The numbers in this year’s song contest are really hit or miss, and most of the misses are in the first semi-final. I would have bet Belarus would not have gotten out of the semis if it weren’t for the fact that it is in this semi. Here are my picks, in the order they appear on the show tomorrow night:
Moldova
Slovakia
Finland
Serbia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Belgium
Albania
Greece
Belarus
Iceland
The first semifinal is the weaker of the two and harder to call. Without a strong group of songs to qualify on merit, songs that qualify may be more influenced by neighborly and diaspora voting. At least that’s the logic I’ve got going for some of the picks.
Jen’s Semifinal 1 picks, in order of appearance:
Moldova
Russia
Slovakia
Finland
Serbia
Belgium
Albania
Greece
Belarus
Iceland
After last year’s quite mad “Hora Din Moldova“, the people of Moldova decided to stick with the dance music. Rather than going with a pseudo-traditional number, though, they went with “Run Away” by Sun Stroke Project and Olia Tira:
Honestly, at first, “Run Away” struck me as one of those generic Euro-pop dance numbers that always seem to fill up some space during the Eurovision Song Contest. Then that saxophone riff kicks in, and suddenly, I am totally okay with this song. Of course, the sheer goofiness of the saxophone player probably helps too.
And how about those turntables he and the violin player got to spin around on? They so need to make sure those make it to Oslo.
Let’s compare what I predicted and what actually happened:
Me:
Last: France |
Europe:
Last: Finland |
I put the predictions I got correct in bold, and I italicized correct calls in the top 10.
Obviously, I overvalued Finland and undervalued France. As it turns out, Finland was the jury pick in the first semi, leapfrogging over FYR Macedonia and Montenegro to get to the final.
Asides: As unbelievable as it sounds to me, Croatia actually was the jury pick in the second semi, knocking out Serbia and jumping over Ireland and Poland. Also, the Czech Republic finished with nil point. Ouch. Even Belgium got une point. Tragically, Latvia got seven points in its semi. Oof.
Anyway, as it turns out, Patricia Kaas has a pretty big following, which carried France to eighth place. Had I done research…
I don’t think I was the only one who was shocked that Greece did not finish second. I’d say that performing eighth might have hurt Sakis’ chances, except that Jóhanna went seventh, and Iceland finished second. I also neglected to put Bosnia and Herzegovina in the top 10, which was a foolish mistake on my part.
Again, before I start the recap from last night’s semi-final, here were Jen’s predictions for the result, which she made right after the performances were over:
If you compare this list with mine, there are a lot of similarities, even though Jen made her choices during the run of the program. She picked Ireland, Lithuania and Albania all on the strength of their performances. If I had seen Hungary before I made my picks, I wouldn’t have chosen it, because frankly Zoli Ádok’s performance was awful. I would have gone with Ireland instead, and we would have had the exact same picks.
As it was, this was another night where we got eight out of 10. Here are the final results:
I was right to fear Moldova, especially because Nelly Ciobanu and her posse were high energy, as expected. In the end, I wasn’t surprised to see them go through.
Croatia, on the other hand… what the hell? Igor and Andrea were not as catastrophically out of tune as Kamil and Nela from Slovakia were, but that didn’t mean they were in tune by any stretch of the imagination. This couldn’t possibly be the jury pick, could it?
So aside from Ireland getting robbed by Croatia, the results went pretty much the way we expected them to. That the Netherlands got knocked out was not a shock, ultimately. De Toppers’ performance was low-energy, and the glowing hand effect didn’t quite work. The large woman with the rhinestone turntable strapped around her waist was a nice touch, though.
For me, the two surprises on the night were Lithuania and Albania. Sasha Son has done a lot of work on “Love” since we saw him debut the English-language version at the Russia national final. Using the key change to switch languages from English to Russian was a nice touch that really paid off. Even Jen, who has not been a fan of this song at all, was impressed.
We both also really liked Kejsi Tola’s performance of “Carry Me In Your Dreams” for Albania. The staging was bizarre: what was up with the b-boy mimes and the rhinestone Gumby? But despite a stiff stage presence, Kejsi sang well. Moreover, the song benefited from the translation into English.
The biggest disappointments on the night were Poland and Hungary. I talked about Hungary earlier, but I’ll add that I really need to stop picking the disco songs to go through. Poland’s entry, “I Don’t Wanna Leave”, is a legitimately good song, but Lidia Kopania did not sing it well.
Svetlana Loboda’s “Be my Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)” decided to aim strictly for the gay audience. How else to explain the shirtless muscular back-up dancers in Spartan costumes? For the straight audience, Svetlana went for something subtle: looping graphics of pistons chugging on the video display.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Norway and Greece, however, with Norway the heavy favorite. Sakis Rouvas went for it on “This Is Our Night,” with an elaborate stage prop to help out with his stage movement (which is a problem because he really can’t dance). It’s hard to explain, so check this clip out.
Meanwhile, Alexander Rybak brought his Harry Potter-meets-Legolas-meets-Itzhak Perlman charm to “Fairytale.” The staging hasn’t changed much since the Norway national final, but he took full advantage of the video screens with quaint fairytale imagery all over the place that did not distract from him one bit. My bet is that he’ll win, with Sakis in second.
As for the rest of the show, we started with a Russian folk band doing a medley of past Eurovision winners, and you haven’t lived until you’ve heard “Waterloo” on a balalaika. There were, of course, dancing bears. There also were giant electronic nesting dolls that were very cool.
