15 countries compete in the first semi-final, ten can look forward to a place in the final. And observers agree that the competition on Tuesday is much tougher than on Thursday: the more unusual acts in particular were drawn into the first semi-final.
As soon as it became known that Loreen would compete in the Swedish preliminary round, the Melodifestivalen, expectations were huge: With “Euophoria” she won the song contest in 2012 and contributed an anthem for the competition. In fact, she prevailed and immediately landed in first place with the bookmakers.
between the plates
It is well known that those responsible in Sweden leave nothing to chance, have the will to win and thus accept the expensive staging in the following year. Loreen’s “Tattoo” fits into the pattern of Swedish pop song architecture with its anthemic ending – but there’s a long way to go.
Liveticker in ORF.at
The semifinals on Tuesday can be seen live from 9 p.m. on ORF1 and in the live stream on tvthek.ORF.at. ORF.at accompanies the competition with a live ticker – including pictures, animated GIFs and social media comments.
The very fast catchy tune didn’t succeed – and it’s also dark optically. In a dark beige “Mad Max” outfit, Loreen braces herself between two concrete slabs, on which you could very easily ruin what feels like 15 centimeters long fingernails. Does that matter? The semi-finals should be the acid test for them in the truest sense of the word.
Finnish hardness
If you believe the bookies, the second big contender for victory can also be seen on Tuesday: the Finnish rapper Käärijä, who explores the boundaries of rap, electro and metal with his song “Cha Cha Cha” and also visually falls into the “unusual” category. falls. As original as the performance will be, it can at least be doubted whether it is mass-compatible enough for great success.
Vikings and unicorns
One waits in vain for the classic song contest candidate with flowing robes and blowing hair in this semi-final. Nonetheless, besides Loreen, there are other female acts with a chance of a top spot. With the Italian singer Alessandra and “Queen of Kings”, Norway relies on a catchy tune with a Viking fantasy staging. In the various streaming charts, she has already achieved an impressive high – according to bookmakers, she should be certain of a place in the final, and a top placement on Saturday also seems possible for Norway.
In this regard, the situation is similar for Noa Kirel from Israel: The 22-year-old is a superstar in her home country with sufficient chart and casting show experience and is said to have been selected by the Kan channel for the song contest, although she did not even apply for it has. Her performance to the pop dance hit “Unicorn” promises a real explosion in terms of choreography, paired with perhaps the tightest costumes of this year’s competition, only suitable for semi-adults, but also with a fairly fixed prognosis for promotion to the final.
According to bookmakers, it will be much more difficult for the Portuguese candidate Mimicat: although she is apparently called the Amy Winehouse of the Tejo there, with her chanson “Ai coracao” she relies on cabaret production in Liverpool with a literal wink and the clatter of castanets and quotations from flamenco.
Alternative goes Song Contest
The number of countries sending bands to Liverpool that don’t quite fit the song contest genre at first glance is surprisingly high this year. Sudden Lights from Latvia, for example, come from the indie band corner, and their song “Aija” doesn’t really get going. The chances of reaching the final are just as bad for them as for The Busker from Malta. With “Dance (Our Own Party)” the trio tries it with wit and funk. It’s just trying. Azerbaijan, always represented at the song contest with high-gloss acts, is sending the twin couple TuralTuranX, whose music comes very close to the host country with its lovely guitar pop song “Tell Me More”.
Teletwitter
Tweets with “#ESCORF” selected by the Teletwitter team are displayed on the ORF Teletext page 780 during TV broadcasts.
Wild Youth were once considered a promising newcomer band in Ireland. Musically, “We Are One” is somewhere between Take That and U2 and lyrically very close to the Eurovision motto classic “We all love us, but we all really love it”. The Serbian representative Luke Black, on the other hand, relies on a dystopian-apocalyptic approach and is likely to have Trent Reznor, singer of the US band Nine Inch Nails, as a great role model.
Spectacular from Serbia and Croatia
Anyone who thinks Black’s production of start number three is the craziest act of the year can let Let 3 teach them otherwise four songs later. The band could be seen as a kind of Croatian Drahdiwaberl. “Mama SC!” is about mums, tractors, little psychopaths – and war.
An anti-war message also comes from the Czech Republic with the six-piece women’s band Vesna and “My Sister’s Crown”, in which Slavic motifs are mixed with electronic beats and rap elements. Beautifully subtle, but still clear, with their song they also circumvent the strict and often cited ban on political messages at the song contest, in which they sing in Czech, Bulgarian, English and Ukrainian about the sisters’ solidarity against an aggressor.
Duncan Laurence says hello
The Swiss Remo Forrer sings against the war in a far more traditional way, his piano ballad strongly reminiscent of the winning song of 2019, “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence. Laurence himself wrote the song “Burning Daylight”, with which Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper are entering the race for the Netherlands. The duet develops from a conflict song to a song of hope, but it takes a very long time to do so.
Moldova is sending a repeat offender into the running with singer Pasha Parfeni. In 2009 he was with the band SunStroke-Project in Moscow, in 2013 he started as a solo singer in Baku. With “Soarele si luna” this year he is focusing on dance beats in combination with folklore. Two years ago, the Ukrainian band Go-A had a similarly flute-heavy song, “Shum”, which was very successful in the competition.
