{"id":4796,"date":"2025-05-14T16:25:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T15:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/?p=4796"},"modified":"2025-05-14T17:03:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T16:03:28","slug":"welcome-to-the-birthplace-of-eurovision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2025\/05\/14\/welcome-to-the-birthplace-of-eurovision\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the birthplace of Eurovision…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Swiss hosts wasted no time in making that point, announcing the Contest as a welcome home party. I hadn\u2019t thought of it like that, but I guess it is. I know I mentioned yesterday that there wouldn\u2019t be much faffing at the start of the show, but there was! The duo of presenters settled into their stride as the show went on, and their script was actually very funny in places. It did make me laugh that presenter Sandra looked like a highlighter pen, with the colour of her outfit in vivid yellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Rylan Clark said during his BBC commentary last night, \u201cIt\u2019s the best time of the year\u201d<\/em>. And yes Rylan, it really is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a great first semi-final last night. A tough call to whittle the songs down from fifteen to ten, I\u2019d say. Some of the faves didn\u2019t make the cut, which goes to show the strength of the field this year. Did your faves make it to the Gand Final?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of my fave five, only Azerbaijan didn\u2019t make it through. Pity, but the song will stay on my playlist as it\u2019s still groovy for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, most of the songs seemed to be enhanced by the staging, or it matched the songs. There were a few dubious performances. Red Seb from Belgium, well fancied by many before last night, was very poor vocally when singing in his lower register. And I love me a theme, but it really was all a bit too red. Surprised to see it go out last night, but actually with that vocal, there\u2019s a reason why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly some of the retro vibes were not resonating with the voters last night (Belgium, Azerbaijan), but how fab was the styling and staging from Ukraine. I loved the filter on the camera and the vibe of the lead singer (and band as a whole). Their performance was delightful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were some songs where it really didn\u2019t look (sound) like the singer was doing the heavy lifting, vocally. That\u2019s the thing with backing vocals now allowed on the backing track, some of the effort can be supported by the pre-recorded vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian and I were in tears by the end of Slovenia. I know, we\u2019re big softies, but it was proper moving, right? As I feared, the draw probably didn\u2019t help, and actually, despite effective staging, it really is a bit of a buzzkill lyrically in some ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was disappointed with Estonia. I thought the vocal was a bit thin, and don\u2019t get me started on the beyond Trump sized red tie. What\u2019s that about? Rather odd staging (I really didn\u2019t get it), but Tommy is a huge personality on social media, so no doubt that helped him through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain gave us the diva vibes that we were expecting, although with shades of a Home and Bargain Beyonc\u00e9. Fun though, but she ain\u2019t no Chanel from 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine continues their run of qualifying for every ESC they have competed in. The lead singer reminds me of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK\u2019s alum, Scarlett Harlett. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweden nailed it, as expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slightly surprised that Norway got though, but then the young chap will have his fans and audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy\u2019s singer was very much channelling David Bowie Ziggy Stardust vibes, with the nice interplay with the guitarist – a bit like Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson used to do. Nice touch there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Marino (yay, it got through) was very much lads, lads, lads, lager, lager, lager vibes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Netherlands used close camera work very effectively, I thought. I like it when performances in the arena are tilted to the telly viewers. Not much fun for those in the arena, like. Switzerland took a similar approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned the other day, Croatia will not scale the giddy heights of the runners-up position as they did last year. They crashed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am surprised that Cyprus went out, as they were being favourably received. Maybe too much faffing on stage with the building blocks? And it just goes to show that a handsome chap cannot always guarantee success\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C\u00e9line Dion made an appearance on video tape. Hopefully that\u2019s just a teaser and she will show up in the Grand Final? We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The stage is massive and very versatile\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland have sent a young Michelle Visage lookalike\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interval act with the presenters was a bit cringe, until Petra Mede saved the day\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of male performers were clearly channelling Harry Style fashion vibes\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cover version of <\/em>C\u00e9line\u2019s Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi was dreadful\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The split screen results of the voting worked really well (if a little confusing as a country could only be shown three times)\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief supervisor Martin Osterdahl has been banished from the arena and was sitting in what looked like the stationary cupboard (probably for his own good after the booing he had to endure last year)\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hosts were highly likeable, and well done to Hazel Brugger for clearly filling time in the green room segment by freestyling and going off script \u2013 something must have been happening behind the scenes\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, that\u2019s my view on last night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday morning I will post my preview of the second-semi final, so check that out ahead of the semi-final tomorrow night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then, continua a goderti la settimana dell Eurovision\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

xx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Swiss hosts wasted no time in making that point, announcing the Contest as a welcome home party. I hadn\u2019t thought of it like that, but I guess it is. I know I mentioned yesterday that there wouldn\u2019t be much faffing at the start of the show, but there was! The duo of presenters settled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134596],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eurovision-2025"],"yoast_head":"\nWelcome to the birthplace of Eurovision... - Phil Jackson'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\/2025\/05\/14\/welcome-to-the-birthplace-of-eurovision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome to the birthplace of Eurovision... - Phil Jackson's Eurovision Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our Swiss hosts wasted no time in making that point, announcing the Contest as a welcome home party. 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