Umi

Isn't the final on at the same time every year, and it's the host that adapts to that?

Australia's supposedly underwhelming televote is more than made up for by the juries being ridiculously biased in their favour.

The French HoD has specifically said that they're considering Paris, Lille and Lyon right now for potential host cities, but I'm sure a few more options would come up in the event that France wins. I can't realistically see the first French Eurovision in four decades being held outside of Paris, though.

Can anyone see Cyprus winning the jury? If so, why? I want to believe, but I can't quite see it.

Ha, f*** y'all who hated on Serbia. Balkanika cannot be stopped!

In what world is there any chance that Australia doesn't qualify? We saw last year that the jury will give them points just for existing and it'll be the same again for Jessica.

I think for the exact same reason that they won't leave. They gain all the legitimacy they want just from taking part in Eurovision, because all they need it to be is a yearly reminder that they exist, they're Europe-aligned and they are capable of enjoying a fun, campy song contest. If anything I think it's good for them that their record is gone, because being so randomly successful always aroused suspicion and made it easy to group them with Russia, which is bad for obvious reasons. Losing the record is bad for national pride but if their primary goal in taking part is international PR then continuing to enter is the only logical choice - it's not like doing badly in Eurovision actually makes anyone think badly of a country. All leaving does is remove the one chance they have to annually trick Europeans into thinking that they're just another random European country. Remove that and the only time anyone will ever hear about Azerbaijan again will be when one of their various issues is relevant.

This is literally me right now.

Ugh, I want to die. At least Estonia got through.

Belgium? I had no idea BuzzJack didn't like that but I'm gutted about it not making it. Sad for Serbia but not so surprised by that.

Salvador not qualifying from this last year was a mess.

Damn, that's so depressing. I can't see France winning from the midst of a sea of ballads in the first half. Nice for Italy though.

I really hope Serbia make some changes. The press vote is awful and everything looks quite static. I was hoping they'd really blow it out of the park with making things look mystical and uber-traditional, but it doesn't feel like a very ambitious performance. I also hope that Russia make absolutely no changes. What a wonderfully ridiculous performance.

They just happen to be two men, in a music video for Eurovision? You cannot seriously suggest that such a decision did not have thought put into it and was not based on how marketable a gay "love story" (part of the problem with the video is that there is absolutely no story, it is just "Look, gays!") is to the Eurovision audience.

I am happy for LGBT people to be shown when they have any relevance to the song or entrant. I am not happy for them to be shown when they are a desperate attempt to please the gays by a delegation that has realised that they have no other selling points. Sure, there is merit in raising awareness of LGBT+ people to Europe and beyond, but I'd rather it not be done because it's easy votes. I don't understand how you don't have a problem with people trying so blatantly to manipulate the minority you belong to for votes.

You are truly an idiotic person.

Eh, why? I don't want countries using "We love gays, look!" as a way to distract from having shit songs, especially when the song has nothing to do with the LGBT+ community. I don't want to be pandered to in such a cynical way, and neither should any other members of the community.

I had a horrible dream that this qualified last night.

I think there's a fairly obvious third option that explains the majority of these cases: "This will obviously do badly but it's the best we can get this year".

It's quite good for Irish standards honestly, but that's still nowhere near good enough to be on par with everyone else.

Honestly, in a fairly weak year for winning contenders and with spectacular staging, I could see this being in with a shout.

I am surprised how little they changed about this. It's got a bit more depth I suppose, but it seems questionably worth the money they'll have spent on it. I wonder if they have a lot of confidence in the song as it is.

I don't think enough about this stands out for it to win, honestly. She'll need 'Heroes' level staging to capture people's imagination, in my opinion.

God, I'm so sick of country from the Netherlands. One successful entry shouldn't become the basis of your entire image at Eurovision.

Well that is fabulous. New favourite entry for the year and I hope a return to the top 10 for Serbia.