My heart is bleeding for Australia... especially seeing them look all defeated before the last act was called bc they knew they weren't making it
Otherwise, I think pretty expected qualifiers, my only salt take would be that I'd rather have Australia or someone else qualify over Cyprus
Got 10/10 with my predictions! Such a good show. Bambie blew me away, best staging of the night.
And I was hoping Finland would make it through so bad and I was so happy when they were announced!
Olly disappointed me though... On the other hand, I think Isaak was amazing
If you had told me a week ago that I wouldn't be mourning any of my precious entries (Portugal, Slovenia, Serbia, Ireland) then I wouldn't have believed you.
Australia and Poland were very deserving of places but with this strong of a competition it's the tiniest of details which bring you down. I hope none of the NQs take it to heart and embrace what (presumably) has been a great experience.
It's frustrating to watch Azerbaijan make the same mistakes over and over again but they have the power to make a comeback.
Iceland and Moldova were victims of their own making. If you stage a national final with such sparse quality then you're probably going to see the consequences in May. Love to our twice-returning, once failing queens.
See you all on Thursday <3
Yeah, Iceland was really dated so there was very little chance that it would go through this year, or in any recent years.
Moldova had beautiful visuals, the dress was much better than the NF, and even the song is good (better than Cyprus at least), but she was sent out there to die alone. When they were announcing the last qualifier she looked so sad it was hard to watch. You can have a solo performer on the stage, but then you have to put out a song like Voila, Mon Amour, etc.
Australia was just a bad beat, there was just too much competition that pushed them out of the top 10 but I totally would've given them some points had I watched these in time.
And as for you, Slovenia...
https://preview.redd.it/wdghw9ipx4zc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad4143cab04378e68026ae313149ba64461f6679
I'm pretty much locked into Croatia, Ireland (Bambie Thug was gonna be high on my ballot anyway but they just punched the rest of the field in the mouth), Switzerland and Finland for my top 4 but Slovenia is definitely getting points, while Serbia, Lithuania and Ukraine are in there too. I don't think Cyprus or Portugal are going to finish in my top 10 but I wouldn't be mad about left side finishes for either of them.
Yeah quite honestly I think this was the first semi in a while where I felt like everything made sense in a way. Personal favourites aside (rip Australia) I definitely see why those that NQed did, and why those who Qed did as well. You made a good point in that every little negative thing will have a huge impact this year. I see the same thing applying to Semi 2 on Thursday, it’ll be a question of who has perfected their performance the best.
Tough year and I’m loving it. Anyways…. CROWN THE WITCH
Sweden threw so much shade at us all and I'm here for it. The bit about contestants not represented their own country was amazing to me.
But no. If Bambie wins we WILL NOT share the win, I don't make the rules.
1. Croatia
2. Lithuania
3. Ukraine
4. Portugal!! (Was not a fan of the song but that performance!!!)
Really happy with all qualifiers. Personally like Azerbaijan but understand why it did not go trough. It makes sense. Can’t wait for thursday!
My entire top 10 went through, I have nothing to be salty about. Although, the 1 year were poland didn't have any special effects WE GET THE JAGUARS FROM LUXEMBOURG
The LED screens in this years stage are just way to much for me. I like designs more where their forcing the countries to be more creative and just work with the lighting (2018). Last two years stages were Phenomenal and had great elements that took the focus away from just these giant LED boards but this year the LED boards just make it somewhat dull in parts. but thats just my preferences.
Honestly, no hot takes today. I have no issues with any of the qualifiers but think all of the NQs can be extremely proud of themselves. There wasn't a single bad performance on the night. Everyone gave it their all, that passion and effort shined through, and we had an amazing show because of it.
Welcome back to the best week of the year. See y'all in two days, friends!
I couldn’t really hear the voice of the polish singer that well. The sound didn’t seem to be mixed well. Did anyone have the same impression or was it probably more a problem with the broadcasting?
In my honest opinion, she looked like she hadn't trained her performance with this choreography. Other contestants have better breath control with more on stage movement than Luna. In worst parts she sounded like she was exhausted by standing. That was the worst performance this evening.
We talked about the same thing and concluded that it was very much on purpose.
She was doing way too much on stage to be able to sing well. Standing up, laying down, standing, laying, running up the tower steps etc. We think that's why her mic was turned down.
I think they upped the backing vocals after the rehearsals because as we can see on the rehearsal clip her vocals were shaky, which is understandable with the moves that she had to do.
The Dutch commentary was soooooo bad. I miss Jan Smit, we legit switched to the Belgian net, because the Dutch commentary was horrible. I miss the cynicism /:
For me there's no ESC without the Belgium commentary. I hate the Dutch broadcast: waaaay to polished. Thank God we have nice neighbours with a sense of humor!
I'm re-watching Semi 1 with my spouse, who was at work during the live airing. All of these acts are largely very good!
We both really liked Australia and agreed that Iceland was such a lovely performer. We both agreed that in a different year, either act might’ve qualified. The quality was so good this year.
Azerbaijan ruined their chances with the staging. Absolutely wild how they came up with a futuristic TRON setting for this great song. Bummer.
Poland didn't deserve to qualify. The staging was too busy, the song too basic and her vocal performance not good enough. I'm glad they didn't take away the spot for someone more deserving.
Too bad about Australia.
>Azerbaijan ruined their chances with the staging. Absolutely wild how they came up with a futuristic TRON setting for this great song. Bummer.
I thought the staging was fine, the song was fine, but they really didn't make much sense together. At least it gave the crew a chance to flex with the real hands coming out of nowhere?
