First of all I must say I think we have the right finalists after all. I would have wanted to squeeze in Montenegro, Belarus, Andorra, Switzerland and Hungary but then who would I drop? I don't know! Romania, Albania and Denmark might be border cases but I am perfectly happy having them in the final as well... Also, predicting this year gets more difficult as the juries are involved. Who knows in the end how much impact they will have and will they boost songs like France and Lithuania on expenses of Ukraine, Greece and Turkey? Or will they vote for Ukraine after all because they surely give us a great show and entertaining stunning 3 minutes even if there isn't so much in it musically? We just have to wait til tomorrow to find out. Anyways, here are my predictions based on my feelings and what I have seen and heard over the past two weeks, putting aside my own likes and dislikes when possible and judging them with brains instead of heart. I gave them slots 1 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 15, 16 to 20 and 21 to 25, otherwise most of them would have ended around 10-15, but someone MUST come last... Feel free to comment!LITHUANIA (20-25)
I like this song a lot and am happy it's in the final. Simple but effective performance, beautiful song and great vocals but Romania failed to make an impact last year singing first with similar ingredients so unfortunately it won't go well.
ISRAEL (16-20)
Another great song with fantastic voices that deserves to be in the final. Unfortunately they got the unlucky number two slot and sandwiched between Lithuania and France won't help the matter either. However it goes, Israel is one of the best this year. Again.
FRANCE (1-5)
Not a good place to sing this one either but I trust in Patricia. She is such a stunning artist and can make people notice her, love her and vote her. Both televoters and juries.
SWEDEN (16-20)
First real uptempo number of the night but I still think it's missing something. I was nearly sure they wouldn't make the final but here they are and what is an Eurovision final without Sweden? I could be completely wrong here but I trust my feeling at the moment.
CROATIA (20-25)
I'm happy Croatia made it. I like this song. But I still think they barely make it to the final and will be overrun here by Sweden and Portugal. On the other hand the Balkan voters might back this a lot and it could end up higher. We will see.
PORTUGAL (16-20)
Portugal was a big hit last year and scored great in semifinal but come final they dropped like a stone. I'm afraid the same will happen this year, even if they have a good draw to stand out. I want Portugal to win and let them enjoy the fun we Finns had in 2006 after all these years but this isn't the year unfortunately.
ICELAND (6-10)
I have been toying with the idea that Iceland could make the top-5 but Turkey, Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina have such voting blocks behind them no juries can help it. The Nordic vote however will be split between Iceland and Norway (and the other 3 as well) so Norway might get into trouble because of strong Iceland. We will see...
GREECE (1-5)
I guess there's not stopping them and Greece will make top-5 again but the song absolutely doesn't deserve it. In the semifinal last night Sakis was not heard so much but the backing singers (which necessarily wasn't a bad thing...) but I must give him credit for a great show that did look so much better on TV screens than in hall Youtubes beforehand.
ARMENIA (11-15)
I like this a lot but somehow I don't see them doing the top-10 this time but they won't be far either. Great performance and if the girls deliver tomorrow vocally they might do better but I don't quite believe it.
RUSSIA (11-15)
Many are saying this is heading for a null pointer. I don't think so. If she is at top form she can be dangerous. The song's presentation is haunting and TV viewers might end up rather hypnotized and start voting. Plus she will get a lot of ex-USSR votes anyways and even some juries might see through it and note that this is actually rather convincing package. I have had a complete change of heart with this one over the past few days!
AZERBAIJAN (6-10)
They will get votes from all over, and rather high ones. Unfortunately I think the top votes will go somewhere else instead so in the final count they might be close but not close enough. I had this in top-5 but changed it with France in the last minute. Wistful thinking by my side or...?
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (1-5)
This one will be liked by televoters and juries alike, not only in the Balkans. I can see Nordic countries falling for this one, too, so it will get high marks from east and north. The northern top marks will go elsewhere so it might be not enough to win - or is it?
MOLDOVA (11-15)
Nelly has very strong vocals and the whole performance is very energetic even if very very ethnic. But it is fun and enjoyable and people at home might find it very entertaining. And fun in a good way so I believe many will vote for it because of that. Or this could fall flat on score nothing at all but I think it will.
