Eurovision Week 2024: Semi Final 1 Winners, Surprises and Reaction

Speaker: 00:00:02

We are looking good to go.

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I'll count myself in.

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Three, two, one.

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Hello, I'm Stephen Perkins and this is

Doucepoir, the Eurovision podcast from the

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team behind BingeWatch.

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Right now it is Tuesday the 7th of May, it

is 10 .28pm.

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I've just watched the Eurovision semi

-final number one and so what better time

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than the middle of the night practically

to sit here and do a quick analysis of

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everything that we've just witnessed.

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And I'm delighted to be joined once again

by producer Liam.

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Liam.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

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Hello Stephen, yes I am with you in spirit

for this semi -final.

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So I've had the day in Norwich just to

give people some unnecessary backstory to

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my life today.

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So I missed most of the performances so

I'm very excited to find out your thoughts

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on them.

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I am however in the spirit of Eurovision

enjoying a little tipple while we record

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this.

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it song number nine?

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Have you tippled?

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Yeah, I mean, I guess we can talk a little

bit about everything that happened.

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I think first and foremost, I just want to

talk about the results we've just

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witnessed because for me, what was strange

was when they started reading out the

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results, I was like, have they got the

right sheet of paper there?

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Because the first three, I think that they

announced...

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were all sort of three that I kind of had

down as non -qualifiers.

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So when the first ones they announced

through were like Serbia, Portugal and

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Slovenia, I was like, okay, this is not

going the way I expected it to.

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But then that's the joy of Eurovision is

that the vote never goes the way I

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expected it to.

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There's always a curve ball in there

somewhere.

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Yeah, do you know what?

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I think we had the same conversation last

year in that they announced the favorites

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towards the end.

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And I kind of see the logic for both in

that you start off with a couple of

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outsiders and then it sort of shakes

things up a little bit.

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However, I also kind of feel like when you

leave Croatia and Finland and Ireland to

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the last few, the element of sort of

unpredictability is kind of gone because

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you know they're going to be there.

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Yeah, I think a lot of the speculation

today about who was going to be the last

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one announced through, I think a lot of

people were saying Ireland just because

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obviously they haven't qualified for quite

a while.

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And, you know, it would have been such an

upset tonight if they hadn't got through.

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So, but I can understand totally why they

left Luxembourg till the end, because that

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was kind of the borderline one.

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I think obviously everyone was, was

rooting, certainly everyone in the arena

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was rooting for Luxembourg to kind of

stage their dramatic comeback and...

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I was always a bit kind of borderline with

that one because I mean I threw them a

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pity vote myself but I was sat there going

the conversation we just we literally just

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had in my living room was that like if if

this wasn't their big return after 30 odd

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years and they hadn't been put on last

would they be getting through with that

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song?

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Probably not.

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Hmm.

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I agree.

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I think, you know, it was a big return,

what, 30 odd years?

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And it's, it kind of felt like they had to

put them through because it would have

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like, they'd have gone, I think they never

would have seen Luxembourg again if they

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didn't.

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exactly.

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You'll see Martin Osterdahl out there in

the corridor chucking a few votes in just

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in case.

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It's a joke, it's a joke.

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Don't sue me anyone.

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But yeah, I mean, let's, shall we have a

little talk through the big moments of the

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night?

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Yeah, let's do it.

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I have to say, I actually, before we get

started on the performances, the host

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tonight, kudos to her.

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She was brilliant from what I saw.

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So fantastic job.

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Yeah, I mean Petra Meda obviously, you

know, Eurovision royalty at this point,

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absolutely brilliant.

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Knows exactly what she's doing, brilliant

comedy, brilliant hosting.

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Marlene Ackerman, I liked, I thought she

looked quite nervous.

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I think you could tell this was a little

bit outside of her comfort zone.

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I think she did a fine job.

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And I think it was one of those things

where by the time we get Saturday and

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she'll have two shows under her belt,

she'll be flying by that point.

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But you could sort, you could slightly see

the nerves with her, particularly when...

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if Petra was off somewhere else and Marnie

was on the stage on her own, you could

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sort of see her thinking, I want my friend

back here, I want my friend back here.

