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
We missed the first 10 minutes of Russia’s national final due to a rip in the time-space continuum (specifically, my inability to figure out the time zone difference between Central European Time and Eastern Standard Time). We only missed yet another performance of “Fairytale” by Alexander Rybak, though, and since we’re coming around to Graham Norton’s feelings about Rybak, this was fine by us. He later performed another song after Dima Bilan performed yet another performance of “Believe.”
Missing from all this, incidentally, is last year’s Russian entry, Anastasiya Prykhodko’s “Mamo.” This is not a bad thing.
I don’t remember much of how Russia tallied up the votes for their entries last year, but this year’s tally was the same as the 2008 national final, in which at the end, the hosts go through and announce the scores given to each performer by the public and by the jury. In the end, the prize of representing Russia at Eurovision went to the delightfully odd “Lost and forgotten” by Peter Nalitch.
This is kind of awful and kind of awesome all at the same time. It’s sort of like a parody of Balkan Eurovision entries, only it doesn’t know it. Unless it does. I don’t know. It’s not got a chance in hell of winning, but the more I hear it, the more it grows on me. Like fungus, granted, but still…
Yet this was not the only bizarre Russia entry. There was Buranovskiye Babushki, which is, as you can probably guess from the name, a group of singing and dancing grandmothers. I am embarrassed to admit how much I liked this song:
But the camp highlight of the evening had to be Oleg Bezinskih’s performance. If you’re going to go over the top, be sure you clear top by a good few feet. Or a good mile, for that matter:
This is everything Krassimir Avramov tried to do last year and failed at, really.
We have intense cases of Olympic Fever, so during the fortnight that Winter Olympics were on, we completely ignored Eurovision to discuss the finer strategies involved in curling. This past weekend, however, we got caught up on what we had missed in a major way. On Saturday, we watched the Ukraine song selection show, followed by the Sweden repechage, followed by the Portugal national final. Then we watched the Russia national final on Sunday. Then we went through and listened to all the other songs that have been picked since then. (Ukraine made it easy for us by having the entries from Armenia and Bulgaria on, as well as the performer for Azerbaijan.)
Then we watched the Oscars, which sucked all joy and life out of us, so we’re regaining our souls now by writing up a whole ton of song reviews.
Let’s start off with Ukraine. Vasyl Lazarovich was hand-picked for Eurovision by Ukraine organizers. He performed five songs on Saturday, and both a jury and the Ukrainian public voted on which song to send. They all chose “I Love You”:
It was pretty obvious this was going to be the song that won, because it’s the only one that Vasyl performed with any confidence. Even though it is dreck… man, is it dreck. (“I love you, I love you, I love you”? Someone needs to send a DVD of Singing In the Rain to Kyiv, quick.) Regardless, he sang it well, and connected with the audience in a way he hadn’t during the other four songs on the night.
The number we were rooting for was of course the one that Vasyl had absolutely no confidence in whatsoever. Watch him try to play rock star in “Don’t Wanna Lose You”:
He could not be more uncomfortable if he had live squirrels romping in his jeans.
The Swedish Second Chance round was interesting, although in the end, the voters picked the songs by the pretty blonde women. Neither number really has a chance in next week’s final, because if they did, they wouldn’t have needed to go to the Second Chance round, would they?
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.
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:
Jen wasn’t confident in her Czech pick, but thought it was gimmicky enough to go through. She picked Finland because “Lose Control” is already a dance hit in Europe, and honestly, if I had known that, I probably would have picked Finland over Andorra.
Jen also picked Iceland based on the quality of Jóhanna’s performance. I have to say, she was really good (as was the staging… except for the animated dolphin flying through the sky). The song had done nothing for me before, but, like Norway’s Maria Haukaas Storeng last year, Jóhanna won me over.
In the end, we both got eight out of 10 right. Here are the results of the first semi:
The really disappointing thing for both of us was that Montenegro didn’t go through. It’s a great song, and Andrea Demirović sang it well. Also, her backup dancer was fantastic in a completely campy way. Words can’t describe it, so just go watch it. It’s worth it.
Speaking of things that words can’t describe, the opening number for the show was this big fairy tale story about Russian kids who learn to fly from a phoenix that they later help defeat a dragon. The narration was done by an American, although I have no idea who. I’m pretending it was Sam Waterston.
The vote-tabulation entertainment was a Russian military choir singing traditional songs while Russian dancers did traditional dances. It was very Soviet, actually, but to Russia’s credit, the tank and the MIG that were on stage were painted in festive colors. The tank, for example, was pink with flowers on it. t.A.T.u. showed up at the end, and the best part of their performance was that the military choir sang back-up for them.
