EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2013: Semifinal 1 - VOTE IN THE POLL!

[DannyDS]

A final without Balkan countries for once won't hurt

 

[dezbee2008]

So I got 7/10 right and 6 out of my SF1 top 10 qualified. Not bad.

I can't wait for Semi Final 2, but first, I must mourn Montenegro and Serbia...

 

[ParadiseES]

Not bad nor really surprising results.

There is just one thing that pisses me out: Belgium in and Austria out. Austria had a better song, better vocals and better performance. I smell juries helped Belgium to do a Malta 2012. It seems juries love these kind of dated cheesy entries.

Estonia wasn't within my favourites either, but I reckon Birgit had a very strong performance, so I have nothing to complain here. I thought Serbia and/or Croatia were going to qualify (poor Balkans) and maybe Lithuania was a little surprise, but I like the song and they had many "friend" countries voting here.

The rest was quite predictable, just change Austria for Belgium!

 

[FallenAngelII]

Eveything I've seen tonight has just reinforced my belief that Denmark is winning this on Saturday. Great performance, fans going crazy and a late draw.

Malmö is practically Danish. In fact, it used to be danish. A lot of Swedes wish it (Skåne) was returned to Denmark.

Denmark is, like, a 10 minute car ride away (there's a bridge connecting Malmö with Copenhagen).

I feel like originality isn't appreciated in ESC... so many original, authentic entries failed yet so many copy-paste, cheesy ones qualified.

You're confusing "original, authentic" with "automatically good" and "makes for interesting TV". Being "original and authentic" does not automatically make a song good. Also, even if a song is good, it doesn't mean it will automatically make for good TV.

You know why Croatia didn't qualify and why I knew for a fact they wouldn't? Because their performance was boring. And that often nets you something close to last place. None of the performers really tried to connect to the TV audience. They were either staring into space or at each other. It was also choir singing, which doesn't really make for riveting TV. Joe Blow, often watching the contest with friends and/or family, will instantly stop paying attention and start talking with their friends and/or family if they come across a boring entry, probably about how great some other entry they just saw was.

You could literally not look at the screen and miss absolutely nothing. Sure, it sounds nice, but at the end of the day, how many people who don't speak Croatian are going to remember them after hearing and seeing them (do absolutely nothing but sand around singing) only once?

You cannot in 2013 come to Eurovision and do what Croatia did and expect to do well, especially not in a semi-final with entries that were visually spectacular or at least interesting. Is it fair? Perhaps not. Not it's how things are nowadays.

Also, what entries besides Croatia's do you claim were "original, authentic"?

There is just one thing that pisses me out: Belgium in and Austria out. Austria had a better song, better vocals and better performance. I smell juries helped Belgium to do a Malta 2012. It seems juries love these kind of dated cheesy entries.

Going by past precedence, chances are the juries favoured Austria more than they favoured Belgium.

 

[vavera4ka]

Not really.
Personally, I'm discontent that it qualified, due to the fact that it's too bland to make it to the final.
Serbia, Slovenia or Austria were much better than Lithuania.

see, it's all matter of opinion. i loved Lithuania. it's my top 5. it grew on me like nothing else before. my reaction to it on the first listen after it was selected was WTF? but now i love it...
whereas Slovenia... for one she was painfully off key. i have a pretty good ear and even 1/4 note off hurts me. that was excruciating. plus... would they stop with dubstep already? i don't want to listen to robots having sex every other entry. it's like half the countries' thought process was "hmm, our song is kinda regular, what can we do to make it different so it stands out? oh I KNOW DUBSTEP! no one will ever think of that! we are golden! >_> )
Serbia was ok, but nowhere near up to their usual level. I'm spoiled by really good Serbian songs from the past

 

[Steffan]

Well I certainly did not see Belgium, Lithuania and Estonia coming... I thought Serbia would be a sure qualifier, and surprisingly Slovenia, since it broke the boringness of the start of the show... Most of the main faves are trough tho, so it will be an interesting final... My faves last night were Anouk and Solayoh

 

[Kristina]

Imagine this...this year I listened to almost none of the songs before, I somehow missed the show and saw it from the 13th song on But...I guessed 9/10 qualifiers


Based ONLY on the recaps shown last night I had as sure qualifiers:






(cause the recap was very energetic)


And as lameish qualifiers to fill the gap in a weak semi:



(cause I realised it's Anouk, but from the short recap the song sounded kinda voided of energy and lame :$)


were total outsiders, was boring and said nothing, was boooring though she had a good voice.


