Posted May 6, 20187 yr Welcome to the Eurovision Song Contest 2018! Gay Christmas has finally come round yet again and we're in for a corker of a year! We're in Lisbon for the first time ever after Salvador Sobral strode his way to victory in Kyiv last year with the song 'Amar Pelos Dois', smashing records to become the biggest scoring Eurovision song of all time (including under the old system before a smart arse pops up with 'but there's double points now!!1'). This not only marked Portugal's first victory in the contest after 49 attempts since their debut in 1964, but was also the first time the country even managed to break the top 5. Proof that anyone can win Eurovision (can't wait for 2028 in Valentina's Back Garden!). The first semi final is a literal bloodbath of epic proportions. There will be tears, tantrums and most likely broken backs come Wednesday morning. Not only is this the semi final with 19 contestants compared with the second semi's 18, it is also the most competitive semi final with the majority of the favourites of the year with both the bookies and fans alike. So make sure you have your say when the voting opens, if your country is voting in this semi final of course, which as ever is up to the 19 competing countries along with half of the automatic qualifiers, which are Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom in this instance. Use this thread to discuss everything leading up to Tuesday's big show, including Monday night's dress rehearsal where the juries will decide 50% of the final result. Also feel free to make your predictions of which 10 countries will make Saturday's grand final. I'll be adding together everyone's predictions shortly before the live broadcast to see how right Buzzjack were! Let the Eurovision Song Contest begin! 01. Azerbaijan Aisel - X My Heart 02. Iceland Ari Ólafsson - Our Choice 03. Albania Eugent Bushpepa - Mall 04. Belgium Sennek - A Matter Of Time 05. Czech Republic Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me 06. Lithuania Ieva Zasimauskaitė - When We're Old 07. Israel Netta - TOY 08. Belarus ALEKSEEV - Forever 09. Estonia Elina Nechayeva - La Forza 10. Bulgaria EQUINOX - Bones 11. Macedonia Eye Cue - Lost & Found 12. Croatia Franka - Crazy 13. Austria Cesár Sampson - Nobody But You 14. Greece Yianna Terzi - Oniro Mou 15. Finland Saara Aalto - Monsters 16. Armenia Sevak Khanagyan - Qami 17. Switzerland ZiBBZ - Stones 18. Ireland Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together 19. Cyprus Eleni Foureira - Fuego TUVyp5kycRE AnYTtpYYRw4
May 6, 20187 yr Author Here's who the bookies are predicting to qualify as of Sunday evening, using Eurovision World as the source. 01. Israel 02. Cyprus 03. Czech Republic 04. Estonia 05. Bulgaria 06. Greece 07. Austria 08. Lithuania 09. Belgium 10. Armenia --- 11. Azerbaijan 12. Finland 13. Switzerland 14. Belarus 15. Croatia 16. Ireland 17. Albania 18. Macedonia 19. Iceland
May 6, 20187 yr Greece, Lithuania, Belgium and particularly Armenia qualifying over Finland, Ireland, Macedonia and Azerbaijan would be tragic -_- Edited May 6, 20187 yr by Midge
May 6, 20187 yr Prematurely going to predict the following results without having watched most of the rehearsal videos: 01. Israel Netta - TOY 02. Estonia Elina Nechayeva - La Forza 03. Bulgaria EQUINOX - Bones 04. Czech Republic Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me 05. Cyprus Eleni Foureira - Fuego 06. Austria Cesár Sampson - Nobody But You 07. Belgium Sennek - A Matter Of Time 08. Lithuania Ieva Zasimauskaitė - When We're Old 09. Azerbaijan Aisel - X My Heart 10. Armenia Sevak Khanagyan - Qami -------------------------------------- 11. Switzerland ZiBBZ - Stones 12. Greece Yianna Terzi - Oniro Mou 13. Finland Saara Aalto - Monsters 14. Ireland Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together 15. Croatia Franka - Crazy 16. Belarus ALEKSEEV - Forever 17. Albania Eugent Bushpepa - Mall 18. Macedonia Eye Cue - Lost & Found 19. Iceland Ari Ólafsson - Our Choice
May 6, 20187 yr Gonna predict: 01 Estonia 02 Israel 03 Cyprus (probably a v optmistic top 3 prediction on my behalf as they're all in my top 5 of the whole thing :lol:) 04 Bulgaria 05 Czech Republic 06 Lithuania 07 Armenia 08 Azerbaijan 09 Greece 10 Belgium --- 11 Finland 12 Austria 13 Belarus 14 Switzerland 15 Ireland 16 Albania 17 Croatia 18 Macedonia 19 Iceland The fact I stand to lose 3 of my top 10 overall (Finland, Switzerland and Macedonia) is not great, I'm almost certain on the latter two not making but Saara is feeling increasingly unlikely :( I really hope Bulgaria is a shock DNQ here, I'd swap that, Armenia and Belgium for Finland, Switzerland and Macedonia then I'd be happy with what I predicted. Honestly though I think down to Belarus could Q and I've got a bit of a feeling about Switzerland being the shock Q for some reason, come thru mystic Liam x
May 7, 20187 yr I think Saara and her team have done enough to get her into the final. It would devastating for her to miss out. What has helped her case is Greece and especially Armenia have received a very muted response from the press centre. I think Belgium could be a bit too boring televoters to appreciate, so I’d expect Sennek to be in trouble?
