ESC week | Friday | Final | Jury Show

So you already know the proceedings if you've read Sild's earlier post (and if you haven't, you should), so I'll try to focus on how they played for the juries and my general 'feel'. I've even stopped a dishwasher half way (sacrilege!) to be able to hear vocal performances.

Televote reveal is done fairly professionally, although Chantal does a 2018-style mistake and reveals points before she needs to. That's what rehearsals are for, right? Norway also wins the televote and therefore will host the jury final next year. The woman who's supposed to be TIX is obviously fake because the winning speech is less than 10 minutes. Thank you for reading!

Jury voting and obviously some of the spokespersons aren't the ones who will be on tomorrow (pretty sure the Israeli "Lucy" is a guy, but not going to assume anyone's gender). The singers are no longer there. The Slovenian spokesperson taught Chantal how to say dober večer properly and she recited it, let's all hope she gets it right tomorrow. Also, note to spokespersons:

STOP SAYING GOOD MORNING AUSTRALIA THEY'RE NOT EVEN IN THE FINAL THIS YEAR AND WILL WATCH THE RETUN IF AT ALL

Barbara is still fabulous. Schöneberger that is. Daði at the hotel room is quite fun when he gets fake 12s. And Norway is the fake jury favourite.

Countdown wait, the votes are still open?? Ok but it's made of people and is the best countdown ever (at least since Nana Muskhuri got hit by an hourglass). Very very cool.

Pre-infection Duncan has a nice new song, unlike Sild I think it would have finished about 17th if it competed tonight.

More interval act and Måns (oh, you again) is on some roof. As are some other winners that we haven't seen in every Eurovision event ever since they won. This is quite well done. And Lordi have new masks.

More interval act and Nikkie's tips video is quite fun, although it's already starting to feel like a very long night. Also, Ruslana is hilarious.

Interval act is pretty effective DJ stuff aimed at the general population watching ESC. The producers know their audience well, like they did yesterday for a the semi viewers...

Snabbis and clips that draw my attention from the computer are Eden's whistle, Malta, Switzerland, Natalia's YeEeEeaghgh, Lithuania, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Italy and San Marino. Make of it what you will.

San Marino that was an obvious qualifer feels a bit weak after so many strong entries. FloRida must have mistaken himself with FloRea because he tried to eat Senhit's cheek in the end.

Sweden's Tusse is still a nice kid and still pronounces very long Ns. Mostly good but missed a note in the keychange. Tix liked it (or, liked to show himself given the chance)

Italy and it's hard to type because it's just so engaging. This is the energy the night needed. They added a "put your hands up Rotterdam" which I don't think is necessary. Massive reaction.

Netherlands I missed the postcard (forgive me), but Jeangu looks ecstatic to perform and is once again vocally perfect and oozing charisma. Audience somehow managed to get some flags blocking our view. I didn't miss that.

Norway is hard to make sense of - feels a bit out of place in this grand final, and yet feels like something every Eurovision final needs to have. He sang fine and took off his shades again. Audience wasn't impressed, but Hurricane waved their flags to it.

Azerbaijan after 3 vocally perfect entries is a reminder that not everyone is. I'm having fun and so is the arena, but pretty sure jurors without dishwashers will be more critical about this.

France could just as well be live-on-tape with this intimate staging. Fans of this song will be happy to know that Barbara was perfect vocally. I still think it's too repetitive and over-the-top, but there's an applause in the end, including by Jendrik & co.

Ukraine stands out a mile from everything we've seen. Their jury result is difficult to predict but televote-wise this is very, very dangerous. Roar in Ahoy, standing ovation by Manizha.

Lithuanians are competent as ever, but feels kind of tired and weak surrounded by giants. Hard to tell if it's because it's the same as it's been since January or is it because that's what it is. Still, big audience reaction. Blind Channel weren't very impressed.

Bulgaria is still very brown and very sugary. Not perfect vocally and she still says "growing hup". But this will have its audience. Eden liked it.

Break and Edsilia is up in the commentator boxes. Sadly not in the Belgian one to inspect the broken plexiglass.

Finland is a contrast to Germany in every aspect possible. Sounding the same as it always did, big in the hall. Not sure if in the end it was a thank-you or a cough.

Germany's postcard has a lot of sand. Jendrik is singing better than most of the earlier rehearsals I've seen (or did Natalia lower my standards?). The song still exhausts me after 10 seconds. Near mute audience. In the end, Jendrik adds "Thank you! Thank you for slkadlaklshfdkajdfhkhasf"

Moldova qualifying probably means that some jurors still had their dishwasher on. We're getting some Chantal after the postcard. Natalia is still nowhere near a tune, but visually does the job.