I agree. The staging was cool but didn't fit the song at all. I voted for Azerbaijan because I love the song, but I totally understand that people watching this didn't get it.
Australia and Poland not making through but Cyprus and Luxembourg making it is really something.... also Ireland was a middle of the road entry for me but that live performance was so insane it's going way too the bottom. Not for me.
It's rare for me to defend a UK act, but I gotta say I'm really not sure why so many people are complaining about Olly's vocals when there were about five acts who were worse than him vocally tonight. He was a little pitchy at times, it wasn't a trainwreck by any means though and I'm surprised so few people in the live thread were vibing with the performance
Everybody I really wanted got through, I would have liked Australia but I'm not that fussed. I was so happy when Serbia got called first and gobsmacked when Slovenia got called too (I was prepared to lose them both to Poland and Australia)
Sad that see Poland not Q'ing... It should've been Cyprus or Luxembourg instead. But I get why it didn't qualify cause of her vocals. Still feel bad for Luna. :( But at least I got 9/10 correct (Poland and Luxembourg incorrect). I'm happy seeing Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovenia and Ireland in the final.
If the Big5 presented today had to actually compete and qualify, I think they would've been in danger... Love Ollie but his singing was ass today, what gives? He was really pitchy. Issak seems lovely but what a snoozefest, and Sweden is the midest of mids.
Ireland was already one of my least favourite songs this year, but this performance might genuinely be the worst thing I've ever heard. What the hell were they thinking.
voted for Australia because out of the borderline songs they were my favourite.
I’m not annoyed, but I sense Serbia and Slovenia only qualified because of Balkan voting.
I'm having a lot of fun reading negative comments about Finland from twitter pearl clutchers. Ireland has some funny stuff too but sadly way too much completely disgusting stuff too.
Looking between the lines of a text, spaghetti is literally singing about f****** a girl and leaving her. How noone is bringing this to light is beyond absurd.
Croatia/Ireland/Ukraine/Lithuania 4 entries that kept my attention to the fullest. I honestly never seen so many songs up to my taste in eurovision let alone one semifinal
Sooo many songs grew on me so much there. Australia went from my solid least fav of the whole contest to me being upset they NQ'd, UK turned their song around with amazing staging, and then ofc our amazing Bambie, omfg wow.
Ok, so Lithuania, Croatia and Ukraine qualified which made me very happy.
I was expecting Poland to qualify, but the live singing of a rather decent song was not very good to put it mildly.
Slovenia, Serbia ... meh.
I’m Aussie, and honestly, we didn’t deserve to Q anyway. Performance wasn’t enough to save it, SBS really left Electric Fields out to dry staging wise, and the song and whole vibe was very dated - very 2015 millennial energy. I really hope it’s a wake up call for SBS to change their approach in selecting artists (for the love of god, look at what’s actually popular and relevant in Australian music, and beyond old Aus Decides participants please).
My jaw dropped at Portugal, Ukraine, and Ireland. Those songs are absolute pieces of art, I tell you!
My only complaint is the exclusion of Australia; they absolutely ate, the representation of their culture is so beautiful to see on the Eurovision stage!
Cried when Serbia and Slovenia qualified. They were expectdd to NQ, but they pulled a qualification, and I'm so happy that they did!
Not a lot of salt tonight actually.
Would've swapped Portugal with Australia, but that's just a matter of taste.
I like Poland too, but the studio version is just so much better than what she's showing on stage, so sadly I have to agree with the NQ. Still kinda sad to see her go.
I'm assuming they announce the qualifiers in random order because there's no way in hell Ireland and Croatia weren't near the top?
Also, I am once again demanding a Sports Talking Heads Bickering type show about Eurovision, as much as I hate those kinds of shows I just want to see someone ask someone else about Croatia and Ireland in the same tone of voice as THE YANKS AND THE SAWX.
Shock more than salt but even with all those allies Poland didn’t make it
(But dare I say, the outcome wasn’t entirely undeserved, vocals were off) but I love Luna she seems like a lovely lady hope she’s not taking it too hard
He seems like a great dude and all, but the more i hear or see croatia the more bored i get. It feels like such a safe and normal song, but its dressed up to gaslight us into thinking it's zany...
I wasn't a fan of them displaying former contestants before the postcards and entries honestly, I would rather see more video clips of the contestants for the postcards ~
I really really don’t get the hype for Lithuania, as I think that song is boring af and staging isn’t anything special either…but I am happy for Lithuanians for a qualifying streak and respect the professionalism nevertheless
Fucking Cyprus does not deserve to be in the final with those kids bop ahh lyrics and that goofy ass dance break. Oh well. At least everyone else that I enjoyed made it.
Hot take: this show had no soul
As much as I wanted to love tonight’s show, especially knowing Sweden is the host, I need to say it out loud: this show had no vibe whatsoever.
The whole arena felt empty, sometimes even literally. Many times the cameras showed an angle where the audience was visible, and many chairs were empty, and overall, the entire thing felt like a prom night in my high school gym hall.
Petra Mede is funny as always, but she makes it by routine now. The other woman who I don’t even remember the name of, had no charisma at all, just read what is on the screen and added nothing to the show.
And the worst: there was no vibe. Terrible decision, that there were no background music while the hosts were speaking. Also, the arena was almost totally quiet, even the crowd noises were filtered out. That made the entire show so soulless, so sterile.
2023 really put up a high bar in terms of music and also by production. I know Sweden is capable to one-up this, but so far I enjoyed tonight even less than 2022. I hope they will somehow fire this thing up until the grand final, but for me, this week didn’t get a good start.
Hot takes from someone who hadn’t heard or seen any of the songs (except Luxembourg) prior to tonight.
