See you in...Copenhagen (most likely) next year...

Since this year's winner in Malmo was Emelie de Forrest's Only Teardrops, Denmark will be hosting the 2014 Contest (a mere half hour train ride from this year's host city).  Now the country's public broadcaster DR will pick a venue to play host for Eurovision in mid-May next year (First Semi Final on May 13, Second Semi Final on May 15 and the Final on May 17).  The most likely venue is Parken Stadium in Copenhagen (which hosted the 2001 Contest), though the small city of Herning (on the Danish mainland) is also being considered because of being home to the MCH Arena.

Here is the final scoreboard from Saturday, where Azerbaijan placed an impressive 2nd, with Ukraine, Norway and Russia rounding out the rest of the Top Five.

Draw[50]	Country[64]	Language[65]	Artist[66]	Song[66]	English translation	Place	Points
01	France	French	Amandine Bourgeois	"L'enfer et moi"	Hell and me	23	14
02	Lithuania	English	Andrius Pojavis	"Something"	—	22	17
03	Moldova	Romanian	Aliona Moon	"O mie"	A thousand	11	71
04	Finland	English	Krista Siegfrids	"Marry Me"	—	24	13
05	Spain	Spanish	ESDM	"Contigo hasta el final"	With you until the end	25	8
06	Belgium	English	Roberto Bellarosa	"Love Kills"	—	12	71
07	Estonia	Estonian	Birgit	"Et uus saaks alguse"	So there can be a new beginning	20	19
08	Belarus	English	Alyona Lanskaya	"Solayoh"	—	16	48
09	Malta	English	Gianluca	"Tomorrow"	—	8	120
10	Russia	English	Dina Garipova	"What If"	—	5	174
11	Germany	English	Cascada	"Glorious"	—	21	18
12	Armenia	English	Dorians	"Lonely Planet"	—	18	41
13	Netherlands	English	Anouk	"Birds"	—	9	114
14	Romania	English	Cezar	"It's My Life"	—	13	65
15	United Kingdom	English	Bonnie Tyler	"Believe in Me"	—	19	23
16	Sweden	English	Robin Stjernberg	"You"	—	14	62
17	Hungary	Hungarian	ByeAlex	"Kedvesem" (Zoohacker Remix)	My darling	10	84
18	Denmark	English	Emmelie de Forest	"Only Teardrops"	—	1	281
19	Iceland	Icelandic	Eythor Ingi	"Ég á líf"	I am alive	17	47
20	Azerbaijan	English	Farid Mammadov	"Hold Me"	—	2	234
21	Greece	Greek1	Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis	"Alcohol Is Free"	—	6	152
22	Ukraine	English	Zlata Ognevich	"Gravity"	—	3	214
23	Italy	Italian	Marco Mengoni	"L'essenziale"	The essential	7	126
24	Norway	English	Margaret Berger	"I Feed You My Love"	—	4	191
25	Georgia	English	Nodi Tatishvili and Sophie Gelovani	"Waterfall"	—	15	50
26	Ireland	English	Ryan Dolan	"Only Love Survives"	—	26	5

Ireland's last place finish with only five points was definitely the biggest shock of the night, though I would suggest Romania's "respectable" thirteenth place finish (w the falsetto vampire with nude-looking backup dancers) be added to the surprises of the evening.  I mean, I was already surprised it made it to the Final (the kitsch factor definitely helped it be represented Saturday night).

