Amph Eurovision Song Contest 2022

It is time again for the craziest, most spectacular pop cultural event of the year. I know that they have tried starting up the American Song Contest this year, but I don't think it has anything yet on the original.

I will say though that I actually thought the ESC was next week, so I have totally missed the buildup. I haven't heard a single song, not even the Swedish, in advance and I'm planning on going into the semi-finals with a very open mind.

Of course this totally non-political event is political as usual, so Russia and Belarus are banned, and Ukraine has been topping the bookmakers' lists to win the whole competition.

The countries competing in semi-final 1 are:
Albania
Latvia
Lithuania
Switzerland
Slovenia
Ukraine
Bulgaria
Netherlands
Moldova
Portugal
Croatia
Denmark
Austria
Iceland
Greece
Norway
Armenia

Some things I have picked up in advance of semi-final 1 is that Albania has a really cool song, and Albania always send very strong voices. Latvia is big on tik-tok and if Ukraine wins it will probably not be because of the quality of the song.

 

They start at 21:00 CET, I think the final might start earlier, but the semi-finals are at 9 pm.

 

But the BBC is glorious with Graham Norton! At least on the big final, I'm not sure he is doing the semi-finals. Sweden has a great commentator as well, but I would love to hear the BBC coverage.

 

Yes

And the UK isn't in the list since the big five are guaranteed a spot in the big final

 

"It feels as if we just witnessed the birth of Simba" - the Swedish commentary on the opening number.

 

I had higher expectations on Albania, but it was a decent start.

 

but it feels old, or maybe it's so retro ESC that people like it. Good energy though

 

I like Lithuania, a nice, cozy song that I think will be the first addition to my ESC spotify-list. Not a winner though

 

I definitely think so. Switzerland was boring and Slovenia was cute.

I like that there are a lot of songs in other languages than English.