When the show began, the first thing we noticed (because it was hard to miss) was that the stage was enormous. While the performers are closer to the audience than they have been the past few years, they are also dwarfed by the width of the stage. Moreover, the video screens behind them are as long as the stage, with additional ones that tower over the performers. If the graphics behind flashed on the screen are too busy, as they often were, performers can easily get lost.
In fact, some of the performances that stood out were ones that made minimal use of the video screens. As mentioned, Iceland did well with just clouds and the occasional dolphin as a backdrop. Malta’s Chiara had nothing but a starfield. In fact, she didn’t have back-up singers, which was a brave, but effective choice.
On the other hand, Turkey’s Hadise and her female back-up singers and dancers were dressed in red (the males were in olive), and they performed in front of a red video, so they all got completely lost. That Hadise sucks at belly dancing didn’t help. On the other hand, she made it through, because, well, she’s from Turkey. Only Dustin the Turkey as an entrant would keep Turkey from getting out of the semis. And even then I’m not sure.
Both the semis are being hosted by model Natalia Vodyanova and TV host Andrey Malakhov, and they of course were charmingly cheesy. Unlike the backstage reporter, whose name I didn’t catch, who was so skeezy that at one point, he actually made one of the Belgian back-up singers visibly uncomfortable.
Anyway, Natalia and particularly Andrey had the gregarious enthusiasm you’d expect from someone at a karaoke bar with a belly full of vodka. They had a lot of jokes, but because English is not their first language, their timing on the jokes was just terrible.
They were more funny with their off-the-cuff banter during the announcement of the finalists. The best part: when Israel got through, Andrey said, “The most political-correct song of the Eurovision 2009 goes to THE FINAL!” Brilliant.
Former Eurovision contestant Alsou and “media personality” Ivan Urgant are the hosts of the finals, so I’m going to miss Natalia and Andrey when they’re done hosting. Fortunately, we’ve got one more night with them tomorrow.
We’ve updated our Eurovision 2009 page to reflect the running orders for the two semi-finals and the final, as per esctoday.com.
A couple of notes:
The Eurovision Song Contest organizers have disqualified Georgia’s Eurovision entry, “We Don’t Want to Put In.” Rather than put up a new entry, Georgia decided instead to withdraw from the competition. I’m amused by the following comment by FP Passport writer Joshua Keating: “It’s very sad to see Eurovision’s organizers compromise the integrity of this august institution by bowing to Russia’s objections.” I hope he meant that in a snarky way, especially since he had just brought up Dustin the Turkey.
Five countries decided on their Eurovision Song Contest entries this weekend. We watched three of them, which is insane. We would’ve watched four, but we couldn’t get the Ukrainian national show’s feed to work.
Fortunately, Russia decided to go with a Ukrainian singer, so it’s like we got a sliver of the Ukrainian experience. Anastasiya Prykhodko had originally tried out for the Ukrainian nationals, but was DQed on technicalities. She protested, which caused a delay in the Ukrainian final, but then she qualified for Russia’s final anyway.
I got the impression that Anastasiya was a bit off her rocker, which was reinforced by her work at the end of her song “Mamo“:
Seriously, Tatiana Del Toro needs to try out for Eurovision. Talk to the Swiss next year.
The sad thing is, this was probably the most memorable of the songs that were presented during the Russian final. This is disappointing, after three years of solid entries, including last year’s winner, “Believe.” I honestly can’t remember all that much about the show. Granted, this is after watching two other finals after it, but I can remember a lot of the songs from ESTONIA!!!!! and Serbia more than anything Russia presented.
“Mamo” is fine, I guess, and Anastasiya could make things interesting during the big show. But in my mind, this is a lackluster entry.
Georgia has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest after the organizers disqualified its entry. More here.
Forget the quality of Stefane & 3G’s “We Don’t Wanna Put In,” Georgia’s Eurovision entry. (It’s a cheesy disco song that will have you longing for The KMG’s). What’s more important is its politics: Foreign Policy Passport points to a BBC story about how the song is a not-so-veiled swipe at Vladimir Putin. (Look at the song title one more time.)
Eurovision has rules against politicized entries, and the contest’s organizers will rule in March on whether the song is too political to go to Moscow in May. So sayeth FP Passport:
Vladimir Vladimirovich does love to boogie and has inspired some supremely ridiculous Europop from his admirers as well, but I doubt he’ll be grooving to this one.