Semifinal 1 Reaction

Although the camerawork was disappointing in much of the performances of semifinal, the very end was thrilling and fantastic. I am very pleased with the result since I got 8 out of 10 predicted qualifiers right, and the 2 that qualified that I didn’t predict (Sweden and Israel, in place of Belarus and FYR Macedonia) were ones I mentioned I hoped would qualify.

I’m even more pleased that 8 out of my top 10 songs from this semifinal in my rankings qualified (Bulgaria and Montenegro were in my top 10 and didn’t make it, Malta and Portugal weren’t and did). In fact my top seven in this semifinal all qualified, which includes six members of my top ten overall.

Here are some of my highlights from the show:

• Montenegrin singer almost flashes audience when she sits down and spreads legs, and then her dancer pulls her skirt up and we all see her underwear. How embarrassing.
  
• Belarus and the person in the fire/wind bag
  
• Armenia’s laser fingers
  
• Iceland’s too close closeup at the beginning
  
• Portuguese singer’s dress - very pretty
  
• Maltese postcard teaching the audience the Russian for “fairytale” -- this was to confuse voters to make them think they were voting for Norway
  
• t.A.T.u. lip-synching in the interval act
  
• Svante looking happy before the results were announced - his face tells you how well western countries do
  
• The male presenter calling Israel “the most politically correct song” in the contest, because it’s true
  
• FINLAND QUALIFIED!!!
  
• The female presenter saying that “the country that wins has to give me citizenship” before Iceland was announced
  

On Thursday morning (or rather afternoon to European readers) I’ll have predictions for the second semifinal.