Semi-Final 1 of Eurovision 2022 started with a “Sekret” as Albania’s Ronela Hajati twerked in the name of love. It ended with Armenia’s Rosa Linn singing in a house made of paper, symbolising the inner thoughts and worries that keep her up at night. In between, we saw grown Latvian men singing about eating salad, Austrians performing inside an industrial-sized halo and a pair of yellow wolves from outer space (via Norway) telling us to feed grandma a banana.
Seventeen sang, but when the results were tallied only ten made it through to Saturday night’s grand final.
Eurovision 2022: Semi-Final 1 Results (Qualifiers)
The qualifiers were announced in random order. Producers wont reveal the exact placement and breakdown of the countries until after the grand final. But for now we know the Top 10 acts who made the final…and the seven who didn’t.
Qualifiers
Switzerland: Marius Bear – “Boys Do Cry”
Armenia: Rosa Linn – “Snap”
Iceland: Systur – “Með hækkandi sól”
Lithuania: Monika Liu – “Sentimentai”
Portugal: MARO – “saudade, saudade”
Norway: Subwoolfer – “Give That Wolf A Banana”
Greece: Amanda Tenfjord – “Die Together”
Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – “Stefania”
Moldova: Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers – “Trenulețul”
Netherlands: S10 – “De Diepte”
Non-Qualifiers
Albania: Ronela Hajati – “Sekret”
Austria: LUM!X feat. Pia Maria – “Halo”
Bulgaria: Intelligent Music Project – “Intention”
Croatia: Mia Dimšić – “Guilty Pleasure”
Denmark: REDDI – “The Show”
Latvia: Citi Zēni – “Eat Your Salad”
Slovenia: LPS – “Disko”
Do you think the right ten acts made it through? Which of your favourites missed out? Let us know in the comments box below.
Croatia subscribed to 11th place.
Yes got higher score from jury than Moldova which was placed high enough in the final Might have qualified in semi final 2
I loved the words to Crostias and also rated Denmark, hated Moldova
UK to win
It’s unfair to say that Ukraine will win because of sympathy. Ukraine has a very strong song, great visuals, and a super catchy chorus. It’s an interesting mix of modern and traditional, add their great stage presence to the mix and it’s a winner. To be honest, semi final was the first time I’ve heard their song and it’s literally the only one I remember as clear as day from the whole semi (aside from Monika, but I’m biased because I’m Lithuanian). As for Albania, it’s surprising to me that so many people say she was robbed. I even checked… Read more »
It’s unfair for everyone else if Ukraine wins, everyone knows that if there had been no war they wouldn’t have been considered ftw, and their song isn’t that good either
It’s great. Loved it since it was first performed on Vidbir.
Well yeah, IF that was the case, it would be unfair. You are purely speculating now. While music is subject to different tastes and this song might not be what you like, in the contest there are multiple factors that decide a winner. What makes a winner in Eurovision, is not just a “good singer and a good song”, it’s a whole package. This definitely stands out in the mass of cookie cutter pop songs.
Ronela won an opening in certain markets that she wanted to break into so Eurovision served its purpose for her as a commercial singer. She may also appear in future Eurovisions as a guest due to the popularity she gained. Wins are very relative in this show, but I doubt most singers will be able to capitalize out of this experience the same way she can because her style is more likely to generate revenue.
slayyy
So happy to see so many countries appreciate The Netherlands on Esctracker !
When are the split results out?
On saturday after the final ends..
Apparently RONELA was 4th in the televote but 15th (!) with the juries. It’s like Poland 2014 all the way. Juries find it embarassing and risky to support sexualised entries and completely forget that their job is to rank SONGS. We need them out. Give all power to the people.
This is gonna hurt Spain. They shouldnt have changed the costume – the previous one is more “classy” and burlesque, the new one not only has her whole booty out (not a problem for me, but maybe for the jury) but becomes more gimmicky because of the matador theme. Its still an excellent song but as far as the jury is concerned, I think its in Spains favor to tone DOWN the sexual aspects, not accentuate them.
So the jury goes for Disney songs? Juries who supposedly are people from the music industry in their countries find embarrasing to support ‘sexualised’ (whatever that is) songs???. In order to get votes from the juries the singers need to cover themselves from head to toes otherwise the ‘professional/expert’ juries get shocked and embarrassed?? My goodness how avantgarde and open minded are those juries arent they?
Looks like it, and apparently Norway did better with juries than with the televote lol
Wow Chanel is showing her legs and wearing the same kind of dress that millions of women use in gyms, zumba lessons, dance lessons in general… Scandalous!! People saying this or that song sounds like a song from the 2000… But it seems juries act like it was early 1900.
What gyms you’re going to 😀
Also, I forgot to ask – how did you find this out? I’m googling but can’t find any info on jury vs televote here.
well that SONG was pretty bad so it seems they (the jury) did their job well.