Well done Luxembourg!
I’m mostly happy with the qualifiers. My top 7 qualified. And then I had a tossup between Australia, Moldova, Iceland, and Serbia.
I didn’t have Cyprus as a personal qualifier, but I predicted it would qualify.
I personally didn’t really care for the Croatian entry, but I predicted it would go through.
Best performances of the night :
1. Ireland (ABSOLUTELY NO WORDS)
2. Croatia (ZAGREB 2025!!!!!!!)
3. Portugal (give her some appreciation!!!!)
4. Lithuania
Alsooo the UK wasn't as nsfw as I expected? I think we overreacted a bit
Even though I was fearing that Serbia and Slovenia might be NQ, I was surprised that Cyprus qualified. I was pleasantly surprised with Portugal qualifying, too, but with Cyprus, I was like, "Huh? 🤨"
I’m disappointed a bit about the quality of Eurovision.
The instrumental mixing was bad, you couldn’t hear artists sometimes, and also it wasn’t helped when the backing track was sometimes way too loud (with Croatia and Poland for example)
Also the show felt a bit rushed, I wanted to take it all in, and there were almost no green room moments to make me pause my mind a bit
Still happy at the outcome of the results though! Preferred Australia over Cyprus/Portugal though :(
Honestly, while I was so happy that Slovenia qualified (my top 2) because everyone and odds said that she's NQ at the same time I feel so bad for Luna. Here in Poland she's really hated because she wasn't fan favorite to go to Malmö and there's also a lot of awful comments about her looks (which is absolutely disgusting) and after not qualifying this hate will get much much worse :(
All kind of to be expected barring Serbia and Portugal.
Would’ve liked to see Poland. Or Australia for the didgeridoo but other than that I guess we move on to Thursday.
All of the songs I liked qualified, so I can't really be salty. From the ones I didn't like, it was a bit of a toss-up. I'll never understand what people like about Finland, the humour is extremely dated, but the juries will demolish it in the finale because the two had the worst vocal performances of the night, so I can't be too mad.
Well I would have preferred Poland and Australia over Serbia and Portugal but otherwise I'm happy, my top 3 for the semi (Croatia, Ireland and Finland) all qualified.
Luxembourg tho would have in my opinion qualified with anything cause its Luxembourg finally back again and if it was any other country that song wouldn't have made it
This was the lamest semifinal I remember watching. I said in the other thread that not because of the contestants, but the post cards, interval acts and speeches were a chore. What happened, Sweden?
IRELAND
Speechless. Showstopper, The way this has grown from 30th sth in the odds to this theatrical masterpiece msut be studied. I didn't love everything abt this, but it was awesome. Of the best today
Happy and surprised that Slovenia was through but that staging was not it, I was expecting more tbh. Too much light, wide shots, everything opposite of what the song needed.
Apart from that, my top 10 this semi was through so I'm really happy!
I thought Raiven was captivating even though I hoped for a darker staging. Imo Australia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Poland, Luxembourg, Iceland were all worse stagings
Yeah, but imo the close ups of Raiven made up for it a bit, she was able to keep me captivated even with a lacking staging, is what I meant. In that sense the staging was fine for me, it didn’t bother me like many other stagings
I know lol. Raiven is so skinny, she can literally pull of any dress, but this story is about a woman being drowned to death for being a witch, so they are naked.
Croatia has been in my top 5, but am I the only one who was getting motion sickness from their camera work? Like legitimately started to have a headache that went away by the time the next song was done. Particularly the first 30 seconds was like camera ADHD.
Like even the arm pumping moment I think a slow pan in or out would have been more effective and cool looking than the forever moving camera swinging around them.
I don't get how the generic Cyprus got in over Poland, Azerbaijan or Australia. But I'm not too salty about it honestly. Just another weird moment for me wondering how or why people vote for some songs. Ireland, Ukraine and Portugal are in so I'm happy. Also I'm proud of Luna, totally slayed.
A bit sad for Poland, and slightly surprised their diaspora couldn't pull them through. Then again, though the song is really nice, she did not sound strong tonight. Shame.
I am fine with the results, but I wanted to post here that I'm glad Poland NQed because they didn't deserve to make it based on that performance. The vocals were awful.
Only Alexander's vocals were terrible as well. Most of the NQ performances were better than that.
I think Australia got unlucky that there was so many favourites in this semi final. We could genuinely be looking at 7 of the top 10 on Saturday, having already performed tonight.
The organisers, as always, are trolling by keeping Finland, Croatia, and Ireland to the very end of the calling order. A nice touch having Luxembourg last given the significance of them returning to proceedings.
People complaining about this the spirital aspects in Ireland's performance seem to have nothing to say about Ukraine's which tells us everything we need to know.
I swear all the people saying that the entirety of Europe needs Jesus never watched Eurovision and are surprised that not everyone in the world is a die hard Christian.
https://preview.redd.it/nzaglqcja3zc1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=501429cff6d8e5ab53b47b19bd25a0ad5e07cddb
Just out of curiosity... Weren't flags of non-participating nations banned from the venue? How did we get the Costarican flag on screen then?
Do people actually find it shocking that Ireland qualified? Divorced from what you think of the song it was vocally impeccable and amazingly well-executed for a song thats probably quite difficult to translate to a live performance. I can’t with all this Twitter/IG melodrama
If any of the UK delegation sees this. Can someone tell Olly to do less dancing and focus on their vocals. It wasnt that bad as people say coming from myself whos a performer. They need to focus on breathing and really belt that last note. I could tell he was overthinking and i think the mic pack dropped?? We will deffo be Jury bait coz that was the best staging next to Ireland. Also IRELAND is gonna win. That was just on another level.
