Ireland’s Bambie Thug portrayed a witch — and Slovenia’s Raiven depicted one that men once tried to drown. And Croatia’s Baby Lasagna danced with neon cats while an Australian teen performed street dance on behalf of Cyprus. But in the end only ten of tonight’s 15 acts could qualify from Semi-Final 1 of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.
The precise results of the semi-final won’t be revealed until after the grand final (as not to bias people going into Saturday’s show). But we do know who qualified. Following a televote only result, the ten finalists are…
Eurovision 2024: Semi-Final 1 Results
Qualifiers
Serbia: Teya Dora – “Ramonda”
Portugal: Iolanda – “Grito”
Slovenia: Raiven – “Veronika”
Ukraine: Jerry Heil & alyona alyona – “Teresa & Maria”
Lithuania: Silvester Belt – “Luktelk”
Finland: Windows95Man – “No Rules”
Cyprus: Silia Kapsis – “Liar”
Croatia: Baby Lasagna – “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”
Ireland: Bambie Thug – “Doomsday Blue”
Luxembourg: Tali – “Fighter”
Non-qualifiers
Poland: Luna – “The Tower”
Iceland: Hera Björk – “Scared of Heights”
Moldova: Natalia Barbu – “In the Middle”
Azerbaijan: FAHREE feat. Ilkin Dovlatov – “Özünlə Apar”
Australia: Electric Fields – “One Milkali (One Blood)”
Running Order Draw
Following Semi-Final 1, the ten qualifiers each drew their running order slot: first half, second half or producer’s choice. Producers will set the precise running order following Semi-Final 2.
Here’s the full run down of what each of the semi-final 1 qualifiers have drawn for their position in the grand final#Eurovision2024 https://t.co/gGaON7gy1B pic.twitter.com/sBSLYwV5Au
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) May 7, 2024
Just like last year, the results were determined 100% by the televote. There were no professional juries voting in the Semi-Final. The decision was up to you, Europe and Australia!
And actually it was also up to the the Rest of the World too. Voters from non-participating countries — so the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, Bulgaria and beyond — started voting online at 21:00 CEST on Monday. This so-called Rest of the World vote closed at the start of tonight’s show and re-opened after the last act performs. They had the equivalent voting power of one country, so were responsible for 1/16th of tonight’s vote.
Unlike in past years, we also saw full performances from the Automatic Qualifiers, who were split into the two semi-finals. In Semi-Final 1 we saw the U.K.’s Olly Alexander, Germany’s Isaak, and Sweden’s Marcus & Martinus.
Ebba Adielsson, Executive Producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 proposed the changes. In March she explained the reasoning like this:
“We think that this change gives the Big Five countries and the host country a fairer playing field in the Grand Final, as they now have the opportunity to perform ‘for real’ on stage in the Semi-Finals. It is also a win for both the audience in the arena and the viewers at home, in that they get to see all the acts competing this year live before the Grand Final.”
Previously only snippets of their performances were shown — and the artists did not get to experience the power and nerves of a live performance in front of Europe.
Satti is super pitchy. Possible NQ?
https://youtu.be/5GH4Vqt7ffo?si=GUkBPxXBM5AH7xVa
“Luktelk” is like a COVID-19: you can get sick, heal, and then again get sick for the same thing soon after. It is literally insane what is happening in Lithuania at the moment. Silvester Belt has been charting first for 7 weeks since his debut in the first semi-final of the national selection, Eurovizija.LT. Then, the wave lowered a bit to TOP-5. And boom, the first semi-final of Malmo, and the country is once again going nuts: charting in the first positions, trolleys and buses labeled as “Luktelk”, people chanting “Luktelk, Luktelk!”, a word “Luktelk” and some few phrases of… Read more »
Nemo’s costume looks to be more red now and without the furry footwear. Respect to the team for responding to the public feedback
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
Semi-Final 2 is definitely harder to predict.
Definite qualifiers are:
Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway and Greece.