Don’t believe anything you read about the semifinal results until after the grand final. EBU is keeping it top secret and every year there are people writing fake semi results
Juries are important. If this is true than they did a good job to keep that mess out of the finals!!!
No. There two simple explanation to that. !. The song is awful. 2. A great part of the public love circus.
Incorrect, if that’s the case she would have qualified, she would have been 9th or 10th according it
Where did you get the results from? They are not meant to be revealed until after the final. If you don’t have a reliable source then it is speculation.
Honestly, I feel pity for those serbian and greek hater-trolls who took social media by strom to hate and to rejoice about Albania’s non-qualification. So sad, uncivilised and toxic! While their comments are being effectively removed and their accounts blocked, still, one can’t help but wonder how come that some ethnic groups like these two are so full of hatred even in this day and age!? Evolution certainly failed to be inclusive in their case.
James Newman (UK) joins other musicians in supporting Saudade saudade: Pablo Alborán, Quincy Jones, Ivan Lins, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Luísa Sobral, Salvador Sobral, Tatanka, Jacob Collier, SuRie…
Saudade saudade is the favorite song of Mia Dimši? (covered the song), Rosa Linn (covered it), Citi Z?ni (covered it), Vladana, Konstrakta andSystur… Amanda Tenfjord has been following her work for years.
The MARO effect is happening as expected: Saudade saudade is on Spotify top 50 Viral in 15 countries, reaching top spots.
Sad about Slovenia. LPS musicians are so talented! I just love how Disko has a sort of inverse climax, by slowing down the song’s tempo. I have just seen an acoustic version on YT featuring the lead singer and Zala, the amazingly talented instrumentalist -this time playing the guitar. Just sheer ambrosia to your ears!!!
I’m just going to mention that I’m so happy that Moldova got through to the final, which means they’ve joined Johnny Logan and set a record for taking part in 3 Eurovision finals! Congrats Moldova!
I don’t think so. Johnny was there twice as a performer, three times as songwriter. 1980, 1984, 1987, 1992.
Sorry yes, my mistake. I mistakenly counted his songwriting in 1992 as a third appearance 🙂
Indeed that means that Moldova, and in particular Zlob Si Zdub, hold the record for most participations in a Eurovision final.
Thats a huge accomplishment.
Don’t forget Lys Assia, Corry Brokken and Anna Vissi – also all with three. Maybe others that I can’t think of.
Carola (Sweden) is another obvious one for three appearances in the final, including her victory in 1991.Also, Elisabeth Andreassen appeared four times in the final. 1982 in a group for Sweden (8th), then in Bobbysocks in 1985 for Norway (1st), then in a duet for Norway in 1994 (6th) and then solo for Norway in 1996 (2nd).
Someone just screamed at me: “Chiara for Malta!”
Indeed: 1998 (3rd), 2005 (2nd) and 2009 (22nd).
I can’t believe I forgot Carola. I am ashamed of myself.
Elisabeth Andreassen’s Bobbysox pal, Hanne Krogh, also has three. 1971, 1985, 1991. Also Italy’s Domenico Modugno in 1958, 1959 and 1966.
Marie Bergman for Sweden. 1971, 1972, 1994.
I can’t believe you forgot THE Valentina Monetta for San Marino
Final only two times though
*One time
Peter Sue and Marc for Switzerland, in four languages for every outing. 🙂
The way Johnny Logan talks you would think he was the whole act in 1992. Never mentions Linda Martin. Odious little man indeed.
Juries were instructed to tank all competitors to Ukraine. Not surprised at the results.
But all the other ”big favorites” have qualified… How do you know in which order were they placed by the juries?
Oh please do tell who were the competitors that were eliminated?
I’m sorry but no. No way were Albania or Austria contenders for the win. Maybe before we saw them live on the ESC stage but not after. If anything, Netherlands, Greece, or even Norway have more chance, and they probably did very well with both yesterday.
Of course those countries have more of a chance this war year. Albania and Austria just do not fit in this year’s narrative. The coordination is simply immaculate.
I love how people are crying about Ukraine qualifying. Its like they’re totally discounting the fact that they put on a hell of a performance, kept it all in tune, delivered great staging and elevated their original performance. Compare that to Albania, who stripped all character, atmosphere and cultural identity out of their performance and staging, and in turn barely clung to the tune through parts of the song. Then people are saying Albania should have qualified and that Ukraine only got through because of Political bias/sympathy. And this comment in particular insinuating that someone held all the jurors at… Read more »
The Albanian example shows the jury bias quite well. It is very unlikely that this country scored low in the public vote with the countries that traditionally vote for it, their large diaspora, and the fans that the song and singer accumulated over time. The jury did a lot of voodoo on this one. Austria also had more popularity than Switzerland going into the show, but was downvoted by the juries. Yes we must all accept the reality that EBU just wanted a subdued mood this year, so that we can all focus on Stephanie’s flute lullaby.
