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4dfRv1VhtTI This revamp isn't doing it for me, I liked the song enough as it was and now I'm less on board :lol: I loved the key change and now the ending is painful :(

Over half the acts from this year are carried over and will have their entry compared to their 2020 entry by fans. Plenty have improved, Azerbaijan had just as much chance to step their game up, but they haven't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I could try to forget about Cleopatra, but Azerbaijan are the ones insisting on reminding us of it in the lyrics :lol:

OUT OF THE WOODS!

This sums up my feelings basically (without ever LOVING it to begin with) - the more I hear it, the more I'm actually coming to hate it. Cleopatra was solid but even that wasn't one of my major faves of last year, but still it was so much better than this. Out of all the female bangers this year, I'd say this is my least favourite.

Lucky vs 3 Circus vs Toxic Everytime vs Me Against the Music (feat. Madonna) Break The Ice vs Stronger Work Bitch vs Baby One More Time My Prerogative vs Overprotected Womanizer vs Do Somethin' I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman vs Sometimes (You Drive Me) Crazy vs Make Me (feat. G-Eazy) Gimme More vs Till The World Ends Piece of Me vs Oops...! I Did It Again

I'm glad someone else on here is still interested in it, I might even bump the thread when season 4 is released now I know I wouldn't be talking to myself :D Just picked up my 9th and 10th wins tonight, won two out of three episodes which is crazy for me as I don't think I've won twice during the same week before :lol: (and both on Jump Showdown too which I'd never won before, but now I've won at least once on all six currently available final rounds so a great end to the season for me :cheer:)

I'm still a bit up in the air with who my faves are and who I'm rooting for and supporting the most. I feel like I'm liking most of them (except maybe Kyle) but not LOVING anyone. I really like the bits we see of Tina and Tera together. I have enjoyed these first few episodes but I've been sad at every eviction. Julie is possibly the most disappointing first boot ever from an entertainment perspective?? I think she would've been my fave :( And then I don't get why everyone was against Josh, it doesn't seem usual to have one person that EVERYONE else in the house is against and it was kinda uncomfortable. I'm happy with Kiefer HOH, ofc I'd rather he went over Latoya, but now that eviction is over, at least it's a different side of the house and he should shake things up.

As long as the final outcome ends up being that he IS there, otherwise it's a massive anti-climax and they should've just told us from the start :lol: Someone send for a private jet, this is essential travel!

I agree that Voila is more accessible than Patricia was, at least for me, I love Voila and hated Patricia :lol: And Voila will get a better position in the running order no doubt as even if she draws first half, surely something tipped to do so well will be placed towards the end of the first half - but wasn't Patricia quite famous in parts of Europe? I seem to remember her being a big get for France, so she could've had some recognition factor playing into her votes and still only managed 17th in the televote. Lithuania I think may be being slightly overlooked amongst the fans right now just because it was released so early compared to most of the other entries, and I could see it for them because they already have a healthy diaspora and couple that with a song which for some reason is seen as a fave, that could be enough to see them over the line. But please no. Sweden, the huge public support that Tusse got could be a sign, but I struggle to see him getting over 200 points from the televote and I don't think that would be enough to win. I don't think there's "Sweden hate", that's a bit ridiculous, but I think there could genuinely be a certain amount of expectation around them now and whether that's the case or not, it's just another solid, safe entry so why would the public take to it significantly more than their last solid, safe entry two years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that is overlooked just because "it's Flo Rida" and what a story it is and the interest it might draw from the US if he appears on stage. But this is what I dislike about a potential mix of live on tape performances and some that are actually live from the Ahoy, those that manage to make the trip in May will have had so much longer to prepare and rehearse?

