By Kevin Sherwin
Unfortunately, Romania will miss out on a final appearance having been eliminated in Thursday’s Semi Final. Theodore put on a great effort, but Europe didn’t think it deserved a place in the Grand Final.
All the pre-show favourites from Semi Final 1 progressed to the Final: Sweden, Finland, Israel and Norway. Also qualifying were Portugal, Switzerland and Moldova but the surprises were Czechia, Serbia and the very weird people from Croatia.
Let 3 are a rock band from Rijeka in Croatia and apparently are known for their original approach to rock music and their obscene live performances.
They have already claimed that if they win Eurovision they will perform the winning song live on stage naked, somehow I feel that dream will not materialise.
I have said that Sweden and Finland are very high up in the betting but Israel made a big impact in the Semi Final and now must be considered as a contender for the trophy.
Sadly 7 times winners Ireland failed to qualify along with Azerbaijan and 2019 winners The Netherlands.
Looking back at both Semi Finals they did look spectacular and these days we are getting better and better interval acts.
In the first Semi Final we were treated to a medley of hits from Rita Ora and because the UK are hosting on behalf of Ukraine we had Liverpool born Rebecca Ferguson and Ukrainian 2010 Eurovision singer Alyosha – her song told the story of how she had to leave Ukraine after the Russian invasion through the rendition of the Duran Duran hit “Ordinary World”.
The second Semi Final didn’t produce as much shocks as Semi Final 1 did, the only surprise was that Greece failed to qualify and now we ask the question, who will Cyprus give their 12 points to in the Grand Final on Saturday night?
One enjoyable moment in the second Semi Final was when Belgium were announced as qualifying, poor Gustaph was so overcome he burst into tears. Poland’s Blanca also made it to Saturday’s Final with the song “Solo” with her upbeat Beyoncé like performance.
Congratulations to Australian band Voyager, they will sing “Promise” so it was definitely worth their 23 hour flight to Liverpool to take part, and finally my personal favourite Austria are into the Final with “Who the hell is Edgar”?
Making up the numbers on Saturday will be Albania, Estonia, Lithuania, Armenia and Slovenia.
So joining the 20 Semi Final qualifiers on Saturday night are last year’s winners Ukraine and it’s Tvorchi who will sing “Heart of Steel”, their names are Jeffrey and Andrii and again we might just see Europe uniting in support of Ukraine and who would bet against them winning for the second year in a row?
So that just leaves the Big 5, and France seems to be leading that group in the betting, La Zarra with “Evidemment” in my opinion is the best French entry for years and the last time France won the contest was in 1977.
Italy have Marco Megoni with the song “Due Vite” representing them and as normal for Italy they have chosen their artist from the Sanremo music Festival 2023.
Germany are sending a heavy metal rock band by the name of Lord of the lost with “Blood and Glitter”, the band have a big fan base and hail from Hamburg and immediately after Eurovision they will join Iron Maiden on tour.
Spain are sending Blanca Paloma with “EAEA” – out of all the big 5 countries, Spain have had a long wait to win again 54 years to be exact as they last won in 1969 even though they had to share it 4 ways.
So that leaves host nation and last year’ runner up United Kingdom and they have big shoes to fill from Sam Ryder’s amazing performance last year, and it’s Mae Muller who hopes to go one better than Sam’s second place and win it. Shes singing “I Wrote a song” and she actually did co-write it.
So we’re all set for the 67th Eurovision Song Contest, Austria will open on Saturday night and the UK will close the show. Will Europe again unite for Ukraine or will it be a two horse race between Sweden and Finland or will we be in for a shock?.
Whatever happens on Saturday night Europe and Australia can for 4 Hours be United by Music.