So with and left, one of them had to make it, I chose


So there you go, 9/10 just from seeing the recaps

 

[ethn]

I guess I m really bad at predicting.........................For me the results last night were rather surprising!!!!!!!!!!!Unfo my laptop crashed last night so I missed all the comments here, I will read later on, but from the last couple of pages I read, your judgement at predicting seems far better than mine....All ex Soviet in, all ex-Yogoslavian out,wow!

Cant say I m very happy with the results, I certainly feel Cyprus should have qualified, Despoina was soooo classy,very good voice, good(guess bit boring for some yes,but overall good) ballad, and she seemed to have received a Great applause in the stadium.......Belgium was certainly a shock passing (for me) Lithuania as well (although I personally liked the song) Esthonia and Ireland were also songs I wasnt expecting to pass........Certainly happy that the Netherlands qualified because I love the song (ALTHOUGH I still feel Annouk's presence on stage was NOT appealing)

 

[cassio]

8/10 So the result didn't surprice me that much

 

[Odalis]

Ok, let’s talk about disappointments first.
I’m crying over Montenegro, they were so amazing, cameras worked perfectly on them, Nina nailed every freaking note and did look stunning and in with the performance theme. Now I wanna see split results, I am sure that juries are responsible for this disgrace. I hope Montenegro will not withdraw the next year, they keep making me happy and excited with their unusual entries

Now the rest.
I guessed 8/10 or 9/10 cause I had a Lithuania/Croatia doubt.
Austria: the result was predictable, nothing to complain about, they performed first and the song is good but not strong enough to make it through.
Estonia: Birgit looked marvelous and it all was extremely sweet, I had my fingers crossed for her!
Slovenia: meh, I knew she wouldn’t make it through right from the start, awful song and an uncharismatic singer, she had panic in her eyes. Choreography was nice though and cameras worked in it’s advantage.
Croatia: that’s a cure for my soul this year but yeah, I have to admit it’s not appealing to mass listener and the singers were very nervous, it showed.
Denmark: predictable. She was nervous too though.
Russia: it did look great, especially the moment with those bracelets all over the arena. Good. Predictable.
Ukraine: with all those changes they have been constantly making and hammering nails in the coffin of victory I am not surprised it looked awkward and unconvincing. I’m lining Ukraine out of the potential winners list.
The Netherlands: dunno, after this performance I thought she may not get through cause it was very boring to me, vocals were shaky and she didn’t even look into the cam…ah well, fortunately, the song is strong enough to speak for itself.
Montenegro: my pain They by all means should have been in the finals!
Lithuania: how come? How come 3 years in a row Lithuania sends something totally indigestible and manages to get through? The last time they sent something I loved (2010) they failed! The last year's effort was at least memorable and the 2011 entry had strong vocals juries love, what do they have this year besides charismatic singer? Gee. Lithuania, share a secret with Montenegro, you said you promised yourself to tell, instead you’re falling apart
Belarus: predictable, they worked hard on it, it looked and sounded good.
Moldova: that dress is impressive, even my boringly skeptical and sarcastic husband said WOW Predictable.
Ireland: the show was great, nothing more to add, I’m glad it made through.
Cyprus: expected.
Belgium: GRRRRRRRRRRR, how did this “little boy with bad vocals, boring song and eyes full of primitive fear like he’s near to passing out” make through? They did work hard on the entry, I give it to them, but…he took Montenegro’s spot in the final, period.
Serbia: expected. They did not look good and the whole devil-angel concept was ruined, people just didn’t get why those two girls are fighting for this one girl.

My prediction was:

Ukraine
Belarus
The Netherlands
Montenegro
Denmark
Croatia/Lithuania
Russia
Ireland
Estonia
Moldova

Now about a good thing!


Sweden, THANK YOU. The stage looks ravishing, camera work is just as perfect as it can be, you didn’t ruin a single second with bad angles, I remember myself swearing and cursing over camera work in Dusseldorf and Baku. That’s no doubt the best production of past years. I soooo cannot wait to see SF2 and the Final to admire it once again!

 

[aletem]

Croatia's entry was not made for TV. It's nice and all, but it made for boring TV. And the Eurovision audience want to be entertained with a show as well as a song. They barely looked at the cameras, at all, so it was all very detached and the very opposite of a personal performance.

