Random Icelandic guy? Sigurjón Brink was far away from being just anybody. He was one of the all time greatest artists of Iceland. The Icelandic song is special, it's a sweet, beautiful tribute to a dear friend of Sjonni's friends. The song is different from all the other songs in the SF1. They sang very well and their performance was great.

 

Norway? Seriously? The norwegian song sounded like every other new song you hear on the radio. It sounded very alike "waka waka its time for africa" to me, which isn't very good. And the lyrics are just terrible.

 

Jóhanna (Yohanna) wasn't voted nr. 1 because mainly people didn't like the song itself. But her singing is always beautiful.

 

Magni Ásgeirsson is one of icelands greatest rockers ever. He has a beautiful voice. You may recognize him from Rockstar: Supernova. You can see him if you go to youtube and search magin dolphins cry.

Is it just me, or is the greek song one of the worst entries in eurovision from beginning?

 

Maybe he is, but it doesn't change the fact that I personally thought that his entry into the Icelandic selection was a tuneless mess. If it wasn't going to be Yohanna then I was relieved that Sigurjón's Friends won the ticket in the end. And all signs are pointing towards them majorly dark horsing it in the final :o I don't think Magni would have done as well, although with Turkey now out of the mix with their 'rock' entry, who knows?

*edited*

Edited May 11, 201114 yr by SKOB

The semi was awful but the biggest wtf was that there were no commentators (as the lines were broken) in several countries until the half of the show which obviously did have some effect on results. The Finnish commentator did her job via cellphone.

 

Which makes me think that was one of the reasons that none of the first five performers qualified. Not even the ok-ish Norway (lovely girl with that Shakira-clone). Armenia was just horrible ear rape though so glad they disqualified

 

Poland: Nice song but performance did nothing

Norway: see above

Albania: From horror film surely?

Armenia: One of the worst songs this year. Cute girl though

Turkey: Sounds so much better on record

Serbia: oh dear god at that background... Hopefully people didn't get hospitalised because of it.

Russia: must be the worst Redone song ever. Eric Saade is so much better with more powerful track.

Switzerland: lovely performance, but the song lacks something

Georgia: Couldn't watch that mess

Finland: I obviously support him and the nice little song. You could actually hear there IS one. But the first slot in the final means no chance to go Top 5 on Saturday.

Malta: see Georgia

San Marino: Why did she smile all the time because that didn't suit the song AT ALL

Croatia: gay-awful. I think all the clichés were used here.

Iceland: The best performance of the night imo. Song could be better

Hungary: I used to love this but got tired of it a bit. Gay-anthem still.. The choreography was useless. Should've been just Kati and the backup singers

Portugal: ???

Lithuania: One of the best compositions this year. The singer could've been better and the song sung completely in French.

Azerbaijan: EWWWWW. I hate when duets don't work but with these two horrible singers the result is twice as horrible. The song is also awful, something that all Swedish acts have probably rejected.

Greece: they should've left the rapper home.

 

Weak semi much?

Edited May 11, 201114 yr by SKOB

After watching all performaces I ranked them and got 6 out of 10 right. Also, I was very dissapointed with Poland and Armenia. Songs are great but singing was awful.

(Bold countries qualified)

 

Semi-Final 1

 

1.Azerbaijan (could be better but still a great song)

2.Hungary (didn't like the outfit at all but the song is pretty, although I was expecting slightly better vocals)

3.Malta (he was singing great and I liked the song actually. too bad he couldn't make it)

4.Russia (When I saw him, I though about Elvis. Great performance, although the refrain was tired)

5.Finland (Nice and simple, nothing much to say)

6.Lithuania (The vocals were great!! I couldnt hear any single note out of tune)

7.Turkey (I don't know why, but I kinda liked it)

8.Croatia (Just for the show)

9.Serbia (liked that style! but the song isnt very fascinating)

10.Armenia (I probably was expecting too much from Armenia, vocals were tragic, show pretty good)

---------

11.Poland (great song, but out of tune. almost same as Armenia, however Armenia showed a better performance)

12.Norway (haba haba! Imagine this song playing during parties)

13.San Marino (can't even remember..)

