Eurovision 2017

Nothing wrong with Armenia but I miss Inga and Anush

I liked Armenia, but it needed to be bigger sounding, I think. Having said that, I think Armenia and Azerbaijan are the only two I'm that fussed about seeing go into the next round. So obv they'll both get knocked out.

feel a bit churlish to write this but I'd like Latvia a lot better if they had a song

Could do with some decent Ukrainian pop as a palate cleanser tbh.

Expected rank according to Betfair markets, snapshot right after the reminders:

Top ten: SWE, ARM, POR, MDA, AZE, BEL, GRE, FIN, AUS, CYP
Then: LAT, GEO, SLO, ISL, MNE, ALB, CZE

(To be precise, that is not necessarily the actual ranking order of the entries as such, but a ranking of the probability of going through. A ranking of the probabiliby of winning the semifinal might turn out slightly different.)

feel Sweden are due a DNQ maybe just wishful thinking

ISL has a decent shot I'd say

They can have the place of MDA, which I found pretty unbearable

Georgia should probably be ok.

Jamala is so fucking good.

The new one is very good.

Yeah, definite highlight of the evening right there.

Good god, Spain.

Whoops, I missed POL in the market ranking. They were at #11, top non-qualifier.

So market was 9 for 10, had Finland instead of Poland.

These are intriguing odds:

Germany to give UK 0 points (Jury + Televoting Combined) 5/4
France to give UK 0 points (Jury + Televoting Combined) 13/8
Italy to give UK 0 points (Jury + Televoting Combined) 2/1

Would this have done any better for Iceland?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpLp9nRmS7U

So market was 9 for 10, had Finland instead of Poland.

Which is how it should have been.

Faves among qualifiers -- Belgium, Azerbaijan, Australia (with caveats)

xps going for uk getting 4 from roi and 1 each from san marino and malta

From the clip they played during the "waiting for votes" section, I didn't hate the UK entry. Spain, on the other hand...

Spain not only needs to die in a fire, but drown.

... in a fire?

Burning oil on water, whatever works.

Okay, second semi in half an hour...

TMI

I have heard a rumour Ruslana is the interval act today, which would be great.

It's all very well being sniffy about this, but in 1997 we nearly entered a song called Yodel In The Canyon Of Love https://t.co/o1abJEkHWe

— Kit Lovelace (@kitlovelace) May 11, 2017

This is painful tho.

That last one was good but I was too busy calling him 'Yahtzee Popeye' to notice what country it was. Any help?

Hungary

Cool, thanks.

As a side note, given the direction the country is going in, it's good to see a Roma singer performing for Hungary. Decent song too.

routinely check to see if ruslana has blotted her copybook in re the darkside of maidan (as a sometime MP etc), but so far she seems to be more or less on the side of good

Denmark: reliably awful

YODEL IT

San Marino: reliably Valentina

Valentina in dgaf "what are you going to do, stop selecting me?" mode

And now Croatian Josh Gad.

This is remarkable.

Croatian Jekyll and Hyde: "I am an opera singer"/"I will put mustard on you and eat you"

Simultaneously the campest performer at Eurovision 2017 and "the biggest homophobe in Croatian showbiz".

Perfect combo! Uh.

Yeah, such a shame, I liked the Croatia song. Also quite liked the Switzerland one, tbh, though I'm not sure what makes it stand out from the other mid-tempo belters that I've been dismissing these semis.

Where are you all watching (US)?

Swedish feed

https://www.svtplay.se/video/13572909/eurovision-song-contest/eurovision-song-contest-2017-semifinal-2-11-maj-21-00?start=auto&tab=kommande

i am watching on the bbc bcz i am brexit

switched from BBC to Youtube live stream - so much better when you're doing your own commentary

Sofia 2018 imo.

with the "Heroes" stage show? hope not

oh right the voter points are still based on the ranking 1-12 points

I remember when I was first watching all the songs/videos two months back I was thinking that Portugal had the virtue of being thoroughly atypical compared to the rest of the field, if nothing else, and here we are. I do wonder how much the medical backstory played into a sympathy vote and all.

Great to see Hungary coming through at the end.

That one quietly grew on me over time.

My two real favorite results -- Belgium placing fourth (would have loved it to beat Moldova at least but I'll take the rest) and Spain getting so completely trashed.

his backstory and portugal's -- and he sang it really well and the arrangement was nice (very 50s strings, like an eartha kitt record or something)

i fear it will create a tsunami of badness next year, assuming the second korean war doesn't take us there first

As I said upthread, it reminded me of Harry Nilsson a bit, but it was a pastiche though, it kept threatening to turn into another song.

So per this article on the winner:

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/television/2017/05/12/historia-erasmus-portugues-atiborro-alucinogenos-mallorca-favorito-ganar-eurovision/00031494588376440908522.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=twgen

...this Google-translated detail:

The Portuguese Salvador Sobral left his country in 2011 with destination to Mallorca . He did it with an Erasmus scholarship, with the clear intention of polishing his training in Psychology. The problem is that the Balearic night confessed to him, and as he himself acknowledged, he ended up walking on the faculty and cramming with hallucinogenic mushrooms and other drugs.

This is not a complaint, mind you, if anything I'm all "Well, yes, sounds right."

Makes you wonder why the songs is so bad.

Then you find out his sister wrote it.

women lol

So far, this is the only place on the internet that has any positive reaction to the winner.

Has the word 'Politics' been mentioned this time around at all?

If not, good and hray!

Like Australia giving the UK 12 points, you mean?

I liked the winner! It stood out from the vaguely EDM songs, and also from the wilder ones. I tend to prefer whatever Eastern Europe comes up with, but this year they were pretty toned down (my family says that there were wilder ones that didn't make the finals). But yay Portugal, which I just returned from last night as it happens.

Latest discovery from Eurovision not-2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkiJlyXaGJI

Could imagine this turning up on a Finders Keepers comp

I vaguely know one of the Australian jurors and I am utterly baffled that she would have gone for the UK entry. She's a singer/songwriter/comedian and the bland UK entry is not what I would have expected would have tickled her fancy. Our jury's fondness for the UK's awful entries is a worry but at least we didn't give anything to Electro Velvet, but then again other country's juries' overfondness for our entry this time is a worry too - roundly rejected by the televoters, the juries propped it up to a bizarre extent for such a blah song (Dami Im was a blah song too but she sang the shit out of it to the extent that I would never bother listening to the studio version as the live version completely blows it away).

On the other hand, the Australian televoters once again did themselves proud and displayed their preference for fun songs, giving 12 and 10 to arguably the most fun songs in the final: Moldova and Romania. Last year our 12 and 10 also went to uptempo fun songs: Belgium's "What's The Pressure" and Bulgaria's "If Love Was a Crime". And in 2015, we went for uptempo Sweden and very fun Serbia in 1 and 3, and Belgium was 2nd (not uptempo but extremely high quality and too good to not be given points).

probably no need for a 2018 thread just yet
but whigfield has made it to the final 10 for denmarks entry

can't think of a better reason to kick off the 2018 season!