This is another Contest where no Big Five members placed in the Top Five (Italy came close with 126 points and eventually 7th place...the rest of the Big Five were at the bottom of the scoreboard and got very few points overall.  The winner received less douze points than the runner-up and Scandinavia and the East generally ruled the Contest (including Moldova, who missed out the Top Ten by 13 points).  [My favorite song (from Spain) ended the evening in second-to-last place, largely due to the shaky live performance...one of the disadvantages of being part of the Big Five is that you do not get as much prep time on stage].  Even though I liked your Nordic neighbor Norway more, I'm happy that my Scandinavian winner wish came true. We're coming your way Scandinavia...watch yourself :)

Preparing for the Final

The Finalists for this year's edition of the Eurovision Song Contest (in the order of start number, as allocated by random drawing)*

1.  France - Amandine Bourgeois - L'enfer et moi
2.  Lithuania - Andrius Pojavis - Something
3.  Moldova - Aliona Moon - O mie
4.  Finland - Krista Siegfrieds - Marry Me
5.  Spain - ESDM - Contigo hasta el Final
6.  Belgium - Roberto Bellarosa - Love Kills
7.  Estonia - Birgit - Et uss saaks alguse
8.  Belarus - Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh
9.  Malta - Gianluca - Tomorrow
10. Russia- Dina Garipova - What If
11. Germany - Cascada - Glorious
12. Armenia - Dorians - Lonely Planet
13. Netherlands - Anouk - Birds
14. Romania - Cezar - It's My Life
15. United Kingdom - Bonnie Tyler - Believe in Me
16. Sweden - Robin Stjernberg - You
17. Hungary - ByeAlex - Kedvesem
18. Denmark - Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops
19. Iceland - Eythor Ingi - Eg a lif
20. Azerbaijan - Farid Mammadov - Hold Me
21. Greece - Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis - Alcohol is Free 
22. Ukraine - Zlata Ognevich - Gravity
23. Italy - Marco Mengoni - L'Essenziale
24. Norway - Margaret Berger - I Feed You My Love
25. Georgia - Nodi Tatishvili & Sophie Gelovani - Waterfall
26. Ireland - Ryan Dolan - Only Love Survives

* As Host Country, Sweden got to pick its start number for the Final before the Contest even began.  Everyone else got their start number through a random draw.

My Top Ten Prediction (from this year's Finalists)
Confession time:  I want to go to Scandinavia.  I am indeed still kicking myself for not being in Malmo watching the Contest in the arena, but my friends will be here with me (some also kicking themselves as well) at my house and we'll be watching the Final (accompanied by booze and awesome food representing every region of Europe, plus maybe some Mexican food...I mean we are in LA).  I also want the Contest go to a country that values artistic expression, individual thought, and the freedom to be yourself and enjoy whatever things you want (music included).  I believe that the freer people are/feel the higher the proportion and quality of artistry is in that country.  So I guess I'm going with my heart (for the most part), but not forgetting the impact no ex-Yugoslav in the Final is going to have on the results.

Even with my desire to go to Scandinavia next year, My Ideal Winner would be Spain in this year's Contest.  That song did something to me and I've become an instant ESDM fan.  I'm not sure a win is in the stars for ESDM, but I'm still hoping for a Top 5 finish.  I think the actual battle for the win will be between Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Italy and Moldova.  You may be surprised to see Moldova up there, but consider that there are five ex-Yugoslav countries, along with the other Balkan nations (Albania and Bulgaria) that are still voting even though their entries didn't make it past the Semi-Finals.  Their votes will shift from each other to their neighbors, making Moldova, Romania and Greece (and maybe Hungary) the most likely recipients of their high marks.  Estonia, Iceland, and Finland are also expected to do well, but with every Scandinavian country represented in the Final, as well as the countries of almost all of the ex-Soviet republics (only Latvia did not make the Final), and block voting between these countries likely result in those votes getting diluted.  With all that, and even with the super-ethno flare of the Greek song, Moldova's stand-out stage performance may put it in the Top Five and within reach of the win.