Eurovision is about diversity, not about sending uptempo songs and becoming the parallel version of MTV (something that I would hate to happen). The song was classy and intriguing. Plus, there is an audience for that. Unfortunately it didn't qualify. I expected them to get points from Austria, Italy, the 3 ex-yu amigos, Russia, Ukraine and maybe even Belarus, to snatch them through.

 

[SilentDawn]

I have a question... when will it be revealed at what place everybody ended in this semifinal?

 

[Odalis]

I have a question... when will it be revealed at what place everybody ended in this semifinal?

After the finals, they usually publish split SF results in about 2-3 weeks after the contest ends.

 

[SilentDawn]

Thank you (:

 

[NemesisNick]

No yugoslav country managed to qualify. Only one left is Macedonia, and Im pretty sure they'll fail. 2013 will be a year to use when arguing against block voting

I'm really surprised that none of last night's four ex-Yugoslavia countries (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia or Montenegro) reached the final. I'd have thought they'd have all voted for each other and thus awarded each other 8, 10 and 12 points (jury and televotes combined).

I really wanted Croatia to go through, they had an excellent ballad which was very well sung. One of the best songs of the night in my opinion; I actually voted for it. As far as I was concerned, it was the adult kids' version of the CBeebies Goodnight Song.

On the other hand, thank God Montenegro is out! Their entry was a load of utter garbage. I'm appalled and disgusted they chose that to represent their country this year in the first place. It didn't belong in the semi-final, let alone the final. Had it reached the final, it would have beeen a disgrace to the final. The EBU ought to introduce a new rule prohibiting any country from entering anything like that in future.

Why all hate so much Lithuanian Song?

Well I was shocked that Lithuania qualified. Their ballad wasn't bad, but I wasn't overly keen on it. I thought Austria and Croatia were better than Lithuania, and one of those deserved the place Lithuania took. Mind you although I personally wasn't overly keen on Lithuania's entry (song 10 in the line-up), when it was sung immediately after Montenegro (song 9), I felt it was an order of magnitude better than Montenegro's aforementioned utter garbage. My impression is that a lot of other viewers felt the same; hearing Andrius Pojavis singing "Something" seemed a first class A1 song compared to the rubbish that Montenegro put in. Perhaps if Lithuania had performed a few songs later (song 15 or 16) it might not have qualified.

 

[euronut]

I have to say I really don't like the venue, stage or lighting. Everything this year looks so dark and cramped. The green room carpet was an awful brown mess and everything looks so gloomy and dark. I much prefer the open nature of Azerbaijan and Dusseldorf. Although the audience was better in Stockholm than Azerbaijan.

Overall I am pretty disappointed with what the Swedes have done. Even Petra Mede seems like a bad choice. Her style is really weird and awkward. Give me Gina Dirawi any day.

 

[doctormalisimo]

On the other hand, thank God Montenegro is out! Their entry was a load of utter garbage. I'm appalled and disgusted they chose that to represent their country this year in the first place. It didn't belong in the semi-final, let alone the final. Had it reached the final, it would have beeen a disgrace to the final. The EBU ought to introduce a new rule prohibiting any country from entering anything like that in future.

Moldova's qualification was a disgrace. I hope the EBU bans ballads from the competition because I don't like ballads.

There, you see how ridiculous you sound?

 

[NemesisNick]

Moldova's qualification was a disgrace. I hope the EBU bans ballads from the competition because I don't like ballads.

There, you see how ridiculous you sound?

Well I personally think the sort of thing Montenegro entered this year doesn't belong in the Eurovision Song Contest. Do you really call the mish-mash of rap and heavy metal, which they performed last night, singing? I call it utter garbage.

 

[doctormalisimo]

Well I personally think the sort of thing Moldova entered this year doesn't belong in the Eurovision Song Contest. Do you really call the mish-mash of ballad and jazz, which they performed last night, singing? I call it utter garbage.

I've just changed Montenegro to Moldova. Still don't see how ridiculous you're being?

Well I personally think the sort of thing Belarus entered this year doesn't belong in the Eurovision Song Contest. Do you really call the mish-mash of latin and pop, which they performed last night, singing? I call it utter garbage.

Did the same for Belarus

Well I personally think the sort of thing Ireland entered this year doesn't belong in the Eurovision Song Contest. Do you really call the mish-mash of celtic and dance, which they performed last night, singing? I call it utter garbage.

...and for Ireland.

Your point is equally invalid in all of these cases.

 

[Matt]

Our thoughts on the Semi-Final 1 non-qualifiers | escunited.com