This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
Blimey!!!! I can’t really believe what I’ve just seen. It just goes to show that you can watch this contest and every year it continues to surprise.
That was the first semi-final of the 56th Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf, and the ten qualifiers were announced in this order: Serbia, Lithuania, Greece, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland, Russia and Iceland. That wasn’t the final ranking, however. The qualifiers were decided by a combination of public televoting and national juries, with voting also taking place in Italy, France and Germany.
The resistance was sitting among their comrades, safe in the knowledge it wasn’t in action tonight. So, my views on tonight:
- Russia – no surprise there. Alexej Vorobjov finished ninth with “Get You”, on 64 points.
- Greece – the same. Loucas Yiorkas feat. Stereo Mike eventually won the semi-final with “Watch My Dance”, scoring 133 points.
- Serbia – woo-hoo! Nina qualified in eighth place with “Čaroban”, collecting 67 points. A particularly welcome result.
- Switzerland – about time. Anna Rossinelli scraped through in tenth place with “In Love for a While”, on 55 points.
- Lithuania – [pulls stunned face]. Evelina Sašenko’s “C’est Ma Vie” performed 17th, close to the end of the running order, and finished fifth with 81 points. So, in retrospect, the stunned face was entirely understandable – but it was a very solid result.
- Iceland – very pleased. Sjonni’s Friends finished fourth with “Coming Home”, on 100 points. That little wager is still good.
- Azerbaijan – was expected. Ell & Nikki finished second with “Running Scared”, scoring 122 points.
- Finland – bound to, given how well he sang tonight. Paradise Oskar’s “Da Da Dam” came third with 103 points.
- Hungary – she can obviously rise to the occasion when necessary. Kati Wolf finished seventh with “What About My Dreams?”, on 72 points.
- Georgia – good to see rock has a place in the contest. Eldrine’s “One More Day” finished sixth with 74 points.
No doubt I’ll have more thoughts when I’ve slept on it and we’ve seen the draw.
Looking back from after the draw, the qualifiers were given these grand-final positions: Finland first, Lithuania fourth, Hungary fifth, Georgia ninth, Russia tenth, Greece 12th, Switzerland 13th, Azerbaijan 19th, Iceland 21st and Serbia 24th.
Sleep well, and let’s be careful out there.
