Eurovision Semi Final 1 - Tuesday 13th May 8pm

[RedToothBrush]

Its back! Come and join in with the usual MN appraisals.

Semi One features violins, saunas, timetravel back to the 70s, dragons, and there's even time for a coffee break.

1 ICELAND Roa Væb
2 POLAND Gaja Justyna Steczkowska
3 SLOVENIA How Much Time Do We Have Left Klemen
4 ESTONIA Espresso macchiato Tommy Cash
> SPAIN Esa diva Melody
5 UKRAINE Bird of Pray Ziferblat
6 SWEDEN Bara bada bastu KAJ
7 PORTUGAL Deslocado Napa
8 NORWAY Lighter Kyle Alessandro
9 BELGIUM Strobe Lights Red Sebastian
> ITALY Volevo essere un duro Lucio Corsi
10 AZERBAIJAN Run With U Mamagama
11 SAN MARINO Tutta l'Italia Gabry Ponte
12 ALBANIA Zjerm Shkodra Elektronike
13 NETHERLANDS C'est La Vie Claude
14 CROATIA Poison Cake Marko Bošnjak
> SWITZERLAND Voyage Zoë Më
15 CYPRUS Shh Theo Evan

Top Ten to qualify for the final (Spain, Italy and Switzerland have already automatic qualified)

Please keep this thread for the Show itself (if you want to add comments/spoilers before it starts theres already a thread in progress here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5270858-eurovision-2025?page=1 )

Ukraine guy looked completely overwhelmed at getting through

His brother was diagnosed with brain cancer but I'd thought it was in remission.

Imagine their poor relatives “oh FFS get the long ship out, he wanted to be buried in Ireland”

Agreed. Should have easily got through. Shame.

He looked completely shocked.

Oh, that makes sense then.

One of them was nearly in tears when there was only one place left. He really thought they weren't going through.

So being in the second half of that semi seemed to be a disadvantage. 7 of the first 8 acts qualified (the exception was Slovenia ). Which is weird, as traditionally being in the second half of the draw is seen as an advantage.

I like the song, but the performance was AWFUL.

With the exception of Portugal, I think the best acts did get through tbh. And I don't know which of the ones that went out that I'd put in instead of Portugal anyway.

They do a draw - for either the first or second half - then the producer selects the running order from that.

The first half of the draw was just the better performances tonight in my opinion tbh.

Interesting that the only song 100% in English to qualify was Norway. Meanwhile all of the songs using a language other than English (for at least part of the song ) got through to the final.

I do like Portugal and Iceland and am happy they are through but really shocked and sad about Belgium and Cyprus. The odds were very off for those four.

Portugal is this years Latvia - surprise qualification, no Gimmicks and well sung!

Ooo that is an interesting fact. (Love a good nerd)

I love the fact that the bookies were just so far off the mark. It makes it more interesting.

I do wonder if we will get a few surprises on Saturday.

Those buried mostly lived there, especially in Dublin. Also around Strangford, which is is Norwegian for strong fjord.

Plus Wexford and Waterford.

I thought Cyrus was shite despite being staged by the Bambie Thug stager from last year. Vocals were shocking. Staging was weird

I actually quite like Portugal. Not sad to see them in over some countries

ESC Tom AT EurovisionTom
6/7 countries qualifying from the 1st half for the 2nd year in a row. Only the 4th time this has happened ever since 2008.

She was born in California - I don't know when the family moved, but she has dual US and Swiss citizenship.

I'm sure I read once that everybody who works for Eurovision must speak English fluently, whilst also speaking the/a language of the host country is only a positive, but not necessary.

If they make the people operating the cameras and selling drinks speak English, they're hardly going to let one of the actual presenters get the job without perfect English. They probably also have to have a good singing voice too nowadays, considering they're usually expected to take part in the (excellent) interval songs!

It's also interesting to see how the use of French has diminished year on year.

Very happy for Iceland. Surprised about Azerbaijan. The Belgian performance was weak, which is a pity because it was a decent song.

Really liked Italy.

I can't warm to this year's Ukrainian number.

I'm surprised Portugal got through. It's a dreary song without much of a melody imo.

Lots of dreary songs, lots of shaky weak vocals, lots of vocals low in the mix, lots of men being zany with weak shaky vocals but still qualifiying.

Bookies' taste is in their arse if they hadn't picked Iceland as a sure qualifier. It was one of the absolute highlights of a fairly dull night.

I loved Italy also, not much else.

So reasonably satisfied as all four of the ones I definitely wanted to bin have gone:

Belgium - absolutely dire, worst song of the night
Slovenia - sorry Slovenia, I feel guilty saying that song was really, really dull
Cyprus - also dull
Azerbaijan - truly awful vocal.

I was a bit sorry that Croatia also got voted out. I thought Poison Cake was nuts but quite fun.

I would rather have said goodbye to the dreary Portuguese number or even Ukraine which I couldn't get my head round at all.

I didn’t like Switzerland’s one last night, but I heard it on the radio today and I quite liked it ! Very odd , as it seemed so dull sung live.
I’m sure it’ll do well.