Last night the jury rehearsal for the Semi Final 2 left all of us still wondering who is going to qualify. We all said from the beginning that is a though Semi and we continue to think like that. Why? Because there are only about 3 – 4 songs which are almost – almost certain to qualify. Yes, I’m talking about Switzerland, Sweden, Russia and The Netherlands. For the further 6 qualifiers, it’s going to be a though battle and  the result will be based on how well they performed on the jury final, the live show and the public support.

I was sitting last night in the Press Centre and tried to stay focused on what was happening on the TV screen and also to catch the reaction of my fellow press colleagues.

So what were the highlights?

Let’s have a quick recap: Srbuk’s voice was incredible, Sarah was charismatic, Anna looked and sounded amazing, but the first real ‘explosion’ both at TV and in the press centre came when Luca from Switzerland performed. He looked confident and happy to be on the stage. And we joined him with claps, singing along. Next, Carousel from Latvia followed with a calm, relaxing song, preluding the dark and haunting performance from Romania’s Ester Peony. Leonora’s extra sweet performance followed next, just in time to put us again in a loving mood for Sweden. Charismatic as ever, John managed to raise the energy levels for the second time last night, making him another contender for the top spot. Paenda followed next with a hearfelt ballad and afterwards we had Roko’s powerful winged performance from heaven and hell, a bit too gimmicky, but what’s Eurovision without gimmicks? And guess what? The show was ready for some dance so Malta’s Michela got on the stage and presented us a cheerful and colourful performance of her song ‘Chameleon’. Jurijus followed with his falsetto and then Sergey gave us a memorable show, using the mirror effect. Jonida charmed us with her powerful ballad, calling us back home, whilst Duncan gave us a  brilliant performance of his song Arcade; we were all mesmerised. Next followed Tamara from North Macedonia, who inspired us to be proud. The last act of the night came from Azerbaijan, when we were presented a futuristic performance with scans, lasers and holograms.

At this point is almost anyone’s game for the 6 spots in the Final. If you do have a favourite, make sure you vote for him or her, because every single vote counts.

This is our favourite TV show and it has its rules. So there can be only 10 qualifiers tonight. It doesn’t mean necessarily that the rest of the acts were bad; those are the rules. If your favorite country doesn’t qualify, just remember that there is always next year (read the excellent article wrote by my colleague James on this theme).

Enjoy the show and vote! Because your vote matters!

Author: Bogdan-Stefan Fedeles

Source: Eurovision Ireland