May 7, 20187 yr My prediction: 1 Israel 2 Cyprus 3 Estonia 4 Czech Republic 5 Bulgaria 6 Lithuania 7 Azerbaijan 8 Belgium 9 Belarus 10 Greece ------------------ 11 Austria (God save us from this snoozefest in the final night please) :puke2: 12 Finland 13 Armenia 14 Albania 15 Ireland 16 Switzerland 17 Croatia 18 Macedonia 19 Iceland
May 7, 20187 yr I don't think I'm going to vote. There's just too many good songs in here but none that are on a level that really stand out above the others so what will be will be. Maybe Macedonia, but maybe also Estonia, maybe Bulgaria and Finland and I don't know if it'll even do anything.
May 7, 20187 yr UK jury this year includes a 23 year old gaydio DJ. 12 points to Saara thank you please.
May 7, 20187 yr Lex's FINAl SEMI ONE PREDICTIONS 01 Israel I think the fan press have overplayed it a little and so are understandably a bit more muted on this one but I still think that first impression juries and televoters get will be Netta at her full power and they're going to fall in love with her. 02 Cyprus I expect this to be THE breakout hit from the first semi on iTunes/Spotify 03 Czech Republic Along with Cyprus, this'll be the one that really hits the charts on Tuesday Night/Wednesday - plus the commentators are likely to mention his injury which should dial up the sympathy votes 04 Estonia Even though opera is a pretty big handicap, I think this is strong enough to overcome that and qualify quite comfortably. I think the public will have a really strong response to this but, like with Il Volo, the jury score will only be around 8th or so. 05 Bulgaria The direct inverse of Estonia, I think this will be a really strong jury song but I can see this failing to crack the top 10 of the public vote. If it looks really spooky and austere and they fail to blend together on Monday/Tuesday night then I think they could potentially be in trouble 06 Finland I actually think Finland's done enough with what they've been given and since it's mostly the fans/people who are tuning in specifically to watch Eurovision that vote in the semis, I think this will have an audience enough to qualify relatively safely. I do, however, believe that they'll leave Finland's reveal til last though! #SaveSaara 07 Azerbaijan Should be a really strong opening with good staging. I wouldn't call them safely through but, like Finland, they've used the resources at their disposal effectively. 08 Switzerland We're back to "utilising their resources the best way they can" here - I think Coco especially is going to perform the hell out of this and should see Switzerland back in the final again after four years 09 Austria I think this will do an "Anja Nissen" so to speak and be top 5 with the juries but get the bare minimum needed from the televote which for Austria is basically all they want 10 Albania Okay I know this is what I've been blithering on about since March but I can really see Albania being the shock qualifier. It's locked in for high televote points from Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Switzerland, Armenia and Azerbaijan from the get go. If all of those countries give this, say, 8 points on the televote then that'll mean it's north of 60 televote points just by turning up. Then add onto that the 50+ jury points that I can see juries very easily awarding to this song and then that's enough points to qualify. I think this'll be the "shock" third qualifier reveal that gets the fans all on edge. ~ 11 Lithuania This is nice and safe but in Semi One, even for Lithuania, safe just isn't going to cut it. Plus being on so early/before Israel, I think this'll have trouble making it from short term to long term memory for most people. 12 Armenia Having seen the presentation, I think the performance verges between either visually grey/uninteresting or too macho & aggressive. My instinct is calling this one out but I wouldn't be surprised if it knocks out one of Austria/Switzerland 13 Greece I think this is shooting for "simple" but ends up with "plain". I think the Greek diaspora votes also may well be swallowed up by Eleni later in the show. 14 Belgium Like Greece, this has high aspirations but ultimately ends up falling flat. 15 Belarus Cute for a laugh, but this is going to sink without trace. 16 Croatia Pulled itself up from a no-hoper but it's still really struggling here 17 Ireland This just exists as a pallet cleanser to set up Cyprus smashing it out of the park 18 Macedonia What COULD have been a charmingly bonkers 3-in-1 staging has actually ended up just another tepid Macedonian mess. 19 Iceland 100% confident that this will come last.
