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Back from a long, long break and ESC18 thoughts

Hello all, first off an apology!  The blog has been dormant for far too long.  I'm hoping to start writing regular posts even throughout the ESC off season (is there an off season?!)  If you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see covered in the blog, please leave a comment or contact me. After seeing Portugal winning in 2017, I was hoping that a trend of voting on the quality of a song would emerge and we would start seeing some really good songs winning Eurovision.  Well, that didn't last very long did it?! At the end of the day, the public voted in their masses for Netta, I can't help but think Eurovision took a step backwards when she won.  What is more worrying for me is that some really good songs and good quality singers didn't get rated well by so-called expert juries.  I understand that they still have to vote for songs they like, but surely the juries should be considering quality and structures of songs, quality of voice etc.  whether they li

2015... The story so far..... (Semi 1)

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Now that the blog is back to being active, I thought I'd bring back an old feature we ran for National Final season.  So here is the first in the 2015 series of "The story so far....." Those chosen in semi-final 1 so far.... Albania     Elhaida Dani - I'm Alive Armenia    Genealogy - Don't Deny  Belarus      Uzari & Maimuna - Time  (Watch the video here) Belgium      Lo ïc Nottet - Song not chosen yet Denmark    Anti Social Media - The Way You Are  (Watch the video here) Estonia       Elina Born & Stig R ä sta - Goodbye To Yesterday  (Watch the video here) F.Y.R.O.M  Daniel Kajmakosk - Lisja Esenski  (Watch the video here) Georgia       Nina Sublatti - Warrior  (Watch the video here) Netherlands Trijntje Oosterhuis - Walk Along  (Watch the video here) Serbia          Bojana Stamenov - Ceo Svet Je Moj  (Watch the video here) Next up, will be the semi-final two art

What would have happened.........

If only the 25 finalists had voted:- Sweden 229 Russia 155 Serbia 121 Azerbaijan 102 Germany 76 Estonia 74 Albania 72 Turkey 71 Italy 65 Romania 58 Cyprus 54 Moldova 50 Ukraine 46 Spain 44 Macedonia 44 Greece 39 Bosnia 33 Lithuania 31 Iceland 31 Ireland 24 Malta 21 Denmark 16 Hungary 11 France 10 UK 9 Norway 3 Well there you have it Sweden would have still won and would have knocked Katrina off the top spot for the most points in a Final. The intrersting thing to see is that Germany would have been Top 5 with Albania dropping to 7th. Italy would still have been 9th. I think the big suprise would be Spain dropping out of the Top 10 14th. The UK and Norway would have still been the bottom 2. Now lets see what would happen if those not qualifying had had 1 vote betwe

Semi Final 2

After listening to Semi Final 1 and writing my comments I thought I had better do the same with Semi Final 2:- 1 - Serbia - Zeljko is back and with a song that I actually dont think is as good as his previous attempt. A haunting ballad and should qualify. 2 - Macedonia - I have only liked a couple of the previous Macedonian entries. However this one joins that list. A mid tempo ballad with a strong chorus and could be the first finalist from Macedonia in a while. 3 - Netherlands - A beautiful folksy song, very catchy and some beautiful words. This surely must give Netherlands their first qualifier from the Semi Finals after some absolute corkers and some very undeserved non qualifiers. 4 - Malta - Another solo male singer from the small island that would love to win the competition. Catchy disco in a similar vane to last years song by Glen Vella. As much as I like it I think this could be a similar finish for them this year. 5 - Belarus - The best of the boybands in my opinion an

My Opinion of Semi Final 1

I have spent the last couple of days listening to all of this years songs which are going to Baku. This is my opinion of Semi Final 1. Now on to the songs:- 1 - Montenegro - Well what an opener. An awful song really which should not go any further. Im still wondering what the Montenegrins were thinking when they agreed to send this song. 2 - Iceland - Thought that in Icelandic the song was brilliant but in English it is awesome and doesn’t lose any of its appeal. This for me is a dark horse for winning the overall contest. 3 - Greece - First impressions were OMG not again. This for me is what is becoming a typical Greek entry......... lots of dancing and no doubt will have a big performance on stage. 4 - Latvia - I was not overly impressed when this was announced as the song to represent Latvia. However this has grown on me and quite strongly. 5 - Albania - When I first heard this I loved it but now when I hear it amongst the other songs in the semi final Im not sure. 6 - Romania

Semi final one predicitions

So, following on from the running order review yesterday, here is how Paul and I think it will go... In no particular order, Paul sees the following as qualifying..... 1. Iceland, 2. Greece, 3. Romania, 4. Israel, 5. Cyprus, 6. Denmark, 7. Russia, 8. Ireland, 9. Belgium and 10. Latvia As for me, here are my qualifiers... 1. Iceland, 2. Greece, 3. Albania, 4. Romania, 5. Cyprus, 6. Belgium, 7. Russia, 8. Moldova, 9. Ireland and 10. Denmark. (I also think that Finland and Hungary could run some of the above close.) So, for the Terminal 3 team, our joint qualifiers are.... Iceland, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Denmark, Russia, Ireland and Belgium. We then disagree on the chances of Israel, Latvia, Moldova and Albania. Agree? Disagree? Tell us. Keep visiting for our semi-final 2 review.

Semi-final One lineup

With the running order draw looking more like a football tournament draw, some countries will be wondering how they came about having such bad luck and some will be loving it. Today, I'll look at the semi final draw and see who will be helped by the songs around them and who won't.... First, the draw:- 1. Montenegro 2. Iceland 3. Greece 4. Latvia 5. Albania 6. Romania 7. Switzerland 8. Belgium 9. Finland (Wildcard) 10.Israel 11.San Marino 12.Cyprus 13.Denmark 14.Russia 15.Hungary 16.Austria 17.Moldova 18.Ireland (Wildcard) Well, the first semi-final and the 2012 contest couldn't have started out on a worse song! Definitely the wrong position for Montenegro, but then I doubt the position will have any effect on their non-qualification anyway. I feel sorry for Iceland having to follow it, but their position could go either two ways... 1. The contrast between their song and the previous one could make Iceland shine; or 2. The viewers could have a h