Eurovision 2012(Azerbaijan)

[spyretto]

Lithuania, oh dear dear
Turkey is the last one

[spyretto]

All this suspense nonsense just to tell us that Turkey is through...please

[spyretto]

Which goes to prove that even if Ukraine throw a donkey on stage they'll still qualify.
Undemocratic countries are big hits in Eurovision.

[Argos]

After watching the two semifinals I'm convinced that the winner will be among those who we didn't hear so far.

[spyretto]

Nobody likes the Dutch and nobody votes for them, Argos...especially when they drop some retro crap from their Indian reservation.

Slovenia, Croatia had good enough songs to go through but they can't vote each other in any more so...
Glad my bet won again, I always do well in semis, bad in finals

[Argos]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Which goes to prove that even if Ukraine throw a dinkey on stage they'll still qualify.
Undemocratic countries are big hits in Eurovision.

She was loud, granny did hear her!

[spyretto]

Originally Posted by Argos

After watching the two semifinals I'm convinced that the winner will be among those who we didn't hear so far.

I put some coins on Italy on the back of their last year's good result and Spain has a really strong performance but I reckon Sweden will win...considering the partisan voting and all.

I also think people wanna see a good show, and some fresh ideas otherwise it's more or less a karaoke competition. Only Turkey and Georgia had something to show on stage tonight and even that was subdued.
This year so far has looked a lot like a karaoke, half-decent songs and performances but no surprises whatsoever. Bulgaria was the most obvious example, how can you have a dance song and sing like it's karaoke? Iceland also, such a strong song but such a unoriginal stage presence...where was the passion?

Common, bring back the show.

[fanoff]

Sweden has already won it.

[spyretto]

My impressions of the performances tonight

UK: It's certainly a dark horse, it was more or less what I expected but the good thing is that he nailed the last few high notes towards the end. top 10 if he's lucky.
Hungary: A good contemporary tune and nice performance, it seems to be growing on me with every listen, not bad. Top 10? maybe
Albania: Surprisingly enough, I kinda enjoyed her performance tonight but I'm a little drunk
Lithuania: Ok-ish song but I wasn't impressed this time around
Bosnia/Herzegovina : Nice performance and all but a little boring and too retro for my taste.
Russia: Cute surely, but I have not been convinced. I'd rather see another song win
Iceland: Great song, still not convinced this is the right stage performance.
Cyprus: Very nicely done, I think that was even better than the semi
France: When you have a good song and singer, putting those gymnasts is very distracting in my opinion.
Italy: Nice, but nothing to set the house on fire
Estonia: Amazing vocal performance, wasn't a fan of the song but I gotta admit I enjoyed the performance.
Norway: Not as good as I expected, still a nice song but I think Malta will surpass it.
Romania: Not a fan of the song, nothing wrong about the performance which was alright.
Denmark: She gotta lose the hat and I dunno, it could have been better, still passable.
Greece: Well done but definitely not as good as Cyprus.
Sweden: The winning song right there or the whole of the ESC audience are idiots.
Turkey: Catchy song, alright performance. Top 5?
Spain: Standout vocal performance, a bit of a boring song but a vast improvement over recent years
Germany: Nice song and nice performance but nothing extraordinary for sure.
Malta: One of the better performances of the night, party song, it could make the top 10
Fyr Macedonia: Very well done, but reaching the final was probably the best it could do.
Ireland: Annoying brats. not as good as last year but some people seem to like it. I'm biased, though.
Serbia: Flawlessly done, should normally be a top 5 song.
Ukraine: Still annoying, perhaps not as much if you're drunk though.
Moldova: One of the weakest songs of the night, nothing that I saw tonight can make me think otherwise.


Verdict is: Agree with Argos: Sweden should clinch this comfortably.

[Argos]

In stead of a prediction, my personal favourites of the show:

Italy (great singing, much charisma) and Sweden (could have been my single favourite, but the a-a-a was a bit annoying, and maybe a bit too much movement for this song, else it was next to flawless).

Other top performances were Albania (yes, the siren: you have to get used to it, but the song is extremely difficult, and Rona does it with extreme confidence and mastership, with a good sense of drama, although I'm not exactly loving the song itself), Estonia (very expressive, much sympathy), Azerbejdzhan (quite impressed by her singing, and the song was one of their best. If I ever gave the impression that Swedish composers are mediocre, in this song and a few others of this competition they proved they can actually write good music), Denmark of course (even the band members made a good impression on stage, the singing was very good ), Spain (another good Swedish song and a remarkable singer), and last but not least Kaliopi from Macedonia (great singing with much charisma).

[spyretto]

I missed Azerbaijan, had the pizza in the oven
was it really that good?

Anyway, Malta for me in place of Denmark and I didn't see anything wrong with Sweden's performance, at the end of the day she's just a little woman and she's no Kate Bush...but she certainly had my attention...as did the Albanian girl.

[spyretto]

Belarus giving 10 to Ukraine and 12 to Russia

[Argos]

Most of Russia's neighbours have already voted, so my hopes are intact that they won't win.

[spyretto]

Iceland, Norway, Denmark zero points? what are they smoking in Europe?

[Argos]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Iceland, Norway, Denmark zero points? what are they smoking in Europe?

iceland and Norway were not really striking with a good performance, but Denmark, that's disappointing.

Haha, the typical votings have not changed, some countries are completely predictable. Professional jury prevent gross neighbour voting? Ridiculous!

[spyretto]

yeah but Iceland had a great song...but never mind, they voted for the grannies who had the cookies in the oven...so whateva...surely they can raise the money they need to save their church.

As long as Sweden win, I'm happy with that.

Can you imagine the bookies would give 1.30 for Sweden to be the first nordic country and 2.40 for them to win after the end of semi final 2?

[Argos]

Well, Sweden is through now, congratulations. Sorry for Engelbert though, he wasn't so bad as the points let him look.

[spyretto]

Yeah Englebert was fine but maybe not the right song for Eurovision...that should be a wake up call if anything else for them, they have so many talented musicians, they should give this task to a contemporary artist and give them full control if they want some success in this competition.

Nobody likes Sweden either but they had the right song this year.

[spyretto]

Originally Posted by Argos

i
Haha, the typical votings have not changed, some countries are completely predictable. Professional jury prevent gross neighbour voting? Ridiculous!

Greece will always give 12 to Cyprus and Cyprus 12 to Greece, they're zenophobic ignorants and it doesn't matter if they have a jury, a telephone audience, a bunch of hillbillies or intellectuals voting, the outcome iis always gonna be the same. I personally wouldn't give 12 points to Cyprus tonight though I enjoyed the performance but at the end of the day as our world is getting more screwed up every day and the poor buggers feel the need to vote politically you'll always gonna have that kind of thing.

Credit to the Azerbaijanis there were no boos this time around about any of the rigged voting but it might be that they were staring at the barrel of a gun

Anyway, Stockholm next year, till next time then

[Endri]

Originally Posted by Argos

In stead of a prediction, my personal favourites of the show:

Other top performances were Albania (yes, the siren: you have to get used to it, but the song is extremely difficult, and Rona does it with extreme confidence and mastership, with a good sense of drama, although I'm not exactly loving the song itself).

Yes! The more I listen to it, the more I like it! We are so proud of Rona, and we are surprised (most of the people didn't like the song and the idea that she would be our representative mostly because it is a sad song and she keeps saying "let me cry") But she did a good job indeed. Who knew she had these vocal capabilities.

The verse before the chorus is fantastic.