Umi

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.

'House on Fire' is boring as shit. Will listen to the others later but instantly calling doom on this.

I really enjoy it but I'm not sure how likely it is that I'll enjoy how they stage it in May. The guy being on stage does so much to detract from the meaning of the song.

She has two songs called 'Storm'.

I really like a lot of these actually. I was somewhat in love with Ornella's song and I really liked Max Gazzé's too, though I suspect I should feel slightly embarrassed to say that. Really supporting Annalisa to win in any case, and sad about Nina Zilli's song being so mediocre :(

It's such a shame how awful 'Same' is in full, as it had an amazing snippet. So very happy that 'Mercy' won the semi, and the rest of the qualifiers in this semi were great too. I think 'Eva' has the final in the bag, though I could see 'Ailleurs' running it close.

Personally I'll be supporting June The Girl next week but I am excited for your two as well. I heard Nassi is awful live though.

More people should have watched this, it was really good. I didn't watch France's last national selection but I can't imagine that this is anything but a major upgrade, and it's so much better than the UK's selection. I really liked the judges in particular, and enjoyed their willingness to actually criticise. Felt a bit bad for Amir after Isobel and Christophe randomly decided to pair up. The song selection was good, though the quality of the performers was a bit more dodgy. Louka was absolutely dire. Super happy for Emmy in particular. Videos of the qualifiers if anyone is interested (would recommend Emmy for BuzzJack): aCmBfalBJcw Xazl_olQ9Z4 OYSn0GGsCeE GwAQJ6yyJkU

For me, 'Hate the Way I Love You' is the best thing she's ever done by about a mile, so I'm quite excited. I am very sad that it's so short and missing 'Statements' in particular, but I can cope with that if the album tracks live up to the 'singles'.

Kesha should be top 10 on Pop tomorrow which is a little bit insane.

So obviously a little bit slow here but I really like this after just giving it what I think is my first full listen? I don't even just like it in a "It's the best you can expect from Nadine" way either - it's just genuinely a good song. Looking forward to possibly getting more from her!