14.Switzerland (nice and simple, but not for me. Although I don't regret that Switzerland passed)

15.Albania (wtf?)

16.Iceland (wtf?)

17.Georgia (didn't like the song actually, although I understand why this song passed. Because of her vocals)

18.Greece (wtf?)

19.Portugal (It was the $h!ttiest song ang performance ever!)

 

Waiting for the Semi-Final 2!!

VERY impressed with the postcards! Great show last night, even if it was the weaker semi. I love shock qualifiers, just not at the expense of one of my favourites. :(

I do think Armenia and Norway were the most embarassing songs yesterday and I'm happy that none of the two made it. In Armenia's case it was the worst song they ever sent by far.

Regardless of the commentator not being around (Marty Whelan we missed you where were you? :cry:) I don't think there was any effect on the sound quality of the actual songs.

 

Even though I really liked the songs from Poland, Norway and Albania. Their performances on the night let me down a little. :(

 

It wasn't until Serbia that I felt like we were actually getting something started.

Edited May 11, 201114 yr by Sabrewulf

Regardless of the commentator not being around (Marty Whelan we missed you where were you? :cry:) I don't think there was any effect on the sound quality of the actual songs.

 

Even though I really liked the songs from Poland, Norway and Albania. Their performances on the night let me down a little. :(

 

Apparently Spain's sound was so bad that it cut off the audio completely whilst Norway were performing. Apparently though, the EBU retaliated by saying that Norway wouldn't have qualified even if Spain had given them 12 points - well that's alright then :wacko: It does suggest though that Norway were quite far away from qualifying :o

 

And commentators were cut off across Europe - it didn't effect us so much because we had Scott Mills commentating from London, even when Sara Cox got lost in the mix.

Regardless of the commentator not being around (Marty Whelan we missed you where were you? :cry:) I don't think there was any effect on the sound quality of the actual songs.

 

True.. But it might have taken the focus away from the songs for a while.

Hopefully we won't be having a repeat on this tomorrow night.

 

Cue all countries that didn't qualify having another reason to complain/call fix. :manson:

I loved Marty Whelan commentating by phone. Very retro! :lol: It's weird that all these problems happened in Germany. I mean, I would've expected it if was Ireland hosting, but GERMANY? :kink:

Indeed :lol: The most shocking thing was their appalling timing, it overran by 12 WHOLE MINUTES :o

 

Anyway in short, good show ruined by sound issues, poor vocals and dull as dishwater commentary. Gutted for Norway :snif: But over the moon for Lithuania, Serbia and Switzerland :w00t:

Indeed :lol: The most shocking thing was their appalling timing, it overran by 12 WHOLE MINUTES :o

 

Anyway in short, good show ruined by sound issues, poor vocals and dull as dishwater commentary. Gutted for Norway :snif: But over the moon for Lithuania, Serbia and Switzerland :w00t:

 

Indeed, WTF :o Really expected a tighter show from Germany, they'll have got the back up of a lot of broadcasters by overruning it for so long! Based on yesterday night, Russia and Norway both gave far superior contests production wise. It honestly felt like we were watching a dress/technical rehearsal live last night! Loads of hiccups and so many countries turned in sub-par vocals...only Iceland, Switzerland, Serbia and Lithuania were vocally spot on imo (Finland and Georgia did very well too though), and they all deserved to qualify for that alone if nothing else!

Technical problems in semifinal one.

 

In their press conference today, the European Broadcasting Union will address some technical problems that occurred during last night’s first semifinal of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

 

The main issue seems to be surrounding the commentary lines in several countries. Viewers in Finland reported that their commentators resorted to using their own mobile phones for part of the show, as did the commentator in Poland. Spanish viewers also reported losing sound during most of Norway’ performance. The new Executive Supervisor of the contest Jon Ola Sand told NRK.no that “it is true that Spain was hit by technical problems during the broadcast that made the sound drop out, including during Norway performing. We do not know if it was the whole of Spain, or just parts, it is too early to tell”. However, he also added that even if Spain had given it’s 12 points to Norway, Stella Mwangi would still not have qualified.