Top Ten in random order:

• Spain - (My favorite and my wishful thinking winner, will likely get some high marks, probably from Portugal, Italy and possibly from France).
• Denmark - (One of the crowd favorites, this song has already won the OGAE's* voting by a landslide.  Denmark will likely get high marks from the Netherlands and Germany (both of whom do not have Turkey or ex-Yugoslav countries to vote for this year), along with top marks from their Scandinavian/Nordic brethren, the country is the one to beat at the Malmo Contest).
• Norway - (With several national OGAE organizations having had a hand at picking this song for Norway, and the international OGAE voting this song in third place recently, this one is a clear favorite, and Norway is not likely to be forgotten in the voting shuffle like it was last year in Baku.  Margaret Berger is already well established as an artist in Scandinavia; the heavy promotion campaign prior to the Contest has helped; and with the electronica beat trend going strong, Norway is playing for the win).
• Ireland - (Ireland hasn't won seven Contests by chance.  They've done it with good songs with wide appeal that collected douze points from all over the European map.  The song's lyrics of love have already proven a winning strategy, and the song's upbeat drummy sounds and those shirtless back-up drummers/dancers don't hurt either.  Expect a few douze points coming Ireland's way, most likely from the UK and Belgium (if the latter doesn't give it's twelve points to the Netherlands).  Top Five is in sight for Only Love Survives, especially appropriate with the song being performed last on Final night...you've heard of save the best for last, right?)
• Italy - (Eurovision fans were most excited with the return of the country into the Contest in 2011, and have placed the country in the top of the scoreboard, filled with nostalgia and love for Italian songs.  Likely to get high marks from San Marino, which unfortunately got knocked out at Semi Final 2, and possible high scores from Spain, Romania, Moldova. And with Austria, Switzerland (who also do not have any ex-Yugoslav countries to vote for this year), and France's votes, I see a Top Five finish for this one, if not the win).
• Moldova - (The quality of this song is already high, and singing in Romanian was a stroke of genius, guaranteeing the coveted douze points from neighboring Romania.  The Balkan voting block will split itself between this entry, Greece and Romania -and maybe Hungary, but Romanian is a Latin language, similar to Italian, and Moldova could end up getting a few more top marks from Italy and San Marino, and from the Iberian peninsula.  I could do without the giant glowing skirt gimmick, but there will be enough Eurovision fans who will like that and send some unexpected points Moldova's way).
• Greece - (Greece will undoubtably get a douze points from Cyprus and will likely be the beneficiary of Serbian, Albanian and Macedonian top marks as well - it's good to be neighbors sometimes.  Add to that additional high marks from Greeks voting in Western Europe, most likely from the UK and Germany, and Greece will finish in the Top Ten once again).
• Estonia/Sweden (I pit these two against each other not because the songs are alike, but because the votes between the Nordic/Scandinavian block will likely concentrate on one or two countries, leaving the others to the middle and back of the pack.  Estonia has had more press and stage presence and could score high marks not only from Finland and Sweden, but from Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Latvia as well, giving them the edge over Sweden).
• Finland/Iceland (Same reasons relating to block voting as the Estonia vs. Sweden match-up, and with Denmark and Norway getting early high marks as favorites, Finland's upbeat song in English will probably have wider appeal.  Factor in the gay votes for the singer whose song has become a national anthem for marriage equality in Finland and I see Marry Me beating out the sweet Icelandic ballad).
• Romania/Ukraine (I never underestimate Ukraine at this Contest.  They know who their audience is and they know how to get votes from that audience...and the Giant carrying the singer to the stage gimmick may just end up doing the trick with this decent, though predictable song).

*OGAE is the pan-European association of Eurovision Fan Clubs.  They are important, because they are involved in helping pick winners in certain countries' national selection processes (Norway and Sweden), they are devoted fans and they VOTE all over Europe.

