Semi 1 Reactions

Wow, what a result! I got 9/10 qualifiers right, and missed Lithuania instead of Serbia. None of the ex-Yugoslav countries qualified! All of the ex-Soviet countries qualified!

I'm not particularly gutted that Serbia didn't qualify. The performance was definitely bizarre. Montenegro, too, didn't qualify and had a bizarre performance. That might be an effect of the new voting system in which all songs are ranked instead of the top 10. I can see juries placing a performance like that towards the bottom, pulling it down more. That doesn't bode well for say, Romania in the second semifinal.

The show itself was very good. The camerawork was better than usual, with less faraway shots at bad times. The postcards were cute, and I particularly liked the Dutch one.

After a day of watching rehearsal videos on Youtube I'll post my predictions for the second semifinal tomorrow night.