Likely qualifiers are:
Armenia, Georgia, Estonia
Borderline qualifiers / non qualifiers:
Belgium, Austria. San Marino, Albania and Israel
Less likely qualifiers:
Czechia, Malta and Denmark
Definite non qualifier:
Latvia
Definitely Q:
Greece, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway
Most likely Q:
Armenia, Georgia, Belgium, Israel
Less likely Q:
Latvia, Albania, Malta, Denmark, Austria
Definitely NQ:
San Marino, Czechia, Estonia
I’d move Austria and the Unmentionables into “Likely”. That then leaves one position to qualify and I suspect that Belgium and Malta will fight for it. Latvia, Albania and San Marino will really struggle I think.
I’m not entirely convinced on Austria, there’s a lot of girl bops (Malta, Albania, Greece, Austria, Armenia, Georgia) and a lot of electro too, not sure it stands out enough and the lower amount of live vocals might hurt. I’m hoping Europe does the right thing regarding the latter.
Kaleen has a pretty strong fan following now though and they’ll be watching. I tend to think of Greece and Armenia not as girl bops but ethnobangers. That leaves Malta, Albania and Georgia. Georgia is the strongest but Kaleen’s song is far stronger than Malta and Albania. I think she’s going though.
Well boo Latvia made it
I’m hearing really great things about the swiss rehearsal last night. Everyone should remember that the majority of voters will be hearing the songs for the first time, and the “wow” moment that we all got from Nemo’s first performances will be experienced by the general public. Nemo got a standing ovation from a crowd of Swiss people – a feat that up until then was thought to be scientifically impossible.
I saw the dress rehearsal clip and it was simply fantastic. Song, voice, staging, performance, everything was amazing! I don’t lose hope for Nemo and will vote for him (20 votes on Saturday).
I’m really looking forward to seeing Nemo’s song, its easily one of the best songs this year and would be a worthy winner.
Netherlands or Switzerland will win this semi final. The audience poll of last night says enough..
I have just watched the dress rehearsal performances for Switzerland, Greece, Netherlands. They were all amazing BUT
Nemo is slaying! By far the best song and staging / performance this year. I still believe it should win the whole contest. No offence, Croatia (I would not mind BL winning if it were not for Nemo).
Also, the Greek song is a true banger. The audience was crazy about it, same for Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Sooo excited for tonight!
Croatia shooting up to 41% with the bookies to win..
Meow 😀
It would be nice if a new country won for the first time and BL’s song is catchy. Yet, my heart goes for Nemo and Switzerland. Both quality and catchy, and to be honest I don’t really give a dam about his outfit. The song is a banger, they sing fantastic and their staging is amazing. I feel it will be the jury winner by far (like Dami Im for Australia a few years ago). Let’s see.
For me Nemo’s song is a complete mess, and definitely in my bottom 5 for this year..
Yes people will talk about his outfit, and that is a total miss also, he might win over the juty, but trust me he will flop with the televote (BL will eat him alive in televote)..
But then again, we all have predictions and preferences, right?!? 😉
So a little update on the number of views on Youtube for each country that competed in Semi 1. Croatia 2.6M Ireland 2.6M Ukraine 2.1M Finland 1.3M Serbia 762k (they drop down a place as Finlands view soar dramatically) Cyprus 633k Lithuania 575k UK 536k Slovenia 484k Portugal 366k Luxembourg 361k Sweden 307k Germany 245k Poland 1M Moldova 255k Azerbaijan 218k Australia 195k Iceland 102k So it looks like the true favourites from the qualifiers from semi 1 are Croatia, Ireland and Ukraine, with Finland slotting in nicely as the fourth most viral/viewed performance video from the first semi. Interestingly… Read more »
Just realise when dress rehearsal for fake qualify part the first 3 they announced are the same with the real one which is Serbia, Portugal and Slovenia LOLOLOLOL
I don’t expect crazy amount of points from jury to Ireland, but what if they’ll like it?? Like, I didn’t even expect it to be received so well with Eurosong jurors and panel and I already saw some established artists praising the performance.
Australia non qualified for the first time in history.
You’re wrong. This is the 2nd time they didn’t make it. The first time was back in 2021. Just a heads up.
How is Cyprus’ four Danish dancers an Australian teen street dancing?
By referencing their nationality it feels like you’re implying a Dane can’t do street dancing.
