Bye bye blackbird (...and more predictions)

Aww...  I think everyone was seriously gutted that we lost the wonderful Blackbird from Finland on Tuesday night.  We chatted with Leena and Lasse afterwards and, as ever, they were just so lovely about it.  In Leena's words, "it's fine, nobody died, we will go on making our own special kind of music".  True professionals.  I hope it's not the last we hear from Norma John.

Finland aside, the qualifiers were much as predicted.  I got 8 right, missing out on Poland (which pretty much always go through due to diaspora) and Belgium (which, of course, is a brilliant song, but badly staged and performed).  Interestingly, it's Belgian Blanche who has taken the European iTunes charts by storm since Tuesday night.  She's currently topping a number of countries' charts and Top 20 in more than twenty!


Of course, the big news is that the beautifully understated and simply performed Amar Pelos Dois went through for Portugal.  Their flag was proudly flying all through the arena and later in the press centre.  Could Salvador (#salvadorable) topple the mighty gorilla?  The bookies have slashed odds and he's now almost equal favourite with Italy.



Yesterday I had a quiet day, apart from the first full run through of tonight's Semi Final 2.

I think this is a far harder one to call, as there are so many similar songs, and much blandness too...

So, based on what I have seen here in Kyiv over the past 10 days, here are the ten that I am predicting to qualify this evening:

AUSTRIA
FYR MACEDONIA
ROMANIA
NETHERLANDS
HUNGARY
NORWAY
BELARUS
BULGARIA
ESTONIA
ISRAEL

I think Denmark and Croatia are both borderline, and could go either way.

Finally, I went out for a fab Georgian meal last night.  After we ordered we were given a complimentary glass of ChaCha!  I immediately thought of Elaine Dove and THAT Georgian Party (also known by us as the BEST PARTY EVER!!!).  The food was delicious and the accompanying Georgian red wine went down a treat after the ChaCha.


Right now I'm off to be pampered and massaged next door at the Intercontinental.  This was a present from our fabulous friends Martin and Darron (thank you again, boys), and when I popped in yesterday to book it, the lady said "I'm really sorry but we only have male staff who are able to do the deep body massage right now, is that OK for you?"

"That's a pity," I replied, "...but I'm sure one of your men will know exactly how to handle me..."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The second semi final - predictions!

Image
Holá Well, it's finally D-Day for our very own Indiana Joan!!!  The general feeling amongst everyone here in Baku is that she will make it through this evening, and secure a place for The Netherlands in the final for the first time since 2004.  The charm of her performance and simple catchy melody should help it. I'll be sitting in the hall with my Dutch flag, and wearing my Native American Headdress, biting my nails to the quick until their name is read out! There are some obvious qualifiers tonight in the shape of Ukraine, Serbia and Sweden. I also think Tooji's place in the final for Norway is assured, after some superb rehearsals.  His song stands out as a masterpiece of modern, fresh pop in a ballad-heavy semi. I was indifferent to Turkey's song before I came out here, but Can's performance (you pronounce it "Djan", by the way) is quirky and fun, and I've changed my mind about it.  This should qualify, and pretty much needs...
Read more

Semi 1 predictions

Image
OK folks, the time has come to make some predictions for Semi Final 1, which takes place this evening (8pm BBC3 - for those who want to join in with all the fun!). We sat through last night's rehearsal and it was VERY obvious that Russia is going to walk this Semi.  I really can't see anything else coming close to the Grannies as they march into Saturday's final, so I'm predicting a big win for them this evening (although, we'll not know how they finished until after Saturday). I think this is a MUCH weaker semi than the second, and there is a run of three terrible songs (Belgium, Finland and Israel) right in the middle which almost sent me to sleep last night.  Montenegro is beyond awful, and given that all of the other ex-Yugoslav countries will sing and vote in the second semi, I seriously think he will finish this evening with the dreaded "null points". Romania and Moldova are certainties tonight... (any excuse for another Pasha photo on ...
Read more