{"id":1671,"date":"2018-05-11T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2018-05-11T17:34:58","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T16:34:58","slug":"esc2018-eurovision-by-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2018\/05\/11\/esc2018-eurovision-by-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"ESC2018: Eurovision by numbers\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a night of numbers at ESC2018. We had the 1500<sup>th<\/sup>song performed by Alexander Rybak, and another ten songs through to the Grand Final. We had four presenters who are fun to watch, but a bit giddy at times and having to deal with a dodgy script in places. Still, they are entertaining to watch. The show was fast-moving and once again I enjoyed watching the live stream without commentary. But numbers aside, what else did we learn?<\/p>\n<p><em>We saw the first toilet roll holder dress of the contest this year \u2013 frock horror!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>There was a reference to &#8216;Allo &#8216;Allo! by one of the presenters<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Then there was a reference to Oprah!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The masculine roar from the audience was back<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>There wasn\u2019t any booing for Russia this year<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The singers were once again abandoned by their backing singers<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I still think the hashtag reads as ALLA BOARD\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026last night I might have changed it to I AM BORED!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That said &#8211; OMG \u2013 that semi-final was hard work! In all my years of watching the ESC, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever been so underwhelmed by the thing I love! Boy oh boy were there some stinkers \u2013and some shocks. Romania and Russia\u2019s perfect record of getting to the final came to an end. I was shocked that Romania didn\u2019t make it through with the song, but not so as a consequence of the rather bonkers staging! Then there was Russia with a terrible vocal, and similarly weird staging.<\/p>\n<p>Sweden stole the show for me (my Swedish bias aside!). It was just classy, and looked great on the telly, didn\u2019t it!? My napkin was 7\/10, but I\u2019ll take that \u2013 it was better than I was expecting \u2013 and I really didn\u2019t think that Australia would make it, but they did. So here are the next ten songs which now complete the Grand Final line-up on Saturday\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The ten qualifiers of the second Semi-Final - Eurovision Song Contest 2018\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4XH3ntl7KiU?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>I guess the next thing to do is to top-up the twenty qualifiers with the \u2018Big 5\u2019 and host country Portugal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Portugal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a laid back affair from the hosts this year. I like it. A bit like Lithuania this year, the vocal has that slightly irritating croaky\/breathless vocal. But you\u2019ve got love a bit of pink hair\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cl\u00e1udia Pascoal - O Jardim - LIVE - Portugal - First Semi-Final - Eurovision 2018\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pAe0b_EVXT4?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><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>France<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d be chuffed if this song won the whole thing. I downloaded the song when it won the French national final \u2013 so I\u2019ve got the full version. What\u2019s being performed, effortlessly, is the ESC edit\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Madame Monsieur - Mercy - LIVE - France - Second Semi-Final - Eurovision 2018\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/poInYpdNXso?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>Classy and cool. Merci!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Germany<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This package packs a punch. Strong song and fab staging. Could be a top ten finish for Germany. Best entry from them in years\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Schulte - You Let Me Walk Alone - Germany - LIVE - Second Semi-Final - Eurovision 2018\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YLbC-k3nnJQ?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><strong>Italy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This song will close the Grand Final. A song with a socially conscious message \u2013 a pity that it\u2019ll be lost on us when we don\u2019t speak Italian! A good effort from Italy, with effective staging\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro - Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente - LIVE - Italy - Second Semi-Final\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6DkbBEjGKtg?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><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Spain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This song is a bit of a <em>Frozen<\/em>duet. This real-life couple do a cute performance of a decent ballad. That said, the producers have placed it second in the draw, and so any chance it might have had has been killed-off. Same for the entente cordiale between Portugal and Spain!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Amaia y Alfred - Tu Canci\u00f3n - LIVE - Spain - First Semi-Final - Eurovision 2018\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g8wx7BRfqSI?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 finally\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>United Kingdom<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Judging from the rehearsal footage, the UK\u2019s SuRie gives it some welly with a confident performance, that is visually fairly interesting. A pity that the song is a bit bland. I fear the UK will not make it out of the bottom five once again, and it will be nothing to do with Brexit or anything else. It will be because we have sent a rather uninteresting song, once again\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SuRie - Storm - LIVE - United Kingdom - First Semi-Final - Eurovision 2018\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I6nKPOgQyr4?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>I would be more than happy to be proved wrong, btw!<\/p>\n<p>All in all these songs are a great addition to the Grand Final \u2013 particularly France and Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Next update from me will be my final thoughts on the, erm, Grand Final!<\/p>\n<p>Adeus por agora! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a night of numbers at ESC2018. We had the 1500thsong performed by Alexander Rybak, and another ten songs through to the Grand Final. We had four presenters who are fun to watch, but a bit giddy at times and having to deal with a dodgy script in places. Still, they are entertaining to [&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-1671","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: Eurovision by numbers\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\/11\/esc2018-eurovision-by-numbers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ESC2018: Eurovision by numbers\u2026 - Phil Jackson&#039;s Eurovision Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was a night of numbers at ESC2018. 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