 

Viewers in the United Kingdom lost contact with on-location commentator Sarah Cox for part of the show, however commentary was able to continue with Scott Mills who was based in a studio in London. Viewers on BBC Three and BBC HD also reported a louder than normal vocal mix on the Polish entry, where the backing track was very low.

 

Ireland boadcast without commentary until song four, but did not seem to be receiving a clean feed until Azerbaijan. In Serbia, contact was lost with Duška Vučinić-Lučić and a message was displayed on screen stating that it was a problem not only affecting the RTS feed. Around 20 minutes later the Serbian broadcaster resumed commentary from Belgrade with a locally-based commentator. The Netherlands lost commentary for three songs or so, but were able to go back to a normal broadcast from then on.

 

Reports also suggest problems in Iceland, Malta, and Sweden, whilst host-country Germany also suffered problems on their Pro7 broadcast, meaning that the commentators had to be linked up by telephone.

 

The EBU is expected to address these issues at their press conference later today. Last night, Jon Ola Sand told NRK.no that “We still do not know if there are several countries that were hit by technical problems“, and that it was too early to say if audio problems may have impacted the voting.

 

Note: the above reports of technical problems are being reported on information from our readers, YouTube links, and national broadcasters. ESCDaily.com is not intending to blow this out of all proportion, merely to acknowledge problems reported to us in certain countries.

 

TRT commentary:

 

From EscDaily.

 

 

 

Serbia and Switzerland have grown on me HUGELY the past few days. I wouldn't have wanted them to qualify this time last week, but I'm very happy that they did.

Here's where the Semi 1 particpants were in my most recent overall rankings, bolded the qualifiers

 

7. Hungary // Kati Wolf - What About My Dreams

8. Lithuania // Evelina Sašenko - C'est Ma Vie

11. Azerbaijan // Ell & Nikki - Running Scared

12. Norway // Stella Mwangi - Haba Haba

13. Iceland // Sjonni's Friends - Coming Home

15. Switzerland // Anna Rossinelli - In Love For A While

16. San Marino // Senit - Stand By

18. Russia // Alex Sparrow - Get You

20. Finland // Paradise Oskar - Da Da Dam

21. Serbia // Nina - Čaroban

-----------------------------------------

23. Croatia // Daria Kinzer - Celebrate

26. Poland // Magdalena Tul - Jestem

28. Turkey // Yüksek Sadakat - Live It Up

29. Albania // Aurela Gaçe - Feel The Passion

33. Georgia // Eldrine - One More Day

35. Malta // Glen Vella - One Life

36. Greece // Loukas Giorkas feat. Stereo Mike - Watch my Dance

37. Armenia // Emmy - Boom Boom

42. Portugal // Homens Da Luta - A Luta é Alegria

 

Eight out of my top ten went through then as well as my top three so I can't really complain about last night! San Marino aren't a huge loss and I've never got back into Haba Haba in the same way that I loved it at first. Out of the performances last night overall it was probably my 6th or 7th favourite...

I woke up this morning and hoped I had a nightmare last night :lol:

 

I didn't :( Watching Eurovision now won't be the same

I certainly noticed the poor sound quality on the Polish performance and the backing vocalists on numerous entries could barely be heard. All in all, a pretty poor start for the German broadcaster considering the superb shows put on by Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine a few years back.

 

It'll be interesting to see if Norway and Turkey scored well with the countries who had the usual commentary and failed with those who lost it.

I certainly noticed the poor sound quality on the Polish performance and the backing vocalists on numerous entries could barely be heard. All in all, a pretty poor start for the German broadcaster considering the superb shows put on by Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine a few years back.

 

It'll be interesting to see if Norway and Turkey scored well with the countries who had the usual commentary and failed with those who lost it.

In Spain they couldn't even hear us and in Turkey (I heard from one who is from Turkey) told me that they could barly hear anything from Stella! Do anyone remember Spain last year? they could sing again in the end, and so should Norway this year :(

 

I've also heard Poland and Turkey have had trouble too

Surprising that Germany of all places would have so many issues. They normally take after the Swiss for efficiency.