LexC

aaand I think Poland are qualifying as well - gotta adjust them predictions girlies

Don't know if I'd commit to making this an actual bet or not but Serbia to not qualify and Czechia top 4 would be my best value bets I'd think about.

Sweden by all accounts has the same visual story as in Melfest just with lighter equipment which should be good for the final show. From early indications today, Israel seems to have really brought it with their stage show as well.

[sex joke that confirms I have voted]

Finalising my votes now and this Semi truly SLAPS in a way that 11 of these songs were on my MUST vote for list and a further 6 I thought were points worthy.

I choose to interpret the theme as "Yobnedor shitposting" which is equally iconic!

New Lexico present and reporting for duty.

Alas, I'll still be at home on the South Coast for Eurovision week (not that I could have got the time off from work anyway).

I think that whole 9th-13th in Semi 2 is the could go either way section. I don't think vocals alone is quite enough in a 100% televote semi and I'm confident there's at least 8 songs with stronger televote appeal. Estonia's probably fighting it out with Albania for that last slot and I think the latter has got a little bit more diasporic vote to push it over the line. For all that I put it in eighth place I'm pretty solid that it'll get through - only risk is if the Tuesday night crowd don't "get" the artistic element of the performance after 12 more songs.

Post-running orders, this is my current best guess at how I see the semis playing out Semi One 01 Sweden 02 Finland 03 Norway 04 Czechia 05 Croatia 06 Israel 07 Moldova 08 Serbia 09 Netherlands 10 Portugal 11 Latvia 12 Malta 13 Azerbaijan 14 Switzerland 15 Ireland Semi Two 01 Austria 02 Georgia 03 Australia 04 Armenia 05 Lithuania 06 Cyprus 07 Belgium 08 Slovenia 09 Denmark 10 Albania 11 Estonia 12 Greece 13 Poland 14 Iceland 15 Romania 16 San Marino

I think Lookylion looks good to take this one!

My only wish for my own entry is to not come last!

oh i voted btw

My votes are in.

Official running orders are dropping at 6PM GMT tomorrow! Get your final predictions/pitches in now folks.

Semi Final One Safe Sweden Finland Given I'm reasonably sure this will be the top 2 of the whole contest, I would be truly shocked if either of these two went out. Solid Czechia Norway Moldova Israel Serbia Pretty sure all of these are through but it's at least theoretically possible that there could be some turn of events that leads to one of these being the "shock" non qualifier. Of all of them I'd maybe put Serbia as the most likely surprise flop if people react to it the same way they reacted to Conan Osiris in 2019 Borderline IN Malta Croatia Portugal Borderline OUT Netherlands Latvia I see three out of these five going through and it came down to what I thought had the most appeal to televoters which led me to this conclusion. I ummed and errred over Portugal and Netherlands the most and what swung it for Ai Coracao was the fact that I know there'll be at least one guaranteed high point from the French televote whereas the Dutch start out with 0 televotes in the bank (welcome back to 100% televoting ladies!) Struggling Switzerland Azerbaijan Ireland Don't get me wrong, it's not impossible that these three go through but it'll be at the expense of at least one of the borderline countries and/or a heavy investment in SIM cards in low volume televote countries.

Who will qualify from the semi final of death in Semi One? Who will scrape through in Semi Two because ten songs have got to qualify? Where will the UK finish in the final? Will Sweden get their seventh victory and Loreen her second crown? BuzzJack, start predicting NOW!

And the way I'd run Semi 2: 01 Belgium 02 Romania 03 Greece 04 Denmark 05 Estonia 06 Iceland 07 Cyprus 08 Armenia 09 San Marino 10 Albania 11 Poland 12 Slovenia 13 Austria 14 Lithuania 15 Australia 16 Georgia This felt a lot harder but essentially I thought Belgium made the most sense as the opener and Georgia made the most sense as a closer and I tried to have as much variation as possible throughout.

Really not sure what I think about this one but it definitely sounds BIG!

T1dvpRn68pQ

Since we've got everything in for Semi One, I'd programme them something like this 01 Norway 02 Croatia 03 Ireland 04 Portugal 05 Latvia 06 Serbia 07 Malta 08 Azerbaijan 09 Moldova 10 Netherlands 11 Sweden 12 Switzerland 13 Israel 14 Czechia 15 Finland This, in contrast to usual, felt relatively straightforward to put together. Norway felt like the best choice to open with and, like last year, the "novelty act" makes sense going on second as that won't have any problem standing out no matter where it is. Beyond that I tried to go for the variation between high and lows in energy and tempo. Sweden might have seemed like the obvious closer but I reckoned that there'll need to be some kind of ad break before or after it to properly set up whatever version of the staging will be in Liverpool.

So as the last few songs get released this week and we get our full picture of the field, discussion naturally turns to the running order the songs will be performed in. Given that this year we're back to a 100% televote semi-final, the running order could have an even bigger impact than usual! In terms of the semis first half/second half splits: Semi One First Half Croatia: Let 3 - Mama ŠČ! Ireland: Wild Youth - We Are One Latvia: Sudden Lights - Aijā Malta: The Busker - Dance (Our Own Party) Norway: Alessandra - Queen of Kings Portugal: Mimicat - Ai coração Serbia: Luke Black - Samo mi se spava Second Half Azerbaijan: TuralTurunX - Tell Me More Czech Republic: Vesna - My Sister's Crown Finland: Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha Israel: Noa Kirel - Unicorn Moldova: Pasha Parfeni -Soarele și luna Netherlands: Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper - Burning Daylight Sweden: Loreen - Tattoo Switzerland: Remo Forrer - Watergun Semi Two First Half Armenia: Brunette - Future Lover Belgium: Gustaph - Because of You Cyprus: Andrew Lambrou - Break A Broken Heart Denmark: Reiley - Breaking My Heart Estonia: Alika - Bridges Greece: Victor Vernicos - What They Say Romania: Theodor Andrei - D.G.T (Off and On) Iceland: Dilja - Power Second Half Albania: Albina & Familja Kelmendi - Duje Australia: Voyager - Promise Austria: Teya & Salena - Who The Hell is Edgar? Georgia: IRU - Echo Lithuania: Monika Linkytė - Stay Poland: Blanka - Solo San Marino: Piqued Jacks - Like an Animal Slovenia: Joker Out - Carpe Diem So get your producer heads on and tell us, how would you programme the running order for these semis?

A belated welcome to the team uhsting - deserved reward after listening to Una Voce Per San Marino in its entirety!

FLUSH! Time to go back to the melfest reject bin if this is what Azeri entries are going to sound like for the forseeable!

Going on last is a high risk place, especially if you don't stand out from the rest of the pack *cough*childrenoftheuniverse*cough* but potentially high reward if they nail the staging. With a memorable concept then the potential is definitely there for this to do better than I'd first given it credit for on the televote at least.