That got to 13th in the Final! How?

I still ask myself that question even now, but it got votes and that is all!

After looking at the songs, if I do not get 2 for 2 I will be disappointed. If I can say that

It's really hard to judge how well your songs might do, but I do think personally that, despite the odd one or two in each qf that I can guess now won't qualify, there are a lot of good songs that cover many genres and therefore many tastes. It's difficult to say what will or won't qualify. For the first two qualifiers, I can see really good songs not qualifying and people being upset I can add, however, that come the semis and final, that I think it will be a quality competition!

Haters gonna hate - that was my personal best... Until the next edition

- Lots of meh songs really, none that are particularly bad but few I really like.
- Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Liechtenstein and Scotland are the stand-outs.
- I honestly don't see the hype about Slovenia.
- Similarly, I find England really average.
- My points from 5 to 1 could be interchangeable with about 9 entries.
- I'll be quite disappointed if I don't qualify from this QF.

Here's hoping the other QFs have some better songs. Although on the other hand, 4 songs in the SF wouldn't hurt.

My problems persisted and I had to redo some videos to turn them back into a widescreen format and the North African one went haywire Apologies to the FM with North Africa but it looks like the video ends after song 2, but stick with it as it does carry on. There are a few videos that haven't been resized too, I'll redo North Africa and the others when all the recaps for quarters are done.

Quarter Final 2 Playlist


Quarter Final 2 Recap

Whats the link between Christie & the Dream Boats and Scotland?

Because everything I find just says they're from Stockholm and Christie is from Essex.

I don't have the ancestry link that the FM sent in, but Christie Pentrice is an English singer from Essex who has ancestry links to Scotland. The Dream Beats are indeed Swedish. It's a collaboration.

Hmm okay I'm having great difficulty finding anything that says she's Scottish!! But hopefully Jag will be able to shed some light on the ancestry.

I'm not asking about ancestry.... but why does the Belarus video have "Swedish Slongs" written on it? What is a Swedish Slong?

Maybe they meant thongs

QF1 review
Slovenia - Oh. My. God. WTF is this??!!! It's awful, awesome, ridiculous & hilarious at the same time. Amazing. For sheer balls, 9.
Bulgaria - This is nice, not screamy like BBBs can be. 8
Monaco - The band name had me slightly concerned but it's an odd name - this isn't rock & it certainly isn't opera or Mozart. It's pretty good though. 8
San Marino - Um, this isn't on the playlist Still, I'm really liking this, sounds like Tom Odell's latest which I like too. 9
Greece - This is another enjoyable one - nice bit of pop/rock. 8
Scotland - Victimised yoshi. This is one of my England trilemma from last time, will be hacked off when this makes the final. 9
Armenia - He looks like he's just walked out of a 50s advert. It's ok but a little dip down. 7
England - Talking of Tom . Where's he from, he always sounds like he's not quite from Yorkshire. I much prefer it when he does songs like this rather than John Lewis. Really like this. 9
Russia - This isn't there either :/ Turns out it's One Directionski. Meh, generic boyband fare. 6
Latvia - This takes a long time to get going & her voice takes some getting used to but I like the end part. I think this'll grow if it gets through. 7
Croatia - Aha, another one I can unequivocally say I hope doesn't go through. Sorry but I'm not getting this. 5
Liechtenstein - This isn't there. But it doesn't matter. Because I'd downloaded it ages ago I wish I'd thought of it when Liechtenstein came loose, I really like it. 9
Macedonia - This is quite decent for its kind of thing, but doesn't cut it in this field for me, sorry. 6
Denmark - Another missing one? Meh. Not feeling anything really. 7
Tasmania - They seem to be Tame Impala cloned. Not great, but not bad. 7
Vojvodina - Haha, I think you know what I'll think of this don't you . I like the band/rapper name though. 4
Azerbaijan - New Laleh singles = Azerbaijan becoming much easier. This is pretty good, if a little odd to hear her sing Swedish. 8
Austria - Very Austrian name, not a fan of the song really. 6

some really strange things have been happening the last few days on my laptop. When I upload the recaps everything is either slow of shuts down completely and I tried to do QF1 playlist whilst uploading. When I checked I swear they were all adding albeit slowly I'll add the missing ones now.

I don't suppose there's any chance of getting the running orders for QF 3 and 4 today is there? I'm off to Stockholm tomorrow and won't be able to review/vote

I haven't got access to the sheet at the moment, but I have sent Jag the QF3&4 playlists and recap links . Jag should be opening QF3&4 soon (don't forget the time difference in the US), but if you want to look, you could follow the links for QF1 on both youtube for playlists and vimeo for recaps and have a look around my channels for the QF3 & 4 ones?

Thanks, I'll go and find them

QF 1 quick review

Okay songs at the start, okay songs at the end, bit of a soppy, wet centre.

Until Jag gets online and can open them properly with the correct deadline etc, I am going to post the order for each and the link to playlist and recap. This way those of you off to Stockholm etc can get ahead of the game.

Quarter Final 3
1 Netherlands
2 Svalbard
3 Moldova
4 Andorra
5 Australia
6 Greenland
7 Iran
8 Wales
9 Belgium
10 Poland
11 Italy
12 Romania
13 France
14 Czech Republic
15 Hungary
16 Western Asia
17 Turkey
18 Spain

Playlist
Recap

Quarter Final 4

1 Luxembourg
2 Aland Islands
3 Algeria
4 Finland
5 New Zealand
6 Sweden
7 Gibraltar
8 Kaliningrad
9 Northern Ireland
10 Faroe Islands
11 Ukraine
12 Slovakia
13 Portugal
14 Estonia
15 Lebanon
16 Jersey
17 Albania
18 Bosnia + Herzegovina

Playlist
Recap

Hope that helps people?

