Eurovision Song Contest - The Semi Final

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Anyone watched it? It was f-u-c-k-i-n brilliant! For those who are not familiar with the new format, starting with this year, Eurovision Song Contest(ESC) features semi final where the countries whose songs were not in the top 9 previous year must pass the semi final.

From 22 songs only 10 could pass to the final. In the final there will be 14 more songs. 24 total. What is funny is that some countries have a protected status, like UK, Germany, Spain and France since they finance the contest in biggest portion. So, despite the fact that UK got 0 votes last year they were automatically put in the final. Well, money is money.

Anyway, the semi final featured quite few brilliant songs which selection of the 14 songs already in the final is not really offering. ESC is getting better every year. The stage is beautiful. The organizations superb. The contestants made no mistakes and their performances were mostly colorful and well done. The crowd in better than ever. They cheer during the songs, react perfectly. I loved it.





This is the best source to check out the songs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/eurovision/2...ndex.shtml

The songs I liked the most:

Ukraine. Ruslana's Wild Dances rules! Wonderful piece of pop world music. Very powerful. You must check this out. Too bad they didn't kept all the lyrics on Ukrainian. Some parts of the song were obviously later translated on English which didn't went so well. But that's my only remark.

Bosnia&Herzegovina. Deen. A blonde Muslim. You got to love that. Very interesting song. Disco style. The composer is a known Croatian female singer. She managed well in a role of a composer. Loved the performance.

Albania. First time on ESC. This 17 years old girl knows how to sing. Actually, she's a damn good singer. Too bad the song is not more catchy. I doubt it will win.

Serbia & Montenegro. After 12. years they are back. I quite liked the song. Sung on Serbian. It has a nice ethno touch and a violin peace.

Belarus. A very interesting song with a touch of country. Nice female vocal.

Finland. A cool song. Something different. 'It Takes Two To Tango'

These 10 songs have qualified for the final:
1. Serbia & Montenegro
2. Malta
3. Netherlands
4. Albania
5. Ukraine
6. Croatia
7. Bosnia-Herzegovina
8. FYR Macedonia
9. Greece
10. Cyprus

As you see two of my favorite didn't passed. I'm really sorry of Belarus because the song was really good. I also dislike that Netherlands has passed. Their song is utter boredom and a cliche.

Also, Cyprus didn't deserved to pass either. Even Croatia. I don't see what the televoters saw in our song. The English lyrics are utter crap and the original song is already so-so.

Some other things to mentioned. Heh, those Estonian chicks were strange with them knifes. It was funny how our speaker commented it. "It's interesting, but in these times wearing knifes just doesn't seem..." I don't know, maybe they use it for fish gutting. Anyone from Estonia in here?

I hope the final will be great too.

Anyway, I'm a wondering about your impressions.

[Jocke The Beast]

I think it stinks.... the ESC is just getting more & more boring for each year. It was much more fun when the songs meant more then the appearance....today a busy-chick with g-strings wins for sure :roll:
Besides, this year Sweden will contribute with perhaps the worst song ever....I feel so ashamed already...

[Lachie Dazdarian]

Well, I don't agree. I think it's getting better each year. The performance is important but it's not about busy-chick with g-strings. Don't be cynical. Check the Ukraine song. It's brilliant.
Or the Albanian. Top notch.

[na_th_an]

Spain entry will be, like each year, horrible.

I don't like premade music, so I don't like Eurovision. I prefer some real artists with real songs about real things. But that's my opinion.

[Zap]

I don't like the fact that some contries are sured in the finals, I mean where's the contest in that? Also I think they should have done more out of the voting part, as I find that the most interesting part

I like the concept of semi finals tho, gives a farier selection of countries, instead of just having some out for sure. Just too bad the danish one wasn't good enough...