Second Semi Final Results (& How the Voting Works)

Second Semi Final Winners
My favorites got clobbered yesterday and only six of my ten made it to Final on Saturday.  The scores are not out yet (they are released AFTER the winner is declared, so as to not taint voting patterns for the Final), but I suspect there was a LOT of regional and political voting going on this year.  That said, here are the batch of countries that have moved on (my guesses in bold), in the order they were announced during the Second Semi Final:

• Hungary
• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Romania
• Norway
• Iceland
• Armenia
• Finland
• Malta
• Greece

I think the sense of humor the Greek participants displayed at the press conference following the announcement of the Finalists just about nailed the voting in the head:  "Maybe people were drunk when they voted for us."  I'm going to take the liberty of applying this as the reasoning behind some of the countries qualifying for the Final, while I recover from the disappearance of Israel and San Marino into an abyss they did not deserve this year.  Macedonia (FYR of) not making it into the Final means that there is not one single ex-Yugoslav country in the Final this year, for the first time in more than two decades (Bosnia-Herzegovina withdrew and Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia all fell during the First Semi Final).  On a side note:  I sincerely hope that Israel's lead singer Moran Mazor was still able to celebrate her 22nd birthday in style in Malmo (Happy Birthday Moran...and don't worry girl.  With a voice like yours, you've got a very promising career ahead of you, unlike some of the clowns who made it to the Final).  Which brings me to...

How the Voting Works (or a History of Voting and selection process at Eurovision)

You may be wondering the logistics behind picking the countries who will compete in the Final.  When the Contest started, the point system was not clear (and only the winner was announced, with everyone else being declared in joint 2nd place).  Then various voting schemes followed, ending up with the current one in use (it kind of stuck and became the standard).  Before the fall of the Iron Wall (and the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union), it was all much easier.  Public broadcasters from new countries applied for membership in the European Broadcasting Union, paid their dues once they were approved, announced they would be participating in the upcoming Contest, picked a jury to evaluate the songs from other nations, and then sent their chosen performance.  Once all the songs were presented, those juries (usually made up of music professionals) delivered the points for their top ten songs: One point for 10th, two for 9th, all the way up to 8 points for 3rd place.  Then the second place song got 10 points and the favorite song from each country received the coveted douze points (of course, there was still no voting for your own country).  The results were tabulated, and a winner was declared as the entry with the most points.

Then tie breaks happened.  The participant country lists expanded to the point of making a three hour show impossible.  Some countries started crying foul that the national juries from certain Western countries didn't understand their music and only supported artists that fit their own musical standards.  Language restrictions were challenged on the basis that they provided certain countries advantages.  The Contest carried on, first announcing a pre-qualification system tabulated from placement and points in recent contests (this system was a major fail at achieving its purpose of fairness).  Complaints from fans, public broadcasters and artists flooded the EBU.  The Contest evolved.  The Big Four were established to ensure that the highest dues paying members of the EBU would be guaranteed a spot in the Final [this has now become the Big Five after Italy's return in 2011, and includes Spain, Germany, France and Spain as well.]  The Top Ten in each year's Contest would join the Big Four and the winner in the Final the following year, with ten additional entries qualifying through a Semi Final (established for the 2004 Istanbul Contest).  The imperfect system chugged along, eventually leading to the system in place now:  Big Five members and the host country automatically advance to the Final, and ten countries from each Semi Final (twenty total) join these six to duke it out for the win.

On the voting front, some countries implemented systems that allowed the public votes to determine the winner (and coincidentally became a huge revenue source for those countries' public broadcasters).  All participants soon joined the tele-voting bandwagon, and the Contest began churning out unexpected winners, who beat out great songs from favored countries (a la Belgium's Kate Ryan not making it through the Semi Final in Athens in 2006 and the Finnish orcs in the form of Lordi won with Hard Rock Hallelujah).  Then Western European countries began to complain that those competing in the Semi Finals could not overcome the obstacle of block voting.  The most prominent of these are the Balkan, ex-Soviet and Scandinavian/Nordic voting blocks (exchanging top three votes amongst themselves, virtually ensuring that the winner would come amongst their block); and the more minor, but in no way insignificant, are the one-on-one douze points exchanges between certain neighbors (or political allies).  To curb this trend, the EBU brought back the juries full-time (they were kept as a back-up system in case tele-voting irregularities or problems prevented any country from tabulating a certain result).  The tele-voting is now mixed with the jury votes to (each count for half) and give each country its votes to distribute to its fellow competitors.