That’s what’s said about Ukraine every year, but this year was nothing special from them. I’m tired of this political BS
If there was no war you would be praising Ukraine right now, you hypocrite.
Maybe not everything was perfect, maybe not all my qualifiers made it, maybe everything could have been better, but for real since 2020, I’m no longer taking Eurovision for granted, I am no longer complaining, etc. I’m just enjoying things. What’s the point of comparing every year since it’s bound to be different? Different songs, artists, country hosting, hosts, etc. Relax a little bit instead of overanalyzing everything, enjoy things! I had a blast with a friend last night who discovered all the songs (+ the scenery for me having not checked any rehearsal). I can’t wait for tomorrow and… Read more »
A long one, though it is; but here is how I saw last night’s performances: 9.44 (8) Albania (NQ) My benchmark for all of the performances that followed. I actually thought Ronela was going to qualify with that stage routine. But when it came down to one qualifier left to announce, I figured she wouldn’t, given who was sure to take that last spot (NED). Some dance routines work, and some don’t. The ones that followed, left her performance forgotten. 9.40 (10) Latvia (NQ) The one thing I thought Citi Z?ni had going for them was the music. Unfortunately, in the ears of those who… Read more »
In a very vanilla semi- can we celebrate for a moment Diodato’s performance- annihilated all of the entries last night- it was iconic! Wow!
Happy with these results! Switzerland was the biggest surprise and I think the toxic fandom deserves the punch in the punani for throwing so much hate and negativity at him. (I wonder if someone gets what I reference lol)
Though I am a bit sad Slovenia didn’t make the cut, all 10 finalists deserved their spots and I wish them the best of luck on Saturday!
AYE! There still is a place for nostalgia and neo-nostalgia. The old-school paybook worked spectacularly for Salvador Sobral (Portugal 2017); so, why did so many people think it would not work even halfway for Marius Bear? He was my #7 going into last night.
Crap. paybook should read as playbook.
Also I hope it has become clear to everyone that Ukraine is winning it this year. And yeah people are gonna say that eurovision is not about politics. But let’s face it, it always has been political. But this year it’s going to be even more political because an entire country is at war and currently the country is completely demolished
Let’s hope juries tank them, but yeah it seems Ukraine’s gonna win with such a subpar song 🙁
Then again, Ukraine has always sent strong entries that most of the time tend to place really high in the final.
It could win based on merit, not out of pity.
Indeed it has sent strong, even iconic entries. But Stefania is the worst they’ve sent in years xd
Worst than “Time”?
“Worst than” doesn’t exist
And this is why people cannot trust the predictions of fan polls, aka. OGAE! Haha
Time for semi two predictions. Can we please get an article to discuss? Thanks in advance. 🙂
A lesson for all the fanbase who just hit TICK on all racy, uptempo dance numbers…..if you cannot sing in a steady, secure way then the likes of Switzerland, Iceland and Lithuania are going to steal our places..!!!
Latvian song has been in my ears all day. And I’m really sorry they didn’t qualify. I didn’t even feel so sorry about Estonia’s non-qualification last year 😀 Because our (I’m Estonian) last year’s song was really boring, but this year’s Latvian song..the energy, wow! They rocked the stage. Really sorry 🙁
This year Estonia has a fantastic song. Good luck for tomorrow from Italy
Ukraine have a ok song. On bettinglist tgey have 51 % chans to winn, its not so good.
That’s what some are saying, if there had been no war, they’d be far from contending the win
People’s choice. What are you gonna do about it? cry on the floor?
I just wanna add something that I don’t see many people commenting on. I’m so so happy that the trend of non-English songs doing well continues for a second consecutive year. It’s so encouraging to realise that there gonna be once again more than 10 songs in the final sung completely or partly in other languages than English, including some that we rarely hear in Eurovision, such as Dutch, Lithuanian or Icelandic. It’s very likely that we’ll get a second consecutive non-English language winner and I hope that trend continues into next year. 🙂
It’s good that not many people noticed, it means it’s not a big deal and will happen again.
Yep, what really matters is that broadcasters seem to take notice and they don’t seem so scared anymore to send songs in their native languages. That was a terrible misconception that grew during the full televoting era in 00’s and I’m so glad to see slowly dying out.
I really hope that you are right. I love the diversity of languages on Eurovision. I always thought that almost all songs in english or simple english is bad to Eurovion.