Spain's postcard has puppies in Blas's arms and that's surely worth 50 televote points alone? Spot-on and emotional performance, although with some camera angles the moon looked like it's about to hit him.

Iceland gets a very loud supportive audience reaction. The rest, you know.

Switzerland's Tears still looks like everyone's aunt and is singing brilliantly. This is really standing out in this draw after so several ordinaries.

Greece still has the best colour scheme. Stefania swallawed a few words at the start but otherwise good enough. Huge audience reaction as expected.

United Kingdom's James is once again in black leather and vertical stripes. Not fully in tune and quite breathy at times, but this does have good energy. Destiny sees herself on the screen and then decides to show an applause.

Break has short clips of fans lipsyncing to some clasic ESC songs as well as El Diablo, which already feels like it was on forever ago.

Serbia may be separated by Portugal from Malta, but is still a bit too close for comfort. Will one of these suffer? This is still competently performed glorious trash with all the hair.

Portugal still sounds like it does and and makes a perfect contrast to Malta musically and visually. Polite applause by Hooverphonic.

Malta is on and any rumours that they don't need to put an effort tonight because their jury score was guaranteed months ago are not true, or they are and nobody told Destiny, because she's fantastic. Great audience reaction too.

Russia brings back the party that Israel started, the audience is clapping along the intro. Manizha's on top form, this feels like something many viewers will enjoy but not necessarily vote for.

Belgium, just like in the semi, draws my attention off the blog editor as soon as the first notes kick in. Geike is once again great and this is hard to ignore, even if it drags on a bit.

Israel is first to get a big audience reaction when the song starts. Good vocal performance by Eden, but she still can't pronounce the letter R. General feel: Eurovision has properly started, and this is the buildup for something better.

Albania I can see why bloggers complained about the overload of red in the first two songs. At least the blue (turquoise? green? teal? mint? Linda Martin-dress?) smoke effect makes for something different visually. And once again I cannot fault Anxhela's vocals. I think she said "Thank you Eurobash" in the end 🤔

Cyprus sounds about the same as in the semi (mostly competent vocally, poor diction). General impression: rather ordinary.

Intro is a short video and straight to the flag parade which starts after less than 3 minutes. Quite efficient, so have your snacks ready. The real Senhit and Flo are here. Presenters are dress very festively Chantal's dress kina looks like this year's Eurovision logo, but in gold.

ESC week | Wednesday | Second Semi-Final | Jury Show

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Here I am again. This is quite exciting, I don't think I've ever seen a jury show before. At least not since they were "jury shows". Most likely I have witnessed a good old second dress rehearsal back in the day.

Anyhoo...

It's starting! I see a windmill!

People are dancing. Whatevs. 

The crowd are cheering Chantal's French. A lot.

SPOILER: Edsilia said 10 great songs will qualify. 

🇸🇲 | San Marino

"Good Evening Europe! Are you ready to...[incomprehensible]?"

Hard to say anything that hasn't been said. It has everything you could possibly want and must the most perfect show opener ever. If it qualifies and draws first half...would they dare?

Miss Hit is sounding better than before and just looks *so* happy to be here. Mr Rida is, well, here. And wearing some shorts the BBC had going spare.

🇪🇪 | Estonia

I'm not saying this sounds flat coming after the Most Serene Entry. But well.

OK, let's be positive: It's not that bad.

🇨🇿 | Czech Republic

He's rather breathy. And not in a good way. Yeah, just doing his thing. Enjoyable, but not spectacular.

But the smile at the end. I'm gonna have to distract Sild with a huge bottle of rosé and then steal Benny.

🇬🇷 | Greece

Sounding good. Finds the camera. Every time.

I think the whole green screen effect looks a bit...cheap? But it's a talking point and keeps your attention.

Senhit seen cheering wildly from the Most Serene Green Room. 

🇦🇹 | Austria

He really feels this. And you can hear every word so clearly. If this isn't sweeping up jury votes than I don't know what is.

And there's those lights. Oooh, the lights.

EMOCIÓN

🇵🇱 | Poland

The opposite of emotion. 

Positive: I needed to go and fill up my glass. Yes, drinking on the job again.

*break*

It's Molly Sandén talking about appearing at Eurovision. Hmm.

