Sour Candy

Portugal qualified! Yasss!!!

Cyprus: I think this is a bit better than Belgium from the throwback trance department.

Switzerland is one of my faves this year. Should be easy top ten, maybe top 5.

Netherlands: dull, dull, dull but will qualify Croatia: I appreciate the vision but lacks a song.

Albania: my 3rd fave in this semi (besides POR and SWE).

Azerbaijan: toilet break San Marino: absolutely awful

He played the harmonica live.

Italy: One of my faves as usual, the quality of their entries is astounding.

Belgium: Oh dear at the vocals

Norway: speaking about weak vocals

Portugal: My favourite this year, sublime song!!

Sweden: Come through Vörå!!

Ukraine: very, even too ambitious song. Hope this qualifies, but don't expect much in the final anyway.

Estonia: Another song that sounds better on record. I kinda like it though.

Iceland: not my fave and the song works on record way better than live Poland was huge mess imo, but she had some star power at least.

I can see Israel coming 5th at best like last year. They have an aggressive ad campaign on social media again but it wasn't enough last year so I doubt that it will work this year either.

Debuts at #89 on the US Hot 100.

US Billboard Hot 100 31 34 14 Abracadabra, Lady Gaga (Peak: 13)

US album chart 59 66 415 The Fame, Lady Gaga (peak: 2)

US Album Chart 13 11 09 MAYHEM, Lady Gaga (Peak: 1)

Spotify #2. Die With A Smile - 5,428,440 (=) #19. Abracadabra - 2,745,086 (+1) #56. Poker Face - 1,942,313 (-7) #60. Judas - 1,865,997 (+4) #104. Bad Romance - 1,507,056 (-2) #127. Just Dance - 1,384,003 (-5) Shallow out

But these are two different things, like discussed in this thread.

Nah, Estonia will be on the safe side. It's one of the most streamed entries this year and is currently charting in 5 countries on Spotify and 7 countries on AM. For reference, Sweden is 6 (Spotify) and 10 (AM), although it's charting very high in most of those so expect a huge boost after the semi.

I really want Portugal to qualify but it is an open game apart from Sweden.

I voted "not sure". This whole debate is very subjective, even more than what is "good" and "bad", because ordinary is more nuanced and depends on your pov. For me, several dance tracks or "vibey r&b" like Eastside I mentioned in that thread are the most "run-of-the-mill"/ordinary type of songs. Type of songs that people don't really actively like or dislike. I also think Ordinary (by A. Warren) is very ordinary track and high in this ranking of most ordinary songs. Then there is also the debate that does the performer make a song less/more ordinary? Is a cover song more ordinary than an original?