Austria 2014: Conchita Wurst / "Rise Like a Phoenix"

http://youtu.be/ToqNa0rqUtY

Preview of the 1st semi-final

Running order: Armenia - Latvia - Estonia - Sweden - Iceland - Albania - Russia - Azerbaijan - Ukraine - Belgium - Moldova - San Marino - Portugal - The Netherlands - Montenegro - Hungary

http://youtu.be/p9-mmH0GJ3c

Preview of the 2nd semi-final

Running order: Malta - Israel - Norway - Georgia - Poland - Austria - Lithuania - Finland - Ireland - Belarus - Macedonia - Switzerland - Greece - Slovenia - Romania

http://youtu.be/k8IQbpyfwRk

Preview of the automatic finalists

Denmark - France - Germany - italy - Spain - United Kingdom

http://youtu.be/o6h0OAMJ9LY

My prediction is the Swiss entry will take the contest. I think that whole infectious sing-songy quality is going to play VERY well with the judges. And let me just say that Icelandic entry is one the most annoying songs I've ever heard in my life. The Polish entry... what a crude and revolting song, it's the kind of trash that low brow whores like Nicki Minaj would record. The Latvian entry, "Cake to Bake"... It's a strange little song, but for some reason I like it. It starts off with this bizarre amalgam of TEDIOUS lyrics, but the chorus just brings that baby right into the station.

Edited March 30, 201411 yr by alphanguy74

I like the Icelandic song

The Swiss song will never win.

According to the betting odds and fan polls, the hot favorite to take the trophy is Armenia, followed by Sweden, Norway, Denmark (again), Azerbaijan.

The Swiss song is third-to-last in the ranking.

My top 10 looks like this:

01. Ireland

02. Belarus

03. United Kingdom

04. Malta

05. Israel

06. Italy

07. Estonia

08. Iceland

09. Sweden

10. Germany

Just missing out: Netherlands, Norway, Azerbaijan, Austria.

My guilty pleasure is Portugal. It's pure trash, but it's fun and I like the language.

The worst of the bunch are Georgia and Belgium. All the others I can listen to.

I liked our song when I first heard it, but I'm already bored with it. Now I wish we would have sent one of these songs instead.

Ace Wilder - "Busy doin' nothin'" (2nd place)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTMORNcpNM4

Alcazar - "Blame it on the disco" (3rd place)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwZ_1r71ucU

The 1st Semi Final is over.

The following countries have advanced to the Grand Final on Saturday:

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Montenegro
• The Netherlands
• Russia
• San Marino
• Sweden
• Ukraine

This is the first time that Montenegro and San Marino have reached an Eurovision final.

The following countries are out:

• Albania
• Belgium
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Moldova
• Portugal

Not a bad result at all.

I would have dropped Iceland and Azerbaijan though. I didn't like either of their songs. Azerbaijan's entry was so boring, and the Icelandic entry was just bad. In their place I would have had Albania and Portugal.

I loved that Portugal and Montenegro chose to sing in their own languages. I wish that more countries would do that, instead of singing in English. I think many songs would actually benefit from that, because the lyrics are so pathetic in English and most of the singers aren't very good at it so you can hardly understand what they're singing anyway.

These countries qualified to the final from the second semi-final:

Austria

Belarus

Finland

Greece

Malta

Norway

Poland

Romania

Slovenia

Switzerland

Eliminated were:

Georgia

Ireland

Israel

Lithuania

Macedonia

Too bad that Ireland didn't qualify to the final. I really liked that song.

How on earth did Israel not qualify? It was the best song last night.

I liked Ireland, too, but she sang off-key and she never smiled.

The running order for the final:

01. Ukraine
02. Belarus
03. Azerbaijan
04. Iceland
05. Norway
06. Romania
07. Armenia
08. Montenegro
09. Poland
10. Greece
11. Austria
12. Germany
13. Sweden
14. France
15. Russia
16. Italy
17. Slovenia
18. Finland
19. Spain
20. Switzerland
21. Hungary
22. Malta
23. Denmark
24. The Netherlands
25. San Marino
26. United Kingdom

I guess we're in for a surprise winner this year. I think it'll be between Austria, Netherlands and maybe the UK.

All the hot favorites were drawn into the 1st half, thus cancelling each other out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9LHOYl4s2Y

I don't care that it didn't reach the final. For me this was this year's best entry.

I'm used to my favourites not winning though. That hasn't happened since 1988, when Celine Dion brought victory to Switzerland.

Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since 1966!

The winning Austrian entry:

The full result:

1. Austria - 290 points

2. The Netherlands - 238 points

3. Sweden - 218 points

4. Armenia - 174 points

5. Hungary - 143 points

6. Ukraine - 113 points

7. Russia - 89 points

8. Norway - 88 points

9. Denmark - 74 points

10. Spain - 74 points

11. Finland - 72 points

12. Romania - 72 points

13. Switzerland - 64 points

14. Poland - 62 points

15. Iceland - 58 points

16. Belarus - 43 points

17. United Kingdom - 40 points

18. Germany - 39 points

19. Montenegro - 37 points

20. Greece - 35 points

21. Italy - 33 points

22. Azerbaijan - 33 points

23. Malta - 32 points

24. San Marino - 14 points

25. Slovenia - 9 points

26. France - 2 points

Some facts:

France ended up in last place for the first time ever.

Greece got their worst result since 1998. Since 2004 they have been in the top 10 on 9 occasions.

Azerbaijan finished outside the top 8 for the first time.

Italy got their lowest score since 1979, and then there were only 19 countries participating, not 37 like now.

Congratulations to our neighbors Austria - and to our other neighbors Netherlands for 2nd place.

Who have had thought two years ago that these two countries would ever reach the top 5 again after years of bad results?

Looking at the semi final results, Portugal almost qualified for the final...

Recap of the 1st semi final

http://youtu.be/1-_jJHkGf-w

Recap of the 2nd semi final

http://youtu.be/Qc6FReFzoM4

Recap of the Grand Final

http://youtu.be/RL86yshasw8

Winning performance: Conchita Wurst / "Rise Like a Phoenix"

http://youtu.be/QRUIava4WRM

Here's a perfect example of why it's often a bad idea to translate your song to English. This is San Marino's entry in Italian, and it sounds so much better like this....