Is is still possible for entrants to change their outfits for the current rehearsal which has been now taking place; namely with the crown one?
I’m hearing that Greece is a possible nq
…said no one ever
Actually someone said it on YouTube
I have no doubt that it will qualify, but I’m worried about top 10
Joost looks and sounds better than I expected
Did he sing today? Or just tweek the backing track that holds so many of his lead vocals?
Maybe you are right, but it still it was better than I expected
Yes, I saw a video from last night. It was good. Now it comes down to how many people will like the song itself and his playful performance.
I let my mind fly a little bit: After re-watching the show, one thing to say, we had some performances designed specifically for the jury. Azerbaijan is the best example, I found it hard to understand the performance. The black head in the bottom may even have scared some children at home (it was ugly, despite the meaning). With this my question is, shall the countries consider the possibility of making two different performances at ESC? A more “public-friendly” semi-final performance to catch the televote and a Grand Final performance designed to make judges fall in love, with some weird… Read more »
My main man Nemo changed up his costume!!! Legend.
Did they?!
Yeah my brother sent me the video. Respect
He is a He now? I swear nowadays, youngsters are changing pronouns more frequently than their socks.
And what’s the problem. Everyone is free to express themselves in any way they want, as long as they don’t violate other people’s rights. He / it / they / whatever… It’s 2024.
Cant understand why Switzerland’s team chose such silly outfits for their entrant; it looks the singer childish with that Pink :/
Such a shame to kill their chances to win (and it looks like that) with this staging and that outfit…(
It’s fashion and it’s a performance. You can’t expect a performer to take to the biggest stage in the world wearing GAP.
But it’s not fashion
The Swiss delegation can’t force Nemo what to wear, it literally goes against the meaning of the song.
Originality is key – and Nemo is serving just that.
I agree. Let’s say we see Nemo in a costume. Not fitting at all. They must express themselves the way they feel. And then it’s down to whether we like that or not. Being authentic and original is about knowing yourself and being yourself no matter what others might say.
idk about yall but i really enjoyed it, some of these comments are so negative
Käärijä is going to be the part of semi2. Will he perform?
Kaarja as been confirmed for the semi final 2!!! ITS CRAZY ITS PARTYY
Bruh, i think this is very strange. So Eurovision is a gay show?! I dont agree.
Does somebody know the time rehearsals for SF2 are today?
My top 5 semi songs on the night. Not here to please on this one…
1.Croatia – most energetic and fan favourite of the crowd who went wild. winner
2.Ireland – different, yet slightly too much and juries will destroy it
3.Ukraine – good song, decent staging but for me not a winner and if it does it’ll be refugees abroad that carry it over the line
4.Slovenia – technically great singer and facially has presence
5.johnny Logan – the man’s a legend and still doing great age 69
About Johny Logan: He is turning 70 on Saturday (!)
I liked Johnny Logan’s version of the song better than the original. I think I actually heard the words for the first time. Very moving.
It helped that it hadn’t been so overhyped there was no way the song wasn’t ruined forever.
Though, my man did stumble on a few notes.
Seems that Croatia would win, I really wonder which countries would be 2nd and 3th because predicting these countries is more exciting 🙂
I think Switzerland and Italy would be the countries which would be ranked as 2nd or 3th.
Well, by announcing Croatia as 8th Q, it was clearly stated that they have won the televote. Just by looking at previous 2 seasons semis:
2023: Loreen – 8th Q in SF1, Voyager – 8th Q in SF2
2022: Kalush – 8th Q in SF1, Kornelia – 8th Q in SF2
Loreen did not win the televote For semifinal one last year, she came in second behind Finland.
Yeah, but she still scored a good number of televotes
Omg Ireland!! I was in literal shock. Can we just all appreciate how these guys went from generic af’s last year whatstheirname to this state of the art Hollywood level mind blowing masterpiece?? I didn’t even like the song before last night!! They’re actual artistic geniuses. By the end of those 3 minutes, I just wanted to watch it again and again and I definitely, DEFINITELY thought to myself: They. Could. Win. (Although the juries probably won’t be kind to this) Well done Ireland, and welcome back. Besides Ireland, I thought Ukraine was just so beautiful and quite heartbreaking tbh…… Read more »
Me too. I didn’t think much of Ireland before but it was such a touching performance and song. I think it’s my new favorite, that and Croatia. Sad to see Poland and Azerbadsjan go.