QF2 review
Serbia - There was never a chance of this being gentle was there...I like rock with a tune in it, not constant grrgrrgrr. 5
North Africa - Oh. Well, this is actually nice. Not 'woah, this is great', but a good find for this region. 7
Guernsey - Oh dear...sorry, no . 4
Shetland - From the ridiculous to the sublime. Really liking this, like her last one. Should check her other stuff out. 9
Iceland - This is decent, good balance between Icelandic craziness & an accessible song. 8
Ireland - Meh. Not bad, not really grabbing me though. 6
Norway - Hmm, this is a comedown from their last one. Gets going eventually I guess. 6
Switzerland - Why do artists block people from watching on certain devices? I mean, if I was so inclined, I could download it illegally just as easily from my laptop*, so why knowingly turn off a source of exposure? Its'a crazy.
Malta - This is...another standard issue Lauren Aquilina DSFE entry. But at least her standards are quite high. 7
Azores - This is nice & classy isn't it. Very good for the traditionally awful Portugal. 8
Germany - Song of two halves. Great verses. Not great chorus. Help? 7
Vatican City - I love her voice, last in Copenhagen was so unfair. This is a good'un. 9
Cyprus - Dappy I admire the bravery, but no. 4
Lithuania - Well it's better than the last one. Not hard. But it's a bit of a snorer. 5
Georgia - Aww, A-Studio. I'll always have a soft spot for my first ever entry . This is actually very good in its own right. 9
Israel - This is nice & cheery, but nothing exceptional. But it's a decent song, and one in Hebrew too. 7
Belarus - I love how both Azerbaijan & Belarus have Swedish songs . Shame Belarus couldn't find a particularly good one. 6
Gotland - I hope he knows what he's going up against, calling his song Genghis Khan. Not my thing really. 5
*Disclaimer - I wouldn't

Thoughts: QF2
- I'm not seeing the hype for Norway. So it'll win again.
- On the other hand, I'm not seeing the hate for Belarus.
- Emma's back! Unfortunately, the song's bad, but I'll look past that.
- Quite a low standard QF - Germany, Shetlands, Azores and Malta are the stand outs.
- Some atrocities in this QF, although most of them are disposed of before the second half.
- I'm hoping to qualify, although this QF has, imo, my weakest song, so I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't.

QF #3 IS HERE!

NETHERLANDS: Anouk - "Run Away Together"
SVALBARD: Ina Wroldson - "Lay It On Me"
MOLDOVA: Pavel Stratan - "Tango"
ANDORRA: Auryn ft. Anastacia - "Who's Loving You?"
AUSTRALIA: Karisse Eden - "Loneliness"
GREENLAND: Medina - "We Survive"
IRAN: Roya - "Lie"
WALES: Skinny Lister - "Kathy"
BELGIUM: Birdy - "Wild Horses"
POLAND: JoJo - "Save My Soul"
ITALY: Dolcenera - "Ora O Mai Più (Le Cose Cambiano)"
ROMANIA: Ruby - "Tata"
FRANCE: Marina Kaye - "Freeze You Out"
CZECH REPUBLIC: Thom Artway - "Blind Man"
HUNGARY: Margaret Island - "Bolyongó"
WESTERN ASIA: Kanika Kapoor, Ravindra Upadhyay, Miraya Varma, Fateh - "Lovely"
TURKEY: Elif - Als ich fortging
SPAIN: Ana Mena - No Soy Como Tu Crees

QF#3 RECAP
QF#3 PLAYLIST

Here are the rules:

- Please rank the songs above in traditional Eurovision format (12, 10, 8, etc.)
- You cannot vote for your own song. Don't pull that. We'll see you.
- Please submit your votes to me by Friday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. Results will follow shortly after.
- Failure to vote will result in your country's disqualification, so make sure you vote!

QF#4 coming soon!

QF#4 IS BELOW:

LUXEMBOURG: Rene Froger - "Cheer For The Netherlands"
ALAND ISLANDS: Laura Närhi - "Supersankari"
ALGERIA: Chimene Badi - "Les retardataires"
FINLAND: Chisu - "Ihana"
NEW ZEALAND: The Naked and Famous - "I Kill Giants"
SWEDEN: Violet Days - "Screaming Colors"
GIBRALTAR: Foxes - "Cruel"
KALININGRAD: Derevya - "Vintage"
NORTHERN IRELAND: Janet Devlin - "Wonderful"
FAROE ISLANDS: Mø - "Kamikaze"
UKRAINE: MaRina - "On My Way"
SLOVAKIA: Miro Jaros - "Rieka"
PORTUGAL: Dengaz ft. Matay - "Dizer Que Não"
ESTONIA: Lenna - "Suvehommik Setumaal"
LEBANON: Shakira - "Try Everything"
JERSEY: Molly McQueen - "Not The One"
ALBANIA: Ronela Hajati - "Amini"
BOSNIA + HERZEGOVINA: Axel Wolph ft. Madita - "Lights"

QF#4 RECAP
QF#4 PLAYLIST

Here are the rules:

- Please rank the songs above in traditional Eurovision format (12, 10, 8, etc.)
- You cannot vote for your own song. Don't pull that. We'll see you.
- Please submit your votes to me by Friday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. Results will follow shortly after.
- Failure to vote will result in your country's disqualification, so make sure you vote!

Best of luck! Don't forget to vote in the other 3 QFs

Sounds like QF3 is a bloodbath.
I feel sorry for the Bollywood girls as it wouldn't be an uphill battle for them if they're in QF2 instead.

Also Beth, a different IMANY song is in the QF2 playlist.

QFs 3 and 4 look a lot stronger - and my favourite song is in one of them