Well.. I listened to them, and they are all awful! I generally don't like modern music, but I ussually find something to like in Eurovision... not this year! France seems to be the only one that is listenable. Finland? Good Lord. The highlight of the song is supposed to be when his pants arrive from the ceiling? Who comes up with this stuff? I figure everyone is going to dump on Israel this year, although Eurovision is not supposed to be political. Sad, really. The only really FANTASTIC song of the last 3 years was from Sweden, and it didn't even win Melodifestivalen.  

 

Edited March 21, 20241 yr by brockreynolds

I'm happy that Luxembourg advanced to the final. They were my favourite last night in the first semi-final.  And I always like hearing a bit of French.  

I keep hearing that Croatia is one of the favourites to win, and that seems incomprehensible to me. That song (if you can call it that) is more than a little influenced by Finland's entry last year.

 

Ukraine was my personal winner last night, and it will easily come top 3 in the Grand Final. I was also pleasantly surprised by Lithuania's and Slovenia's live performances. Sweden and the UK delivered as well.

Meanwhile, both Australia and Azerbaijan, which I adore in their studio versions, completely fell flat on stage, so their NQ was inevitable.

Q:

• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Finland
• Ireland
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Portugal
• Serbia
• Slovenia
• Ukraine

NQ:

• Australia
• Azerbaijan
• Iceland
• Moldova
• Poland

From semi-final 2 these countries qualified to final.

• Latvia
• Austria
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• Israel
• Greece
• Estonia
• Switzerland
• Georgia
• Armenia

These did not qualify

• Belgium
• Malta
• Albania
• Czechia
• Denmark
• San Marino

I'm gobsmacked that Estonia and the Netherlands qualified. But that's what you get when you leave the decision entirely in the hands of the public.  

The best part of last night's semi-final was the interval act.....    (Sarah Dawn Finer as Lynda Woodruff is always hilarious )

 

Quite an eventful year this year....  First all of the commotion and controversy surrounding Israel's participation, and now the Dutch artist Joost Klein is under investigation for an alleged violent incident towards a female crew member. He won't be performing during the rehearsals this evening, so the juries will see a tape of his performance from the semi-final instead. (The jury votes are placed based on tonight's rehearsal)

Yep, it sounds pretty serious since they've post-poned the public voting now (it was supposed to open at midnight). I doubt they'd consider disqualifying him over something non-serious because trying to fill three extra minutes in a tight live show is a nightmare.

It is being rapported that the Dutch entry has been disqualified!   😲

Statement on Dutch participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Edited May 11, 20241 yr by I Am A Swede

What a complete mess this is turning into. Apparently some countries missed parts or all of the dress rehearsals, and the Irish contestant is supposed to have said that she wants Israel to be excluded.

After all the commotion, Switzerland emerged as the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Not exactly my personal favourite, but that is usually the case for me.  

Final result:

	Country	Jury points	Televote	Total points
1	Switzerland	365	226	591
2	Croatia	210	337	547
3	Ukraine	146	307	453
4	France	218	227	445
5	Israel	52	323	375
6	Ireland	142	136	278
7	Italy	164	104	268
8	Armenia	101	82	183
9	Sweden	125	49	174
10	Portugal	139	13	152
11	Greece	41	85	126
12	Germany	99	18	117
13	Luxembourg	83	20	103
14	Lithuania	32	58	90
15	Cyprus	34	44	78
16	Latvia	36	28	64
17	Serbia	22	32	54
18	United Kingdom	46	0	46
19	Finland	7	31	38
20	Estonia	4	33	37
21	Georgia	15	19	34
22	Spain	19	11	30
23	Slovenia	15	12	27
24	Austria	19	5	24
25	Norway	12	4	16
26	The Netherlands	-	-	-