gooddelta

Blimey. Another musical crime from DJ Ötzi. Unsurprisingly giving it to my favourite cover version ever, Heaven.

Easily Scooter, great use of the sample. I never really liked Cupid's Chokehold.

One win so far: Portugal to Q from Semi 1 - £1 at 5/2 (if not Slovenia then one slower song is going through, I'm sure...) Should have put my £5 here though instead of Slovenia, damn.

Tonight has been a good reminder to me that January to May is noise, there's no point making predictions until you see the performances. Belgium killed its own chances I think. I did expect to see Slovenia through but it's not a great loss, interesting that the public didn't go for the back story though. I did win some money on Portugal going through, it was a safety bet on one of the ballads getting in (if Slovenia didn't). Delighted to see San Marino and Iceland defying the odds! All of my favourites in the semi went through. Yasss for Albania and Sweden of course.

My rank based on tonight: Albania (flawless, deserves to be in the mix to win) Sweden (still love but wasn't as amazing as at Melodifestivalen - maybe too familiar with it) San Marino (anthem, please Q!) Netherlands (liked it way more than expected - very charming and likeable performance) Iceland (really fun opener) Estonia (can't believe how high I have this - pretty funny performance) Poland (she gave it her all but I don't love the track) Slovenia (quite charming but cynical too) Ukraine (I don't mind the song, wasn't an amazing performance though) Norway (achingly generic and pedestrian for Norway, can't even believe it's in my top 10) Cyprus (also not great) Belgium (not a fan of the vocal or melody) Portugal (so boring) Croatia (terrible song) Azerbaijan (one of the worst things I've seen on the Eurovision stage visually and vocally)

Switzerland is so lovely (albeit the camerawork gave me a bit of a headache in places) but I don't see them winning again. Feels like 270 jury/65 televote kind of entry to me. Happy to be proven wrong.

Oh juries are going to love Netherlands yeah, and public could easily give over 200. Definitely in the mix still.

Albania yassss, if I was voting in this semi I may even send them a vote over Sweden. Awesome.

Azerbaijan is nul pointer territory, absolutely horrendous. Bad vocal, bad staging, weird to watch, amateur.

Could barely hear Belgium at the start, definitely some vocal mixing issue. I still think this song is style over substance. Great production, rubbish song really.

How on earth did Portugal select such a boring song? The worst for sure for me. Kaj were great, but I've seen that performance so many times. It didn't feel as exciting as at Melodifestivalen, with the excitement of conquering Måns. Is still my fave, but I'm revising down my prediction for it a bit I think. But hopefully the public seeing it for the first time will love it the way I did on first listen.

Kaj coming to end Alex Warren's run at No.1.

Ok I'm not a fan of Tommy Cash but that did make me laugh. Very fun staging and it's so catchy that it's going to be a big post-contest hit I think. UK top 75 for sure.

Would be very surprised if Slovenia goes out, it tugs at every heartstring of a casual viewer, he's performing upside down, family photos, his wife on stage...

Iceland threw the kitchen sink at the staging, pretty cool looking! Poland... there's just something about that song that hasn't ever fully clicked with me, but Justyna is great.

Thank you for replying! I was kind of thinking this was a waste of time thread as nobody replied or reacted, but it was of interest to me ha. Yes I loved the innocence of the early 00s/early days of the internet where the songs were available to hear in advance, but you had to work at it to hear them. I still remember trying to search for them in the school library at break times, but when I bought the CD a few weeks ahead of the contest is when I really first got to know them properly. And that wasn't easy to find back then either. Good call on a hypothetical UK hosted 2003. Agree it would have been Terry, Fearne might have been deemed a little young at that point so it could have been someone like newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky who co-hosted the National Final in 2005.

Cyprus is the one I'm questioning currently if any shocks are to go through. Like I could see space being made for Iceland and Slovenia, but for that to happen then some 'safe' stuff would have to fall. Ukraine's diaspora power, Estonia's virality (this will be a post-contest hit) and Belgium's brilliant staging should be enough to see them all through, and Poland is the only solo female performer - that has to count for something, espcially as it is an eye-catching performance of a decent song. Cyprus is fine but has other songs going for the same votes, for me the main thing in its favour is that it's up last (probably as the producers saw the staging and wanted to end on a spectacle). If it was in the first five though I'd be seriously questioning its chances.

This is one of my top ten albums of all-time and I recently got it on vinyl. 4Ever is my favourite song, but Everything I'm Not, When It All Falls Apart, Secret, Speechless, Revolution, Nobody Wins and Leave Me Alone are all great. Mother Mother is the only song I don't care much for on the album, the chorus is a bit shouty for me (I know it's a cover). The album definitely doesn't shy away from its influences - you can hear vibes of Kelly's Breakaway and Avril's first two albums among the production. But it executes what it does extremely well and it's just a shame it never got a proper UK push at the time, when the pop/rock style was relevant, and that 4Ever ended up coming out here four years later after Untouched (by which time everyone criticised it for copying P!nk's U + Ur Hand, which came out after 4Ever originally did...).

Nah. I Feel You by Peter Andre is more ordinary I think. A worse chart run, a second No.1 filler hype bubble thing that I honestly can’t hum a note of. It didn’t go top ten in any other country either so I doubt a lot of people outside the UK have any recollection of it either. Forever Love had a decent chart run in the end in the top 75, finished in the end of year top 40, and went top ten in over 10 countries, and is notable as being a debut solo single for a major star who is still successful today and was in the biggest boyband of the 90s. It definitely isn’t a great track musically and Gary thought it was way better than it actually was. But there are a few ‘more ordinary’ offenders for me than this.

Always Regina <3

Toss up between Avril and Eminem, I wouldn't listen to either actively, but neither offends me. Gone for Eminem as not a favourite of mine from him.

Razorlight. The other three songs are leagues ahead here for me now.

Spoilt for choice, but Ronan. The original of that is a rather nice track, Ronan's version sucks all life out of it as always.

So good indeed, very DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ in parts, albeit much shorter songs but a similar vibe with the samples and production. Nice To Know You was my early favourite!

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