Everyone is so amazing English-wise this year, the only ones that have translators are Lisa, Elnur, Uzari and Polina (and Inga but Vahe translates for her) I believe and all of them can at least speak a little bit of English - Polina seems to speak quite a lot but uses the translator for interviews anyway.

 

I think it's a unique situation of quite a few artists being "international" so have need English. Vaidas has lived in London, Daniel lives in Vienna, the Armenians are from everywhere including US and Australia, Melanie has studied in Brighton, Morland lives in Brighton, Elhaida lives/lived in Italy, one of the Finnish guys grew up in the US, Ann Sophie was born in London and has lived in the US! But even so, it's outstanding how many know English so well.

 

I've noticed how massively well Anita & Michele's English has improved in the last couple of months, Valentina was the same too - maybe there's something about Sammarinese people having fast learning skills! :kink:

And I know the use of hashtags on the TV screens didn't appeal to the fans when the images leaked last night, but if you type one of them into Twitter their Eurovision flag logo pops up next to it! :o

 

See an example here: https://twitter.com/Eurovision/status/600637134417047552

 

HOW FABULOUS! Check out the full list of "hashflags" below:

 

http://www.eurovision.tv/save-files/resizes/46/0e/e0/89/06/39/f7/d9/17/f4/72/63/dd/33/6c/f6/11267570_10152826896442633_585872279_o.jpg

OK I take back my criticism, that looks amazing!

Morland lives in Brighton

Oh DOES HE NOW

I believe so with his British wife (the woman who was drunk when they interviewed her in Melodi Grand Prix :kink:)!

RUIN MY ILLUSIONS WHY DON'T YOU

So far, the finalists are performing in the following halves:

 

Italy - Second half

Spain - Second half

Germany - Second half

UK - First half

 

 

Glad that Germany are in the second half, but very disappointed Italy is - they are right in contention now. Spain getting another fabulous draw! :lol:

God the second half is slowly turning into snoozefest o'clock. Georgia is standing out incredibly at the moment though :wub:

France and Australia both drew the first half. That surely stops any chance of Australia winning.

 

That leaves 6 first half spaces and 4 second half spaces for tomorrow's qualifiers, hopefully Sweden, Norway and Slovenia - if they all get through - can all steal those second half spots! Slovenia could really benefit from that ballad-heavy half.

That's a lot of second half spaces taken, looks like semi 2 will struggle to choose between them. Definitely hope Slovenia can get a semi 2 place, while part of me has been really wanting Sweden to go into the first half to open this thing up a notch :kink:

 

At this point I think Norway will do better in the first half.

I just want to prevent an Italy win so I need Sweden in the second half so them and Russia can make sure it doesn't happen.

Sweden, Lithuania, Israel and Slovenia would be the perfect four to throw into that second half there and we've got a not bad draw there.

France and Australia both drew the first half. That surely stops any chance of Australia winning.

 

Austria drew first half last year. -_-

Last year was a unique situation with all the favourites bar The Netherlands (and the UK) in the first half so a first half winner was nearly guaranteed unless The Netherlands won. Also Conchita would've won from anywhere in the running order most likely. I doubt 'Tonight Again' will be as memorable so therefore an early draw will reduce it's chance to nearly zero especially considering Russia and Italy are already in the second half.

Last year was a unique situation with all the favourites bar The Netherlands (and the UK) in the first half so a first half winner was nearly guaranteed unless The Netherlands won. Also Conchita would've won from anywhere in the running order most likely. I doubt 'Tonight Again' will be as memorable so therefore an early draw will reduce it's chance to nearly zero especially considering Russia and Italy are already in the second half.

 

I don't think you can discredit Australia's hype that easily. Let's not forget 2011 and how this year is parallel to that contest.

Plus, I doubt they'll slot them in second, although I can see them opening the final.

 

Running order is not really a reason for a song's failure or success.

I still don't see Italy as a contender at all. Top 10 yes most likely but I can't see televotes flooding in for it. An opera influenced song not in English with a not very memorable staging. I really don't understand why it's a favourite.

I'm actually growing to really like Italy's song :ph34r:

 

HELP.

 

Aaaaaaand I'm not getting the mass adoration for Estonia's entry either though. I mean it's good, but in contention to win? Nope. (But I think I'm bitter that this will undoubtedly out perform 'Rockefeller Street' tbh. :snif:) and I also had the same feeling about The Common Linnets last year and look how well they did! :lol:

Running order is not really a reason for a song's failure or success.

It is, it just wouldn't have stopped most recent winners from winning. I think Eric might have won in 2011 if he'd picked the other ball and gone 21st, as he'd have stood out far more at the end than he did amidst the pop madness from Hungary to Blue that year.

I still don't see Italy as a contender at all. Top 10 yes most likely but I can't see televotes flooding in for it. An opera influenced song not in English with a not very memorable staging. I really don't understand why it's a favourite.

Because the aged fans who want the orchestra back wank themselves silly over every popera entry and NEVER LEARN

Okay, seeing that UK have drawn first half, I have quite a strong feeling we might open the show. Not sure whether that would benefit us or not really.