May 7, 20187 yr Prediction 1. Israel Netta - TOY 2. Estonia Elina Nechayeva - La Forza 3. Cyprus Eleni Foureira - Fuego 4. Bulgaria EQUINOX - Bones 5. Czech Republic Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me 6. Finland Saara Aalto - Monsters 7. Austria Cesár Sampson - Nobody But You 8. Greece Yianna Terzi - Oniro Mou 9. Azerbaijan Aisel - X My Heart 10. Belarus ALEKSEEV - Forever ---------------------------------------------------------- 11. Armenia Sevak Khanagyan - Qami 12. Lithuania Ieva Zasimauskaitė - When We're Old 13. Ireland Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together 14. Belgium Sennek - A Matter Of Time 15. Macedonia Eye Cue - Lost & Found 16. Albania Eugent Bushpepa - Mall 17. Switzerland ZiBBZ - Stones 18. Croatia Franka - Crazy 19. Iceland Ari Ólafsson - Our Choice
May 7, 20187 yr 1. Cyprus Eleni Foureira - Fuego 2. Israel Netta - TOY 3. Estonia Elina Nechayeva - La Forza 4. Bulgaria EQUINOX - Bones 5. Finland Saara Aalto - Monsters 6. Czech Republic Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me 7. Belarus ALEKSEEV - Forever 8. Ireland Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together 9. Azerbaijan Aisel - X My Heart 10.Belgium Sennek - A Matter Of Time ---------------------------------------------------------- 11. Armenia Sevak Khanagyan - Qami 12. Lithuania Ieva Zasimauskaitė - When We're Old 13. Greece Yianna Terzi - Oniro Mou 14. Austria Cesár Sampson - Nobody But You 15. Iceland Ari Ólafsson - Our Choice 16. Albania Eugent Bushpepa - Mall 17. Switzerland ZiBBZ - Stones 18. Croatia Franka - Crazy 19. Macedonia Eye Cue - Lost & Found I feel Cyprus are a safe top 5 and possibly top 3 this year. A win for Cyprus or Finland would be the result i would greatly welcome this year. Ireland could be a dark horse, not to win but qualify in the semi final. Edited May 7, 20187 yr by pippa
May 7, 20187 yr Greece and Armenia I think are out. Too niche, will fail to translate outside the Balkan area IMO. These sort of entries need to create a striking mood or feeling to pull off, which apparently both have failed to do in the staging (and given I dislike both entries, I’m secretly pleased :)). Belgium or Finland to get the last announcement, agreed.
May 7, 20187 yr Let’s pray for Macedonia to not come bottom 3 in the semi please I really hope so, all these predictions are quite upsetting for them, they deserve a huge break but I feel like there's too much in this semi for them to get noticed. Greece and Armenia I think are out. Too niche, will fail to translate outside the Balkan area IMO. These sort of entries need to create a striking mood or feeling to pull off, which apparently both have failed to do in the staging (and given I dislike both entries, I’m secretly pleased :)). Belgium or Finland to get the last announcement, agreed. I'd agree but you have to be careful predicting those two out, they often find a way to surprise, I'm feeling like Armenia will make it regardless.
May 7, 20187 yr Macedonia are in trouble this year and i cant see them doing much better than second or third last. Out of Greece and Armenia i would think Armenia have a greater chance of going through.
May 7, 20187 yr Press poll for the jury rehearsal Obviously this isn't really anything in terms of what the juries are gonna give but great to see Eleni landslide and Zibbz come across so well. Oops at Netta but as Lex said she's had the overhype from the fan press etc. so it's not such a shock here. I really hope can storm the juries and qualify :wub:
May 7, 20187 yr Switzerland 3rd, Israel 12th. The press centre can jog on... now just imagine if this top 19 in some way reflected the outcome?!
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