EUROVISION 2019: SEMI-FINAL 2 REVIEW

Semi-final 2 is over and consider me shook, I’ve got a new prediction record! I managed to predict 9/10 last night and I’m really happy with that considering there were many acts that I thought were on the bubble and I’m really happy with the overall outcome. Let’s discuss the show shall we?

North Macedonia qualifying was the one I failed to predict. It really did pop on the night and I’m glad that the running order didn’t harm it like I thought it would. Its also SO amazing to see the North Macedonian team finally hit the right mark and qualify after 7 long years. Great job!

The Netherlands qualifying... no shock at all. Still in contention to win and Duncan’s performance was much sharper than I had initially anticipated.

QUEEN JONIDA MADE IT! When they called North Macedonia I had began to panic over her chances especially with the lack of staging, so I was overjoyed when Albania were called. This is a song worthy of being in the final and I can’r wait to see it there.

Sweden... also no surprise. Was it just me or was the sound mixing real off during this one? I was surprised as we had heard so much of them rehearsing and perfecting the sound for this one. I’m not so confident about them taking the victory after that performance last night.

Russia was also no shock to us. Honestly I kept forgetting all about it and I don’t think it even came top 3 in this semi to be honest, but everything about it was solid and it does deserve to be in the final.

I was surprised they left Azerbaijan so long as this was another that felt obvious. Chingiz had to qualify and was one of the strongest performances of the night in my eyes, and I was surprised at how they did so much with so little. Good job!

Denmark was sadly always going to win over the locals so I’m not shocked its through. I will say it won me over a little and it felt way glossier and warmer than in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, but its still in my eyes undeserves as others did more and ultimately I don’t think the jurors will have been so supportive of this one compared to the televoters.

Norway were next through and were another act I thought were gone as soon as they were the only one out of the final six countries waiting to be announced. KEiiNO deserved it though and its always great to have a song that sounds quintessentially Eurovision in the grand final proceedings.

Switzerland were next, and at this point I think we were all screaming at the TV that this and the final country had to be the two that were called. I totally got why others got this from his performance and they needed this staging to make the song feel a bit more cooler than it has in previous performances. A strong effort that felt like the REAL show opener of the night.

The final country announced was Malta and I am so, so happy. Michela was probably my favourite overall package last night and I voted for her several times and its was so great to see her and her team so overjoyed when they were announced. Fantastic staging, vocalist and performance and I’m a bit gutted that its not performing a bit later on, but it hopefully will still make an impact. I reckon jurors had this as a firm favourite of theirs.

Now onto the non-qualifiers, and the biggest shock NQ for me is the other act I predicted would make it, Romania. That staging was fantastic and I really thought this song had a vision which would help it appeal to the audience. Surely this is the one that finished 11th as its leagues above everything else that didn’t make the cut, and it’ll be such a shame to see Romania undeservedly miss out once again.

A lot of people are shocked for Armenia too, and while I am disappointed I did see this coming from a mile away. I knew that after 18 songs this type of entry just wouldn‘t stand the test of time, and the only thing I took away was the random empty arena shot that was supposed to show loneliness and vulnerability, but just looked like a technical glitch. Srbuk deserved a better song more to her style and I’m disappointed they didn’t give her that.

Austria not qualifying was a real shame, and I think this still was in the jury top 10, I just don’t think it had the power to overtake all of the big favourites in this semi and ultimately its jury score was never going to be enough to pull them through. Pænda killed it though and I hope she’s proud of her performance.

Everything else that didn’t qualify in this semi I saw coming from a mile off. Ireland as much as I love her and the studio cut of this song was just a hot mess and she was off beat for the whole performance. Moldova and Croatia although visually appealing just didn’t have the contemporary song to pull off a qualification, Latvia just loses your interest due to its repetitive nature and Lithuania although they had a lot of diaspora and neighbour countries voting just had too much of a MOR song to pull off any overwhelming vote from everyone else. So all in all, a predictable but satisfactory semi-final.

Can you believe the grand final is only one day away?! Join me tomorrow for my top 26 prediction ahead of the show. Thanks for reading!