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But yeah, I mean, the thing about Sweden

is if you say what you like about them,

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but they know how to put a Eurovision on.

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I mean, it was in terms of just having,

you know, fun things to happen when they

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were trying to fill an ad break, you know,

that little like grinder skit that they

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did was great.

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They had, you know, and they had some

great moments with like getting Johnny

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Logan out.

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getting Benjamin Ingrosso to perform,

fantastic.

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And I mean, we had a lovely opener with

Eleni Ferreira, and then we had Eric Sada,

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and then kind of, bless them, they kind of

felt like they were the warmup act for

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Chanel to come out and absolutely wipe the

floor with both of them, I thought.

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I mean, she's just, you know, there's

something just pneumatic about that woman

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and the way she performs.

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And, you know, I always slightly feel for

her, because I feel like in...

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in another year she could have walked a

win easily and she was just kind of

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unlucky that she was kind of the same year

as Ukraine being the inevitable winner and

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also UK having an unexpected resurgence.

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Yeah.

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Well, on the, on the subject of, the UK,

very tenuous link there.

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I want to know your thoughts on Ireland

because they've been surging up the,

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bookies, sort of rankings, in the last few

weeks.

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They're now solid top 10 and they

qualified tonight.

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This is very unconventional Ireland.

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did their performance live up to

expectation?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean, for me, Ireland were the event of

the night.

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I mean, I normally my process for

Eurovision is that I try to avoid as much

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of the songs as I can up until the semi

finals.

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Then obviously, as I started doing this

podcast, I've not been able to do that

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because I've had to because I've had

things to talk about.

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So now my process is that although I

listen to all the songs, I try to avoid

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finding out too much about the staging.

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So I've at least got some surprises

waiting for me on the night.

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And I was just hearing so many things

about what Ireland had planned.

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And I was like, I can't wait to see this

one.

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And it just did not disappoint at all.

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It was, there was so much going on and it

was, I mean, the thing that I loved, I sat

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there going, this is airing at like 8 .30

on BBC one.

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And it's like something out of Dracula.

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It's just, you know, there's all of this

kind of, you know, witchcraft and demonic

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imagery and things happening and you know,

pentagrams on the floor and all this sort

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of stuff and lighting candles and you

know, a big reveal where.

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where their dress melts and suddenly

they're in this, you know, this like trans

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flag bikini type thing.

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And I'm just, I mean, the whole thing was,

you could sort of see that Ireland had

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stepped back this year and gone, you know

what, what we've been trying the last few

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years has not been working.

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So let's just do something very, very

different.

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And, you know, if it doesn't work, then

we've, you know, all we've done is we've

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just added an extra gear onto our losing

streak.

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But, you know, this year, I think, you

know, I...

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I still don't think it's an outright

winner, but I think, you know, they have

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kind of, they've sort of come from being,

you know, a borderline hopeful qualifier

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to being a dead -cert qualifier to, I

think, genuinely being in contention to do

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really, really well on Saturday.

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I think, you know, depending on what sort

of draw they get and position, I think,

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yeah, I think that's an island, the one

that we should all be scared of, quite

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frankly, in both senses.

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I feel like Ireland are going to end up

being that country where, because of how

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they announced the results in the grand

final and they leave all the public votes

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to the end.

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I feel like Ireland are going to be the

ones who might actually cause an upset

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somewhere.

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They're not going to win themselves, but I

think they're going to get a lot of votes

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and that could take, well, that will take

points away from other countries.

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So I think Ireland could be a catalyst in

the final.

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Yeah, I mean, I think I don't want to get

too ahead of ourselves here because we've

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got enough to discuss with the semifinals.

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But I think, you know, what's going to be

interesting this year in the finals, I

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don't a lot of the front runners, Televote

wise, aren't necessarily going to be big

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jury players and vice versa.

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So it's not going to be like it was last

year when you kind of had Lorene who just

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romped home with all the jury and was

always going to be kind of, you know, top

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five absolute minimum at Televote.

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So you kind of knew everyone else was

going to have their work cut out to

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capture this year.

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It does feel like, you know, things like

Croatia.

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and Finland and Ireland are all going to

do really well on the televote but how I

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don't know how the jury is going to

respond to those kinds of songs so it's

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going to be a really interesting result

session on Saturday I think.