Can we just rename it the Eurovision Song Non-Contest now please. What a joke. British and Swedish media, all day long have just focused on the Ukraine qualification and how they are certain to win. Talk about highjacking the odds, and this does such a great disservice to the many other quality acts that have worked so hard for months and months to get to this point, and they barely get a mention. Before anyone shoots me down, I believe Ukraine deserves all the sympathy and support we can provide, but not at the expense of providing genuine excitement and… Read more »
Don’t worry yet. Not every single country is going to give Ukraine their 12 televoting points. Juries will also vote diferently, at least I hope so.
Post soviet union countries and friends will do this for sure. I estimate 18 x 24 as a strong begin base for Ukraine. Ukraine will reach 600 points in any case. The unhappy of the whole story would be the second one country. That’s why Italy will be second….so that everybody be happy. United rope eu lol….
The media exert so much pressure on the juries that they use all possible excuses to give Ukraine more points than what it deserves. Almost every Eurovision friend, Ukrainian or not, agrees that last year Ukraine had a better song than this year. I fear that jury voting will not show that.
I think this is great news! I can see more countries daring to choose an entry sung in their official language (or even in a minority/endangered one!) in the coming years 😀
wiwi pls erase this reply, the comment I was replying is gone xd
Agreed, it is very unfair and unbalanced
Disappointed Moldova did not do more with the staging. They should’ve set up a makeshift train cart as a high-quality prop, like Armenia’s paper house but more realistic-looking, maybe like the oven from the Russian grandmas in 2012. There’s a train in the music video and in the lyrics, the whole idea is travelling around, they need to do something with that in the finale if they want my vote. Otherwise, as far as fun entries go, I’m sticking with Norway and Spain, both of which know exactly what they’re doing with the staging.
Will you be paying for that?
Yeah; I was expecting a makeshift train as well. It probably would have busted their budget, though. They should have utilized the graphic screen in the back for that.
Does a motion graphic of a railway line map count?
I felt so sad for Ronela. From now on, Albania will send ballads every year (like they used to). 🙁
Besides that, Lithuania and Iceland’s qualifications surprised me positively. I shouted at my TV and even pinched myself because it seemed surreal. At long last, Europe showed us some taste 😀
Monica was pure class but the “sun” hampered her staging. I saw her as an NQ but let out a proud squeal when I was proven wrong.
Really? I found it more intimistic and focused on her persona, which was all she needed. It paid well, it seems.
When she qualifies I was screaming at my mom and Bro “I ToLd YoU”
Or “hAhahahahHHahshahshshsh”
And I have never been glad to be proven wrong. I was really worried for lithuania leading up to the first semifinal live show. It really had a lot stacked against it that could’ve made it fail to qualify, but they bucked the odds and they are in the final. I don’t know where they will place in the end Although being a second half mighting increase our chance for better slot, but even if it finishes last place, I don’t care.
Lithuania will not finish last due to diaspora, Norway, UK, Ireland, Ukraine will give alot of points from televote, i would say she already has minimum 50 points due to diaspora, she will likely be top 15 on Saturday.
Better 20 average ballads than one plain awful upbeat song
For me Albania was one big WTH moment, I found whole performance like joke and was completly vulgar. I only root for Norway and Ukraine, rest was just meh. Stage should be far better without this idiotic black sun however lights were really good so someone had idea but was bad executed.
The thing that worries me is that because of Ronela’s non qualification, Albania will go back to sending soppy ballads or middle of the road rock songs.
Even so, I prefer a Balkan ballad to what I heard yesterday… That was just bad and messy. The music was not good from the start but usually this type of songs has a good production. Not Ronela’s song
Only now realized that Latvia has, since 2008, been in the final two (2) times. Two times in 14 years. That’s an incredibly sad record 🙁 I never really come to think of it but they really are one of the worst countries (measured objectively by the results) in the whole contest. My country Finland has nothing to worry about compared to this, even though we suck massively as well haha Sad that they didn’t qualify this year either :(( not a big shock though, they performed very early and Moldova and Norway that fight for the same votes came… Read more »
I much preferred Latvia than some countries that got though. They weren’t ever going to be my winner but they were fun, energetic, gave something different to the other contestants and would have added a different dynamic to the final on Saturday. I fely more engaged with Latvia than Moldova
I’ve heard Latvia for the first time last night, have looked it up, and am frankly shocked with the lyrics. What he “eats” in the song I am not even allowed to write here. My kid asked me what the song was about, fortunately at that moment I hadn’t realized it yet.
Well no offence but they need to send better songs. Apart from 2017, nothing they’ve sent since 2016 deserved to qualify.
Should’ve send Aminata
Happy for you too Una! I must watch back Swiss performance though to see what I missed during my toilet break.