🇲🇩 | Moldova

The juries won't like those opening "vocals".

Yeah, it's a good job that this isn't the kind of song that needs amazing vocals. And that makes the looooong last note even more conspicuous. Still, this still basically does what it says on the tin. Or packet.

🇮🇸 | Iceland

I can literally point you to my rehearsal blog from Thursday!

Still smiling. And there are *lots* of nicely added cheers. And a crowd shot at the end. Fits in seamlessly.

🇷🇸 | Serbia

Ok, I'm feeling it more now. Actually makes me want to bop this time. Might be the wine. Sanja managing to look happy while singing the big notes, rather than angry, and that's not easy.

Likely qualifier, and then just watch it sweep up the Balkan votes in the final.

🇬🇪 | Georgia

Talking of wine.

Mountain, I wanna feel you. #ThatsWhatSheSaid

This is very dark. And I don't think the juries will appreciate some of those notes.

OK, he recovered. It is quite soothing after the Serbian tempest. So props to the running order peeps.

 🇦🇱 | Albania

  

Albania in red-and-black staging shocker.

Not her best vocals in places. This song will have its rosé-drinking audience. But that's not me.

🇵🇹 | Portugal

We already know I am the anti-Sild. So yes, I really like this.

Masterful staging, which you've probably all seen from clips. legal and otherwise. He sounds like he sounds. This is what this is.

Like Albania really, this is either your thing or it's not.

*finally another break* I'm quite exhausted.

Oh, yay, It's La Paparizou. Now, laugh!

🇧🇬 | Bulgaria

Hmm, postcard and then Chantal talking and then a weird video with Duncan Laurence talking about music.

And then to Victoria.

The sand thing doesn't really work. She looked scared to touch it. And then you could see the bucket being hoisted away.

She is a very engaging performer though. And even smiles at the end. Yay!

🇫🇮 | Finland

Straight from postcard to performance. Hooray!

This evening's theme is songs which have their audience. And this got a very loud cheer.

🇱🇻 | Latvia

*turns down volume*

Hmm, not sure that was the right key, Samanta?

Goodness, it pains me to say this, as I love Samanta and rather like this song, but this could see Latvia back to its golden days of last place in the semi.

🇨🇭 | Switzerland

This is nothing like as busy as I was expecting from reports and previous clips.

It is a bit like a supersized version of Paul Rey's staging from this year's MF though.

Sings well, obvi. And manages some smiles too, which really help.

🇩🇰 | Denmark

To quote someone from the online press centre chat: "As if the stage has been made exclusively for them."

Jesper singing better than in the Danish final.

*clap clap*

So that went quickly. Everyone except Latvia is qualifying.

Aww, Iceland in the hotel lobby for their green room shot in the reprise. ❤️

Interval: It's a bit like Ola & Barbro from Eurovision 63 (only Ola & Ola). And one of the Olas is shirtless.

They have food in the green room. 

Edsilia: Have you spoken to Katrina?

James: No.

Edsilia: Oh...Embers..I've never used that word

James: It means the bit of the fire that's still burning

Edsilia: Oh.

Having just had the chat and clips of the finalists, they will now get to perform in full.

🇫🇷 | France

Nothing new to report from this performance, apart from a slight giggle in between all the Voilàs.

🇬🇧 | United Kingdom

A minute's delay before this to do some "flame checks".

He's swapped the gold outfit for plain black. Other than that, he's doing his best, bless.

🇪🇸 | Spain

"Our stage hands are working hard."  I don't think they'll be putting the UK and Spain next to each other on Saturday.

The vocal/music mix here feels a bit off.

Hahaha. He offers us a "here we go" before the big notes (which he hits perfectly).

I doubt you want to know about the announcement of the fake qualifiers, so I shall bid you a good night. Enjoy tomorrow!

ESC week | Monday | First Semi-Final | Jury Show

Good evening from the Irish press centre! Ben and escgo.com already gave you most of the details, so I'll focus on how they fared during money time and fresh overall impressions.

As semis go, most of us have probably guessed correctly at least 8 qualifiers - tomorrow is all about the 4-5 borderliners. Oh, there's also someone in it who used to be a favourite to win for most of the season. That feels like forever ago, I'm not quite sure that ever happened...

Rolling blog refresh etc.

Netherlands

I'm enjoying this quite a lot now that I expected the photobomber. What a difference can advanced knowledge make!

Germany

This song really isn't intended for hearing more than once. This is one of those moments that I ask myself why I'm doing this...