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Definitely.

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And you, you mentioned about, staging, a

few minutes ago.

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And, so I want to know what were the other

standouts, you know, was there any staging

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that particularly impressed you or really

disappointed you tonight?

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I mean I loved Poland staging, it was an

absolute mess but I loved it.

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It was real, I read on Twitter, I don't

know how true this is, but it's the same

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person behind the staging of that was also

the person who did the two trumpets for

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Embers, which explains a lot if that's

true.

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But you know, it was a lot of kind of

ideas being thrown at it with no real kind

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of cohesion.

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She was sort of striding a giant red horse

at one point which I absolutely loved.

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But yeah, it was kind of an endearing

mess.

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But I think actually that the one country

other than Ireland who really stood out

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for me stating what it was, was Ukraine

because they just had a very kind of

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simple staging concept.

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There was like a bit of big rock on the

stage and Gerry was kind of like traipsing

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up it very kind of determinedly.

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And, you know, there was some kind of sort

of slightly messianic imagery going on,

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but it was just so incredibly well

executed.

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And I mean, I love that song anyway.

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I think that song is beautiful.

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And I think they had such a beautiful

combination of staging and performance and

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song all kind of together.

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So I think, you know, again, can't ever

rule out Ukraine at Eurovision.

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They just, they're so good at it.

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Yeah, they've got the formula down for

Eurovision and you're right, they're

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always, it would be a surprise at this

point if they ever didn't qualify, I

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think.

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But talking of staging, I think one of the

real standouts in the highlights reel is

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in terms of, you know, my God, like I need

to see the full performance of this is

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Finland.

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I mean, well, from what I've seen, it

basically...

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looks like the entire performance was

based around Windows 95 man looking for

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clothes and was that a fair reflection?

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Yeah, I think so.

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I mean, basically, the whole thing was

that he was wandering around looking like

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he had no pants on, but obviously he did

have pants on.

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And they'd blocked the whole thing so that

there was always something kind of

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comedically happening in front of him that

was going to block seeing his genitals.

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And I think I've been on a bit of a

journey with that song because when it won

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the national final, I was like, this is

too leaning too hard into the stupid

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comedy gimmick thing.

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They're trying too hard here.

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You know, this is I don't like it when

people are making it that much of a joke.

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Mm.

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And I've been on the site journey with it

because I watched it tonight and I was

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like, you know what, actually I'm laughing

my head off at this because it's so

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wilfully stupid.

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But no one is kind of trying to make this

anything that isn't.

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This is a joke entry.

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They are having a laugh and that's fine.

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And, you know, and that will, I think that

will do very well on the Televote on

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Saturday night because, you know,

particularly when people have had a few

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drinks, they'll just be like, wee.

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But yeah, I mean, I think you've got a lot

to look forward to when you see that one

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in full because it's just...

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daft and crude and you know all those

sorts of things that that makes a

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memorable television I suppose.

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Yeah, I mean, talking of memorable,

probably going in completely the opposite

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direction.

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So the UK performed their song for the

first time this year.

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The Big Five get to do a performance

during the semifinals.

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We're obviously very aware of the UK

because we're from there and we want Oli

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to do well.

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Doesn't seem like he's really going to

crack it this year.

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But what was the performance like?

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Yeah, it's interesting because, again,

I've been avoiding spoilers as much as

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humanly possible.

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Obviously, I've seen some pictures.

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And a lot of people have kind of said,

who'd been at the rehearsal, the rehearsal

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performances, that kind of the trifecta of

Ireland into the United Kingdom, into

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Ukraine was kind of the highlight of the

night and the thing that was kind of,

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everything else was measured by.

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And I kind of felt that the United Kingdom

was the weak part in that actually I

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thought...

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vocally we were not great.

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There were some quite iffy moments there.

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And the staging, I wonder if we've

slightly overreacted.

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I think we've almost gone too hard on the

staging, I think.

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No pun intended, but I think we've gone

for such a kind of like an in -your -face

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piece of staging and really trying to make

something out of it.

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And I wonder if that's going to end up

slightly putting people off, particularly

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if...

