send something entirely different, but a very good ballad sung by a pretty amazing artist. I have to admit that I’m truly impressed. It sounded really good, not much to say about it other than that.
Result: in the finals
15. Slovakia Jason Mai – “Don’t Close Your Eyes”
For once, a rock band that plays a rock-song. Haleluja, thank you, thank you so much, I’ve been waiting for a rock-track the entire time. The lead singer looked a bit off with his hairdo, like some kind of angel on crack or something, but I ended up liking the song and would’ve liked to see it in the finals. True, there were better acts, but also worse who managed to get past the semi-finals and I just love rock overall, so…
Result: kicked out
16. Norway Tooji – “Stay”
What’s Anakin Skywalker doing on the stage? He seriously should go back to being a Jedi… or a Sith-Lord, actually, a Sith. I liked him better when he was Darth Vader. Nevertheless, the song could have been good. I really liked the oriental touch it had, the only part I didn’t like was the singing, because Tooji probably didn’t even hit one note. As you might have noticed, I’m not exactly a pro when it comes to music, I just like what I like, but even I noticed his singing was completely off.
Result: in the finals (Jedi mind-manipulation?)
17. Bosnia & Herzegovina Maya Sar – “Korake ti znam”
Stop playing the piano when you’re not playing the piano. I think she actually can do it, but the music is not live, only the singing, so it’s just for show anyway and makes no difference if she sits in front of the piano or not. Other than that, I thought her dress was a bit weird, but her song was good, I liked it. If I remember correclty, she’s a professional musican who specialized on movie-soundtracks, but I have to admit she also did a pretty nice job here.
Result: in the finals
18. Lithuania Donny Montell – “Love Is Blind”
The song is called “Love Is Blind”… oh, oh, oh! I have a great idea, let him sing blind! At least for the first part, the slower part of the song, he was wearing a blindfold. Why? Dunno, it was stupid. The song was as clichéd as you can get, but I was impressed by the fact that he was able to do a side handspring with only one hand and a pretty good one as well, considering he was holding a microphone in his other hand. Maybe that’s why he was so popular?
Result: in the finals
Now, let’s talk a bit about the show for the break while they were counting the votes. In the first semi-finals they had some traditional music and while it dragged on for too long, it was kind of nice. This time, they had the winners of the last 5 years performing their winning songs, well 4 of them did, with traditional instruments from Azerbaijan.
Did it work? Surprisingly, yes, the mixture of modern and traditional music was nice to hear and we had the pleasure to listen to some of the best artists this evening. First was Dima Bilan from Russia, second was an amazing Marija Šerifović from Serbia, third was Alexander Rybak and fourth was Lena. I do pity those people though, I mean, they will be forced to sing their winning songs forever and they’re probably sick of them for a long time now. All of them did a good job, Alexander and Lena probably better than they did when they won with their songs, but I have to say that Lena seriously should eat some more, she was so thin.
As for the song from Azerbaijan… I’m convinced they’re both pretty good singers, or at least I want to think they are, but when you hear someone fucking up “Waterloo” by ABBA so bad, it actually hurts a bit. I’m sorry, but this song is so well-known and Nikki still managed to confuse the lyrics halfway through and both didn’t really hit the right notes on top of that. That’s pretty bad, I’m just saying… but the other 4 were good, I loved them.
Now, all what’s left is the last big show and I’m really looking foward to the Big Five, because I think this year all five of them have pretty amazing entries and really good songs as well as capable singers. They would’ve probably advanced to the finals even if they had to go through the semi-finals, I like all of their songs. My favorite is, like I said, still Albania, but I wouldn’t complain if Sweden wins, or the United Kingdom, or Italy… yeah, of course and I’d be happy very happen if Germany won, although I kinda doubt it and being the host again wouldn’t be good, I think.
But the Eurovision Song Contest is a loose cannon and everything can happen.
A Glass of Manga 