Hey ya never know. juries might be as pleasantly stunned as we all are.
Finlandia. Haha ?
Why is suddenly everybody so enthralled by Ireland? The song itself IS kind of noisy and the performance is Circus de Soleil meets The Hole. For me, this is not a song with a staging but a staging, a performance with “music”/noise in the background.
It’s been working for countries like Armenia for years.
When has Armenia brought something similar to this? In the last few years countries and participants felt compelled to give a reason for their stagings as if they had any meaningful relation with the song/the “message”. This year It all seems like “fxxk the message and let’s have as many props, lights, sparkles, fires, smokes and digital effects and if possible all of them happening at once”… I think that just by watching last night SF I got a tan.
2016, 2017, etc etc
Most of Armenia’s performance were completely built around the staging.
There is a message to Irelands staging too though just to clarify
Typical West Europe cope, you qualify once in a blue moon and you start gloating…
Why can’t people not be happy for a country thats doing well? Why the bitterness?
Snap… State what you like about things… And keep the things you hate to yourself… My brain is melting from the dumb dumbs in here.
Have a great day. Enjoy the remainder of the competition.
I am Happy for them… I dont care if she wins but It is Circus anyway.
I loved it. One of the best of the night.
But do you actually like the song? Do you listen to It frequently?. What exactly did you LOVE?
i loved the song and the staging too
Yes. It’s my favourite this year and was from the first time I heard it. I like the energy it provides. But the song would be nothing without the soft parts. I just love how it changed mood completely. So most of the song is like the scream of anger about someone. Then you hear the undertone of anger in the soft parts. Maybe the soft parts would be the acceptable behaviour. The passive aggressive, while the hard driven parts is how you really feel. It’s very artistic. I’m quite tired of pop music in general. Last year I was… Read more »
I don’t think it’s “suddenly”
There has been a lot of respect for irelands brave choice since it was chosen, and people genuinely like the song. Ok lots don’t but it’s not a massive revelation that lots do
There are a lot of acts putting the singing of the song last in their priorities this year.
Where can I see the floor plan of the Arena? I want to buy the ticket for the final but don’t wanna do it blindly.
Go onto ticketmaster as if to purchase tickets and the venue plan should appear
Should Serbia be disqualified?! Not sure if this has been discussed below and I am surprised wiwi didn’t make an article about it. During Poland’s performance the Serbian broadcaster switched off the broadcast to show the arrival of Chinese leader in Serbia ! Then continued the broadcast on another channel. Serbian fans are fuming, this obviously impacted Poland most but also the artists that followed after. I feel like EBU focuses more on Eric Saade than actually this which is conflicting with ebu rules and impacting the artists . Also wondering if Serbia’s backup jury was used in this case… Read more »
Interesting if Poland received points from Serbia. What will that mean?
Also kind of convenient that they cut off during Croatia’s performance…
If Croatia wanted their semi final song to be heard in Serbia, they should have thought about that 30 years ago.
Now what is that supposed to mean?
Nothing to do with Poland, it is related to Serbian politics, everything in Serbian society related to Serbian president is “the most important” in that particular moment.
yeah I am not saying it is related to Poland but ultimately hurt Poland most and Croatia and Iceland that were then showed on the other channel
Bro u just change the channel from 1 to 2. It’s not that deep.
The broadcast was literally one click away. ?
so do you think it’s fair to interrupt during a song and tell people to switch channels?
Why should the Serbian artist suffer because their president/broadcaster did something stupid?
Why should entire peoples suffer when their leaders do something stupid? Yet they do.
Just a few gays are fuming. The interruption was announced before the show started and it continued on another channel. It was literally one click away. No big deal really. We have actual things going on in the country, especially news worthy things.
Interruption between songs is one thing. Interruption in the middle of performance is something else.