I'm nervous about seeing Malta as a potential winner...if they win the jury vote, it'll be an agonising few minutes to find out if the televote has underrated them as it has done before or not. Switzerland I think is a likely win, and I wouldn't mind it too much, it would be nice to see another non-English winner and the Swiss have had such a bad track record recently that you couldn't begrudge them the win, even if it's not up at the top of my rankings. I don't think Switzerland and France will massively split the French ballad vote...I mean, there are only two of them but there are so many uptempo entries that would surely split votes more? And it isn't really a thing in the jury vote (50% of the overall result) I don't think when jurors have to rank every single song? Personally I think France are just as likely to win as Switzerland, I feel more passion and build in "Voila" and Barbara will really sell it on stage. Bulgaria I wouldn't mind winning at all, it's really growing on me even if it'll never have quite the same magic as "Tears Getting Sober". Italy I just don't see and it would annoy me if they won this year lol, they should've won with "Soldi" instead or in 2017 if the staging wasn't such a mess. Has this been confirmed somewhere? I didn't want to be giving up hope until May :( But as long as the verse itself remains, hopefully it's still a moment. I'd love for San Marino to come top 4 as I have an each way bet on them placed when the odds were still 200/1 (and I will vote like crazy on the night!!!), but at this point my hope is just for them to achieve another personal best.

This and the people choosing 'I Don't Feel Hate' over 'Violent Thing' are hurting my soul *Even though I'm far from a Jendrik hater, Germany are still in my top 10/15 2021 has shaped up really well to say that all of my top 3 acts from last year were thrown in the trash :lol:

Blank Space vs. Out of the Woods Getaway Car vs. Red Delicate vs. Wildest Dreams New Romantics vs. Style

Only Girl (In The World) vs. We Found Love Hate That I Love You vs. Russian Roulette Talk That Talk vs. Umbrella What's My Name? vs. Love On The Brain Disturbia vs. Pon De Replay Work vs. Stay Where Have You Been vs. Love The Way You Lie (w/ Eminem) Fly (w/ Nicki Minaj) vs. Run This Town (w/ Jay-Z & Kanye West) Can't Remember To Forget You (w/ Shakira) vs. Diamonds Wild Thoughts (w/ DJ Khaled) vs. Rehab S&M vs. All Of The Lights (w/ Kanye West) Who's That Chick? (w/ David Guetta) vs. Man Down SOS vs. Too Good (w/ Drake) Unfaithful vs. What Now

ALBANIA: Karma (Anxhela Peristeri) AUSTRALIA: Technicolour (Montaigne) AUSTRIA: Alive (Vincent Bueno) AZERBAIJAN: Cleopatra (Efendi) BELGIUM: The Wrong Place (Hooverphonic) BULGARIA: Tears Getting Sober (Victoria) CROATIA: Tick-Tock (Albina) CYPRUS: El Diablo (Elena Tsagrinou) CZECH REPUBLIC: Omaga (Benny Cristo) DENMARK: Yes (Ben & Tan) ESTONIA: The Lucky One (Uku Suviste) FINLAND: Dark Side (Blind Channel) FRANCE: Voilà (Barbara Pravi) GEORGIA: Take Me as I Am (Tornike Kipiani) GERMANY: Violent Thing (Ben Dolic) GREECE: Supergirl (Stefania) ICELAND: Think About Things (Daði og Gagnamagnið) IRELAND: Story of My Life (Lesley Roy) ISRAEL: Feker libi (Eden Alene) ITALY: Fai rumore (Diodato) LATVIA: The Moon Is Rising (Samanta Tīna) LITHUANIA: On Fire (The Roop) MALTA: Je Me Casse (Destiny) MOLDOVA: Sugar (Natalia Gordienko) NETHERLANDS: Grow (Jeangu Macrooy) NORTH MACEDONIA: Here I Stand (Vasil) NORWAY: Attention (Ulrikke) POLAND: Empires (Alicja) PORTUGAL: Love Is on My Side (The Black Mamba) ROMANIA: Amnesia (Roxen) RUSSIA: Russian Woman (Manizha) SAN MARINO: Adrenalina (Senhit ft. Flo Rida) SERBIA: Hasta La Vista (Hurricane) SLOVENIA: Amen (Ana Soklič) SPAIN: Universo (Blas Cantó) SWEDEN: Voices (Tusse) SWITZERLAND: Répondez-moi (Gjon's Tears) UKRAINE: Solovey (Go_A) UNITED KINGDOM: Embers (James Newman) 2020: 19 2021: 20 Big upgrades: Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Moldova, Russia, UK Big downgrades: Denmark, Georgia, Italy, Norway, Ukraine Biggest IDGAF either way: Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