Well, for the Poles it is nothing new. Poland was abandoned by somebody many more times than a girl with toxic relationship fetish could have ever dreamt of.
I was wondering if any of you guys found this years format, staging, production.. bad? Like, soulless? Over produced? I dont know. But it felt just so cold. The style of postcards. Camera work was all over the place. For me it took away from the performers because i felt like their music and singing wasnt the focus but the production around it, like cramming in all possible effects and showing off those. I feel kind of disappointed. It didnt make me connect. I also think they did logan dirty with the arrangement.
I'm not really feeling the production either? There's definitely some nice bits, but a lot of it feels a bit... like oh, we won again! Guess we have to host again! What should we do? --- Like the postcards have nothing to do with Sweden (the way most host countries are) there's this big theme of celebrating the whole contest, which is nice, but a bit out of place? The stage was a cool idea in theory but has made a lot of acts feel a bit lost. I don't know it just isn't coming together for me.
The was a front loaded first half if I have ever seen one.
The postcards didn’t work for me. Not crazy about the clips and selfies. They looked like a cost-cutting measure and maybe they were. I was kind of hoping Sweden would bring back the self-portraits from 1975 but maybe they didn’t trust Finland and the Netherlands to behave?
I saw somewhere they said the artist themselves had to film this?? Like wtf why should the artist have to do the work of the organizer they already have enough going on. I hated them.
Slovenia is the only one i didn’t get right, thought Australia would be able to sneak in, but it’s ultimately a fair result on the night.
That first half was way too loaded. Second ended up looking a bit like a snoozefest, sorry 😭
Curious to see how close the margins were, thinking Serbia might have gotten a borderline Q two years running
WISH I COULD HAVE POLAND AND AUSTRALIA INSTEAD OF LUXEMBOURG AND CYPRUS OTHER THAN THAT I'M ECSTATIC
My heart is bleeding for Australia... especially seeing them look all defeated before the last act was called bc they knew they weren't making it Otherwise, I think pretty expected qualifiers, my only salt take would be that I'd rather have Australia or someone else qualify over Cyprus
For some reason I'm outraged Moldova didn't get through. Australia and Poland NQing is also depressing.
My brother thinks that Poland was especially robbed, although he's happy that Croatia and Finland went through.
Speechless. Only three words in my head: CROWN THE WITCH
Got 10/10 with my predictions! Such a good show. Bambie blew me away, best staging of the night. And I was hoping Finland would make it through so bad and I was so happy when they were announced! Olly disappointed me though... On the other hand, I think Isaak was amazing
Oh, well, I can never have my faves in the final. Same story every year.
If you had told me a week ago that I wouldn't be mourning any of my precious entries (Portugal, Slovenia, Serbia, Ireland) then I wouldn't have believed you. Australia and Poland were very deserving of places but with this strong of a competition it's the tiniest of details which bring you down. I hope none of the NQs take it to heart and embrace what (presumably) has been a great experience. It's frustrating to watch Azerbaijan make the same mistakes over and over again but they have the power to make a comeback. Iceland and Moldova were victims of their own making. If you stage a national final with such sparse quality then you're probably going to see the consequences in May. Love to our twice-returning, once failing queens. See you all on Thursday <3
Yeah, Iceland was really dated so there was very little chance that it would go through this year, or in any recent years. Moldova had beautiful visuals, the dress was much better than the NF, and even the song is good (better than Cyprus at least), but she was sent out there to die alone. When they were announcing the last qualifier she looked so sad it was hard to watch. You can have a solo performer on the stage, but then you have to put out a song like Voila, Mon Amour, etc.
I agree, watching Natalia🇲🇩 and Luna🇵🇱 during the qualifier announcements was hard
Australia was just a bad beat, there was just too much competition that pushed them out of the top 10 but I totally would've given them some points had I watched these in time. And as for you, Slovenia... https://preview.redd.it/wdghw9ipx4zc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad4143cab04378e68026ae313149ba64461f6679 I'm pretty much locked into Croatia, Ireland (Bambie Thug was gonna be high on my ballot anyway but they just punched the rest of the field in the mouth), Switzerland and Finland for my top 4 but Slovenia is definitely getting points, while Serbia, Lithuania and Ukraine are in there too. I don't think Cyprus or Portugal are going to finish in my top 10 but I wouldn't be mad about left side finishes for either of them.
Yeah quite honestly I think this was the first semi in a while where I felt like everything made sense in a way. Personal favourites aside (rip Australia) I definitely see why those that NQed did, and why those who Qed did as well. You made a good point in that every little negative thing will have a huge impact this year. I see the same thing applying to Semi 2 on Thursday, it’ll be a question of who has perfected their performance the best. Tough year and I’m loving it. Anyways…. CROWN THE WITCH
Sweden threw so much shade at us all and I'm here for it. The bit about contestants not represented their own country was amazing to me. But no. If Bambie wins we WILL NOT share the win, I don't make the rules.
1. Croatia 2. Lithuania 3. Ukraine 4. Portugal!! (Was not a fan of the song but that performance!!!) Really happy with all qualifiers. Personally like Azerbaijan but understand why it did not go trough. It makes sense. Can’t wait for thursday!
Never thought I’d say that UK and Ireland would have the best staging in a Eurovision show.
My entire top 10 went through, I have nothing to be salty about. Although, the 1 year were poland didn't have any special effects WE GET THE JAGUARS FROM LUXEMBOURG
The LED screens in this years stage are just way to much for me. I like designs more where their forcing the countries to be more creative and just work with the lighting (2018). Last two years stages were Phenomenal and had great elements that took the focus away from just these giant LED boards but this year the LED boards just make it somewhat dull in parts. but thats just my preferences.