Italy

Well, me thinking that Malta can win lasted about 30 minutes. Confusing year.

Things while waiting for results

Again I won't give out too many details, but overall it feels like... A Eurovision semifinal. Which is exactly what we needed.

Nikkie is the best host, Edsilia is good too (if a bit overenthusiastic, but that's her). The other two are fillers.

I take that back - While waiting for technical issues, Chantal is improvising a song about Måneskin. I hope she'll be this fun in the real show.

Snabbrepris

Most of them picked the chorus (sensible), except Russia (the ethnic bit), Israel (the screetch) and Malta (the Excuse my French part). Belgium used the end of the chorus, which is a bit strange. Well, North Macedonia doesn't have a chorus, so it's just some random part of the song.

Malta #2

I'm not sure why she's performing again, nothing was wrong with the first go. Did the jury stop listening after the Ukrainian earpiece issue? And this one is just fine too, for a while I thought this might be a replay of the first go but no, she says "thank you once again" in the end. And maybe the last note was a bit better.

Ukraine #2

I thought Kateryna's angry face had to do with the earpiece malfunction, but she's doing it again so it must be part of the act. Flawless performance.

Romania #2

Ah, this is what it's supposed to sound like? Well, mostly, still a few shaky vocals. It's alright for what it's trying to be, but she kinda looks like Semiha Yankı in that dress (not that most viewers will notice)

Greenroom

Some questions while we wait for Romania and Ukraine to perform again.

Chantal: Did you enjoy your moment?
Eden: Yes, I loved Destiny!

Malta #1

We see the postcard and then Chantal. Is this intended? 

I wasn't so impressed on Thursday, but Destiny has brought back her game for the juries and looks and sounds great. Not writing this off just yet.

Ukraine #1

Kateryna & co are starting great but also running into some earpiece issues. What's going on? She deals with it much better than Roxen did. The ending is sheer brilliance.

Azerbaijan

Efendi isn't brilliant vocally (but she has the best draw possible to be average), overall it feels not bad but perhaps not as energetic as Cyprus and Israel were.

Romania #1

Starts off not terrible (what were the bloggers on about), but becomes worse and worse and out of sync as the song goes...

Israel

As some of my colleagues mentioned, this is lacking close-ups, we see too much of the group and too little of Eden's face. Mostly competent singing by her, even if not perfect.

Another break after the song, I guess they need time to roll Eden's hair off the stage.

Belgium

Wow, this is really working, drawing my attention after a lot of generic Pop. Geike sounds great and although I was sceptical about its chances before I now think it's a standout.

Croatia

I hear actual loud cheers from the arena (possibly from 3 very loud Croatian fans). There's absolutely nothing wrong with this performance, she's just fine. Whether I'll remember it in 6 songs' time is another matter.

Norway

Not much to say since we all know exactly what it looks like, and even if he's had too much 17 May champagne we'll never know because the backings do most of the work anyway. In this lineup it feels ok, though not really exciting. The only new thing is taking off his shades to show some fake eye ticks, which is kinda silly (but some may be touched...)

Cyprus

A straightforward Pop song feels exactly like what we needed. Strong performance by Elena, I still have no idea what she's singing though.

Ireland

This looks like story time for the kids. An interesting concept artistically, but a bit amateurish for this kind of big event. She's likeable, shame she can't sing.

North Macedonia

Vasil is very very very emotional. He's having his moment. I'm struggling to care, but good for him. The recorded choir is overproduced and really isn't working for this. He's also failing on some low notes towards the end.

There's a small break after, since some of you don't want spoilers I won't give details (but it's not that interesting really)

Australia

If you didn't tell me that she's not there I probably wouldn't notice, but wonder why she's a bit louder than everyone else and why the background looks so cheap. There's not a lot happening apart from some dancing and a blur effect, this could really have done with some forbidden confetti.

Sweden

The voice is mostly fine at the start, later it cracked a couple of times and was a bit off during the high "can you hear" parts. Still overall competent-ish and I enjoyed it.

Russia

I expected more cheer (real or not) when she+dress are rolled on stage, disappointingly there was barely any. Manizha & co. are as pro as expected, but this is missing some audience energy during the song.

Slovenia

Mic volume problem with Ana sounding faint in the first half line, then suddenly becoming very loud. Unfortunately she doesn't sound that great for the rest of the song and this isn't the microphone's fault. This feels like a first week rehearsal. The good news: She was standing right above the middle of the explosion this time, so she got this right. Yay?

