Qween

Pretty pleasing results from a not great semi - genuinely didn’t expect myself to make it through so that’s a lovely surprise!

It still feels ages away! Probably because I’m not seeing her until December.

On my way into the arena I saw dozens of people dressed as Käärijä, so it does feel inevitable Finland winning the televote but still confident Loreen has it in the bag overall.

People there last night have suggested they really ramped up the backing track for the Jury final, to the point Mae can barely be heard at points *.* So they may well have listened!

I’m thinking of going for a distinctly un-Altyr entry this month - had it on my long list for a while now but been really loving it the last couple of weeks.

Being last isn’t IDEAL when there’s 26 songs, though it might work better as it’s a home contest. It would definitely be a benefit if the performance felt like a proper climax, rather than an anticlimax.

I think up until the last few days I had expected Mae to PERFORM the song. You can have poor vocals if you put on a good show, or vice versa, but Mae does neither. The song is definitely good enough, but without either of those on her side it's not looking great.

An absolute 10/10 pop TRIUMPH *.* It's no Turn It Into Love (WHAT IS?) but easily one of her best from the first few albums.

Exactly! I don’t think this SHOULD come bottom 5 tomorrow, but I can certainly see a case in which it WILL.

I think the verses are fine, but the chorus sounds LIMP and that’s not good when it’s supposed to be a punchy uptempo - they could easily what Poland did for Blanka

Only Estonia a slight surprise there, but I’d have had them 11th to qualify anyway - shame for Georgia as she was incredible tonight

Estonia is a bit of a surprise, in over Georgia maybe?

Feels like it’ll be these 6 out; Denmark Estonia Iceland Greece San Marino Romania Which is a shame as 2 of them are among my favourites this year, but Denmark in particular was POOR tonight

10 Georgia 09 Iceland 09 Cyprus 08.5 Lithuania 08 Australia 08 Poland 08 Armenia 08 Estonia 08 Albania 07 Belgium 07 Slovenia 06.5 Austria 06 Denmark 06 San Marino 04 Romania 03 Greece

Australia 100% nailed what they were going for, it’s not totally my thing but it did feel like a proper moment

I’ve been really surprised by this semi in general - much better than I was expecting

Austria definitely loses a bit of punch live

San Marino is quite good, it’s not essential and clearly doomed but they did their absolute best with it

Vocal of the night *.*

Slovenia is fine, not really my thing but they put on a good show

This isn’t as bad vocally as I feared - probably helps with the very supportive backing track

Azerbaijan set a very low bar, but I think that might well be the worst song of this year

He’s got an extremely unpleasant stage presence

Iceland is just the right kind of basic bitch pop for me - I really hope it can sneak through

Cyprus ticking every box *.*