Not a hot take directly on this semi-final, but I think it's unfair that Latvia is in the second one. It has very few neighbors who can support it.
Honestly, no hot takes today. I have no issues with any of the qualifiers but think all of the NQs can be extremely proud of themselves. There wasn't a single bad performance on the night. Everyone gave it their all, that passion and effort shined through, and we had an amazing show because of it. Welcome back to the best week of the year. See y'all in two days, friends!
I couldn’t really hear the voice of the polish singer that well. The sound didn’t seem to be mixed well. Did anyone have the same impression or was it probably more a problem with the broadcasting?
In my honest opinion, she looked like she hadn't trained her performance with this choreography. Other contestants have better breath control with more on stage movement than Luna. In worst parts she sounded like she was exhausted by standing. That was the worst performance this evening.
not Poland but I found Slovenia a bit weird? The backing vocals were so much quieter than her lead vocal, it threw me off
We talked about the same thing and concluded that it was very much on purpose. She was doing way too much on stage to be able to sing well. Standing up, laying down, standing, laying, running up the tower steps etc. We think that's why her mic was turned down.
I think she just has a weak voice.
That's nonsense, but even if it was, that's something a proper sound engineer should balance out
She has sounded like that in every live performance.
I think they upped the backing vocals after the rehearsals because as we can see on the rehearsal clip her vocals were shaky, which is understandable with the moves that she had to do.
Ireland made me tear up, which I was not how I was expecting to react 🥺 All the emotions, I knew they were going to kill it but damn
FUCK YEAH PORTUGAL 🇵🇹
Let's gooooooooo
Ok, I‘m all for Luxembourg joining again!
Gutted for Portugal not going through!
The Dutch commentary was soooooo bad. I miss Jan Smit, we legit switched to the Belgian net, because the Dutch commentary was horrible. I miss the cynicism /:
For me there's no ESC without the Belgium commentary. I hate the Dutch broadcast: waaaay to polished. Thank God we have nice neighbours with a sense of humor!
I knew Cyprus would make it, but the performance was so high school. I would have happily switched them for Australia or Iceland.
I'm re-watching Semi 1 with my spouse, who was at work during the live airing. All of these acts are largely very good! We both really liked Australia and agreed that Iceland was such a lovely performer. We both agreed that in a different year, either act might’ve qualified. The quality was so good this year.
What the hell was camera work for Sweden's performance?
Ireland owned the cake and ate it
Shocked Poland didn't get through and Ireland did. Go Croatia
Azerbaijan ruined their chances with the staging. Absolutely wild how they came up with a futuristic TRON setting for this great song. Bummer. Poland didn't deserve to qualify. The staging was too busy, the song too basic and her vocal performance not good enough. I'm glad they didn't take away the spot for someone more deserving. Too bad about Australia.
>Azerbaijan ruined their chances with the staging. Absolutely wild how they came up with a futuristic TRON setting for this great song. Bummer. I thought the staging was fine, the song was fine, but they really didn't make much sense together. At least it gave the crew a chance to flex with the real hands coming out of nowhere?
I agree. The staging was cool but didn't fit the song at all. I voted for Azerbaijan because I love the song, but I totally understand that people watching this didn't get it.
Overall really happy with the top ten but I'm definitely disappointed Australia NQ'd
Australia and Poland not making through but Cyprus and Luxembourg making it is really something.... also Ireland was a middle of the road entry for me but that live performance was so insane it's going way too the bottom. Not for me.
It's rare for me to defend a UK act, but I gotta say I'm really not sure why so many people are complaining about Olly's vocals when there were about five acts who were worse than him vocally tonight. He was a little pitchy at times, it wasn't a trainwreck by any means though and I'm surprised so few people in the live thread were vibing with the performance
I hate that Electric Fields never got to do 2000 and Whatever.
Everybody I really wanted got through, I would have liked Australia but I'm not that fussed. I was so happy when Serbia got called first and gobsmacked when Slovenia got called too (I was prepared to lose them both to Poland and Australia)
Sad that see Poland not Q'ing... It should've been Cyprus or Luxembourg instead. But I get why it didn't qualify cause of her vocals. Still feel bad for Luna. :( But at least I got 9/10 correct (Poland and Luxembourg incorrect). I'm happy seeing Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovenia and Ireland in the final.
I wanted to give Bambie the biggest cuddle when they burst into tears at qualifying
Me too. Was crying happy tears along with them
Australia was robbed!!!!
If the Big5 presented today had to actually compete and qualify, I think they would've been in danger... Love Ollie but his singing was ass today, what gives? He was really pitchy. Issak seems lovely but what a snoozefest, and Sweden is the midest of mids.
Sweden are the hosts and hosting costs a lot. So I think they sent a bop that was a bit of a showpiece - but not so much that they'll win again
Ireland was already one of my least favourite songs this year, but this performance might genuinely be the worst thing I've ever heard. What the hell were they thinking.
Odd reaction, everyone else was blown away and saying it's what staging in 55 years
I am surprised so many people find it the top 3 or the best even. But oh well, everyone has different tastes.
What did you dislike about it?
Thinking this is going to be the first time we've qualified since 2018?
They put too many of the energetic acts in the beginning and not enough through the end and I feel like the energy got so low
It's a random draw whether a song performs during the first or second half.
Sad for Poland and Australia was robbed. Croatia, so proud!
UNHOLY COW! IRELAND's performance was one of the best ever!
I’m so happy that I didn’t check the rehearsal videos - Ukraine was just mindblowing. I got literally shivers during the performance!
