Here is just a little bit of Eurovision trivia that we thought you might like to know about ...

From Delegation Jags & Buses

From Delegation Jags & Buses

From Delegation Jags & Buses

and last but not least .... YaaaaaaaaaYY

From Delegation Jags & Buses

Each of the 43 delegations received it's own individually brand new tour bus with personal driver. Scheduling is arranged after daily consultation with the transport management via their delegation host. These buses can be seen travelling all around Dusseldorf, ferrying the various acts and their delegations to the arena, to parties and we guess to wherever they want to go. We think these artists don;t walk anywhere at any time for 2 weeks!!

As well as the buses, there is a vast fleet of black eurovision branded new BMWs and Mercedes cars as well as assorted people carriers.... and again personal drivers. Drew and Tam spoke to a local Taxi driver who happened to mention that the local taxi firms were not happy at all with the above arrangements because they thought they'd be rolling in it and making lots of money with all the extra fare. But really, please, can you really see Blue or Lena going everywhere in a local taxi... nice as they are ;)

On top of the delegation transport, there is a fleet of brand new shuttle coaches which ferry the accredited masses between the city centre and the press centre/arena every 20 minutes.

Okay, here we are back on the merry go round ..... Having watched yesterday's dress rehearsal for the semi 2 participants here are our thoughts and predictions on who might qualify.....

just thought we'd mention a few performances that stood out for us: we both agree that Bosnia Herzegovina, Austria, Romania and Cyprus gave very strong performances and we would love them to qualify ... Okay performances we thought were Slovakia, Sweden, Latvia and Denmark ... however, Drew thought Moldova gave a good fun performance but Tam is unsure about Moldova (he has an aversion to unicycles!!)..

A special mention has to be made about Dana International for Israel.... as a past winner and a complete Diva she has attracted so much attention since arriving in Dusseldorf and she knows how to play the media.... her vocals were not that strong during her dress rehearsal but we feel she is the only performer that has used the cat walk to its full potential and her visual flamboyancy makes up for the fact that the song is rather simplistic and far from the best in the contest.

Moving on to our near neighbours Ireland who will be performing last in semi final 2 .... oki dokey, where do we start ... hmmmm .... let's start with a positive... we think the overall package is good but where this performance could lose them votes is that televisually it seems quite messy. Drew and Tam always remember watching this in the arena and thinking that this was great but when Drew watched it on the tv screen in the press centre, as viewers will see them, it came across as quite a messy and loud performance which made it difficult to focus. For example, in the audience one sees the whole show and LED effects backdrop etc and it is good but on the TV this does not come across at all. When the tv zooms in on Jedward, they are lost in the backdrop because of their red outfits and red back ground and you also do not get to see the LEDs. Conversely when the cameras zoom out wide so you can see the LEDs, you cannot see Jedward hardly at all as they seem overpowering. On top of that, the twins still leap and bounce around in a seemingly uncoordinated fashion which just adds to the visual chaos ....

So ... now to our predictions of the ten acts who we think will qualify from tonight's semi final 2... and remember these are not necessarily personal favourites ... these are in no order...

Drew:

Bosnia Herzegovina
Austria
Sweden
Cyprus
Israel
Romania
Denmark
Ireland
Moldova
Latvia

Tam:

Bosnia Herzegovina
Austria
Sweden
Cyprus
Israel
Romania
Denmark
Ireland
Estonia
Moldova

Goodness knows how many we will get right after some of the shocks of Tuesday night, ,,, Belgium might win the whole shebang!!

We have no idea at all..........

From Semi two pictures

After an absence of a few years the Big Five Party returns with vengeance this year. All five delegations boarded a yacht with selected members of the press and spent the afternoon cruising the Rhine River beside Dusseldorf....

All five countries performed and at the end a very special treat was all of them performing "Always look on the Bright side of Life" by Monty Python.....

