I’m writing this on the morning of the first Semifinal, after having watched the jury show last night. Nineteen artists will perform, and only 10 will make it to the final. In short, something’s going to happen tonight that will make me incredibly grumpy tomorrow. (Thank goodness I’m in Lisbon, where I can cry-eat my way through delicious pastel de nata.)
If I had to make a list of the entries that I’d like to go through, it would be the following:
1. Israel
2. Cyprus
3. Finland
4. Bulgaria
5. Belarus
6. Czech Republic
7. Belgium
8. Azerbaijan
9. Austria
10. Albania
(Honorable mention to FYR Macedonia for delivering 3/4 of a good song, but that last 25% kept you off my list.)
I recognize that my list is incredibly lacking in objective taste – leaving off the genuinely touching ‘When We’re Old’ is the work of a complete monster. Leaving off the soaring musicality of ‘La Forza’ makes me seem like a cultural cretin. I’m guilty on both counts.
What Eurovision exposes is the incredibly subjective matter of taste that separates all of us. I think I recoiled the other day when the Better Half ranked FYR Macedonia higher than Bulgaria (and when I say “recoiled” I mean, “yelled, ‘Time for a divorce!'”), because I feel so strongly about what’s good and what’s not. And the bittersweet joy of Eurovision is watching the general public slap down your opinion time and time again.
So if I had to make a guess at what will go through tonight:
1. Israel
2. Cyrpus
3. Estonia
4. Lithuania
5. Czech Republic
6. Finland
7. FYR Macedonia
8. Austria
9. Albania
10. Belarus
I’ll be live Tweeting the semifinal tonight so please find me over there at @anngav.
Updated to add: 7 and 8 out of 10 isn’t bad, right?
dudepoints.fun 