I was pleasantly surprised with the show yesterday. Almost everyone was good and most of them exceeded expectations. I was happy with the qualifiers as well, I just don’t like the fact Portugal qualified AGAIN, and they are sending the same boring song every year. I can’t anymore, but I guess you need at least one toilet break in the final. Nothing against Iolanda, she is a good singer and she did her best, I applaud her, I just can’t stand fado/slow pace songs of this style anymore. It is simply boring. In general, Ireland really elevated with that staging,… Read more »
Portugal was the best of the night actually imho
We will agree to disagree. If we talk about the performance and execution, she was good, but Moldova was also good in that aspect. Both songs are bad IMO.
You know nothing about music, sorry
Portugal sent an cabaret upbeat song last year and a slow love rock song in 2021. 2 fados in 4 years is litteraly not “every year Portugal sends fado”.
You are right. But it still feels like the same song every year. They have almost no diversity, Mimicat was uptempo, but still aesthetic and genre-wise was retro. Black Mamba no fado, but still retro that gives similar vibes. Apart from Conan Osiris, all the other songs are more or less from the same box. I get that they are recognized and different from the other countries and they are forcing that to get to final (especially after 2004-2015 when they were NQ eight times), but to me it is boring and I don’t want to get that anymore. We… Read more »
Sweden send every single year the same genre…
Portugal in the grand final only without jury only with public votes withtout Spain France and Switzerland voting its really something….Portugal improved a lot in ESC we must deal with that
And if YOU can’t stand it, we should be done with it. YOU’RE absolutely right. Let’s ignore the votes that send it to the final, cause we live in Ultima Thule world. We’re so sorry for the inconvenience.
Wut how Ay Coraçaõ (2023) was similar to Grito? Or Saudade, Saudade (2022)? Or English language jazz from 2021? We havent had Fado inspired ballad since O Jardin in 2018
So according to you, the Eurovision should be generic songs with random fireworks, random visuals, sung in english, and occasionally with a good message. Unfortunately, you arrived LATER to that competition, it had 5 semi-finals and a final, with a 2nd-chance round in the last semi-final. It’s called Melodifestivalen. Also, you can’t stand fado and slow pace songs (which means that, by deduction, we include every single traditional style slow paced). It’s OK if it’s not the music style that you are into it, but acknowledge that it’s quality and accept it’s relevancy towards the country that sends it. Otherwise,… Read more »
It’s all making sense why Slovenia and Serbia got through lastnite , these countries plus Croatia voted for each other under the former Yugoslavian Flag. When will the EBU learn that impartiality doesn’t come into play when block countries are put together .
And plus . Croatia isnt such a good song . You ear once and see . One tine. It’s not as good as Arcade or zitti i bueno Voila tatoo etc … the best song and most radio friendly that can pop as a Sucess in charts are : France Switzerland The Uk …
It certainly better than Toy or Stefania
Or “Running Scared”, “Believe” and even “Satellite” imho. None of them survived time.
“I wonna” and “Everybody”. Guilty pleasure maybe, but not worthy winners.
I limited the comparisons to the last 20 years but yeah you’re absolutely right. That was a poor couple of years for Eurovision.
All 3 of these are better than Baby Cow
‘Better’ is subjective. What I said was different though. They didn’t last through the years did they?
I think Lena’s black dress and chorus remain recognisable, and Dima’s staging is burned into the memory of anyone who saw it.
I was talking about the actual songs and not the staging or the dresses. Of course we don’t know if “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” (provided it wins) will remain in Eurovision history books as a memorable winner but I think it has more chances than the ones I mentioned above. Of course it’s not “Fairytale”, “Euphoria” or “Arcade” but tbf we get those only once every few years.
Running scared wouldn’t even be in the final nowadays and believe and satellite would struggle to break into top 10. (Forever bitter that Manga didn’t win)
Stefania won out of the mercy. Song sucks.
France? It is just a boring song
They went through to the final because they got around 20pts between them? Learn a math and get a life, hater!
People also seem to forget that these countries have the same or similar language and taste in music, so of course it also makes sense if they connect with a song and vote for it. the nordics are also doing it
Also Greece-Cyprus, Romania-Moldova and Turkey-Azerbaijan in the past and even UK-Ireland to some extend. Of course they have similar cultures and languages and the public is often familiar with the artists and the songs. All of those are valid reasons to vote for eachother – it’s not all about politics I absolutely agree.
