This year's Eurovision Song Contest is a bit of a marathon (and all the better for it) with 2 semi finals, the first held last Tuesday, and the second held this evening to determine 20 songs (10 per semi) which will compete in the final on Saturday.
To get in the spirit of the occasion, I scored all songs even though the UK was not permitted to vote on Tuesday (something to do with not voting for your neighbour. Ireland was in it, so we couldn't vote).
I had a fairly simple scoring system, based on what was done in last years final. Each country was judged on the following categories:
Each category could score between 1-4 points, with 4 being the best giving a maximum total of 16 points by the end of the main performances.
Then, to try and break any possible deadlock, the countries were scored again during the recap without reference to the previous scores. This time, there was only one category - overall impression - again scored out of 4. This was added to the total score giving a rating out of 20.
I then ordered my results. In a tie situation, the earlier performer took the higher position. The top ten songs became my choices to go through to the final.
So lets look at my scores for both semi finals:
TuesdayThursday
These scores resulted in the following charts:
TuesdayThursday
In my opinion, tonights show featured a much better quality of song with much fewer daft songs of the sort that Ireland performed on Tuesday (which I must admit I did rather enjoy)
In the above charts, in my opinion the songs below those which are underlined should have been the ones to go out assuming I'm talking fair and letting the best go through. I did have the thought though that maybe I should have been favouring the worst in order to give our song the best chance on Saturday night.
In actual fact, the countries that are in bold are the ones that did go through to the final and will be competing on Saturday night. Actually my scoring tonight wasn't too bad - only two wrong.
And what of the UK's chances this year? Well I think our song stands up well with those that went through. I think it beats the socks off the songs put forward by the other four automatic qualifiers (France, Spain, Germany and Serbia). I don't know that it will stand out enough to win (we're performing second - the voters need to remember it), but hopefully it will do reasonably well.
To get in the spirit of the occasion, I scored all songs even though the UK was not permitted to vote on Tuesday (something to do with not voting for your neighbour. Ireland was in it, so we couldn't vote).
I had a fairly simple scoring system, based on what was done in last years final. Each country was judged on the following categories:
- Song - how good is the tune
- Performance - how well could the performer actually sing
- Dance - dance routine and general stage presence including lighting and pyrotechnics
- Outfit - How well did the costume work with the performance
Each category could score between 1-4 points, with 4 being the best giving a maximum total of 16 points by the end of the main performances.
Then, to try and break any possible deadlock, the countries were scored again during the recap without reference to the previous scores. This time, there was only one category - overall impression - again scored out of 4. This was added to the total score giving a rating out of 20.
I then ordered my results. In a tie situation, the earlier performer took the higher position. The top ten songs became my choices to go through to the final.
So lets look at my scores for both semi finals:
TuesdayThursday
- Montenegro:3,3,2,2,2 = 12
- Israel:2,2,1,2,2 = 09
- Estonia:3,3,2,2,3 = 13
- Moldova:2,2,1,1,1 = 07
- San Marino:2,3,2,1,1 = 09
- Belgium:3,3,1,2,3 = 12
- Azerbaijan:2,3,2,3,3 = 13
- Slovenia:3,3,3,3,4 = 16
- Norway:4,4,3,2,3 = 16
- Poland:3,4,2,3,2 = 14
- Ireland:4,2,4,4,2 = 16
- Andorra:3,3,3,3,4 = 16
- Boznia & Herzegovina:3,1,1,1,2 = 08
- Armenia:3,2,3,3,2 = 13
- Netherlands:4,3,3,3,3 = 16
- Finland:4,4,3,3,4 = 18
- Romania:3,2,1,2,1 = 09
- Russia:3,2,3,1,2 = 11
- Greece:3,3,4,3,3 = 16
- Iceland:4,3,2,2,3 = 14
- Sweden:4,4,3,2,3 = 16
- Turkey:4,3,3,3,2 = 15
- Ukraine:4,4,4,3,4 = 19
- Lithuania2,2,1,2,1 = 08
- Albania3,2,2,2,2 = 11
- Switzerland3,2,3,2,3 = 13
- Czech Republic3,2,3,3,2 = 13
- Belarus2,1,3,3,2 = 11
- Latvia:3,2,3,4,3 = 15
- Croatia:3,4,2,3,3 = 15
- Bulgaria3,3,4,3,3 = 16
- Denmark4,4,3,3,4 = 18
- Georgia4,4,3,3,3 = 17
- Hungary3,3,2,2,2 = 12
- Malta3,3,3,3,3 = 15
- Cyprus2,2,3,3,1 = 11
- FYR Macedonia2,2,3,2,2 = 11
- Portugal2,2,2,3,2 = 11
These scores resulted in the following charts:
TuesdayThursday
- Finland (18pts)
- Slovenia (16pts)Norway (16pts)Ireland (16pts)Andorra (16pts)Netherlands (16pts)Greece (16pts)
- Poland (14pts)
- Estonia (13pts)Azerbaijan (13pts)
- Montenegro (12pts)Belgium (12pts)
- Russia (11pts)
- Israel (9pts)San Marino (9pts)Romania (9pts)
- Boznia & Herzegovina (8pts)
- Moldova (7pts)
- Ukraine (19pts)
- Denmark (18pts)
- Georgia (17pts)
- Sweden (16pts)Bulgaria (16pts)
- Turkey (15pts)Latvia (15pts)Croatia (15pts)Malta (15pts)
- Iceland (14pts)
- Switzerland (13pts)Czech Republic (13pts)
- Hungary (12pts)
- Albania (11pts)Belarus (11pts)Cyprus (11pts)FYR Macedonia (11pts)Portugal (11pts)
- Lithuania (8pts)
In my opinion, tonights show featured a much better quality of song with much fewer daft songs of the sort that Ireland performed on Tuesday (which I must admit I did rather enjoy)
In the above charts, in my opinion the songs below those which are underlined should have been the ones to go out assuming I'm talking fair and letting the best go through. I did have the thought though that maybe I should have been favouring the worst in order to give our song the best chance on Saturday night.
In actual fact, the countries that are in bold are the ones that did go through to the final and will be competing on Saturday night. Actually my scoring tonight wasn't too bad - only two wrong.
And what of the UK's chances this year? Well I think our song stands up well with those that went through. I think it beats the socks off the songs put forward by the other four automatic qualifiers (France, Spain, Germany and Serbia). I don't know that it will stand out enough to win (we're performing second - the voters need to remember it), but hopefully it will do reasonably well.