Get that?  Yeah, I'm still confused too.  Just remember this:  26 countries compete on equal footing on Saturday in the Final.  Points will be distributed by 39 participants (1-12 points) and we will have a winner, who will then take over hosting duties for next year's Contest.

Second Semi Final Predictions

The Second Semi Final will be broadcast live in a few hours (21:00 CET, to be exact) from www.eurovision.tv.  This one has 17 countries competing for the ten spots in the Final.  The following seven entries should make it through this round without any problems (these are the cream of the Second Semi Final crop):

• San Marino
• Norway
• Israel
• Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of) 
• Azerbaijan
• Iceland
• Hungary

I have a harder time predicting from the remainder of the pool, so in hopes of trying to sort through them, I've put a few groups together (based on type of song, sound, and who is voting in this particular Semi Final - all countries performing in Semi Final 2 and Germany, France and Spain).  My picks/guesses are in bold [and do not necessarily mean any type of endorsement].

• Finland/Malta/Armenia
• Albania/Romania
• Greece/Bulgaria

First Semi Final Results (& Songs That Should Have Fared Better in past Contests)

Semi Final 1 Results

Announced at the conclusion of the live Semi Final 1 Show from Malmo, Sweden yesterday, here are the first set of ten countries that have made it through to the Final on May 18th in the random order they were revealed [my predictions in bold]:

1. Moldova;
2. Lithuania
3. Ireland
4. Estonia
5. Belarus
6. Denmark
7. Russia
8. Belgium
9. Ukraine
10. the Netherlands

Not too shabby, I got eight out of ten.  Sad that Cyprus didn't make it through...it definitely deserves to be in the Final more than some of the countries that qualified for the stage on May 18th.  So, the second set of Finalists will be voted on and chosen tomorrow (May 16th), and will join the above, along with the Big Five (Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain) and the host country of Sweden on Final night on Saturday.

In the meantime, here are few songs from Eurovision history (and all over its map) that should have fared better at their respective Contests (and in some instances should have won [ahem or won but were robbed of the win).

Songs That Should Have Fared Better (in past Contests)

Amina – C’est le dernier qui a parler, qui a raison (France) -1991, Rome:
If you feel the same way I do (anger) about Gwyneth Paltrow winning over Cate Blanchett at the 1999 Oscars, to some the 1991 Eurovision win by Sweden over France was like that.  This is the song that won by tying for first, but was relegated to second place by an arbitrary application of a faulty tie-break rule.  In my heart, still number one that year:

Evridiki - Comme Ci Comme Ca (Cyprus) - 2007, Helsinki:

Harel Skaat – Milim (Israel) - 2010, Oslo:

Daniel Popovic –Djuli (Yugoslavia) - 1983, Munich:

Johanna – Is It True (Iceland) - 2009, Moscow:

Christine Gulbrandssen – Alvedansen (Norway)- 2006, Athens:

Beth – Dime (Spain) - 2003, Riga:

Mor ve Otesi – Deli (Turkey) - 2008, Belgrade:

Magdi Ruzsa - Unsubstantial Blues (Hungary) - 2007, Helsinki:

Umberto Tuzzi & Raf -Gente Di Mare  (Italy) - 1987, Brussels:

First Semi Final Predictions

The first Semi-Final is going to begin in about one day and three hours (21:00 Central European Time) and will be broadcast live from Malmo at the Eurovision website (www.eurovision.tv), should you want to see it for yourself.  And don't worry...if you miss the live broadcast, the show will be available at the Eurovision website in its entirety later today.

That said, here are my predictions for who will be on the Final show on Saturday From the First Semi Final (in no particular order).  These are based on the performances (including introduction videos) to date of the participants and the countries voting in the Semi Final (along with the 16 participants, Italy, Sweden and the UK will be voting today):

• Ireland
• Denmark
• Russia
• Estonia
• Moldova
• Cyprus
• Belgium
• Ukraine

The last two spots from this Semi Final, I suspect will be fought out between these pairings (I've marked my favored one in bold):

• Serbia/Slovenia/Montenegro
• Austria/Netherlands

Regardless of the outcome, to everyone competing tonight, Good Luck, Bonne Chance, Vielen Gluck, etc (it's hard to do this in the 26+ languages of the Contest).  And to all of you watching the show, ENJOY!