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if we don't kind of pull the actual

performance back and get that under

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control, because it felt like we'd put all

the tension on this huge dramatic upside

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down, round and round, camera shaking

piece of staging.

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And actually the performance at the heart

of it was quite wobbly.

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And if I'm from another country watching

that, I'm thinking, well, you've got your

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priorities wrong here.

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So I may have kind of completely misread

the mood of Europe on this one, but I was

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watching this one thinking I...

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I don't know if this is the right staging

for us.

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And I'm happy to prove them wrong.

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I really hope it does well.

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But I was sort of sat there feeling

slightly disappointed when I watched it,

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to be perfectly honest.

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Yeah, I mean, I'm yet to see it live on

stage, but it feels like we're going to be

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disappointed this weekend.

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But yeah, I hope I'm wrong.

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Yeah, it just, I think one of the things I

wrote in my notes was that it was all fur

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coat and no knickers.

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Although kind of almost it was all

knickers and no fur coat.

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Yeah, exactly.

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I'm just going to quickly pause and get

the dog in because I had to let him out

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and now he's barking.

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Bear with me.

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Okay.

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Sorry about that, but that should stop him

from creating for the rest.

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Okay.

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Right.

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So besides the UK, which I think is

probably going to disappoint us at the

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weekend, were there any other performances

either from the Big Five or from any of

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the qualifiers that were just a big let

down?

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yeah, I think, I'm struggling to sort of

find much to get excited about with

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Germany.

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I'm not a big fan of the song anyway, and

the fact that they appear to have have

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literally a bin fire on stage is not a

metaphor I would be leaning into

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personally.

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I, yeah, I think a lot of the ones that I

was less keen on did fall by the wayside a

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little bit.

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Although then a few of them did get

through.

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I mean, Portugal.

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wasn't been that one at all.

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That one just felt very nothingy to me.

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I was very surprised I got through.

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I know it was on near the end, which may

have helped them.

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But I almost sort of forgot that one while

I was watching it.

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So yeah, it will be interesting whether

that one gets a little bit lost in the

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shuffle on on Saturday.

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It will be interesting to be seen.

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I was pleased actually that although I had

the donors non qualifiers, I did like

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Serbia and I like Slovenia.

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So I was pleased I did get through.

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But then it meant losing a couple of the

ones I was hoping to see get through.

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The thing that feels wild to me is that

we've had this two hour 20 minute show for

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the purposes of eliminating five songs.

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Five songs!

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little bit overkill, but I also feel like

there's a kind of irony to like really

302

: 00:17:06

celebrating qualifying because if you're

genuinely really like surprised, excited

303

: 00:17:13

that you've made it to the final, it

probably just means you've got no chance

304

: 00:17:19

whatsoever in the final itself.

305

: 00:17:21

yeah, I think so.

306

: 00:17:22

That's the thing.

307

: 00:17:23

I mean, obviously the ones that kind of,

you know, are not worried about their

308

: 00:17:26

places in the finals because as you say,

they're tipped to do well.

309

: 00:17:29

So yeah, but then it's like, it's always

so hard watching that bit where, you know,

310

: 00:17:35

because the thing that really got me when

they were, you know, announcing the

311

: 00:17:38

results was they kept cutting to Poland

and just seeing Luna's face and she wanted

312

: 00:17:41

it so badly.

313

: 00:17:42

You could just, it was written all over

her face.

314

: 00:17:43

And I felt so when, you know, as the kind

of things went on, I was like, I just

315

: 00:17:47

don't think there's room here for Poland

to get through.

316

: 00:17:48

I just don't think, you know.

317

: 00:17:50

all the countries that haven't got through

yet we were left with kind of you know

318

: 00:17:53

Luxembourg and Australia and Poland all

vying out for the final slot and I was

319

: 00:17:58

like it's gonna be one of those three and

I don't think it's gonna be Poland you

320

: 00:18:02

know it's probably either Australia or

Luxembourg.

321

: 00:18:04

And on that note, I mean, are we starting

to see the appeal of Australia wear off?

322

: 00:18:13

And is it viable for them to continue

competing at Eurovision if they're not

323

: 00:18:19

guaranteed a place in the final?

324

: 00:18:21

I mean, you raise a good point there,

actually.