The Word that IMO described last night SF is excess. Most of the performances were too much, using many effects, lights, flashes, fires…
I was not able to watch the full Swedish performance because all those lighting effects were really annoying.
Uk, can an excessive performance hide terrible vocals? It seems so.
Azerbaijan, the shining woman behind. What was that? The outfits?.
Moldova instead of having the human element, the backsingers onstage they had this Disney Fairy tale images behind.
Moldova.
First the camera shots were wrong. Why not let us see how she picks up the violin, that is exciting. Why show the audience at that particularly crucial point?
Second, the led screen with flowers and fish, and so much of it. It can make the viewer feel so tired.
Felt like eurovision version of hairography. True.
I always remember Salvador Sobral saying ESC is only for the music, and asking to leave special effects behind. Part of this SF was the complete opposite, sadly.
Yes, he used whole visuals behind him to create the atmosphere of the song. Look, if an artist wants to compete on music and voice, they can go to other competitions. The ESC is a TV music show, we need the songs, the artists, the staging, the performance, everything. We can’t rule out parts because we don’t like them or don’t fit our offering.
If an artist has a great voice and does superb music, they can record an album and tour the world to promote it. Why take part in a competition they don’t genuinely want or like?
Yeah, but visuals were a feature, not the center. What I mean is that idk if it’s good that eurovision song contest becomes eurovision theater contest. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I don’t know if it’s good.
In fact there were songs in past editions in which acting was great and vocals bad (e.g. Telemoveis), and I had them qualifying to the final. I am not against the performances, I don’t want a blank scene with music sounding. But like the first post said, we had some excess yesterday. When will it stop? Will it?
I don’t see your point. We are talking of singers, people that actually (should) record albums and tour the world. Eurovision should be the event that launches their career, not the objective of their artistic life.
I hope that introducing 100% public voting in semis was done only to bring Turkey back (it was their main condition). Otherwise, I don’t see the point! Lack of juries destroyed the contest!! Look how contest evolved last 10 years (much more quality music and less joke entries), thanks to the 50/50 voting. I hope 100% televote iwill be changed, otherwise next year it will be even more joke entries…
It’s 49.6-50.4 not 50 50 lol
With Ireland doing well and even potentially winning (as some are predicting), no chance Turkey will be back. If they disliked Conchita xD
I don’t think the Ireland will be a problem to Turkey this year next to Switzerland
Turkey isn’t coming back for at least a few years. Not with the current direction the country has. Hungary is very much a similar case unfortunately.
When semis are televote only, there is less chance to get the awkward ”0 points from the public” moments in the grand final. I would rather reduce the power of the juries in the final as well. Why would I put my money into voting, when my vote has no chance to make an impact, like we saw last year.
I really don’t see the huge problem of having few funny entries in the final. It would be boring if it was only ballads after another.
I never got the argument about putting money into voting. I understand about effort, but using money as explanation isn’t the point. If we vote for a country which is not the eventual winner (or let’s say top 10), then our money is “lost”. It’s part of the game.
Voters loose their money anyways, no matter the act they vote wins or looses. But it doesn’t make the voting appealing knowing that a handfull of people can make the votes of millions worth nothing.
The problem for Turkey is the spirit of the event: gay flags, grinder jokes, liberals. TRT want’s insted what the Turkish governments want’s: “family values”.
As a straight man, I find the whole Eurovision gay mafia thing tiring. Can we not all just enjoy the music.
As gay man… Where the meetin’s attt (southern drawl)… Can hear all those Grindr notifications already.
I’m here for the music too. Enjoy the remainder of the shows.
amen!
I’m from South America. Some things (some) were completely weird and absolutely unexpectable for what is our average show. Yesterday I saw things I don’t see even in Pride Day festivals of my country.
I’m up at all the differences between continents, this is just a comment; I love that people can express their way of being and feeling in public. But EBU may note this in the future if they like the idea to become a worldwide event.
