Eurovisionfiasko 2011 – Semi-final 1 reaction

What a schlagerfiasko! I had to take a short break after tonight’s Eurovision semi-final before writing this. Let’s get what annoyed me out of the way before talking about the show.

Stella Mwangi not going into the final
This was an absolute disgrace. Haba Haba was one of the best songs of this year’s contest and should have been in the final top ten on Saturday. Europe is wrong this evening. Utterly wrong.

Greek fans attacking Schlagerfiasko on Twitter
Wow. I made a comment saying I didn’t like Greece’s song. I also said I loved Kalamoira, Helena Paparizou and Sakis Rouvas. What I got in return was lots of vile abuse in Greek. Apparently, I criticised the country so I deserved it. Because that’s the Eurovision spirit, isn’t it? Grow up, idiots.

The hosts
As Schlagerprofilerna‘s Ronny and Ken pointed out, Stefan Raab is awful. Wearing a T-shirt under his shirt? Was he going out shopping? This is Eurovision. Get the glamour on NOW, producers. I have Hugo Boss on speed-dial if he needs it. The other two were OK. But making audience quips when you’re overrunning by 10 minutes isn’t ideal.

The audio
What was going on with the sound? It was really strange. All the wrong things emphasised.

Twitter
I’ve been locked out of Twitter because I’m ”over my limit”! How on earth can you live-tweet an event if you have silly limits? Sort it out, Twitter.

All of this said, it was still an enjoyable couple of hours. The stage looks amazing – this was demonstrated perfectly when Paradise Oskar performed his song with a giant Earth-rise going on behind him.

Sadly, there wasn’t much in the way of atmosphere this evening. But that’s always the way for a semi-final. I expect much the same of Thursday’s event. Let’s hope that it gets better on Saturday.

Of the acts, I’m delighted for Serbia, Azerbaijan (congratulations, Jessica and Vera!), Switzerland, Hungary (of course), Finland and Iceland. Russia was boring, Alexey totally showing himself up after all his criticism of Eric Saade. Switzerland was a nice surprise, especially after the good performance. Iceland in particular turned in a joyous performance. Hungary was hilarious, but in a good way.

I’ll miss Norway’s Stella, of course. Also Croatia’s Daria – the vocal was terrible, but the performance was the gayest thing this year. Which is what we all want.

Let’s see how much of a fiasco Thursday can be…

Here’s how Saturday looks so far:

1 FINLAND
2 To be confirmed on Thursday (TBC)
3 TBC
4 Lithuania
5 Hungary
6 TBC
7 TBC
8 TBC
9 Greece
10 Russia
11 France
12 Italy
13 Switzerland
14 United Kingdom
15 TBC
16 Germany
17 TBC
18 TBC
19 Azerbaijan
20 TBC
21 ICELAND
22 Spain
23 TBC
24 Serbia
25 Georgia