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!!