Prepare to be Pole-axed

May 9, 2018 by Rob

Some brief notes on how semi 2 will play out on tv tomorrow evening and ahead of tonight’s key jury run.

‘Song 1,500 in Eurovision history’ gets a reference ahead of Alexander Rybak’s performance. Cristina’s band members have face paint on. They also freeze frame behind her during this.

Serbia, San Marino, Denmark and Russia are such long three minutes it feels like at least half an hour has past.

There is a break. Alexander Rybak is interviewed. The female presenter asks to stroke Rasmussen’s beard and they have a little chat before Moldova arrive on stage for their ‘Carry On Behind Doors and Windows’ shtick. It has just hit a low of 32 on Betfair. Will be interesting to see its price trajectory tomorrow night.

Looks like there might be mini-breaks before and after The Netherlands. A fan is asked who their favourite is. He says Cyprus.

They’ve drafted in some backing vocalists for Jessica. Different arrangement so you can hear her backing vocalists help sing the song in the last minute. Issue remains as she sounds off-key in comparison.

Lukas Meijer is out of tune in places again here. He is very inconsistent and unreliable, much like Jessica, and Malta’s Christabelle who is also struggling to stay in tune.

Break after Malta. Very brief interview with Russia’s Yulia. Chat with Lukas Meijer and Gromee and an interview with Jessica talking about watching Eurovision at breakfast time in Australia.

Hungary as screechy as ever. Latvia’s Laura goes paddle boarding in her postcard. They are having technical issues with this so they keep having to fill in with interviews in the green room. We are having technical issues with the tv monitors in the press centre as well.

And we don’t see Sweden as it moves next to Montenegro. Melovin is still too much like Vic Reeves doing a ‘in the style of a club singer’ skit.

Someone interviewed says his favourite is Hungary. Then Sweden turns up in the pimp slot here. It’s going to draw first half in the Grand Final, isn’t it? Then we will see exactly how impartial Bjorkman is and what he trys to do.

Yulia, Jess and Lukas not sounding especially in tune on the recap. A look back at past Eurovisions – always entertaining. Another recap after a dance medley of famous Eurovision songs.

France, Germany and Italy are introduced. Emelie sings a French version of Salvador’s song during the interview. The Italian guys sing a past Italian Eurovision song.

The feeling remains, this is a very low quality semi-final and there are a big bunch of borderliners it is next to impossible to rank confidently.