For the vote-tabulation entertainment, the Mariinsky Ballet company performed traditional dances from around Europe, including the Zorba the Greek dance that drove all the Greeks in the front row wild. How do the Greeks ALWAYS have the front row at Eurovision?
Finally, as expected, Intars Busulis’ “Probka” did not make it to the final. I thought he did a fantastic job anyway, so check out his performance here.
By the way, we’ve updated the ESC2009 page with the running order for the final.
The 2009 Eurovision Semifinals are over, and our finalists have been selected. Makeup is being removed, sets are being rejiggered, and we here at Lemur Love have awarded superlatives for this year’s competitors.
* Most surprising (in a good way) finalist — Denmark
* Biggest “YES” moment — Greece
* Gayest moment — Ukraine
* Most improved — Lithuania
* Least deserving finalist — Croatia
* Biggest disappointment — Poland
* Contestant you most want on your side in a bar fight — Sweden
* Highest concept — Bosnia & Herzegovina
* Most elven — Norway
* Most Moldovan — Moldova
* Greenest man — Albania
* Biggest balls — Malta
* Most in need of the power of the Lord — United Kingdom
As I said on Tuesday, I think tonight’s line-up is the stronger of the two. As such, it’s harder for me to make picks.
For example, on the one hand, past evidence would point to Croatia and Serbia going through. On the other hand, have you heard their songs? Even Serbians don’t like their song (which ended up going through based on jury voting).
Anyway, I will go so far as to say I have no confidence in any pick I made after ESTONIA!!!!!
I’m not picking my non-ironic favorite song, Latvia’s “Probka“, to go through because I think it’s just way too odd a song for Eurovision voters. On the other hand, I am picking my ironic favorite song, The Netherlands’ “Shine“, because, well, seriously, watch the official video. If you watched when I linked to it before, watch it again.
I am not sure if I’m going to regret not picking “Hora din Moldova” to go through. It’s got a good placement in the line-up (15th), and it should certainly be performed in a highly energetic manner, so it has a shot. I’m operating under the assumption that it’s just a wee too manic for the rest of Europe. Also, every one of the songs I picked (and a few I didn’t) are better than this one.
Again, you can watch the big show live at at the Eurovision website at 9:00p CET/3:00p EDT, or on-demand after the show (probably around 1:00a CET/7:00p EDT). I should mention you need to get the Octoshape plug-in to watch. It’s worth it.
The Moldovan Eurovision entry is Nelly Ciobanu’s “Hora din Moldova” and if you can watch this performance without wanting to go to a Moldovan street festival, then you have no soul.
Seriously, I want to eat a variety of Moldovan cuisine right now.
Incidentally, rather than ripping through a scrim, the Moldovan dancers backing Ciobanu up came out of a painting, and no ripping was involved. I still consider this a part of the trend.
The first semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest were held in Belgrade, Serbia earlier tonight. Here is the first part of my notes about the show. By the way, unless I mention that the dancing was good, assume, as always, that the dancing sucked.
After the opening festivities, with the first klezmer version of “Waterloo” I’ve ever heard, we jump in with…
1. Montenegro
Thanks for playing.
2. Israel
I hate the sound of Boaz’ voice in his upper register. The song itself is good, but his voice is a bit nasal. Still, he’s a good enough singer, and certainly dreamy, so he might just be memorable enough to make it to the finals.
3. ESTONIA!!!!!
“Leto Svet” is just… odd. The song has grown on me, actually, the way Verka did last year, but the staging is so… odd. I mean, I know it’s a jokey song and all, but still… odd. There’s a bit of booing after the song is over.
4. Moldova
Ah, the Bacharach song. Geta is performing on a couch with a teddy bear and a trumpet player. The performance is competent, although I think she goes flat a bit in the end. Not bad, but I don’t know what her chances are to escape the semi-final.
5. San Marino
I forgot about this song while I was watching it.
6. Belgium
This is frigging adorable. Pitchy, but adorable. Also, the lead singer is wearing a costume made from old White Stripes backdrops. The crowd is clapping along, but I’ll be honest: a little of this song goes a long way, and it went further than that.
7. Azerbaijan
High concept: Elnur is dressed in white as an angel, and Samir is dressed in black as an evil guy, but the twist at the end is that Samir has a face turn and changes into a white outfit. This is so very silly, and so very shrill. In other words, it is everything that’s right about Eurovision and wrong about Eurovision all in one over-the-top package.
8. Slovenia
S&M! Rebeka starts off in chains, surrounded by gimps (well, just two, but they move around a lot). Then she breaks her chains and changes her costume all at the same time. This is serviceable Euro-dance-pop, competent, but hardly memorable. Still, it could go through.
9. Norway
A little tip for anyone who stages Eurovision numbers: don’t have back-up dancers who are all a foot taller than the lead singer. This is another song that has grown on me, but still, you can’t get past those lyrics: “Love can be hard sometimes/Yes, it can catch you off-guard like bad crimes.”
10. Poland
Apparently, Poland is still behind in tanning booth technology. Isis Gee is so tan she’s almost leathery. I mean, seriously, she looks like Barbie hitting middle age like a divorced Beverly Hills socialite. The song is a grand power ballad in the Celine Dion vein, and it’s not bad at all.
More in the next post…
Eurovision is doing things a little differently this year, because the number of countries participating is ever-increasing (especially since new countries keep popping up; Kosovo, we’re looking at you). The organizers have divided the semi-finals into two groups. The top nine vote-getters from the two semi-finals will make the finals, along with the host country and the Big Four. In addition, a special jury will select one wild card each from the two semi-final groups.
Here are the countries participating in the first semi-final, in order of appearance: