{"id":1649,"date":"2018-05-09T14:33:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T13:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2018-05-09T16:28:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T15:28:28","slug":"esc2018-count-to-ten-with-mr-benn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2018\/05\/09\/esc2018-count-to-ten-with-mr-benn\/","title":{"rendered":"ESC2018: count to ten with Mr Benn\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first semi-final last night, and we now know the top ten qualifiers for the Grand Final on Saturday. But what else did we learn?<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>There isn\u2019t an LED wall this year \u2013 did you notice?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>You could tell the fan favourites, based on a noticeably louder masculine roar from the crowd in the arena<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>The roar from the bubble didn\u2019t necessarily mean that songs made it to the Grand Final (e.g. Belgium)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Too many of the solo performers seemed abandoned on the stage, without the support of their backing singers (where are they hiding?!)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Bless \u2018em \u2013 a couple of the performers had a little cry at the end (e.g. Iceland)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Belgium\u2019s singer was an Alannis Moriseette lookalike <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>As I feared, the Greek entry was too Greek and didn\u2019t make it to the Grand Final<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>The format of the hashtag of All Aboard in capital letters made it look like ALLA BOARD<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>The class of 2017 reunited to do a fab cover version of last year\u2019s winning song<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>There\u2019s a lovely theme to accompany the \u201cAll Aboard\u201d logo\u2026<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Eurovision Song Contest Lisbon 2018: Soundtrack | RTP\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ysrlRpC6wgk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All in all I thought it was a great show. It looked great on the telly, with a great stage and lighting. I had a momentary twinge of \u201cI wish I was there\u201d, but it didn\u2019t last for long and I was glad to be watching from home with a glass of gin and fanta. Yep, really &#8211; gin and fanta! It&#8217;s a tradition inherited from years of going to the ESC and being in a country where it&#8217;s hard to find tonic water! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>I posted my \u2018napkin of death\u2019 \u2013 I got 8\/10. A bit irritated that I left Ireland out and put Greece in. I\u2019d have had 9\/10. As for Lithuania, I\u2019d never have put that through, but it made it to the Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the recap of who are now finalists on Saturday night\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The 10 qualifiers from the first Semi-Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I0lAVyc29yA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Oh, and why the mention of Mr Benn? Do you remember the animated kids television show from the 1970s? Mr Benn went to a shop in every episode, and he would leave the shop via a magic door at the back of the changing room (which sounds a bit dodgy, doesn\u2019t it!). I loved how the postcards introducing each country last night had the participant walk through a magic door! Amazing \u2013 made me chuckle all night. Remember the phrase \u201csuddenly, as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared\u201d? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a sneek-peek at Spain\u2019s postcard for Saturday, and you\u2019ll see what I mean. And suddenly, as if by magic, Amaia and Alfred appeared&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Eurovision 2018: Spain Postcard\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a82LvY4u3u8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And if you have no idea about Mr Benn and the shopkeeper and the magic door, check this out. #childhoodnostalgia \u2026<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/YqpHnrm5dik<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be back soon with all the T on the second semi-final\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first semi-final last night, and we now know the top ten qualifiers for the Grand Final on Saturday. But what else did we learn? \u00a0There isn\u2019t an LED wall this year \u2013 did you notice? \u00a0You could tell the fan favourites, based on a noticeably louder masculine roar from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ESC2018: count to ten with Mr Benn\u2026 - Phil Jackson&#039;s Eurovision Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2018\/05\/09\/esc2018-count-to-ten-with-mr-benn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ESC2018: count to ten with Mr Benn\u2026 - Phil Jackson&#039;s Eurovision Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first semi-final last night, and we now know the top ten qualifiers for the Grand Final on Saturday. 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