Ten Thoughts About Semifinal 1

1) Seven out of ten qualifiers predicted right, not bad. My two maybes both qualified.

2) Whatever Croatian prayer circle is out there worked! So happy for this. Nina sounded like an angel and the second dress looked almost avant garde.

3) I'm not too upset about Moldova not qualifying - it was never really expected to and the performance was pretty sparse.

4) Bosnia & Herzegovina should have qualified over, say, Malta, but maybe it was a little too theatrical for everyone at home?

5) It's too amusing to see the fans on Tumblr be upset over Estonia and Iceland not qualifying, especially because I felt the same way exactly ten years ago about Slovenia and Belgium.

6) Beside those two, the best non-qualifier's staging was Montenegro.

7) Congratulations to Czech Republic for finally qualifying. Not surprising that Greece failed to qualify for the first time.

8) Russia looked much more striking in the rehearsal videos and lost some impact with the camera angles used on TV

9) Armenia's performance is this year's "Calm Against the Storm," with exceptional staging elevating a song into being a contender. While "Calm Against the Storm" was melancholy, "LoveWave" is seductive. The part in the bridge with the nude bodysuit holograms is perfection.



10) American citizens don't have to get a visa to enter Armenia...how is Yerevan this time of year?