I think there are fans on this site that don’t have perspective that just because they don’t like a certain song or a certain genre that there’s an entire audience out there that does and it’s not just 5 jury members that can find a song amazing because it’s “slow” or an song “bad” because of messy vocals. People at home also have ears and taste. And one person’s “fun” and “sexy” is another person’s “tedious” or “trashy”. Viewers now are inundated with talent shows like The Voice and the home viewer has become more selective of what is a… Read more »
I see what you are trying to say but I don’t fully agree. Moldova is clearly not a good song and it still qualified. Also last night was mainly ballads I don’t understand what you mean by the ballad part 🙂 I don’t believe the quality of the songs has gotten better rather worse. I miss the days when we had songs like Greece and Ukraine 2008, Greece 2012, Azerbaijan 2009, these are some examples of really good songs. I believe most of the songs that qualified last night weren’t quality. I like greeces song but the audio disappointed and… Read more »
Mmmm…a lot of good points here !!!
A song like Moldova’s would have qualified in every year. Like 2005 or 2011. Wait…. It did!
And on the other hand. Europe doesn’t appreciate people who can’t carry a tune anymore. Sorry Austria and Albania
Third reason: there is a whole new generation watching who doesn’t necessarily is attached to the fandom, which means their votings are not affected by the influence of the ESC bubble
I guess the Netherlands, Ukraine and Norway were the top 3 from Yesterday’s Semi final.. (see ESCTRACKER) They are the most downloaded songs from the night!
Add Portugal actually and you got it.
1.Ukraine, 2. Greece, 3. Portugal, 4. Netherlands, I’m pretty sure looking at the streaming numbers and views and such.
I meant Moldova, not Portugal :S
What do you mean Moldova? It’s been Ukraine, Netherlands, Portugal and Norway all day long, both in iTunes and Apple. Ukraine is quickly falling places, while the other 3 are very steady.
The Netherlands, Norway and Portugal are respectively the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most downloaded songs as of now. The first place is occupied by “Fai Rumore”, which just adds to the grandiosity of Diodato’s performance last night.
Is it possible that the tele vote was so divisive that songs the juries loved got the leverage?
Change the word “divisive” to “decisive” and I think you’ve got it. :3
This revisionist history with Albania and people saying it wouldn’t qualify LOL. Albania was a guaranteed qualifier, with an outside chance to possibly win. Then we saw the performance, which was a disaster and killed all her momentum. I still had her in my top 10, but I can see why she didn’t make it. Iceland qualifying was a big surprise, I didn’t see that happening AT ALL. Lithuania, Switzerland AND Iceland all making it tells me that the televote probably gave most of their points to the top 3/5, meaning Albania, Austria and Latvia who may have finished 6th-10th… Read more »
Albania as point of difference should avoid picking another solo female artist doing something with a lot of ethnic roots to it next year – that has been the last three entries (see how Cyprus’ results waned from 2018 – 2021 with some similar entries). Actually 2006, 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2018 appear to be their only non solo female artists since debut in 2004.
should be Cyprus with some similar summer bop entries
Happy with the qualifiers…..Greece, Armenia and Netherlands were my favourites. Also happy for Iceland, which really came over very well on screen. Not surprised at the NQ, but saddened a little at Croatia whose singer was flawless but had a mediocre song. Albania was over hyped by William and company. I was not surprised at all by its overall result. I enjoyed the show and don’t understand the negative vibes going round. Very few host countries have near perfect shows.
Ukraine’s song is so basic. Ethno-rap? And it ain’t even delivering.
If you guys want to support Ukraine because of the war, please donate $ instead of ruining already fragile Eurovision voting system.
Iceland and Switzerland were as good as gone without their quality stage performances, both pretty good songs but I am really not a fan of the ballad tsunami of 2022. Gutted for citi zeni, I adore their energy and their staging was phenomenal but I think they and albania ate eachothers televotes, which took them both down because they were songs which were supposedly getting through on televotes – plus the massive portion of televotes going to ukraine and norway already slimming the number of points to get. The obvious other shock qualifier was moldova but everyone is so oblivious… Read more »
Greece won yesterday, that is for sure. Great song, great singer, staging polished and touching. She will perform in the 2nd half so I see big things coming, top 5 is almost certain for Amanda.
Just saw on Greek tv that Eurovision asked the national broadcaster whether Greece is ready to host the contest next year.
To me her performance look rather forced. And who had the idea with this Cellophane dress…?
these dresses are worn by dead girls withought a partner this is why she is wearing that
Ti malakies les mori ilithia, exeis sovaro provlima
Hey, who told you that cursing in Greeklish is acceptable in here? Calm down mate.
Who told you that it’s acceptable to call a dress made by people who spent hours and hours to make it as something that dead girls were? You find it funny to joke with clothes and dead people? Go buy humor or some dignity
Oh well I never agreed with that one, but opinions are opinions. That doesn’t entitle you to start cursing, especially not in English, thinking you’re the only Greek speakers in here. Use arguments, not swears mate.
yet here you are posting anonymously while she is with her boyfriend in eurovision. Call me when your rigor mortis sets in…
Although I usually follow the preselection season, this year I tried not to hear any of the ESC competitors before the show. Although I now see that Greece does rather well at the bookies, last night I was rather surprised that it qualified. It had this “look at me being intentionally weird” written all over it, which rather put me off.