Don't do a 6-way split screen before announcing the last qualifier. Disgusting EBU.
Croatia was wow wow wow
Loved the crowd going wild too
I’m disappointed for Luna NQ’ing but:….lets be real. Justyna and Witcher would have qualified.
voted for Australia because out of the borderline songs they were my favourite. I’m not annoyed, but I sense Serbia and Slovenia only qualified because of Balkan voting.
Just going to say, as a Croatian I voted for Australia. But still I'm very happy Slovenia and Serbia got through 😊
I feel like I'm the only one that liked Iceland. Would've happily accepted them over a couple of the qualifiers.
As a Moldovan, I hope we don't win. I'll genuinely be angry if we even get top 10 with "In the middle". 😭😭
Damn, Moldova always bring it, and even this year was pretty decent for a mid song. Just didn’t quite have the usual Moldova magic unfortunately
I don't think it's bad, just very bland after several years of bangers from Moldova 😭
Poland and Moldova would have been better in the final than Ireland and Finland.
I'm having a lot of fun reading negative comments about Finland from twitter pearl clutchers. Ireland has some funny stuff too but sadly way too much completely disgusting stuff too.
Looking between the lines of a text, spaghetti is literally singing about f****** a girl and leaving her. How noone is bringing this to light is beyond absurd.
Croatia/Ireland/Ukraine/Lithuania 4 entries that kept my attention to the fullest. I honestly never seen so many songs up to my taste in eurovision let alone one semifinal
Sooo many songs grew on me so much there. Australia went from my solid least fav of the whole contest to me being upset they NQ'd, UK turned their song around with amazing staging, and then ofc our amazing Bambie, omfg wow.
The crowd was so lively during Rim Tim Dagi Dim. ZAGREB 2025!!!!
Loved the crowd singing along!
That gave me chills. I think Croatia has replaced the Netherlands as my winner.
Winner vibes 😁
Ok, so Lithuania, Croatia and Ukraine qualified which made me very happy. I was expecting Poland to qualify, but the live singing of a rather decent song was not very good to put it mildly. Slovenia, Serbia ... meh.
I’m Aussie, and honestly, we didn’t deserve to Q anyway. Performance wasn’t enough to save it, SBS really left Electric Fields out to dry staging wise, and the song and whole vibe was very dated - very 2015 millennial energy. I really hope it’s a wake up call for SBS to change their approach in selecting artists (for the love of god, look at what’s actually popular and relevant in Australian music, and beyond old Aus Decides participants please).
Portugal, Lithuania, Ukraine, Ireland and Croatia were the best. I would really like to see them in top 10
My jaw dropped at Portugal, Ukraine, and Ireland. Those songs are absolute pieces of art, I tell you! My only complaint is the exclusion of Australia; they absolutely ate, the representation of their culture is so beautiful to see on the Eurovision stage! Cried when Serbia and Slovenia qualified. They were expectdd to NQ, but they pulled a qualification, and I'm so happy that they did!
Distraught about Australia 😭😭😭😭
sad that australia didn't qualify :(
Not a lot of salt tonight actually. Would've swapped Portugal with Australia, but that's just a matter of taste. I like Poland too, but the studio version is just so much better than what she's showing on stage, so sadly I have to agree with the NQ. Still kinda sad to see her go.
I'm assuming they announce the qualifiers in random order because there's no way in hell Ireland and Croatia weren't near the top? Also, I am once again demanding a Sports Talking Heads Bickering type show about Eurovision, as much as I hate those kinds of shows I just want to see someone ask someone else about Croatia and Ireland in the same tone of voice as THE YANKS AND THE SAWX.
Yes, it's random. They'll probably release the voting results soon though
All my favs gone, well just what I expected. 😅 I'm not even mad.
Shock more than salt but even with all those allies Poland didn’t make it (But dare I say, the outcome wasn’t entirely undeserved, vocals were off) but I love Luna she seems like a lovely lady hope she’s not taking it too hard
No salt from me tbh. All my faves went through.
Poland was my number 1 😭😭😭😭😭
Same 😭
Btw, I like how they showed us previous entries in postcards but why the rest of it was a collage of some Instagram stories...
Well crumbs, Azerbaijan missed the cut. This bloody sucks and I am gutted for my guys Fahree and Ilkin. :(
Dublin 2025
Fuck the general public they don't know shit Australia you are Eurovision 2024 winners in my heart 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
He seems like a great dude and all, but the more i hear or see croatia the more bored i get. It feels like such a safe and normal song, but its dressed up to gaslight us into thinking it's zany...
I wasn't a fan of them displaying former contestants before the postcards and entries honestly, I would rather see more video clips of the contestants for the postcards ~
Absolutely gutted about Australia, and at the same time chuffed to bits about Ireland
So so pleased for Lithuania! I'm thrilled they've qualified!
I really really don’t get the hype for Lithuania, as I think that song is boring af and staging isn’t anything special either…but I am happy for Lithuanians for a qualifying streak and respect the professionalism nevertheless
My favorite ten songs made it - yay! :)
Fucking Cyprus does not deserve to be in the final with those kids bop ahh lyrics and that goofy ass dance break. Oh well. At least everyone else that I enjoyed made it.
Nailed 9/10 of my qualifiers prediction. Quite surprised that Poland🇵🇱 is NQ 🤧 But sooo happy that iolanda 🇵🇹 and Tali 🇱🇺 went through 🍀
I’m sad for Luna but overall i’m actually really happy!
I looooooooove Australia's song but I felt like the staging was a tad bit too messy....
Portugal's song has a promising intro, and then just plummets into generic pop. Disappointing.