Semi 1 1. Ireland (potentially Belarus) 2. North Macedonia 3. Australia 4. Sweden 5. Russia 6. Slovenia 7. Lithuania - 8. Israel 9. Ukraine 10. Croatia 11. Belgium 12. Azerbaijan 13. Norway 14. Cyprus 15. Romania 16. Malta I find this semi more of a struggle to pick an opener from, Macedonia/Sweden/Slovenia are too slow, Russia/Australia a bit too 'noisy'/out there and then Lithuania...too much of a favourite? So I give it to Ireland kinda by default, a solid track that has enough life to kick us off. Belarus will go 2nd with whatever they send if they happen to still compete, but if not you've got to sacrifice Macedonia or Slovenia, and I feel like Slovenia is more likely to be the "surprise jury fave" of the year. The second half is easier to order, Norway has to go somewhere in the middle as he's the only male on vocal duties and I can not see a situation where Destiny doesn't close the show - it's a big fave, a great positive note to end on AND from what I can gather, the meaning of 'je me casse' is roughly 'OK, I'm out'.

Semi 1 Jaw on the floor if this doesn't get announced through Sweden Cyprus Lithuania Malta Very likely qualifiers Azerbaijan Russia Romania Squeezing IN Belgium Ireland Croatia Borderline OUT Norway Israel Ukraine Unlikely qualifiers Australia Slovenia North Macedonia As much as I love Australia, I'm excited at the prospect of no country having a 100% qualification record after this year, and I think it's a near certainty for Australia, they're gonna need a really strong jury vote because I think this will tank in the televote. Predicting Ukraine out also makes me nervous, could it really happen, but I saw them as being borderline IN last year and 'Shum' feels less accessible to me than 'Solovey', and potentially not having Belarus giving them votes could hurt them too. Belgium as a song I think is a likely qualifier, but staging could let them down. On the flipside of the coin, I think Israel as a song is unlikely to make the final, but Eden is such a good performer that she could really sell it. Norway...part of me is willing it to be a NQ to serve them right for not sending KEiiNO, but he's one of only four male vocal entries in the semi which could work in his favour. But my gut is saying that TIX is very much a 'local' act and the juries and public will just see the performance as being a bit too ridiculous. Yes, I love the glow up of semi 2 this year!

Four listens in, now that I know the drop is coming, I'm totally sold. What a QUEEN.

Malta 2021 Je Me Casse Destiny PQKiHr5qEfA

I don't think we properly got into predictions last year due to the cancellation coming so soon after we knew all the entries Anyway, now that semi 2 is complete, here are my own personal initial predictions for this year Jaw on the floor if this doesn't get announced through Switzerland Bulgaria Iceland Very likely qualifiers San Marino Moldova Finland Squeezing IN Albania Greece Serbia Czech Republic Borderline OUT Estonia Poland Unlikely qualifiers Austria Denmark Latvia Georgia Portugal I think Portugal/Georgia/Latvia are all pretty much dead, but who knows what could be the "Nobody But You"/"Proud" jury moment of the year if there happens to be one! I think Polish diaspora or Estonia taking another average male to the final are the most likely upsets here, at the expense of - Czech Republic (a personal fave of mine that I feel will overperform compared to fan response, but maybe not?) - Serbia (Hurricane are huge in the Balkans as the Youtube views show, but is this the most friendly semi? I'm not sure) - Greece (I have questions about her vocal ability and how they're going to stage it - the once unstoppable Greece haven't had a top 15 since 2013!) And possibly Albania but it feels very standard '17th in the final' for them

