{"id":837,"date":"2012-05-23T09:11:48","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T08:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/?p=837"},"modified":"2012-05-23T09:14:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T08:14:16","slug":"8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2012\/05\/23\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"8 out of 10 Eurovision cats&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So that\u2019s the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 up and running!<\/p>\n<p>Not a bad night for me on the predictions\/\u201dnapkin of death\u201d front \u2013 I got eight out of the ten songs, so not bad.\u00a0 Mind you I think that the semi-final last night was actually easy to call.\u00a0 The one on Thursday night will be more challenging, with a more eclectic mix of songs than last night. I was pleasantly surprised that Hungary got through, but Albania bemused me!\u00a0 That\u2019s what I love about this Contest \u2013 the subjectivity of the pan-European music taste will always deliver a few surprises.<\/p>\n<p>Watching the Contest at home for the first time in five years made a nice change \u2013 and I was not wishing I was there in Baku, so I\u2018ve made the right decision to sit this one out.<\/p>\n<p>I thought that the staging was great and it was well directed. The presenters need some work \u2013 no chemistry and rather stilted delivery.\u00a0 The BBC presenters (Scott and Sara) were dreadful \u2013 talking drivel throughout.\u00a0 The audience seemed strangely subdued \u2013 although let\u2019s not forget that it starts at midnight local time. I think that the EBU need to mobilise the flag police (like they had in Moscow in 2009) to stop overzealous fans blocking the cameras with their flags (this wasn\u2019t a problem the last couple of years at the stage was raised higher, and the camera run was set about the flags).<\/p>\n<p>I think the nicest touch of the event so far was how the lighting on the outside of the crystal arena changed to the colours of each nations flag as they were about to perform \u2013 very effective.<\/p>\n<p>Did you see my good friend Paul Jordan &#8211; aka \u201cDr Eurovision\u201d &#8211; being interviewed on BBC 3 during the voting and at the end of the show?\u00a0 He\u2019ll be doing the same thing on Thursday night, and you can continue to get his lowdown on his blog I have previously listed on my blog. Here\u2019s his last post:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dreurovision.blogspot.co.uk\/2012\/05\/eurovision-semi-final-one.html\">http:\/\/www.dreurovision.blogspot.co.uk\/2012\/05\/eurovision-semi-final-one.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One last thought for now \u2013 how the betting odds have changed overnight.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the top 20 as of Wednesday morning\u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2012\/05\/betting-odds1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-840\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2012\/05\/betting-odds1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"372\" height=\"488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2012\/05\/betting-odds1.gif 372w, https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2012\/05\/betting-odds1-228x300.gif 228w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 372px) 100vw, 372px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sweden have been the favourite since February (but that\u2019s no guarantee!) and we\u2019ll see them perform tomorrow night. The UK were fourth favourite last weekend, but have now plunged to 10<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Oh dear!\u00a0 Mind you, the Hump\u2019s rehearsals have been rather sketchy so I can see why people aren\u2019t betting on it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said for months that it wouldn\u2019t surprise me to see Romania finish in the top three, and after making it to the final last night their odds have narrowed and they are now at a new high in the betting \u2013 5<sup>th<\/sup> favourite. I thought Iceland was great last night (although male singer Jonsi did look slightly possessed \u2013 like some Hammer House of Horror vampire!), so I\u2019m surprised that they have drifted from 5<sup>th<\/sup> \u00a0favourite to 14<sup>th<\/sup>. It\u2019ll be interesting to see the impact of the second semi-final dress rehearsals today on the odds.<\/p>\n<p>If you joined me last night hope you enjoyed it \u2013 and share your thoughts on the blog. More from me later, as our Eurovision marathon continues\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So that\u2019s the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 up and running! Not a bad night for me on the predictions\/\u201dnapkin of death\u201d front \u2013 I got eight out of the ten songs, so not bad.\u00a0 Mind you I think that the semi-final last night was actually easy to call.\u00a0 The one on Thursday night will be [&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-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>8 out of 10 Eurovision cats... - 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\/2012\/05\/23\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"8 out of 10 Eurovision cats... - Phil Jackson&#039;s Eurovision Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So that\u2019s the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 up and running! Not a bad night for me on the predictions\/\u201dnapkin of death\u201d front \u2013 I got eight out of the ten songs, so not bad.\u00a0 Mind you I think that the semi-final last night was actually easy to call.\u00a0 The one on Thursday night will be [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/2012\/05\/23\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Phil Jackson&#039;s Eurovision Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-23T08:11:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-05-23T08:14:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/eurovision\/files\/2012\/05\/betting-odds1.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Phil\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Phil\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Phil\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b8d31dd0ab70e18f4d5b5ca5b8fce228\"},\"headline\":\"8 out of 10 Eurovision cats&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-23T08:11:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-23T08:14:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":554,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/betting-odds1.gif\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\\\/eurovision\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/23\\\/8-out-of-10-eurovision-cats\\\/\",\"name\":\"8 out of 10 Eurovision cats... - 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