Portugal’s and Iceland’s songs were too boring 🙁 Probably juries liked these boring songs
Deal with it instead of moaning.
Another boring moany Eurovision fan.
You should check out Eurovision Tracker because Portugal’s song is trending on iTunes in Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands and even New Zealand. So unless those juries are buying song like crazy—seems like there was plenty of televoters who liked it too.
I’m a televoter and I thought they were both great.
Predictions:
I agree with all of the above except I think Netherlands was a more likely jury winner than Ukraine
Good points. My main disagreement is that probably Austria was 11th/12th instead of Albania, but it was ‘killed’ by the juries. Albania probably did much worse with the televote than expected. Denmark might have finished last as well instead of Bulgaria. Portugal was definitely top 5 (even top 3) and probably Netherlands won the jury vote and maybe the whole semi as well. Ukraine won the televote for sure. Greece did better with the juries than the televote.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Albania and Austria were two of the bottom four.
Austria is trending well in streams and views, so I guess they were in televoting top10 but that wasn’t obviously enough. Albania is nowhere to be found in streams and I guess everyone is watching their performance on YT for all the wrong reasons…
It would not surprise me in the least if Austria did better with juries than televote.
Did you really listen to the performance yesterday? Vocals were incredibly flat – not gonna say bad because that’s debatable, but omg they were so flat it was painful. Pia Maria is inexperienced and was extremely nervous in all her live performances. No way juries would have missed that.
Apparently this is very closed to what happened.
I would guess that Ukraine did not win the semifinals with the jury but possibly with the viewers and their final position may have been worse than you might think.
It is difficult to know how many sympathy votes there may be for Ukraine, but the jury should be more professional than the viewers. Compare, for example, Russia in 2012 and Finland in 2015 with the jury and the viewers
Netherlands possibly won the jury vote – I think Lithuania and Switzerland got jury love (I actually like the Lithuanian all the way through but had it as NQ because I didn’t think people would go for it – happy to be wrong about that). Switzerland I was wavering on it before last night. I had downgraded Albania after rehearsal footage but hadn’t put them as NQ and I think the juries hammered it out. You have to think less like a fan trying to determine who will qualify. Many of the viewers saw it the first time last night,… Read more »
I don’t mind admitting I really enjoyed Bulgaria’s performance. Croatia – not really my kind of thing but having seen a lovely performance in Amsterdam I thought she would squeeze through. Somehow last night was not as impactful and engaging; was it nerves?
Interesting predictions (I should do something similar) but in response to yours. Probably correct. I have a sneaky feeling the Netherlands might’ve done it. Hard to pick between them and Greece. I think Ukraine and Portugal were 3rd/4th with juries. Definitely. Also a certainty. I think they might’ve gotten more jury points that people give them credit for. In a semi final with Bulgaria, Croatia and Albania voting, some of those 5’s and 6’s could’ve went Moldova’s way. I think Albania was probably 7th-8th in the televote but this score would’ve been low due to the high televoting scores clocked… Read more »
Or the Netherlands won the jury vote
These comments saying the rainbow of death is entirely the EBU’s fault are laughable.
So what if the stage *actually* works and they decided to scrap it because it takes ages to turn it around? It’s not like we previously had 2 minute postcards and now all of a sudden they decided to cut them down to 40 seconds on the day of the rehearsals. Rai knew all the technical requirements before they chose that design.
Just because you failed to realize it successfully doesn’t mean you get to blame someone else for your own shortcomings.
In Lisbon there was no ledwall and Germany had to bring the inflatable balloon to project visuals. The background lighting in Lisbon was not even comparable to what I have seen yesterday in Turin, with all the audience cheering and applauding the awesome light and pyro effects. Did you complain Lisbon had a dark background and no ledwall? No. Why the double standard? Maybe because the design in Lisbon was still Wieder, a German, and not the Italian Francesca Montinaro, a lady, so we also add a bit of toxic macho comments? Just to know. Just for your info, in… Read more »
They never promised an led wall and failed to fulfill it.
Lisbon stage definitely isn’t one of my faves but it didn’t feel incomplete. This one does.
Also my mom is an architect and my dad a mechanical engineer so have no worries, I already have someone to educate me.
Ok, Mr “I know everything”. Strange, it’s from when Måneskin won that there is a certain “Willchristiam” talking bad about Italy organing eurovision”. But ok. Send my greetings to your genial parents.
Well looking at the italian history of organizing it is not crazy that people are sceptical. At least this time the hosts spoke English so big improvements.
Just take a deep breath.
I never said a word about Italy’s organization until we found out about the “kinetic” “sun”.
