2007 ESC Semifinal

11 May 2007 16:35:00
The Eurovision Song Contest semifinal has left us with mixed feelings, with frustration being the dominant one, as Cyprus did not make it to the big final. Although "Comme ci Comme ca" ranked amongst the favourites, we won’t listen to it again on Saturday night. Evridiki’s performance was electrifying, and the enthusiasm of the audience inside the Hartwall Areena speaks volumes. However, the viewers across Europe thought otherwise. The advance of some outsiders was also a great surprise. Bulgaria’s entry was really powerful and proved the polls that gave it a spot in the final right. Koldum of Belarus was also pretty good and cool on the stage, as if he had not been stressed at all. So he deserved a place in the final. Iceland represented by rock star Eirikur Hauksson made quite an impression. Hauksson was indeed the calm power of the night. His wide experience needed not to be proven. It is a pity he didn’t make it through. The failure of the Swiss "vampires", who were a strong favourite, was also a complete surprise. This year’s ESC was rock-oriented, however, this feeling appears to be reduced to the semifinal only. Another rock entry was that of Croatia’s with Dragonfly. Their song, "I Believe in Love," was good enough and was liked a lot, yet this was not enough to earn them a place in the final. Poland also failed to advance. The Jet Set’s performance was fresh, lively, with the stage filled with beautiful faces inviting us to party. Malta’s entry was pretty good and decent, as well. Olivia Lewis sang "Vertigo" excellently. Mind you that she has long waited to set her foot on the ESC stage, as she had repeatedly tried to represent her country in the Eurovision Song Contest in the past. Another country that booked a ticket to the final and seemed to have enjoyed it is Moldova, which was an outright outsider. Singer Natalia Barbu gave a suberb performance, the stage was filled with violins and the path to the ESC final was wide open. Debutant Georgia stole the limelight advancing to the final, with Sopho singing "Visionary Dream." Words are too poor for Serbia, Marija Serifovic and her song "Molitva" charmed the audience and the viewers who awarded her with a spot in the final. Turkey will also appear in the final on Saturday, as Kenan Dogulu and his song "Shake it up Shekerim" was one of the favourites. Latvia, on the other hand, was not listed among the favourites. Yet, its five tenors singing "Questa Notte" won their place in the final, travelling us to past times. On Friday noon the first dress rehearsal of the final took place, and the second at 2100 hours. With regard to the Greek entry, everything seems to be in place, with Sarbel putting on an outstanding performance.

Comments on the Televoting Problems

11 May 2007 17:13:00
Problems were reported in the Greek televoting, as several votes through sms text messages had a recipient other than the ESC. ERT, the Greek national broadcaster, issued a press release reading that it had zero involvement in the ESC televoting process. It also underlined that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Upstream S.A., a company chosen by the EBU to handle this particular section of the contest, were exclusively responsible for the smooth running of the process. The company, on the other hand, blamed the problems reported on the voters’ failure to dial the correct code number.

Evridiki out of Eurovision race(By Jacqueline Theodoulou)

VIEWERS tuning in to tonight’s Eurovision song contest may find themselves looking for another singer to support as local entry Evridiki failed to make the semi-final cut on Thursday night.

Evridiki’s song ‘Comme Ci, Comme Ca’, which was considered a favourite to win the competition in British bookies, was ruled out of the final along with other favourites, such as Switzerland’s DJ Bobo, Belgium’s KMGs and Malta’s Olivia Lewis.

The new finalists are Bulgaria, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey and Latvia.

Various international media sources yesterday linked the selected entries to the geographical positioning of the countries chosen, suggesting neighbouring countries gave higher marks to each other.

The reaction over the selection of finalists was explosive in Greece yesterday.

The Greek media condemned the fact that Cyprus had failed to make it to the final, some stating that “the blocking of Eastern Europe worked perfectly once again”.

Furthermore, Greek viewers called in live to television shows to complain about the televoting service, which they said was not working on the night of the vote.

Other extremists even called on Greece to boycott next year’s Eurovision contest (provding it doesn’t win).

However, it wasn't all positive comments for Cyprus.

Greek-language newspaper in England, London Greek News, was particularly scathing of Cyprus’ entry: “This was all predicted by the London Greek News despite much of the hype that Cyprus stood a credible chance to win the contest,” the paper wrote yesterday.

Blaming the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation’s (CyBC) failure to promote the song, London Greek News said CyBC was “the wrong organisation to gauge the feeling in Europe, pretty much all of its output is third-rate and its board is composed of ageing men with little or no real grasp of what the importance of public relations are in these types of events”.

DQ not qualified for the final

Doğulu: "nine is my lucky number"

After it was announced that Kenan Doğulu ranked ninth and got to the finals, Kenan Doğulu said: "nine is my lucky number."

Kenan Doğulu was included in the top 10 with his song "Shake it up Şekerim" at the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest held in Helsinki, Finland. Doğulu made a joke: "they announce the most favorite last. That's why they announced Turkey as the 9th finalist." Doğulu said: "nine is one of my lucky numbers, so I am very happy. It was exciting and stressful; however, I always believed that I would make it to finals. The real thing is final. Everything will be better."

Evridiki - Comme Ci, Comme Ça (Eurovision Semi-Final 2007)

Former Eurovision singers Eirikur, Evridiki and Edsilia out

11.05.2007
Former Eurovision singers Eirikur, Evridiki and Edsilia out
Quite a lot surprises at the end of the semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007; only Eastern European countries managed to qualify for the final! Big favourites like Switzerland with DJ Bobo and Cyprus with Evridiki, but also Edsilia Rombley from the Netherlands didn't qualify for the final.

The cool boys of Anonymous from Andorra, the drag queen from Denmark,... they all have to return home with a disillusion. Eirikur from Iceland, Evridiki from Cyprus and Edsilia Rombley from the Netherlands all took part in the Eurovision Song Contest before and might regret their new attempt.Another remarkable fact is that Poland, one of the big Eastern European countries, once again didn't qualify for the final. The previous years, Poland always finished eleventh in the semifinal. The fact that no single Western European country survived the semifinal will probably result in a lot of discussions about the future of the contest.Belarus, FYR Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, newcomer Georgia, Latvia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Moldova were the ten qualifiers in the semifinal. Saturday's final promises to be as diverse and as unpredictable as tonight's semifinal. And who knows... the biggest surprise might come at the end of the evening?