Here's the link to the Eurovision website:  www.eurovision.tv

What The Hell did I just watch (aka the WTF songs)

Top Five WTF Songs/Entries:

There are some songs that you watch during the competitions, that either leave you scratching your head, or upset/angry that these have wasted the viewing public's time, or the taste level of the public that got these songs to where they are.  Overall, though, these five entries below leave you with a sense of wonder...and leave you thinking "What Did I just witness and Why?"

1. Dustin The Turkey's Irelande Douze Points was performed (note, I didn't say sing) during the First Semi Final at the 2008 Contest in Belgrade on behalf of Ireland and by far the most ridiculous song ever presented in Eurovision's history (though the others on the list are close to being just as bad).  Thankfully the song never made the Final show (or I may have been writing about the first puppet-contestant who won Eurovision instead):

2. Cetin Alp & The Short Waves's Opera was performed at the 1983 Munich Contest on behalf of Turkey and scored the country's first ever nul point.  In an attempt by national broadcaster TRT to send a "modern" song that would be understood by the mostly Western European audience, this travesty included repeated bleatings of the word Opera along with references to great opera composers (like Mozart, Beethoven and Vivaldi) and the induction of various opera references (i.e. aria, diva).  Let's just say the song should have been called Trying Way Too Hard and Failing Miserably and leave it at that:

3. Stefan Raab's Wadde Hadde Dude Da was performed at the 2000 Stockholm Contest on behalf of Germany and finishing in a surprising fifth place (here surprising may be the understatement of that year's competition).  Later admitting that he only entered the Contest to show what a joke it had become, Raab is one of the main reasons that Germany's Eurovision entries have seen vast improvement (by either winning or placing in the Top Ten) over his tenure of the national selection show Unser Song fur ...[fill in the name of host city of that year's Eurovision].  I think we can forgive him for this, but certainly not forget:

4. Laka's Pokusaj was performed at the 2008 Belgrade Contest on behalf of Bosnia-Herzegovina and earned its place as one of the most bizarre songs to compete in Eurovision's history.  Evidence:  Four back-up singers in wedding dresses knitting; one Helena Bonham-Carter wannabe "vocalist" shrilling through the song; and a h(a/e)ck of a lead "singer" who bounced around the stage like he had smoked something that he shouldn't have when he had this "idea" (you know I'm upset when the airquotes come out) for a song.  And this placed in the Top Ten.  Ugh:

5. Kolig Kaj's Stemmen I mit liv was performed at the 1997 Dublin Contest representing Denmark, this was the epitome of WTF, before it was hip to be awful to get noticed at Eurovision.  Unfortunately, this performance was neither intended to be ironic, nor thought to be bad at the time it was sent to the Contest by the Danish public, who were shocked when it received only 25 points and finished 16th (YES, there were nine songs thought to be worse than this, including two nul point entries by Norway and Portugal).  This was considered ground-breaking at the time, and I did not have the sense of humor to laugh it away in the years that have passed since...obviously I still struggle (which is why it's on this list):

UPDATE:

SPECIAL (SO NOT IN A GOOD WAY) MENTION:  I just watched Who See's performance of Igranka at this year's First Semi Final, and the live version was worse than the introductory videos suggested.  Let me summarize:  "Rappers" in astronaut suits aglow from inside and bouncing around on stage like what I imagine faux Sumo wrestlers in a backyard would look like, female lead singer in presumably leather space cadet catsuit with severe ponytail and some sort of Borg-inspired headgear, and a light "show" that nearly induced an epileptic seizure.  This is the video from the dress rehearsal (I'll update with the actual live performance, once I get my hands on it):