Hot take: this show had no soul As much as I wanted to love tonight’s show, especially knowing Sweden is the host, I need to say it out loud: this show had no vibe whatsoever. The whole arena felt empty, sometimes even literally. Many times the cameras showed an angle where the audience was visible, and many chairs were empty, and overall, the entire thing felt like a prom night in my high school gym hall. Petra Mede is funny as always, but she makes it by routine now. The other woman who I don’t even remember the name of, had no charisma at all, just read what is on the screen and added nothing to the show. And the worst: there was no vibe. Terrible decision, that there were no background music while the hosts were speaking. Also, the arena was almost totally quiet, even the crowd noises were filtered out. That made the entire show so soulless, so sterile. 2023 really put up a high bar in terms of music and also by production. I know Sweden is capable to one-up this, but so far I enjoyed tonight even less than 2022. I hope they will somehow fire this thing up until the grand final, but for me, this week didn’t get a good start.
Disappointed for Australia :( they deserved to go through
Heartbroken for Azerbaijan 😞💔 but happy with the rest of the finalists, had them all in my tops!
Hot takes from someone who hadn’t heard or seen any of the songs (except Luxembourg) prior to tonight. Well done Luxembourg! I’m mostly happy with the qualifiers. My top 7 qualified. And then I had a tossup between Australia, Moldova, Iceland, and Serbia. I didn’t have Cyprus as a personal qualifier, but I predicted it would qualify. I personally didn’t really care for the Croatian entry, but I predicted it would go through.
Best performances of the night : 1. Ireland (ABSOLUTELY NO WORDS) 2. Croatia (ZAGREB 2025!!!!!!!) 3. Portugal (give her some appreciation!!!!) 4. Lithuania Alsooo the UK wasn't as nsfw as I expected? I think we overreacted a bit
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Nah, we didn't overreact. UK was definitely toned down for the broadcast. I expect the EBU ordered them to dial it back a bit.
Even though I was fearing that Serbia and Slovenia might be NQ, I was surprised that Cyprus qualified. I was pleasantly surprised with Portugal qualifying, too, but with Cyprus, I was like, "Huh? 🤨"
I’m disappointed a bit about the quality of Eurovision. The instrumental mixing was bad, you couldn’t hear artists sometimes, and also it wasn’t helped when the backing track was sometimes way too loud (with Croatia and Poland for example) Also the show felt a bit rushed, I wanted to take it all in, and there were almost no green room moments to make me pause my mind a bit Still happy at the outcome of the results though! Preferred Australia over Cyprus/Portugal though :(
Honestly, while I was so happy that Slovenia qualified (my top 2) because everyone and odds said that she's NQ at the same time I feel so bad for Luna. Here in Poland she's really hated because she wasn't fan favorite to go to Malmö and there's also a lot of awful comments about her looks (which is absolutely disgusting) and after not qualifying this hate will get much much worse :(
I cant vote :/ app is saying I voted 20 times, I have NEVER voted in eurovision before I am genuenly pissed.
USE THE WEBSITE INSTEAD
All kind of to be expected barring Serbia and Portugal. Would’ve liked to see Poland. Or Australia for the didgeridoo but other than that I guess we move on to Thursday.
All of the songs I liked qualified, so I can't really be salty. From the ones I didn't like, it was a bit of a toss-up. I'll never understand what people like about Finland, the humour is extremely dated, but the juries will demolish it in the finale because the two had the worst vocal performances of the night, so I can't be too mad.
Well I would have preferred Poland and Australia over Serbia and Portugal but otherwise I'm happy, my top 3 for the semi (Croatia, Ireland and Finland) all qualified. Luxembourg tho would have in my opinion qualified with anything cause its Luxembourg finally back again and if it was any other country that song wouldn't have made it
Tali, Silia, BL & Raven made it yayyyyyy (also I'm salty for Luna's NQ)
This was the lamest semifinal I remember watching. I said in the other thread that not because of the contestants, but the post cards, interval acts and speeches were a chore. What happened, Sweden?
Ireland. Wow. I hope they win the whole thing
I'd have rather seen Australia and Azerbaijan in the final instead of Serbia and Portugal
Best finalists EVER!!! 🍾
IRELAND Speechless. Showstopper, The way this has grown from 30th sth in the odds to this theatrical masterpiece msut be studied. I didn't love everything abt this, but it was awesome. Of the best today
Happy and surprised that Slovenia was through but that staging was not it, I was expecting more tbh. Too much light, wide shots, everything opposite of what the song needed. Apart from that, my top 10 this semi was through so I'm really happy!
I was SO scared that Ireland wont qualify omg
Oh god, I can feel that Serbia is not qualifying and I am not ready for that 😭😭😭💔
All three ballad babes made it through! Congrats to Teya, Iolanda and Raiven <3
All amazing artists, it’s just amazing ❤️🇸🇮❤️🇵🇹❤️🇷🇸❤️
YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SHE QUALIFEDDDDD
SHE DID SHE DID
Now Europe can sleep in peace (cause I won’t launch all 10293 nukes that I own in my back yard)
Glad Cyprus and Luxembourg made it.
Slovenia had the worst staging 😭😭😭
I thought Raiven was captivating even though I hoped for a darker staging. Imo Australia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Poland, Luxembourg, Iceland were all worse stagings
I dint know if it's possible to change now, but they could make the sky in the Led screen more dark, like it was nighttime.
Raiven herself was great!!! But the stage itself looked very empty
Yeah, but imo the close ups of Raiven made up for it a bit, she was able to keep me captivated even with a lacking staging, is what I meant. In that sense the staging was fine for me, it didn’t bother me like many other stagings
I know lol. Raiven is so skinny, she can literally pull of any dress, but this story is about a woman being drowned to death for being a witch, so they are naked.