MALTA (6-10)
Malta surely benefits on coming after Moldova but will Chiara lose the battle against Yohanna's charms? And it doesn't help Estonia is coming right after her. I still don't like the song much but Chiara showed last night why she has ended up 3rd and 2nd in her previous times. She won't make it better with THIS song I'm afraid.
ESTONIA (6-10)
Shame that Malta and Estonia are back to back. Both in blue with a short of a ballad song. But Estonia is hauntingly beautiful and she delivers well on screen and I think many jurors will like this as well as televoters. This could go worse but I'm optimistic.
DENMARK (20-25)
Denmark make it to final after all so the Nordic Five is complete again this year. Even if early on I was thinking this might be the ESC 2009 winner I think now it has the faith of ending around 9-12 in most countries and therefor scoring very little.
GERMANY (11-15)
Many think Germany has no chance this year again. I want to be hopeful here again and let them be a bit of a surprise. It's catchy and fun and should catch televoters eye, especially those who see and hear this for the first time. They can't help noticing Dita von Teese for sure, and that might make some non-Eurovision fans pick up the vote and vote - just for the fun of it!
TURKEY (1-5)
Early on I was giving this as a winner alongside with Norway. I lost my faith at some point but Turkey came across very powerful - even if nothing new and innovative - in the semifinal so I think it's back to race full force. Televoters will place this high, the only worry is if the jurors will drop it?
ALBANIA (20-25)
Albania ends on the bottom of my list only because I didn't know where to put it! She sings well, that's for sure and the song is catchy and uptempo. The staging is the one that makes me go WTF? What is that turquoise spiderman and those clown faced midgets? Just all too weird...
NORWAY (1-5)
Norway is the biggest pre-contest favorite in the history it seems. And he hasn't lost much ground when the rehearsals started even if they aren't the only favorite anymore. Sandwiched between Albania and Ukraine isn't the best possible place but the risk of winning is very high, this should appeal to both televoters and music experts in the jury. And he comes across very sweet and likable - despite some ignorant egos commenting something else these weeks in Moscow about that!
UKRAINE (6-10)
I am always very slow to warm up to the Ukrainian ones. I hated 2007 with passion for a long time, and warmed up to 2008 very slowly and they both ended up 2nd. It took we until last night to like this one. The show is very energetic and eye catching, and there's so much going on that you don't have time to pay attention to the vocals and the melody - or the lack of it. This could be also top-5 but I trust the jurors to drop it unless they decided to grant it for its show factor! I still wouldn't include this on my Mp3 player. This one needs to be SEEN.
ROMANIA (21-25)
This one was the biggest surprise qualifier for me. I kinda like the song and it's very hummable, it plays often in my head especially when I don't want it to, but the performance wasn't that great last night, was it? Or was it just ruined by the camerawork? This barely made it to the final I think and won't go very far in there...
UNITED KINGDOM (16-20)
Favorite by many, maybe because of Andrew Lloyd Webber but the song is rather boring and old fashioned. Jade sings it well if she's relaxed and cool, if not it can be rather terrible. This could appeal to some old timers but I hope this won't go anywhere near the podium as this is a road we don't want Eurovision to take, is it? How about France, I hear you scream. Well, France has a very traditional French song, this UK one is pure Hollywood. Besides one can't even compare Patricia and Jade, once again a true European classy artist against any Whitney-Mariah wannabe. Let Americans do that. We are European.
FINLAND (16-20)
I would like to be more optimistic but I was also considering 21-26 slot. I love the song and its energy but apparently not so many do so. It also does lack certain something on stage, and knowing both Waldo and Karoliina are suffering from soar throats plus the camerawork still doesn't look so great... Well, it certainly does stand out after UK!
SPAIN (11-15)
Spain started as one of the pre-contest favorites but has failed to impress after that. In the rehearsals the sound and camerawork - once again - wasn't good at all, so that might ruin the experience a bit. Also the choreography is all over the place and needs a perfect camerawork to make it work. And having Finland right before them is propably the worst they could have asked for...
So, here it is. Let's see tomorrow night how wrong I was :-) Often you get completely different ideas while watching the live show...
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