It's that wonderful week again!!! That time when Europe unites, or rather fractions into million votes, even if it is all totally not politically. At all. Semi-final 1 will be on tonight and semi-final 2 on Thursday, as usual the big 5 and Switzerland, as the host country, are already qualified but the rest will battle it out to reach the final on Saturday. As I see it there are two ways to dig into the ESC, either to prepare totally and listen through everything in advance, or turn it on and experience all the entries for the first time when they are live. In my case I have only listened to the Swedish entry in advance this time so it will be fun to see the competition.
My household has taken the "prepare totally and listen through everything in advance" route. I am looking forward to this year, hopefully it's less controversial than last year. I don't want any Joosts this time.
It's been impossible to avoid the Swedish entry. I like it a lot, and if you haven't heard it before I think you will be surprised, it's not a typical Swedish entry, which makes me nervous to see if they will go through to the final.
I liked: Sweden Estonia Netherlands Belgium Iceland San Marino Albania I did not like: Slovenia Portugal Azerbaijan Ukraine Croatia Cyprus I was indifferent to: Norway Poland
I think the bad audio mixing where the background music was much louder than the singers' voice ruined this semi-final Anyway I liked Sweden, Estonia, Netherlands, San Marino, Albania and of the automatic finalists I liked Italy and Switzerland.
I liked Iceland, Estonia, San Marinon, the Netherlands Indifferent to Poland, Norway, Slovenia, Didn't like Belgium, Azerbaijan and Portugal Conflicted about Ukraine. And Italy was pretty good, Switzerland ok.
And the finalists are: Norway Albania Sweden - yay! Iceland - yay Netherlands - no surprise Poland - first surprise, had old school ESC vibes, and I guess that was enough San Marino - yay Estonia - yay Portugal - second surprise, but I guess something slow was a good contrast to the rest Ukraine - no surprise Pretty much as expected, I would probably have preferred Cyprus to Poland but was pretty indifferent towards both. The Viking Empire is really strong going into the final with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Estonia all going through.
Ukraine has so much politiska support that they always go through, and the song was interesting and different, I don't know of I like it or not.
The finalists: Norway - okay Albania - yay, this one grew on me. I didn't love the dude's part at first Sweden - best of the night, get ready to host again Iceland - yay! I'm glad they made the staging more nautical for the big show Netherlands - yay. I loved the song but have only seen the video. Good to know he can do it live Poland - not surprised, I'm sure there are some people who love to see someone return after 30 years. Big nerds, probably Estonia - not surprised, it's a fun one Portugal - how? Just, how? Ukraine - I get it, the war, the diaspora, but those backing vocalists are doing a lot to cover up the lead singer's not great voice Spain - meh Italy - this has really grown on me, but I still don't like the white face. Switzerland - is okay