I have no problem defending my opinions or even changing some of them when confronted by a sensical viewpoint. Don’t pull things out of your as*.
First of all Portugal had the deliberate intention of not having LEDs, which is not the case this year. In Lisbon everything functioned to perfection and as they invested more in lights because they did not have LEDs they could afford the state of the art and much more lighting possibilities than this year’s show. Second, your comment is a bit contradictory. Here you are saying that Lisbon was not good, but than Francesca things the best staging was Lisbon?…
Do you think RAI didn’t invest in lights, they had 3000 automated spots, what are we talking about? Ok. I just drop the useless discussion and never come anymore to check comments here. Bye bye. Wiwiblogs and their “I know everything” fans.
You say people attack your country while you do exactly the same. You promised a stage that doesn’t work. Grow up or vaffanculo. Your choice
Vaffanculo lo dici a tua sorella.
It doesn’t mean it’s a big deal either. Life goes on, and most people will never notice.
I am very happy with the result. At the end, quality prevailed over superficialism. In particular for Iceland, Lithuania and Switzerland and of course Portugal, which I think was not so set on stone… Can’t say that Albania is a surprise. The whole thing always was and became even more atrocious . It would be very unfair if they would have qualified. Same thing for Latvia. I am just sad for Croatia that had a good song and should have qualified.
Achter with everything you say, especially regarding Albania. I could not understand the love that entry received from so many Eurovision fans. Ghastly!
My only disagreement is with your lament for Croatia. I feel the same about Latvia. I thought they were fun, exuberant and would have graced the mid-table results of the Grand Final.
Don’t get me wrong. I found Latvia much better than Albania.
also, i feel like juries and televote disagreed big time in this semi, hence the random qualifiers. apart from ukraine’s televote score, which was inevitably huge, i don’t think anyone got massive totals. saturday’s jury vote will be all over the place like 2019.
I’d argue there was a lot of top-heavy overlap which left countries getting 7th and 14th to qualify, The top 5 in this semi likely got top 5-6 jury and tele, whereas songs that were 7-10 in jury got killed by tele and songs that were 7-10 in tele were killed by jury (examples seen in austria, albania and latvia). Because of this, songs like a 8th and a 16th do worse than an 10th and an 11th (examples seen in switzerland and iceland). We’ll have to wait for the results though to really see what happened
Yep, it’s pretty safe to say that Ukraine, Netherlands and Portugal made the top 5 in both votes, probably followed by Armenia and Greece. Norway did better with the televote but sufficiently well with the juries and Lithuania was 6-10 in both, followed by Iceland and Switzerland which were probably around 9-13 with televote and higher with juries. I think Bulgaria, Denmark, Slovenia and Albania did bad with both. Juries ‘killed’ Austria and Latvia, and televote saved Moldova. Croatia is my only question mark from yesterday evening.
Alright we’re done with the first semi! I got 8/10 qualifiers correctly, only failed on Switzerland and Iceland (I thought Albania and Austria would go through) I’m very happy with the qualifiers, although I didn’t need Iceland to go through… Thoughts on the different countries and their songs, staging, everything! Albania- I’ve never been a huge fan of the song and for my own qualifiers it would place 11th. I do not like the staging and the colors don’t work I’m sorry. Completely fine with this not qualifying. Latvia- I’ve never enjoyed this one more than last night! Their performance… Read more »
all the songs i wanted to qualify made it (armenia, lithuania, portugal, iceland, norway), yet i feel so bitter because switzerland made it haha. if he gets any televoting points in the final i’ll be shocked ! but monika liugend is also a finalist, and i’ll focus on the positivity of these news <3
Regarding views and streams: I always found very useful to check the iTunes EscTracker after semis. It always gives a very good representation of what songs had the most impact to the public. Netherlands, Ukraine and Portugal are the obvious winners there. Not surprisingly the same songs have the 3 out of 4 highest number of views of yesterday’s performances among qualifiers in YT – Greece is the 4th one, but Greeks always go frantic with their entries. Given that all 3 are very jury friendly songs I’m sure they are all very safe bets for the Top10 and the… Read more »
Interestingly enough Ukraine is slipping down in the streams, while Netherlands and Portugal are being surprisingly steady and Norway is climbing. I think that confirms that Ukraine mostly got the sympathy attention from the public rather than being genuinely liked as a song. Will this be enough to win? I really have no idea.
I’m afraid ex-Soviet juries will vote for it frantically.
Of course they will, but that’s 7 out of 40 juries this year, or a maximum of 84 points. They obviously need more than that to win.
Agreed. But as a greek i must say this year not many greek people love our song since it is not very greek ( such as the cypriot entry) thus the argument about greeks going frantic is not valid this year.