Lithuania

The Roop have been flawless from the start and this performance is no different, all they were missing was some audience energy and now they got it. You do kinda notice that some of the cheers are fake if you're looking for it, but I doubt most viewers will notice.

Intro

Ben was biased, but I can confirm that Netherlands is a beautiful country. Why there are horses on the beach, I'm not sure.

Duncan's new song isn't interesting, but the stage during it is spectacular. And the arena looks and feels full, you only notice that some of them are mannequins if you're looking for it. The fake cheers are much  more convincing than Vienna. Well done!

Nikkie is very tall.

S2 Jury Show

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh and scroll to update.

Norway - great camera shots for this, Rybak is in top form and making the most of it. Again, no trace of winner material for me, there's no wow here. Great opener nonetheless.

Romania - let's see if it's less of a train wreck than earlier, I'm assuming not.Well at least they got rid of the face paint, but that's like taking the lipstick off a corpse..not gonna make a whole lot of difference in the grand scheme of things. Nothing here is connecting or cohesive in any way, I can't see this in the top 10 unless eight others eat some bad seafood by tomorrow.

Serbia -  I thought their dress rehearsal went very well and this seems to be going ok as well, although vocally it's hitting some rough patches in the beginning. Going a bit off the rails now, the vocals are getting gradually worse and that angry bald man looks menacing on the close ups, but at least he's hitting his notes. Unfortunately, I think this is another ExYu ESC casualty.

San Marino -  robot placard reads Sometimes. Got time to fetch coffee from the vending machine - thanks SM.

Denmark -  their earlier rehearsal was great, expecting the same now. Yup, this is just as good as before, the staging and vocals here are superb. The audience are really into this too and will probs even more so tomorrow, much more than for any of the earlier entries. Definite qualifier.

Russia -  basically no one here sees this as qualifying, at least no one without relatives in Russia. They removed the dress fabric from the mike, but otherwise the same as earlier. Hardly any close ups on Julia and she does none of the heavy lifting w/the vocals. Ouch, her voice is trailing off with the closing vocals.

Commercial Break

Moldova - still superb, still fun, still qualifying.Can't emphasize enough how amazing this looks on screen.

Netherlands - much better camera shots than earlier, lots of close ups on Waylon who is in the same perfect vocals as before. He is such a natural performer, and his vocals are unbelievably great here. I think the juries will love this, even with the questionable dancing parts.

Australia -  Jessica needs to be as bubbly and vocally fantastic as earlier. No more red shoes! She's vocally on point as before and having a blast...gurl got her groove back. Yas! She is living every second of this and nice round of applause in the PC too to close it out.

Georgia - the guy who starts off looks and sounds as if he's about to burst in tears..can't explain this any other way. It a love or hate song, not much middle ground here. Vocally fine and nice camera shots, and can see this having an audience of fans.

Poland -  we didn't see much of this earlier due to technical booboos so I hope I get a better impression with this run. The lead singer borrowed my grandmother's necklace, or any grandmother's really. And indeed this is much better than the little I saw earlier, but the vocals are a bit patchy.

Malta -  this is kitchen sink territory, they are literally throwing every visual trick at this. It looks too messy to me, but vocally there's no issue here and she's a good performer. Oh, there's a woman in a white Spanx onesie, must've missed that earlier.

Commercial Break

Hungary - this was orgasmic perfection earlier, expecting the same here. And indeed it is. This will be tomorrow's Lithuania in terms of an odds sleeper shooting up on everyone's radar once all is said and done. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in ESC before, he's even more intense than earlier..may actually win this semi imho.

Latvia - doing what she needs to do, but unfortunately it's probably swallowed up by Hungary's intensity. I don't envy whoever comes on after Hungary on Saturday (Norway, please :-p)

Sweden - same as always, not missing a beat.

Montenegro -  same as before and not going anywhere. This wardrobe will make one interesting yard sale once they return home.

Slovenia - along with Hungary, this was my biggest surprise from the earlier rehearsal. The staging is so good, and I'm mega enjoying every second of this. I WANT THIS TO Q!

Ukraine -  always loved this and I expect this go to be just as amazing as earlier. The camera work has improved here as it has with several of the other acts, and Melovin is giving another perfect combo of vocal and visual. Juries gonna lap this up!

My qualifiers based on this run: Norway, Denmark, Moldova, Netherlands, Australia, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Slovenia, Ukraine