Eurovision Song Contest Semi Finals--Those that got sent home

 

"It's alright dear.  We all know Europe's
musical taste is up its ass."

Well, the first semifinals were held and I must say, we are scratching our heads a bit at the results.  We'll have more to say about those who made it through to the final when we report on that later (and trust me--much of it won't be pretty) but first, let's have a look at the ones who got away.

Australia:  No, thank you.  Montaigne had a mess of a song with disorganized staging.  There might be a good singing voice in there somewhere, but it was hard to find.  "Painful," said Gunnar.

Austria:  When we did our initial listen and then watched the video, we liked his voice and the song but didn't love it.  I think his presentation on the stage was much better and he nailed it to the wall.  Europe, however, didn't want men singing serious songs in the final, I guess, and he didn't make it through.  

Croatia:  How can a boring song have such a catchy beat?  Here is one of many good voices with a terrible song, in spite of the fact that it hit number 1 on the Croatian charts.  Gunnar just said, "Forgettable." 

Czech Republic:  Benny has such a nice stage presence and you want to be his friend, but you don't want to listen to this song.  It has a catchy beat but not much else.  "Hit the gong," Gunnar says.  

Denmark:  If you want to relive the 80's, emulate the good music of the era.  This doesn't do that.  Yes, it was on our Top 10 for the second semifinal (of which we only picked 8), but that's because there weren't any other songs we could stand to put there.  

Estonia: It's a small country but it manages to send a lot of high quality songs to Eurovision, this one among them.  It was a huge surprise--not to mention disappointment--when Uku Suviste did not make it through to the final.  This was a very good song, although maybe not a show stopper.  We think his 2020 song was much better.  And there will be a lot less eye-candy in the finals now. 
PS:  Check out the pictures of him online in his workout wear.  

Georgia:  There is something about his voice we liked, but this song came across more like a funeral dirge than anything else.  Gunnar said, "More courage than talent," although I'm not sure I agree.  It's the wrong song for him.  Gunnar also said it reminded him of William Shatner singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."  With that, I do agree.  Look for it on You Tube.  

Ireland:  We at radio Free Järbo usually love the entries from Ireland and then pout as they go down in flames, like Lesley Roy did.  This was not, however, one of the Irish entries I liked.  The song wasn't very engaging, even if her voice is the kind that I like.   The staging was quite interesting--especially when she came dancing down towards the audience and we got to see how the special effects were created.  In the end, the song wasn't strong enough, and her voice let her down tonight.  It seemed like female singers owned the night, just not this female singer. 

Latvia:  Hand down the worst song in the competition--and there is competition for that.  Ridiculous staging. 

North Macedonia:  The night biggest WTF moment was when Ukraine took the last spot meaning Vasil failed to qualify for the final. Here is a classically trained singer with excellent diction--you could hear every word--and total control over every note. He performed it live even better than on the video.  When we first heard it, Gunnar said "Douze Points." And yet, Europe hated it.  It is typical of the ESC that someone who can really sing is overlooked for those using more pyrotechnics than vocals.  No, it wasn't especially "fun" and did sound a bit "Broadway show tune that brings the curtain down at the end of the first act," but it deserved to go on to the final far more than many of the bad songs that did.

Poland:  Just plan boring.  Rafal doesn't have much of a voice, or at least if he does, this song doesn't show it.   It's the audience needs the sunglasses to miss his boring stage presentation. 

Romania:  The first impression of this song, "Amnesia" was that it was "forgettable," pun intended.  Her performance on stage was significantly better we thought and actually won us over.  But it was not better enough to get on our top 10 list.  Apparently, Europe felt the same way.

Slovenia:  No, it wasn't a good night for the former Yugoslav republics.  Ana Soklič has a good voice, but this just wasn't a good song.  Every now and then in the song it threatened to break out into something better but never quite got anywhere in the end.  

#Eurovision2021    #semifinal1