Niki, I’m Greek as well. I may live abroad but I know Greeks well enough haha
After analyzing the results here is my take: Prepare for an Ukrainian win abd here’s why: I find it peculiar that all of the jury friendly songs got through. It is not that they were the strongest, most of them were expected to be borderline, but somehow they all got through and the televote friendly were left out. I theorize that Ukraine got almost a clean swipe of the televote points, and the rest were left were left with crumbles. Get ready for an astonishingly high televote result for Ukraine. Maybe the 2nd and 3rd televote place got decent points… Read more »
That is a good theory, and I agree that Ukraine is likely winning overall. Still, I’d like to emphasize how most of us Eurovision fans still have an idea that every slow song is ”jury friendly”, while every ”bop” is a televote magnet. Remember that the televote saved Khteju tokes in 2019, while the juries saved Friend of a Friend. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if, for example, Lithuania or Iceland qualified mostly due to the televote. However, we’ll find out on saturday. Perhaps your theory is 100% right.
I can understand that Ukraine gets sympathy votes, but if they were to win, then it should be more about support votes than that the viewers like their song. I myself would have voted for them out of empathy if my country competed in that semifinal.
But winning mainly on empathy is not common, it is difficult to know how many such votes there are and the jury should be more professional than the viewers.
I would not want to put a burden of ESC on Ukraine for next year concidering they will have enough on their plate rebuilding their country after the war. I hope people would keep that in mind and keep the sympathy votes to a minimum. As for me, it’s not a bad song, but it is not my winner.
I agree but I think you should add Norway to that. probably 80% of everyone who voted yesterday did it for at least one of these countries; Ukraine and/or Norway. Both entries have massive televote appeal. Probably Moldova got a good amount of points too as they advanced despite what I believe was a very modest jury score.
Does anyone else feel like it was an interesting choice announcing most of the less expected qualifiers first. On one hand, it can feel anti-climactic, because we knew certain countries have to be in, and by the last qualifier, everyone suspected it was Netherlands. On the other hand, it created a big suspense of ”what if” one of the big favorites doesn’t make it. I wonder whether that will be the pattern tomorrow as well. As for Albanian NQ, I’d call the level of shocking factor moderate. They were 7th on the betting odds, and most people had them as… Read more »
Perhaps it’s less tense for us fans but for casual viewers who may not full know who the favourites are, it may be more nerve-wracking. I would prefer if the not so certain qualifiers would be announced last nevertheless
I think that’s it, yeah. I mean, I was 90% certain that the last qualifier would be Netherlands, with Albania being the only other viable alternative. Of course, nothing certain until it’s explicitly said, so there’s always a little level of nervousness. However, imagine if they left Lithuania, Moldova, Iceland, or Switzerland for the last spot. I think that the shock over Albania not making it would be even bigger.
Yeah that would have been so tense. I got 8/10 in my SF 1 predictions. I think SF 2 will be even more unpredictable.
I had 8/10 too. I missed Switzerland and Moldova, and had Latvia and Albania instead. Oh, I agree, the 2nd semi is unpredictable. Can’t wait for that thread to come-up, to comment my predictions. I’ll try to be bold there. 🙂
My predictions will also be risky. Let’s say that a certain song you and I both don’t like will probably qualify imo. Oh and I also had Latvia and Albania through instead of Iceland (glad it went through) and Swtizerland. Won’t miss either of these two though 🙂
Apples and oranges.
Albina had a radio friendly song, nice staging and sounded good. Roxen had an amazing track that she completely butchered live. Her styling was also bad and the staging messy.
Ronela had a sprinkle of all of the bad elements of Amnesia and none of the redeeming qualities of Tick Tock.
I would say more Verona level Colin
Verona, I believe, is the biggest upset of all time in terms of qualification odds (it was 3rd or 4th in its semi final, 6th or 7th to win the whole contest).
Albania not qualifying is nowhere near that level. Had Netherlands missed out on that last announced spot then *maybe* we could’ve had a conversation.
Well, yes. Netherlands / Norway / Ukraine / Greece / Portugal not making it would be a BIG upset (Thankfully, it did not happen). 7th-10th in the odds not making it can legitimately be called a “surprising NQer”, but not necessarily a bombshell shock, as every year one or two borderlines don’t make it. Sure, 7th is more shocking than the 10th, but we are still not on the level of Verona / Blackbird in terms of odds.
They really should’ve left Moldova until last. The announcement would’ve went over huge with the audience and would’ve been far more dramatic for the viewers at home.
Yeah, Moldova, Switzerland, Iceland or Lithuania. That would’ve been tense.
We’ve had situations before where what we thought as sure qualifiers ended up not getting through. I for one was certainly feeling tense before finally calling Netherlands as the last qualifier of the night.
In hindsight, I realized that producers may have intended to have NL be announced as the 10th finalist because of the artist’s name “S10”.