Hopefully Not Really Running With Lions

Enough complaining about rigged/wrong juries/televotes, here are some songs that aren't making it to Eurovision this year and hopefully won't be forgotten.

In Sweden's Melodifestivalen, "Running With Lions" by Alice had the most ambiguous and concerning metaphor since "Hope and Glory." Mans didn't make it clear enough he wasn't an actual soldier in 2009, and I Aope alice isn't actually surrounded by big cats in 2017!

In Denmark,  "Vesterbro" by Thomas Ring makes you want to go to copenhagen, with a hot synth hook.

Slovenia's second-placer BQL's song "Heart of Gold" sounded  like a winner, and by that I mean it sounds like "Only Teardrops," with a bit of "Stay With Me" in the verse. The lyric doesnt make sense but they had charisma which is not common in Slovenian entires :(. Dear Slovenia: never don't enter Maraaya-penned songs.

Moldova went 2010 for their entry but they should have gone 2009, with "Discover Moldova" by Ethno Republic & Surorile Osoianu. This song has it all, and goes all over the place. It's a three minute tourism ad and that's okay.

Ukraine's "Thank You For My Way" by Ilaria is a ballad that is kind of comfortingly throwback/dated, with a cute fantasy backdro.

I think I am too old for "I'm In Love With You" by The Ludwig from Latvia. What is this, future bass? I am an out of touch Eurovision fan that needs to rely on FrankJavCee to tell me what real kids like. This precocious voiced slow jam could have fit in with the country's past few entries. The real applause though goes to the Riga Beaver, who invented the word "destressnessening" during the commercial break.

My favorite in Romania that didn't go through was "Doua Sticle" by Zanga (not Xanga, remember that?). She had an interesting marionette routine - shades of puppet on a string?

fav that didnt go through, had an interesting marionette routine – puppet on a string?

Next week: finals in Estonia, Romania, Portugal, as well as a couple other preliminary rounds.