I'll be happier if Sweden fail to make it too, they're getting worse every year. Surely that rubbish they sent this year is not good enough for the final, even if gay boy starts spitting fire from his lungs on the night.

How can this be favourite for the final? What is the matter with you :D

I like Italy's song, it's something like Germany would have sent in previous years but done with more emotion and gusto. Not sure if jazz would cut it for the contest though.

I like France to win, the UK, Ireland, SLOVENIA and Italy so far :)
Totally different geography to what we're used to

I repeat myself.
Told ya. Doesn't work this way in such a competition.
Was one of the best.
Just sick decision!
Our commentator said: she even used sign language - more to keep her hands from going to sleep.

Finlands bard was a shame too. And the winner will be ... a rich country.

Ireland song? those boys were hardly singing at all, more like jumping around :lol:
Dana international? that dude can no longer sing, must be the plastic surgeries then, far too many. Swedish boy was out of tune during his whole performance.

Guess what, they will all qualify.

Shambolic sound engineering from those dastardly guys in Dusseldorf.

Day 2 is over and not really more highlights. My compatriot from Austria had probably the best vocal performance, but the song is awful, and the stage 'work' wasn't good at all. The best stage performance had Cyprus, but with a mediocre song and the singing wasn't remarkable, too. Belarus had a really good song, but the singer was very weak. The only act I saw above average with song, stage performance as well as singing, was Estonia, although not extraordinary.

The disgrace of the contest was Ireland. The song was infantile, their stage appearance simply ridiculous and the back singers were several degrees better than the 'soloists'. Mika Newton from Ukraine was disappointing too. Way too much 'hard work' . She did it much better on the national qualification.

Moldova was of course the most entertaining act, loved their performance, although I have to confess that I am Zdob-si-Zdub-pre-ruined :D . From the promo tour I learned to know the Macedonian singer Vlatko, who had a cultivated drunken stupor then and misbehaved enchantingly. Well, at the ESC performance I couldn't get rid of the impression that he was rather bottled too. A big yippieee for him! My personal vote was for Bulgaria - the playback track was played by my friends and (almost) neighbours, the rock group 'Krautschaedel', and part of the composers were Austrian acquaintances too.

The finalists of the second round:

Estonia
Romania
Moldova
Ireland
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Denmark
Austria
Ukraine
Slovenia
Sweden

People are already talking about Bulgaria not qualifying due to partisan voting. If you take away its neighbours there aren't that many who would vote for them, the performance was probably one of the better ones on the night.

Yeah, more or less I would agree with your reflections Argos, I actually liked Slovenia too but I expected a more powerful performance vocally, at least she sounds much more powerful on the record. I was thinking perhaps that Austria wouldn't qualify exactly for the same reasons ( great vocals but poor song ) and also because Slovenia with their ballad would qualify instead. At the end they both qualified.
Ireland? the song is undoubtedly bubblegum catchy but surely you can't qualify on the basis of your backing vocalists doing all the singing.

Again, I wasn't disappointed by the songs I have liked so far, Slovenia was okay-ish and the UK and France and Italy will be checked in the final. I liked the song and stage presence of Estonia as well but they will have to improve their vocals.

In all, the vocals are far from being a strong point in this year's competition.

Zdob-si-Zdub? I expected a much much better song from them but then again they made the final so my thoughts are mixed. Definitely not a good song imo...and tried my best to like it.

not everybody in the UK is an arrogant bastard, Blue's song is great and they can definitely sing live...I will be rooting for them in the final and my bet is for them to make the Top 5 @ odds of 2.30.

Forgot them in my quick summary. Of course it was quite good compared to the rest, although a bit more 'performance' would be nice.
They are not exactly at home in that kind of genre, and they are rarely famous about what songs they create, but how they present on stage, and that's always worth watching.
Yes. One of the vocally really poor competitions, but not only that. We will have in the finals...
...only a few top singers
...rarely creative stage outfits
...very few interesting stage performances
...no hit songs (not even good arrangements).

It seems that the ESC people want to drown the competition in boredom. :bum:

I'm gonna put my top 10 prediction in Tukish and English in parenthesis at the ones I don't think you'll understand :D

1-İngiltere (UK)
2-Azerbaycan
3-İrlanda
4-Bosna Hersek
5-Danimarka
6-Fransa
7-Rusya
8-İsveç (Sweden)
9-Slovenya
10-Almanya (Germany)

Yes. You're right. The hats :coctail:
The song is kinda growing on me now, especially the trumpets part, though I find it less "musical" than what they gave us 2-3 years ago, which was probably the highlight of the whole show.
That's why I was slightly disappointed.

Not my prediction but my top 10 personal favourites:

1. United Kingdom
2. France
3. Estonia
4. Slovenia
5. Italy
6. Azerbaijan
7. Moldova
8. Greece
9. Ireland ( the song, not the performance which was terrible )
10. Bosnia H

and I also liked Bulgaria and Albania which didn't qualify.

Lets see how Blue do, they're cool, down-to-earth guys who have taken the whole thing seriously. They're well-known in Europe and they can also sing live. I think their song is one of the best I've heard in Eurovision for a while and deserves to win this year; whether they do it, it's another matter. They probably won't but a position in the top 3 would be respectable.


