More surprises were unveiled as the results from the second semi-final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest were announced last night (see above). What some believed to be cast iron pre-show predictions, instead turned out to be as reliable as a chocolate teapot.
I include myself among those who believed that 2013 was the year for San Marino to finally qualify. How wrong were we? Very wrong, as it turned out. Valentina Monetta's second valiant attempt to be included in Saturday's Final failed. How badly, we don't know as yet...but, even so, there is now talk of San Marino withdrawing from next year's competition.
After withdrawing last year, Armenia unexpectedly bounced back to become one of the ten qualifiers. The Tony Iommi composed Lonely Planet was never considered to be a strong contender, but Dorians pulled off the second surprise of the evening amid some ugly booing.
No booing for Hungary though. ByeAlex was the first qualifier to be announced and they seemed as surprised as many pundits. I've made no secret of my liking for this simple toe tapper and was very pleased to see it progress. All of that online promotion by Alex Márta has really paid off.
Last to perform was the Romanian entry and, much to my despair, Europe decided to put this monstrosity through. Cezar and his performance has had much publicity during the lead up to the semi-finals and his novelty factor paid handsomely on the night. There were a couple of other more deserving songs, but obviously the public and the juries saw it differently.
All in all, this semi-final was a disappointment. Only three or four of the songs are credible successors to Loreen's title. In the frame are, I believe: Azerbaijan, Finland (coming up on the rails) and my winner from these ten, Norway. Greece will cheer up a lot of voters, but not enough to worry the front runners.
So to the final. Do any of the songs from Thursday's semi-final include your choice of winner?
San Marino was the shock for me - I don't know what they can do in future, apart from demand that Italy are able to vote in their SF! Armenia is the real surprise, Hungary was always a possible qualifier whilst I thought Cezar could get through IF he nailed his performance, which he did.
ReplyDeleteOnly Norway and Azerbaijan really have a chance of winning from SF2, to go with Denmark and Ukraine from SF1.
I managed 7 out of 10 this time with 5 out of 6 definite choices qualifying (guess which one didn't!)