{"id":3634,"date":"2023-05-10T12:57:54","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T11:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2023-05-10T13:37:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T12:37:26","slug":"here-comes-the-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2023\/05\/10\/here-comes-the-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Here comes the fun…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I hope you enjoyed the first semi-final. It looked great, didn\u2019t it \u2013 and it was all very polished in terms of production and presentation. As always, the rehearsal period that started a week ago last Sunday delivered a fantastic Eurovision spectacle. More of that to come again tomorrow in SF2 (Thursday).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen songs were reduced to ten and they progress to the grand final. Did you think the right songs made it through? There are some raised eyebrows on the socials that Ireland didn\u2019t progress. I would have liked it to, but I thought the performance I saw at the Monday night preview was a stronger vocal. Same for Malta going out \u2013 the reaction to them in the arena on Monday night made it look promising for them, but sadly they join Ireland, Azerbaijan, Latvia and The Netherlands in an early exit from ESC2023..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the factors in play this year might be that the professional juries do not split the vote 50\/50 with the televote in the semi-finals (they will for the grand final on Saturday). Potentially Ireland might have suffered for that. I thought Serbia was a hot mess on stage (I quite like the song), but the slightly nonsensical staging clearly connected with the viewers. Hey, it\u2019s all subjective at the end of the day, isn\u2019t it. And as the late Terry Wogan used to say, we have to marvel at the glorious unpredictability of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what did we learn from the first semi-final?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alisha Dixon spit some bars (did some very good rapping) to raise the roof in the arena.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bucks <\/s>Fizz standing by the phone box was a delightful surprise \u2013 they weren\u2019t at the preview performance on Monday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portugal and Finland had the battle of the strictly come backing dancers. Finland won.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We thought that Ireland was tucking great.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Events beyond the \u2018euro bubble\u2019 are now at the heart of the ESC (with anti-war songs from Croatia and Switzerland).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Israel\u2019s singer Noa, she \u201chas got the power of a unicorn\u201d. Not sure how that works when they don\u2019t exist? \ud83d\ude00<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finland\u2019s K\u00e4\u00e4rij\u00e4 was brilliantly bonkers, with a performance made \u201cmuch better\u201d with a few of Baga Chipz dance moves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all \u2013 SF1 was sound!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re off to the preview final for SF2 tonight (Wednesday) where, in addition to the remaining 16 semi-finalists, we will see the full performance of Spain, Ukraine and The United Kingdom. Oh, and with the UK in mind, my colleague Michael Austin bumped into Mae Muller (the UK singer) and she sent us this message\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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