We're in recession so I guess it had to be expected. Also the Eastern European entries are not as strong as in previous years, especially in stage presence.

from another forum

I share that sentiment exactly.

this is me from another forum, this is EXACTLY what I think about the UK and ESC situation:

Also: the jury WILL go for a GOOD song and their song is the best composition of the whole competition, unless you'd like to dispute that.
I'm more worried about how the voting in the former Soviet bloc will go for them than the jury...and the fact that the UK traditionally doesn't get much love ( but lets face it, the stuff they've been sending in the last 10 years are what I would describe as musical turd...even the Lloyd Webber ballad they sent that made the top 5 was dire. They have been getting what they deserve and so rightfully we are getting our backside beaten to a pulp. Because the people who watch Eurovision over here are mostly idiots... Now they're clueless again, writing Blue off and talking about the "Jedward revolution". If it wasn't for the internal voting Blue would have never been in ESC, they would have voted for yet another musical turd to represent them. )

But now as we're finally sending a good song at last and a band that are down-to-earth guys who respect the competition and have showed no arrogance at all in spite of their fame I'm standing behind their song.

Some people at the dress rehearsal are reporting that Blue were rubbish, is it true? Jury voting is decided upon that rehearsal, apparently.

Interesting...

Heavy doubts on that. Professional juries don't prefer songs with artistical value. Statistics don't support this (obvious) assumption. If there is a clear bias at all, then it's one towards 'conservative' performances - strictly in the format of the competition. Outsiders are to some degree handicapped (maybe that's the reason for the heavy increase of uninspired mediocrity of this year's entries - desperate courting the professionals' favour...).
Let's see if there are enough girlies to vote! :D It doesn't throw me out of my socks, but that's the same with all the others too. However, if the prime minister of the UK told the EBU president that they are willing to host the next competition, then their chances are splendid. Of course I'm sure about an honest and correct voting! :laugh:

...and I am disappointed by your lack of support for your Greeks! :bebebe:

Girlies? You meant to say housewives, because girlies will be voting for Sweden and Ireland, so no room for Blue I'm afraid.
In any case, this is one point we disagree on, I'm not a girly and I like the song a lot.

Greece? Greece is right up there in the top 10, in fact I usually never like Greece, the only ones I have liked genuinely in the past few years was Kalomoira - don't think of her much as a singer but she's got the rest - and Antique ( Antique, not Paparizou, I'd Die For You which should have won in 2001 but some crappy song from Estonia won instead. )
The Greece leading vocalist is very strong and although the rapper sucks, this is probably the reason they took it to the final, it wouldn't have made if it was just a folk song done in Greek. I've heard those "laika" songs in all their different variations and guises, and this song is only saved by the performance. Plus I don't like mixing two completely different musical styles in a bad way. Cyprus on Thursday tried to do what we call "entechno" and failed miserably in spite of the standout gimmicks. So this type of music doesn't work for ESC, we know it and they know it.

Ireland went from 55 to 5.6 on the odds, so apparently if this is what they like let them have it. I'm going to redo my list due to Bosnia being particularly crappy and Ireland being particularly annoying. So I'm adding Austria instead which is a respectable - albeit trite offering, very well executed though:
So:

1. UK
2. France
3. Estonia
4. Slovenia
5. Italy
6. Azerbaijan
7. Moldova
8. Greece
9. Austria
10. Ireland

Blue and the Olympics, as we say Paparizou and the Olympics. Will it do what it did to Greece, bringing them to the verge of bankruptcy? Only time will tell!
Once the party's over you have to do the cleaning of the mess, you know.

That song resembling music for the morgue from Germany is up there with the favourites, I have a feeling I will be turning off the tv set in disgust halfway through the voting. You gotta be kidding me, if that song makes the top 5. All in all, things are heading for a very bad collision if what the bookies think happens tonight.

They did the first criminal act by keeping Albania and Bulgaria out of the final, they're to complete the murder of the competition tonight

Blue can win this shit now, the only decent performances vocally were the Austrian girl, the Irish were much better than in the semi... and...surprise surprise : Lena, who was doing an outstanding job with the crappy song she had. the French guy was nervous, out of tune, and sweating as a pig...I had a bit of a feeling he would falter after I saw him in the interview yesterday but didn't imagine how bad it would be. But what a surprise anyway.

Only the jury vote can save him.

When it comes to vocal abilities then I wouldn't be proud of Blue. They were weak too, especially in the first half of the song, Lee is the name of the main destroyer, I guess. The whole thing wasn't impressive to me. France was awful, not only out of tune, his vibratos were annoying as well. Spain was another disappointment. Weak singing, a brainless choreography with stupid hand-waving and disorientated moving around. Lena for Germany, although not gifted with a stong voice, did remarkably great, absolutely cool performance. I loved the Italian performance. Great musical work with virtuosity and appealing arrangement.

From those, we have already seen I can't say that they improved considerably, except as you said, Spy, Ireland. Doesn't change my honest disliking of that act.. Besides Italy and Germany I liked most Estonia, Greece, Moldova and Georgia. And about my compatriot Nadine: who wants to see a winning howling wet mop accompanied by widows of a Greek tragedy?

And because ESC rarely meets my taste the most likely winners will be UK, Ireland or Sweden :bum: !

I guess I got it wrong this year though I predicted that Azerbaijan could win in another forum. Anything but Sweden will do :lol:

The Italian was a real artist, he wanted to sit and play his piano live but wasn't allowed, nobody told him that he's not supposed to close his eyes during the performance.

Azerbaijan was ok-ish and the Ukraine would be a standout performance if she wasn't forcing it. Her vocals were annoying Still not a problem when it comes to the voting for them.

With the lack of a decent song from Eastern Europe they were pretty exposed because they didn't know who to go for. It's still open between 3-4 countries and I have to say that I'm disappointed at the whole thing.

I don't think I will be watching next year.

Azerbaijan doesn't have the money for hosting, so Sweden will win.

Don't worry they'll get help from their friends who voted for them. Nice song, lacking performance.

Italy is catching up, can a real song win?

Ok, it's over. Next party in Baku.