1. Serbia 2. Poland 3. Austria 4. Greece 5. Estonia 6. Moldova 7. Czech Republic 8. San Marino 9. Iceland - 10. Portugal 11. Latvia 12. Georgia 13. Albania 14. Switzerland 15. Denmark 16. Bulgaria 17. Finland I think Czech Republic would make a great opener, but with Greece/Moldova/San Marino/Serbia all delivering big, up-tempo female entries, I feel like you've got to start with one to help spread them out? And between those four I think you need to save San Marino (and the Flo Rida gag) and Moldova (I'm imagining something BIG with loads of Kirkorov money pumped into the performance) until later, so it comes down to the other two and Greece were penned into open last year so I'm changing it up and gone with Serbia. Again, cos they were due to be in slot #2 last year, I'm letting Estonia off the hook and gone for something else that I don't think people overly care about. From there I try to alternate between either tempo and/or male/female acts. For the second half, I don't think you want to end on too slow a note, nor something that is instantly dead on arrival, so we land on Finland. Denmark get quite lucky as I don't think you can bury them too early when we have slow numbers from Portugal/Georgia/Switzerland/Bulgaria that need breaking up, and the latter two as big favourites aren't going to be thrown on too early.

The stuff I'll keep going back to 1 San Marino: Senhit - Adrenalina 2 Cyprus: Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo 3 Czech Republic: Benny Cristo - Omaga 4 Croatia: Albina - Tick-Tock 5 United Kingdom: James Newman - Embers 6 Moldova: Natalia Gordienko - Sugar 7 France: Barbara Pravi - Voilà 8 Sweden: Tusse - Voices 9 Germany: Jendrik - I Don't Feel Hate 10 Finland: Blind Channel - Dark Side 11 Ireland: Lesley Roy - Maps 12 Belgium: Hooverphonic - The Wrong Place 13 Australia: Montaigne - Technicolour 14 Israel: Eden Alene - Set Me Free 15 Estonia: Uku Suviste - The Lucky One 16 Greece: Stefania - Last Dance 17 Russia: Manizha - Russian Woman Solid enough to make up numbers in the final 18 Serbia: Hurricane - Loco Loco 19 Bulgaria: Victoria - Growing Up Is Getting Old 20 Norway: TIX - Fallen Angel 21 Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy - Birth Of A New Age 22 Albania: Anxhela Peristeri - Karma 23 Switzerland: Gjon's Tears - Tout l'Univers 24 Latvia: Samanta Tīna - The Moon is Rising 25 Romania: Roxen - Amnesia 26 Denmark: Fyr & Flamme - Øve os på hinanden 27 Poland: RAFAŁ - The Ride Not really my thing 28 Italy: Måneskin - Zitti e buoni 29 Iceland: Daði og Gagnamagnið - 10 Years 30 Austria: Vincent Bueno - Amen 31 North Macedonia: Vasil - Here I Stand 32 Lithuania: The Roop - Discoteque 33 Slovenia: Ana Soklič - Amen 34 Portugal: The Black Mamba - Love Is on My Side 35 Spain: Blas Cantó - Voy a quedarme An unpleasant listening experience 36 Ukraine: Go_A - Shum Russia is my big grower of the week after initially having a Ukraine/Belarus/Russia bottom 3 on the scoreboard app.

In general I'm quite pleased with how the result turned out last night. "Little Tot" definitely isn't as good as "Bulletproof" for me so there would've been a slight bittersweet feeling had Dotter won, and I would've felt bad for The Mamas even more if they lost out to someone who's already represented Sweden before (Eric). It would've been amazing to see them step out of their box and send Clara but it was never going to happen unfortunately. Another safe top 10 for Sweden incoming but I don't really see it being in contention - my gut is that it'll do a bit better in the televote than John Lundvik but not significantly so.

Overall I'm preferring this slightly to last year, even if when I first heard the first few seconds my instant reaction was "dear god she's somehow managed to come up with something even worse than Still Breathing" :lol:

To be fair, the community scoreboard app does 'reset' after each song release to only count people who've ranked every single song. This is fine I guess but the song isn't as strong as TAT and the performance/look is just...the same? Can't really blame him for going for something as similar as possible given what a big favourite he was last year, but I'm more interested in the countries/acts that have really changed it up this year.

c79E-t7j4CE Rafal may be a familiar face to some of us me because he co-hosted Junior Eurovision 2020!