325

: 00:18:23

I mean, I think their participation this

year had a big question mark hanging over

326

: 00:18:27

it for a long time.

327

: 00:18:29

And they, yeah, I think a lot of people

were really rooting for them.

328

: 00:18:33

I really liked the song.

329

: 00:18:35

I thought there was an absolutely

beautiful vocal on it.

330

: 00:18:37

The staging was, unfortunately, it was a

mess.

331

: 00:18:39

I mean, it was very kind of end of the

wedding reception.

332

: 00:18:42

And I think that hurt them a little bit,

perhaps.

333

: 00:18:46

But yeah, I think, you know, you say about

the...

334

: 00:18:49

sort of the love affair ending with

Australia.

335

: 00:18:51

I think the thing that's hurting them

slightly is that they've never been

336

: 00:18:54

particularly strong in the televote other

than kind of once or twice.

337

: 00:18:58

And you know, it's always, they've always

been very strong with the juries and

338

: 00:19:02

that's had to kind of shore up that

they're underperforming in the televote.

339

: 00:19:05

And then obviously now that the semi

-finals qualifications are televote only,

340

: 00:19:10

they haven't got that to fall back on.

341

: 00:19:11

So I did think, you know, given where they

were in the running order this year, I

342

: 00:19:15

thought they were actually in a fairly

good spot to get through.

343

: 00:19:18

I was quite surprised that they didn't,

but I did kind of have that slight vibe

344

: 00:19:22

when I was watching.

345

: 00:19:23

I was like, I just don't know if they've

done enough.

346

: 00:19:26

So yeah, it will be interesting because I

think it is, you know, it's difficult

347

: 00:19:30

logistically for them.

348

: 00:19:32

But then at the same time, a lot of, you

know, there are countries dropping out of

349

: 00:19:37

Eurovision and not returning.

350

: 00:19:38

So I imagine the EBU will probably want to

keep Australia in if they can, because

351

: 00:19:41

they don't really want, you know,

they're...

352

: 00:19:44

getting alarmingly close to not being able

to justify having two semi -finals.

353

: 00:19:47

So...

354

: 00:19:49

And, you know, I think the, one of the,

one of the problems is as you kind of

355

: 00:19:54

pointed out is that they're only getting

rid of five songs, which makes competition

356

: 00:19:59

for those last couple of spots really

actually quite fierce, I think, because,

357

: 00:20:04

you end up with a lot of favorites and,

and, you know, sort of dead sets that

358

: 00:20:09

they're going to get through.

359

: 00:20:10

And then the last few are sort of

scrambling for that kind of last place or

360

: 00:20:14

two.

361

: 00:20:15

how much.

362

: 00:20:16

Just the sort of running order of the show

impacts that because I noticed this

363

: 00:20:21

evening you had Ireland and Croatia

performing very close together.

364

: 00:20:26

What does that do for the chances of the

songs that are either side and in between

365

: 00:20:30

them, you know?

366

: 00:20:31

Yeah, I think that's a good point.

367

: 00:20:32

I think that we seem to have quite a

confident start to the evening and we had

368

: 00:20:36

quite a strong end to it.

369

: 00:20:37

And it was a lot of the songs in the

middle that were kind of got a bit lost in

370

: 00:20:39

the shuffle in the end.

371

: 00:20:40

I mean, I think we had, you know, you had

Ireland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Croatia, all

372

: 00:20:48

on very early.

373

: 00:20:49

And then we went straight from Croatia

into Iceland.

374

: 00:20:51

And I was like, you know, I didn't didn't

make Iceland to get through anyway, but

375

: 00:20:55

not going straight on the heels of

Croatia, because it just it just didn't

376

: 00:20:59

hold up.

377

: 00:21:00

Yeah.

378

: 00:21:00

that's a shame for them, but you know,

it's someone's got to go after the big

379

: 00:21:06

hitters and unfortunately it was their

turn.

380

: 00:21:08

Yeah.

381

: 00:21:09

So, yeah, sorry, Iceland.

382

: 00:21:12

but, well, yeah.

