As most of you will have watched semi 2 last night on TV, or you were actually in the hall with us, we don't propose to analyse every detail of each song and as with our review of semi 1 we will simply summarise our impressions of the high and low points and compare our predictions from yesterday. Remember that these predictions are not necessarily our personal preferences.
Starting with our predictions .... Drew scored 7 out of 10, ... he predicted Cyprus, Latvia and Israel to qualify (they didn't) and he failed to predict Ukraine, Slovenia and Estonia (they did). Tam got 8 out of 10 .... he predicted Cyprus and Israel would go through (they didn't) and failed to predict Ukraine and Slovenia would qualify (they did).
Before we share our thoughts on last night's show and results, we want to show you pictorially the pre-show atmosphere and the buzz that seemed to be more than that for semi 1.
As you can see there were many fans from all nations taking part and the atmosphere was crazy. Just a footnote before we continue, ... as we aid in a previous blog, Drew had resigned himself to being an honorary Scotsman for the duration of Eurovision as despite his protestations that his kilt was a Cornish Tartan he was always greeted with being called Scottish.... HOWEVER, his day was made before going into the arena when a really nice chap approached Drew to say that he liked his Cornish Kilt \o/ Drew responded with a whoop of joy that finally someone recognised that he was sporting Cornwall's National Tartan.
There were more people in the arena it seemed than in semi 1 as we noticed people up in the higher seats. We saw the stage from a different angle as were situated to the side of it rather than front on. From here we were able to see how the stage was changed in between acts and all the effort and skill that goes into this. There is an army of technicians and workers all dressed in black that move props etc on and off the stage in very quick succession and to precise positioning on the stage. We noticed that there were green lasers pointing at the floor of the stage and also at performers and these were laser guides for the technicians when bringing props on stage so they knew where exactly to put particular items etc ....
Performances that we felt were very strong and went down well in the hall were Austria, Bosnia, Sweden, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Romania and Israel. Ireland did go down well in the hall but we have to say we are not particular fans of this.
Unlike Semi Final 1 we do not feel there any particular shocks for example Norway, and this probably reflects that this was quite a strong semi final and a number of countries could have qualified.
After the results were announced there was the usual mad dash by all the assorted press from the arena to the press centre for the press conferences and choosing of starting position. Again it seemed to us that the press centre was more jam packed than in semi 1.
Here is a list of where each finalist will be singing from on Saturday night after the draw to choose their slot:
1. Finland
2. Bosnia-Herzegovina
3. Denmark
4. Lithuania
5. Hungary
6. Ireland
7. Sweden
8. Estonia
9. Greece
10. Russia
11. France
12. Italy
Break
13. Switzerland
14. United Kingdom
15. Moldova
16. Germany
17. Romania
18. Austria
19. Azerbaijan
20. Slovenia
21. Iceland
22. Spain
23. Ukraine
24. Serbia
25. Georgia
We are sure some countries are delighted with their draw while others are not so happy. Amongst die hard eurovision fans, theses have been written about the importance of the order from which a country sings, but at the end of the day a really good song will win from no matter where they start. We are sure others will disagree with that but one can drive oneself crazy working out permutations about where one is singing from! however, we are quite happy about the starting position for the UK ... could be better but it could have been much worse!
Off to a Eurovision Boat trip tonight where Nikki French among others will be appearing ... will report back on that later.
