NORMAL LIFE: Stunned By Semi Final Outcome (Eurovision)

Before I have a nice long moan about the results of last night's semi-final (you did a wonderful job, Finland), M has provided yet more pix to grace the pages of this textual overload of a blog! First, there's a photo that bought about envy on my part - M got round to meeting Mahai Traistariu, the singer of last year's Romania entry, Tornero! I can't tell you how many times I have listened to that song over the past year and to actually meet the guy would have been wonderful; he's a fantastic singer! You see, when I listened to that song, I started to realised just how progressive, not to say talented, certain EU Member states actually are. No longer am I ethnocentrically favouring countries I know more about.

M has already been busy continuing his search along the participant trail. He managed to track down Hanna Pakarninen, who will try to emulated Lordi's success last yet (see here) with her not-so-melodic track, Leave Me Alone. With lyrics like that, I think the judges will send her packing!

Last night, I had the pleasure of joining two friends at Bio Rex, the cinema in downtown Helsinki; the venue was sold out yet, somehow, only 10-15% of the audience turned up for the in-cinema Eurovision screening! M was somewhat dissapointed, but the incompetent pre-screening show by three Swedish wannabee pop stars - together with a couple of ciders - provided some pre-Eurovision Song Contest amusement.

Soon, it was nearly 10pm and eager viewers shuffled into the auditorium and found their seats. Soon, there were images of Helsinki's Hartwall Arena, calm outside, but somewhat rowdy inside. The pre-show, consisting of carnival-like Samba through the seasons was a bit naff, but the presenters did wonderfully. When the first act came on the screen, the stage - a technological marvel in itself - came to life.

Over the course of two hours, we watched 28 acts; some were fab, some had minimal appeal and some left you wondering that the alternatives of each country must have truly been really awful! The great thing was that, in the auditorium, people entered the spirit of the contest; people clapped hands, laughed at ridiculous choreography and openly chatted. It was wonderful. I took my own notes about each act together with a ranking out of ten and came up with the following:-

Bulgaria - need more than tribal drums/screaming to get me going (6) *
Israel - Leg-kicking Timmy Mallet on drugs (1)
Cyprus - Good voice, fairly poppy (8)
Belarus - Talented solarium fan with big teeth (7) *
Iceland - Old rocker with appeal - (6)
Georgia - Tribal moaning, lots of spinning blokes/clashing swords (5) *
Montenegro - Rock version of I Like To Boogie, good singers (7)
Switzerland - Theatrical quality, superior choreography, appealling (8)
Moldova - A violin intro followed by pop lacking in appeal (4) *
The Netherlands - Motown-like with predictable lyrics (7)
Albania - Subtle intro to operatic ballad, a bit extreme (6)
Denmark - Fantastic, a professional, poppy and light, decent lyrics (10)
Croatia - Dull, nauseous with in-love Shakira & Bill Wyman lookalikes (2)
Poland - Unlikely black dudes/white temptresses act. Nice tune (7)
Serbia - Powerful, over-the-top ballad. Lot's of women groping (6) *
Czech Republic - Lordi without costumes, unoriginal (5)
Portugal - Fan-touting girlies in carnival mood. Not catchy (6)
FYR Macedonia - Solemn track full of yearning, lacking in quality (5) *
Norway - Corny, poor lyrics = no substance (5)
Malta - 'Am I Crazy?' she sings! Yes, you are! (4)
Andorra - Teenage rock, reminded me of Busted! You suck! (4)
Hungary - An unimpressive showgirl spreading misery (3) *
Estonia - Good performance, lively, but the chorus sounds tired (6)
Belgium - Show Me The Way To Amarillo 70s motown style (6)
Slovenia - Operatic pop, very original performance (7) *
Turkey - Appealing, but commercial (7) *
Austria - Nope! (1/10)
Latvia - Six tophatted guys, reminded me of In A Chorus Line. (4/10) *

* Qualified for a place in Saturday's final. Read more here.

Get this: isn't it somehow ironic that eight of the countries from the 10 going to an already combined final of a further 14 countries are former Russian countries? Are they simply voting for eachother? I totally get Slovenia's, Tukey's and Belarus' success, but the omission of Cyrpus, Switzerland and Denmark is a huge disappointment. Let's see how they do against the 14 countries already in tomorrow's final (read the final listing here).