383

: 00:21:16

so in terms of the show itself, so I saw

from the, you know, when, when all the

384

: 00:21:23

voting's happening and they've got all the

bumps going on and the stuff happening

385

: 00:21:26

between, you know, to sort of fill the

time basically while people are voting.

386

: 00:21:30

there was, there was an odd, mid show bit.

387

: 00:21:33

They were really going in hard on the fact

that, Sweden and Ireland.

388

: 00:21:38

had equal Eurovision trophies and they

brought on Johnny Logan.

389

: 00:21:45

Is that right?

390

: 00:21:46

Is it Johnny Logan?

391

: 00:21:48

Yeah.

392

: 00:21:49

And who performed Euphoria, which Loreen

ously won with Sweden with in: 2012

393

: 00:21:57

That was an odd moment.

394

: 00:21:59

It was, I mean, it was kind of like the

Magic FM version of Euphoria, wasn't it?

395

: 00:22:05

But I mean, it was, I think it was a

really nice thing to do because it kind

396

: 00:22:10

of, obviously, Lorine winning twice not

only took Sweden level with Ireland in

397

: 00:22:16

terms of number of overall wins, but it

also meant that he's no longer, Johnny

398

: 00:22:20

Logan's no longer the only person to have

won Eurovision twice as a performer

399

: 00:22:23

because now Lorine's done it as well.

400

: 00:22:24

So that to me felt like a really nice kind

of gesture of, you know, no hard feelings,

401

: 00:22:28

you know.

402

: 00:22:29

you did it first and you know you'll

always be in the Eurovision legend why

403

: 00:22:32

don't you come on and perform one of the

Lareen songs for her.

404

: 00:22:34

I mean someone on Twitter was saying that

they hope Semifinal 2 has got Lareen doing

405

: 00:22:38

Hold Me Now which I am very here for if

that happens.

406

: 00:22:40

Yeah, that would be great.

407

: 00:22:43

I feel like they're probably holding

Lorraine for the for the final.

408

: 00:22:47

But yeah, let's.

409

: 00:22:49

Yeah, that'd be great with hologram of

course.

410

: 00:22:55

But yeah, in terms of the other show

elements, one thing that was new this year

411

: 00:23:01

that I'm assuming they're going to do on

Thursday and on Saturday, but won't be as

412

: 00:23:05

much of a surprise, was the big reveal of

the green room.

413

: 00:23:09

Now.

414

: 00:23:09

I don't know about you, but I loved that.

415

: 00:23:12

That was a great piece of telly, wasn't

it?

416

: 00:23:14

Because you sort of, you didn't really

think about where the green room was and

417

: 00:23:18

then suddenly the stage just opens up and

there it is.

418

: 00:23:21

I mean, it was just brilliant.

419

: 00:23:24

And that, I think, is again, it's just a

sign of why Sweden is very, very good at

420

: 00:23:28

this.

421

: 00:23:28

They just, they know how to kind of take

the, as you say, the slightly dull bits of

422

: 00:23:34

the show and do something interesting with

it.

423

: 00:23:37

Yeah.

424

: 00:23:38

Yeah.

425

: 00:23:38

And I think over the years, because it's,

I mean, you know, when you look at the

426

: 00:23:44

Eurovision timeline of 60 odd years, the

kind of introducing the green room as an

427

: 00:23:50

element within the arena is fairly new.

428

: 00:23:55

And over the years, they've gotten a

little bit more creative with how they've

429

: 00:23:59

kind of incorporated that into the arena.

430

: 00:24:02

But I think it's gone next level this

year.

431

: 00:24:04

I really loved that reveal.

432

: 00:24:06

And the fact that, you know, it's

difficult to incorporate the Green Room

433

: 00:24:09

when we only got two hosts, because we've

normally, you know, the standard now is to

434

: 00:24:12

have kind of, you know, three,

occasionally four, but you sort of knew

435

: 00:24:17

when Sweden were going back, because, you

know, like, they've, Petra did it by

436

: 00:24:22

herself the first time, and then she did

it with with Manzelma the second time.

437

: 00:24:25

So I was kind of like, they don't need two

people to help Petra mid out, she knows

438

: 00:24:28

what she's doing.

439

: 00:24:29

So, you know, I think that it's she and...