Most of what we see at ESC is the norm on Mexican pride parades. We even had a transgender winning a famous reality show a year ago
Eurovision is not a gay show.
Broadcasters need to remember that not everyone in the audience is gay and the show should be for everyone.
I want to come to Malmo tomorrow but 800 euros for a one hour flight Amsterdam Copenhagen is craaaaaaazyyy
It is hypocrisy that people criticize Eric Saade for his support to Palestine by wearing keffiyeh.
Seems that EBU only cares about the war in Ukraine; if Ukranian entrants showed any sembol associated with Ukranian war, I am sure EBU would not say anything.
IF? What was the air-raid visual effect during their song?
Personally I thought Ukraine looked like a winner. Finland was a lovely fun surprise but the novelty may wear thin quickly. Ireland was an atrocity. What shocked me was the miming to supposed “,backing vocals” – the Croatian guy was miming, the lads for Sweden were for example.
The BL dance also reminds me slightly of an Ustase salute
Just throwing this in the mix so don’t YELL at me. Given how broadcasters are struggling financially is it time to scale things back a bit? The overall impression I get this year is the bigger the better. To me a lot of style over substance. Eurovision can surely still be a party without all the ott staging. Sometimes balloons and cake are more fun than the bouncy castle and vol au vents.
I want the eurovision of the early 2000s back. That was nice and good. We weren’t missing out on anything.
i want to ban annoying dance breaks in the middle of the song. Bridge is fun but when a rerun of the song literally does not involve a single line of lyrics is just too much. Go have your dance shows, leave songs to ESC
Kind of with you on that.
The 70’s and 90’s are my highlight years. I’m not nostalgic by nature but some of my all time favourites are from those two decades. The arrival of the new countries brought a breath of fresh air to the contest with different cultural references. Today many of those countries produce acts that could be straight from a US award show. This year Cyprus, Malta, Georgia and Austria are almost interchangeable to me.
Was it really? I don’t agree. I can barely name a good song between 2000-2002. Mid 00s (2003-2005) was okay although ESC performances and staging started already getting largely complicated and OTT and hitting rock bottom around 2007-2008. I would like some reform of the voting system eventually but I’m happy with ESC in its 2021-2024 era.
Good is a relative term. It’s good if you like it, not if you don’t. There are at least 5 songs from each year from 2000-2023 which rank among my favourites.This year I’m struggling to find two. That’s my taste and has nothing to do with quality. You can’t qualify any creative performance or artistic endeavour, it’s merits are all in the eye of the beholder.
I believe it’s the first time when none of the major media outlets in the country are criticizing our selected representative. Everyone is so warm and happy for Silvester! Back in the days, we would hear congratulations with BUTS as in, they know the best how everything must be done. You’re our silver prince, Silvester! <3 All I hear today is how every radio station here is praising your performance. Please stay true to yourself and never give up as you're making Lithuania proud of your hard work!
The best luck for you 🙂
There’s nothing to criticize about Silvester. It’s the best song Lithuania has ever sent, the staging is good (simple, but effective), dancing is good, the singing is excellent and stable. There’s literally nothing that they could do better. Well done Silvester!
Because Lithuanias song this year is a fricking TUNE!!! Love it, love Sylvester love Lithuanian entries every year.
Possibly my last remaining favourite in the final. Love the song and the singer. Best of luck on Saturday.
Would you look at that, for once I got 10 out of 10! I was really doubtful about who would be out between Ireland, Azerbaijan and Finland, but I picked right!
Even though it’s not my kind of song at all, huge congrats to Ireland for taking such a leap of faith and seeing it pay off. Also happy for Luxembourg, hopefully their success encourages Andorra and Monaco to consider returning
I know it doesn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it is a little bit of a pointer in terms of popularity/virality. Here are the number of Youtube views in order of popularity of each performance from last night’s 1st semi finals (as of right now).
Croatia 666k
Ireland 593k
Ukraine 557k
Serbia 254k
Finland 235k
Cyprus 205k
Lithuania 167k
UK 127k
Slovenia 118k
Portugal 97k
Luxembourg 81k
Sweden 64k
Germany 56k
Non-Qualifiers:
Poland 316k
Moldova 68k
Azerbaijan 64k
Australia 61k
Iceland 31k
Quite surprised about Serbia…
Germany’s performance, not getting even 60K, coming from a 84 million inhabitants country… it says a lot.
