Résumé Semi-Final 2
Another great show, I am truly amazed how good the Italians are with their choice of entertainment acts. No wannabe funny movie clips, no overly artsy stuff.
On the other hand I'm still shocked how bad they are at stagecraft. The camera work was slightly better today, also the background with the black sun (well implemented I think) but what have they done to the audio once again? I have never ever experienced a Song Contest with such low audio quality and it harmed some contestants. Its peak was at Azerbaijan and Malta, both performing back to back, so they might have fixed it a bit after them but it was still not good. The vocals have been changing throughout the songs from loud to soft and vice versa.
The songs!
Some songs which I didn’t expect to be that good were Israel and Ireland. At one point I thought they‘d even have a chance to qualify. I loved MDB's energy but while I enjoyed it right before the voting it was quite unfair at the same time and I don’t know why the hosts did not remove him. Funny he did not qualify despite his self-promo.
Best voices tonight were Australia and Poland, both delivered an amazing, flawless performance.
Some songs that did not work for me live as much as I hoped for/liked it: Serbia, Finland & Azerbaijan. At some point I was worrying about all of them NQ'ing. Serbia was way too static and Azerbaijan looked pale. It’s still one of my favourite songs but Nadir‘s voice seemed a bit strained by now. Laurie was nervous af at the beginning but thankfully found his energy back later. His outfit was doubtful either.
Talking about doubtful looks… San Marino sounded well but I just can’t with his outfit and oversexualized behaviour. Just like Albania I somehow disliked the show (and I‘m not prude at all). Sorry to say but I‘m glad he didn’t make it. The song was ok.
Georgia was pretty lacklustre, so was Belgium (who pushed that through???) and Cyprus, though the chorus was actually pretty nice. I really thought she‘d made it. And I learnt that Andromache was born in the same city as me, OMG! She is from my hometown, where I lived half my life, how crazy is that (and that’s not even a big or well-known city in Germany. Some may know, some not.)!!!
Sweden still left me cold and I also can’t understand the hype about Czech Republic. Or is it because they are the only bop that made it, apart from Spain? I think despite her improvement Domi sounded rather weak and couldn’t transfer the energy to the stage but I like the song and I think it’s great they‘re through. I don’t see them in the top 10 though.
I wish I could love Montenegro more than I did because I lost my mum to Covid too last year. And my mum introduced me to Eurovision, she was such a big fan too. So I cried during Valedana‘s performance and she was so lovely and I wish she had made it but the song was a bit too generic for me, standard Eastern Eurovision ballad.
Sad for my girl Andrea, she really deserved the final! Flawless performance, great voice.
Happy that Estonia made it. I voted multiple times for this, I liked his performance a lot (I think this would have been my mum‘s favorite).
I‘m looking forward to the GF because I have SO MANY favourites in it and that doesn’t even include UK or France, which I love too. I think I must be very spontaneous with my votes on Saturday and let my heart decide … calling for more than 3-4 does not make much sense.
