So now it’s done, the Marco Mengoni concert. Will stay in memory for a long time as one of the best concerts I been on.
He is not only an amazing singer, every note was perfection, he is also a strong contender to pass Ricky Martin as the most perfect human being ever born. Amazing on stage.
If you can, see Marco!
Björn
We have reached the point when we passed 50% of hell, and have 50% hell left to suffer through… The Hump day. And we start with the sad news, Toto Cutugno passed away yesterday. He participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 (Not my favorite then, but far from bad), and won the contest with an today iconic ESC winner, “Insieme: 1992”. RIP Toto.
And talking Eurovision, this chart show how many 12 points each country got this year, 2023, from jury and televotes. Note that the winner, Sweden, did not any 12s from the public vote. This was a jury win.
Other strange things, Austria did not get any 12s from the Public. A typical “Televote” song. Poland received only obe 12 from the public. It was a strange vote year.
With that, over and out.
Björn
Yes, tonight we have the Eurovision Song Contest finals, so just dive into it and enjoy.
Björn
So, now we know the 26 songs in tomorrows Eurovision Final. Yesterdays semi turned out to be OK, even if the songs not going to leave a mark in the music history.
I managed to have 7 out of 10 from my own list, and 8 out of 10 from my predictions. OK, not as good as Semi 1, but not far from it. Even if I thought semi 2 might have been easier to guess.
Happy for Poland, Belgium and Austria, we will see them all in finals. A few songs turned out to be better live than as mp3, so my final list might be a bit changed. No huge changes though.
My yearly final PDF will be uploaded on this site tomorrow for you to be able to download it. I won’t send it out this year, if you don’t ask for it and send me your email.
But first yesterday:
And in the middle of the night EBU also released the running order for tomorrow, surprised though… Cause they have made some strange decisions.
With that, Happy TGIF and weekend
Björn
Not much more to add today to be honest, full day at work and then heading home for the second semi final in the Eurovision 2023. And this is the weak semi. More or less all songs from the first semi would have gone through to the final if they took part in semi 2. Apart from Poland and Austria none of this evenings songs is competitors to a top 10 result on Saturday.
Björn
From my personal list of qualifiers 7 out of 10 passed to Saturdays final. And 9 out of 10 on my prediction list. So I still have some kind of sense in all this madness.
So now we wait for the next semi, with all the bad songs…
Björn
This evening it’s the first semi final in Liverpool and Sweden is in it, as well as all other favorites to win (if not a Big 5 country). So the main question will be, which favorite with fall through and make a worse result than expected.
One of my favorites, Azerbaijan, is unfortunately among the 5 not likely to pass to the finals. Surprise to me is the fact that the journalist vote placed them last in semi 1. It’s kind of a typical music journalist song so I guess it is the fan magazine people who is there, who vote like the fans, who managed that poor result.
Apart from that, it’s a fu***** mess to not be able to take days off this week, when for once, the Eurovision not the same week as one of the big Conferences at work. Usually always the same week. But instead work managed to press in a lot of meetings I can’t say I seriously need to take part of, but must do it.
So, let’s see tomorrow how happy I am, or not.
Here are my views on the ESC songs this year, again…
Björn
So, first full day today… Wish I felt as good as yesterday, but actually it’s a bit colder and my mood almost turned into winter mood.
In any case, finally made the Eurovision Files, so now you can download the Semi final files (incl the big 5 in the finals). The final will be TBA for now.
Björn
Rain, wind, some hypertension and angina pectoris in combination with crystal disease kind of take the TGIF out of everything.
Also true, all test was fine, but still my heart do not feel 100% right now. Good test results or not. It can be a kidney stone coming as well, cause the blood pressure usually go up then and cause some minor pain.
We will see, we will see.
And to you all who still think 2022 years Eurovision not was political… Look at the countries where both jury and televoters placed Ukraine as no 1. All countries Russia have said might be next…
Björn
Ended up, yesterday, biking down to Marais. It is the best rides you can do here in Paris. So nice to go back home feeling how you tiered yourself out before going to bed after a night out.
Last week I also, finally, started to mark up this years ESC songs. And here you find a first draft. Changes will come of course before the final “manual”.
Thats it
Björn
