Results inside!
It’s May. Time for the biggest and the oldest singing show: Eurovision. Eurovision is entertaining millions of Europeans and people around the world since 1956, when Lys Assia won the competition for Switzerland with “Refrain”. Over the years, some very well known artists participated and even won: ABBA (“Waterloo”, won for Sweden, 1974), Celine Dion (“Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi”, won for Switzerland, 1988), Katrina & The Waves (“Love Shine a Light”, won for United Kingdom, 1997), Johnny Logan won Eurovision twice for Ireland (“What’s Another Year” in 1980, “Hold Me Now” in 1987) and wrote Irish winning entry in 1992, Julio Iglesias (“Gwendolyne”, Spain 1970), t.A.T.u. (“Nye Ver, Nye Boysa”, for Russia, 2003). Bonnie Tyler is representing the UK this year! Remember her hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart”?
There is no winning recipe for Eurovision: you can be Ukrainian wild dancer, you can be Greek pop goddess, you can pretend to be Finnish monster and sing hard rock, Serbian balladeer, Russian pop god singing Timbaland-produced ballad. Ireland is the most successful country to date, winning 7 titles.
Eurovision winners 1956-2012
Many talent show winners and contestants present their countries at ESC. Ireland sent X Factor UK’s Jedward to Eurovision twice and last year’s winner, Loreen, finished 4th on Swedish Idol a long time ago. This year is no different with many Idol, The Voice, Got Talent and X Factor winners participating.
The rules are pretty simple: Each national public broadcaster sends one act with a song. Song can be no more than 3 minutes long and no more 6 people can perform on stage for each country (this includes main vocalists, back vocalists, band, dancers). The voting methods change often. Originally the juries sent in their votes. As the technology developed, 100% televoting took over. Right now it’s 50% : 50%. The voting goes something like this. 12 points from Cyprus to Greece, 12 points from Greece to Cyprus.
All countries except for Big 5 (UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy) and last year’s winning country (Sweden this year) have to qualify for the finale from the two semifinals.
Loreen won Eurovision last year in Baku with “Euphoria”, so this year’s host is Sweden and the competition is held in Malmö Arena.
Check out the list of this year’s participants here.
Semifinal 1 qualifiers:
Estonia
Denmark
Russia
Ukraine
The Netherlands
Lithuania
Belarus
Moldova
Ireland
Belgium
Automatically qualified for the final:
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Sweden
Watch the videos from tonight’s semifinal here, they are still getting uploaded.
My thoughts on semifinal 1: Eurovision’s production is great this year, as always. But, the songs really suck and the performances are uninspiring. The budget cuts can be seen everywhere. Cyprus’ singer had to get a sponsor, because their national broadcaster had no money. She was just standing there in a nice dress, sang a ballad, had no background vocalists, no dancers, no pyro, nada. The other acts were also pathetic: Ukraine brought a giant, Belarus silver ball, Montenegro two rapping astronauts with a singer. There are too many ballads and no fun acts (for example: this or this). I’ve been watching Eurovision religiously since 2001 and I’m used to seeing better performances and hearing better songs.
Who is likely to win this year: Denmark is a favorite. Sounds and looks decent.