From Big Five Party Pictures

From Big Five Party Pictures

From Big Five Party Pictures

From Big Five Party Pictures

From Big Five Party Pictures

Videos will be on EurovisionKZ asap;-)))))

As the contest approaches its zenith on Saturday night, we thought that we wouldn't do a full resume of all the songs as we feel that everyone on the bloggisphere is analysing each note and each stanza of every song and every aspect of staging ... we could go on! So... we thought we would share with you our experience of what it was like in the arena from the build up to the contest itself and afterwards. However, first of all we want to revisit our semi 1 predictions from Monday and see how we fared .... remember, our predictions were not necessarily our favourites but were based on who we thought would qualify having seen the semi 1 dress rehearsal.

We scored a respectable 7 out of 10.... we had predicted Norway, Turkey and Albania (they didn't) and we did not predict Lithuania, Switzerland and Iceland (they did!) ... Not bad at all and we don't think that many would have got 10 out of 10 as Lithuania was a bit of a surprise to say the least!

From Drew & Tam at Semi-Final 1, 10th May

From Drew & Tam at Semi-Final 1, 10th May

Tam and Drew went to the Press centre early, in kilts as you can see from the photo above, in order to soak up the pre-contest atmosphere. Drew just wants to point out that his kilt is a CORNISH kilt as he is Cornish ... it is not Scottish but try explaining that to anyone east of Cornwall!! At the end of the night though Drew just agreed with anyone who thought he was from Scotland as he couldn't be bothered with explaining!!

The Eurovision arena, aka The Esprit Arena normally, is actually Dussledorf's football and track stadium and has been especially adapted for Eurovision as you saw on tv last night. The photo above shows just how big the arena is from the outside.

ESCKAZ has been pleased to welcome in Dusseldorf well-known artist from South Africa David Fourie, who may be known by several of his Eurovision covers and the most recent one he has been preparing is "My hart het kloo besluit" (My heart has already decided) which is cover version of Azerbaijan entry "Running scared" that has yesterday passed to the final. In the video you can see him performing a part of the song. David is one of the selected singers by OGAE Rest of the World to be promoted at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

OMG moments commence....

From Semi one fan pics

First I have to say that who knew that the draw and the juries would play such a big part in the result.....

Lithuania was the big shocker for us.....and most of the press centre to be honest. But in the cold light of day this was an obvious jury favourite helped by a great draw near the end. She has a brilliant voice but the song was (for us at least) just very plain and kinda boring....

Turkey's fail was the next OMFG moment. Really this just goes to show that no one is safe or guaranteed a place in the final anymore. This is probably a good thing but knowing the guys in the band personally means we are quite upset by their not passing...

Georgia. This was flat as a pancake in the hall. The person sitting next to me thought I was mad having this as a dead cert to qualify. But one always has to remember that the people in the hall are not voting.....

We are overjoyed for the Swiss. Finally they get a place in the final after having sent some real rubbish the last few years......but we didn't think they would make it......glad they did though

On a personal level the biggest disappointment for us was San Marino not making it;-(((( She is one of the best people here and will be so upset about not making it and we fear that they will not be back next year.....

Poland, Norway and Albania probably got 11th, 12th and 13th places.....and thinking out loud here this was probably very close in the votes to be honest. Great performance from all three, right at the start meant there was a long way to go for these to really light up the scoreboard and not cancel each other out....

Well done to Serbia and Russia....we saw one coming a mile off and the other (Serbia) was a pleasant surprise in the end.....Hungary too was looking like a fail at one point but their in too;-)))

Azerbaijan and Greece made it too, and in our opinion Azerbaijan is now a very dangerous contender for the crown......

Iceland....who knew!!!!!!! Seriously WTF!!!!!

And finally Finland. We are fairly sure that this guy one the semi. Perfect. This is going to do very well on Saturday......

So we're of to the Big Five Party this afternoon so will report on that later on, and maybe catch the rehearsal for Semi two this afternoon....