Also surprising is the UK, with a popular singer and a great staging, I would have expected much more viewers.
I think with Germany, it really is about the bland song choice. Its not popular amongst the eurofans and it hasn’t generated a buzz in general. He’s a great singer though. On the flip side you with the UK you have a great song with superb staging, but a weaker vocalist. The more memorable of the two is the performance by the UK, so I can see why he’s head and shoulders doing better in popularity. Still as you said. 127k isn’t a lot when compared to the others. Even Poland pulls in more views as a non qualifier, although… Read more »
Poland Lol
Poland (as Russia) is a youtube-based country, for every person watching a non-polish video on YT there are 3 polish watching polish videos.
Irelands should be 666 lol
I thought that too… it would have been so funny!
I actually think it is telling. The only outlayer is Poland
Small update on the numbers: 3 performances are already over the 1M mark: Croatia (1.4M), Ireland (1.2M) and Ukraine (1.1M). Finland in distant 4th with 635K. The first 3 clearly got all the attention yesterday and likely finished in the Top 3.
These views can pretty much transfered to corresponding televotes?
What kind of show do you guys think we would get if HRT gets to host especially after us seeing Dora 2024?
Im sure they would get support from like SVT. This has happened before, right? So i see no reason to be worried about that. Im still not totally convinced though Croatia will take it.And at the same time it feels so obvious. But i dont find it in particular a very exciting winner. I hope for a surprise win 🙂
I am only worried we will receive shouting hosts again. Petra will set a high level.
I’m Croatian and scared of our hosting capabilites in case we do win, HRT needs a lot of help judging from Dora.
Hold your horses. Croatia not yet a winner. I don’t believe the jury will reward that much this song. But in any case, as any other Eurovision. No one can deviate from the norm dictated by EBU and the SVT
My opinion about Portugal:
The performance was really simple, but not empty. The song is powerful and the lyrics are inspiring. The vocals are great. (9/10)
I’m really glad that Slovenia qualifed!! I was very worried that she will be NQ. If you take into consideration their very low budget for performance, she did an amazing job. Who knows what she cold do more with more budget. I adore here… I predict 10/10, I was just worried about Serbia and Slovenia, but I’m really glad I believe on them. My top 5 from yesterday: 1) Croatia – very luxury staging, I did not expect that from Croatia tbh. They spent a lot of money on it! Catchy, so powerful interaction with the audience, I felt like… Read more »
Slovenia did a fabulous job on the mermaid like theme, and honestly i have the series Siren fresh in mind
where did the dancers suddenly come from, we were wondering (me and my dad) was nice playing with close-up and wide camera angles that part
So happy for Slovenia and Raiven! I think she was 10-th and a narrow qualifier. She basically took the spot from Poland or Australia. Although I like, there is a big BUT. The whole thing is messy! That’s the only word that comes to mind. I was expecting something more, more drama, some props, darker staging. It’s just all over the place. Nevertheless as a Slovene, I’m proud of Raiven and happy. I expect a typical Slovene finish, which is 15-25 with lots of jury points and zero from public. Also happy for Serbia, Portugal and Luxembourg. F the odds… Read more »
am happy Slovenia, Portugal, Serbia also qualified!!!!
and Luxembourg a successful comeback yasss
am sad for australia but those english lyrics were too dated i guess, was a good ethno performance nevertheless
i awarded Ireland, Croatia, Ukraine the only ones with a 10/10 average score last night
Bambies staging, to me: It’s about therapy. To banish your demons (which they do at the end beautifully), you have to discover them (Hex them)… The discovery is frightening and sometimes enlightening but as some point (the red section) you gotta (angry screamo BBBBLUE) cast them off your back… Have self-possession (strength) and banish them, knock them down, flatten them. Final scene… A tiny, thin, near-naked Bambie stands under a ring of lights (crown) with a single beam of light piecing the ring (hope and self redemption). A cross posed person on a cross shaped stage – exposed/reborn. Mic drop… Read more »