440

: 00:24:33

Merlin are going to be really busy on

Saturday, but I don't doubt that they can

441

: 00:24:37

cover it all between them.

442

: 00:24:39

Hmm.

443

: 00:24:40

Yeah.

444

: 00:24:41

however, you know, I think on the whole,

it seemed like, the show itself was really

445

: 00:24:46

well put together this year.

446

: 00:24:48

and if the grand final is any, or if, if

tonight is any indication of what to

447

: 00:24:53

expect in the final, I think it's going to

be a really good show.

448

: 00:24:57

I, I love the arena.

449

: 00:24:58

I, I kind of, I was a bit skeptical about

the cross shaped stage, but I think that

450

: 00:25:03

works really well.

451

: 00:25:04

I think, I think all the elements there.

452

: 00:25:06

a bit lukewarm on the cross shape stage.

453

: 00:25:08

I think we were sort of saying here, I

think it slightly forced some acts to

454

: 00:25:14

incorporate things they probably didn't

really want to incorporate.

455

: 00:25:16

They all kind of had to have something

happening on the floor.

456

: 00:25:19

And you could sort of see that some people

had kind of done their national final

457

: 00:25:21

performances with an idea of what they

were going to do at Eurovision and got

458

: 00:25:24

there and was like, it doesn't work on

this stage, we have to do something else

459

: 00:25:27

now.

460

: 00:25:28

It was fine.

461

: 00:25:30

I'm not against it.

462

: 00:25:33

I think.

463

: 00:25:33

think it worked really well for some, it

worked best well for others.

464

: 00:25:37

But it's an experiment.

465

: 00:25:39

You've got to keep mixing it up and trying

different things.

466

: 00:25:43

And I think for the most part, it was

absolutely fine.

467

: 00:25:45

Yeah, I mean, as long as they don't have a

sort of ampersand shaped stage next year,

468

: 00:25:49

because there'll be all sorts of accidents

with that.

469

: 00:25:52

we're gonna have a hashtag shaped stage at

some point, I'm sure.

470

: 00:25:55

Well, yeah, it's coming, isn't it?

471

: 00:25:57

Yeah, hashtag Eurovision.

472

: 00:26:00

So, yeah, OK, let's get some sleep and get

ready for Thursday.

473

: 00:26:05

But before we say goodnight to everyone,

Steve, remind us who were the qualifiers

474

: 00:26:11

and who lost out.

475

: 00:26:13

should we quickly run through?

476

: 00:26:14

So the qualifying acts are in order of

announcement at Serbia, Portugal,

477

: 00:26:19

Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland,

Cyprus, Croatia, Ireland and Luxembourg.

478

: 00:26:26

Those are our 10 qualifiers from this

round.

479

: 00:26:28

That does unfortunately mean that the ones

who didn't get through for the first semi

480

: 00:26:32

-final were Australia, Poland, Iceland,

Moldova and Azerbaijan.

481

: 00:26:38

I'm still gutted about Poland, I'm sorry,

I liked Poland.

482

: 00:26:43

All right, well, I think I'm for one, I'm

glad Ireland got through, I'm glad Croatia

483

: 00:26:48

got through and I think the final was

shaping up very nicely indeed.

484

: 00:26:53

Yeah, and I think the second semi -final

is probably the more competitive of the

485

: 00:26:56

two, so I think Thursday night is going to

be really interesting.

486

: 00:26:58

Mmm.

487

: 00:27:00

Well, thank you very much, Liam, for

joining me this evening.

488

: 00:27:02

I think you're very right that we should

both go off and get some sleep now.

489

: 00:27:05

We will be back.

490

: 00:27:06

We'll be doing another live reaction show

on Thursday night, ready to go up on

491

: 00:27:11

Friday morning.

492

: 00:27:12

So do make sure you hit subscribe on your

podcast platform.

493

: 00:27:14

If you haven't done so already, you can

follow us on our socials at Benchwatch

494

: 00:27:18

underscore pod or me at Stephen Perkins,

just to make sure you catch all of our

495

: 00:27:23

exciting updates over the course of this

week.

496

: 00:27:24

But until next time, good night, Europe

and good morning, Australia.

497

: 00:27:31

Alright, I'm going to stop there.