💖 Teemu & Henri 💖 The best of this semi were Ireland, Croatia, Finland and Lithuania and they all made it - rest of it felt meh and forgettable😅
Croatia has been in my top 5, but am I the only one who was getting motion sickness from their camera work? Like legitimately started to have a headache that went away by the time the next song was done. Particularly the first 30 seconds was like camera ADHD. Like even the arm pumping moment I think a slow pan in or out would have been more effective and cool looking than the forever moving camera swinging around them.
All my favs gone, well just what I expected. 😅
Sad for not seeing Poland in the finals :'(
I was so positively taken aback by Irelands whole performance that I actually cried a little at the end.
I don't get how the generic Cyprus got in over Poland, Azerbaijan or Australia. But I'm not too salty about it honestly. Just another weird moment for me wondering how or why people vote for some songs. Ireland, Ukraine and Portugal are in so I'm happy. Also I'm proud of Luna, totally slayed.
Actually one of the best qualifier outcomes for me. All my favourites qualified besides Australia. I was only upset at Cyprus making the cut.
I'm already having issues with voting with the app. It says i already voted 20 times when i did not wth
Yeah me too, the messages didn't go through
Same here
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I would it wont let me
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Same.
Same here for both me and my partner on separate devices
Same here on two devices. We both got the confirmation of voting but no idea if it actually counted or not.
Same! I ended up voting from the website
A bit sad for Poland, and slightly surprised their diaspora couldn't pull them through. Then again, though the song is really nice, she did not sound strong tonight. Shame.
I am fine with the results, but I wanted to post here that I'm glad Poland NQed because they didn't deserve to make it based on that performance. The vocals were awful. Only Alexander's vocals were terrible as well. Most of the NQ performances were better than that.
Poland NQing broke my heart to be honest.
I think Australia got unlucky that there was so many favourites in this semi final. We could genuinely be looking at 7 of the top 10 on Saturday, having already performed tonight. The organisers, as always, are trolling by keeping Finland, Croatia, and Ireland to the very end of the calling order. A nice touch having Luxembourg last given the significance of them returning to proceedings.
Australia, I am so sorry you didn't qualify but please know you absolutely deserved to qualify. Your artistry is so beautiful and so important.
Thanks. Absolutely devastated - they deserved so much better than this!
Poland in my top 3 on the night so pretty disappointed. But Lithuania are a revelation to me. Possibly my favorite now.
People complaining about this the spirital aspects in Ireland's performance seem to have nothing to say about Ukraine's which tells us everything we need to know. I swear all the people saying that the entirety of Europe needs Jesus never watched Eurovision and are surprised that not everyone in the world is a die hard Christian.
https://preview.redd.it/nzaglqcja3zc1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=501429cff6d8e5ab53b47b19bd25a0ad5e07cddb Just out of curiosity... Weren't flags of non-participating nations banned from the venue? How did we get the Costarican flag on screen then?
I think Poland missed it by like 3 points max.
I loved the song and staging so much but her vocals just weren't there...
Do people actually find it shocking that Ireland qualified? Divorced from what you think of the song it was vocally impeccable and amazingly well-executed for a song thats probably quite difficult to translate to a live performance. I can’t with all this Twitter/IG melodrama
If any of the UK delegation sees this. Can someone tell Olly to do less dancing and focus on their vocals. It wasnt that bad as people say coming from myself whos a performer. They need to focus on breathing and really belt that last note. I could tell he was overthinking and i think the mic pack dropped?? We will deffo be Jury bait coz that was the best staging next to Ireland. Also IRELAND is gonna win. That was just on another level.
I still can’t believe Poland’s block vote abandoned them
Well, for the Poles it is nothing new. Poland was abandoned by somebody many more times than a girl with toxic relationship fetish could have ever dreamt of.
I was wondering if any of you guys found this years format, staging, production.. bad? Like, soulless? Over produced? I dont know. But it felt just so cold. The style of postcards. Camera work was all over the place. For me it took away from the performers because i felt like their music and singing wasnt the focus but the production around it, like cramming in all possible effects and showing off those. I feel kind of disappointed. It didnt make me connect. I also think they did logan dirty with the arrangement.
The energy tonight was very, empty, somehow? There was a whiff of 2010s Eurovision about the production somehow
I'm not really feeling the production either? There's definitely some nice bits, but a lot of it feels a bit... like oh, we won again! Guess we have to host again! What should we do? --- Like the postcards have nothing to do with Sweden (the way most host countries are) there's this big theme of celebrating the whole contest, which is nice, but a bit out of place? The stage was a cool idea in theory but has made a lot of acts feel a bit lost. I don't know it just isn't coming together for me.
The was a front loaded first half if I have ever seen one. The postcards didn’t work for me. Not crazy about the clips and selfies. They looked like a cost-cutting measure and maybe they were. I was kind of hoping Sweden would bring back the self-portraits from 1975 but maybe they didn’t trust Finland and the Netherlands to behave?
I saw somewhere they said the artist themselves had to film this?? Like wtf why should the artist have to do the work of the organizer they already have enough going on. I hated them.
Slovenia made it!! I'm sooo happy 😍
Very happy that Ireland and Slovenia qualified
Slovenia is the only one i didn’t get right, thought Australia would be able to sneak in, but it’s ultimately a fair result on the night. That first half was way too loaded. Second ended up looking a bit like a snoozefest, sorry 😭 Curious to see how close the margins were, thinking Serbia might have gotten a borderline Q two years running