Semi Final 1 Results

Well, that was a good Semi Final over all. I got 9/10 correct in my prediction: I put Switzerland in the final draw, but it was actually Hungary. Those two songs were rather similar, but I still think that the Swiss should have qualified instead of the Hungarians, but it is the way it is.

Overall, I thought that a few songs were exceptionally strong:
Romania was by far my favourite. Excellent live performance, great staging and good singing. Possibly won the Semi. Russia came a relatively close second, with the Babushkas actually being very good vocally, too, so it all worked out great. The emphasis on the oldest, smallest babushka was worth gold. If there is anyone resisting Romania's domination, it's Russia.
Albania was simply stunning. Flawless. No comment needed for this piece of art.
Cyprus was strong, and I thought, one of the catchiest songs, along with "Zaleilah". Very good, confident performance and a deserving qualifier.
Denmark was very good, and Soluna was on top of her game. Good vocally, and overall a nice presentation of the song (which is a good song in the first place) ensured this sailed into the Final.
I thought Iceland was decent, but was slightly underwhelmed, to be honest. My friends were appalled at it, and especially when they qualified for the Final. Jonsi just looks too angry, while Greta looks too happy, so that creates a strange performance. I do not think this will do too well in the Final itself, but let's see.
Greece was pretty decent, and though I am not necessarily a fan of the song, it was well performed.

Everything else was not quite as satisfactory. Switzerland, Austria and Ireland were decent, but not quite as good as I hoped they'd be. Moldova was as expected, along with Hungary and Belgium and Finland. Israel was rather bad, with really strange facial expressions by the singer and everyone else. Latvia's song is just horrible and the whole staging was ridiculous and laughable. Her vocals were great, though. San Marino and Montenegro were both train wrecks, but I think Montenegro takes the "Trainwreck of the Semi" award, for sure. Rambo could have at least washed his hair. Gross.

Anyway, overall, quite a decent Semi Final, and I'm really happy with the results. I wish we could have switched Hungary with Switzerland, but other than that, it's all good. If anything, the Hungarian song is rather good, but just the staging and vocals weren't on par with what one'd expect. We'll see how they do on Saturday...

Peace!