Eurovision 2014 - 06/08/10 May 2014

I'm intrigued by how well Molly will do here. I wasn't 100% on her vocal when she was first revealed, or during the Graham Norton Show, but I'm told she's bloody good now. Hopefully she'll have toned down that Bonnie Tyler edge to her voice.

I should clarify that I quite liked Ireland's song. But that was it. In terms of getting through to the final it couldn't have been any more of a disaster - a lot of aimlessness in the staging and cliches made it feel very 90s. In a weaker year it would probably have been ok but this year's quite strong. I was certain it wasn't going through - actually made a bit of cash off the back of it - and when we got to the tenth act to be announced safe knew it would be Austria rather than Ireland.

The UK's song is not perfect. It's very clinical, very 'put everything into boxes and it'll add up to the right number'. We are still doing what we think Europe wants from us rather than just producing the best song we can. However, the 'power to the people' refrain is catchy as hell, it has that big moment you expect from a Eurovision winner midway through, Molly is unthreatening and appealing ... I still don't think it will win, but if everything just aligns on the night it has a chance. It is a very open year.

I've just seen one of her other songs on youtube (not live) and it sounds a lot better than the UK Eurovision song/way of singing. Vocal range doesn't matter that much - if it's just used to show you can hit those notes. A couple of other of her live songs on youtube didn't sound as good but that could be the way they have the sound set up. It might sound better on the final though. But I still think better singing and better song would have been better and probably less drums but some of the other music in the UK entry was good. But I think Ireland would probably have got a higher score than the current UK entry.

I'm really worried about Austria winning. After a run of music kind of coming back to the forefront of the picture, isn't this just going to put us back several years?

Well the last entry in the line-up can win; Germany was last to perform in 1982 and Luxembourg was last to perform in 1983, and both won.

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 Analysis
Here are all the 26 finalists, in alphabetical order (not order of performance):
Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

Now for the 11 countries who failed to reach the final, but which will still vote tomorrow night:
Albania, Belgium, Estonia, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Georgia, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal.

Now let's look at some country groups:

Baltic States (Ex USSR)
OUT: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
Since these countries won’t now be able to vote for each other, will they give their high points to Finland, or to the ex-USSR finalists?

Benelux
IN: The Netherlands. OUT: Belgium. (Luxembourg didn't enter yet again).
So Netherlands will almost certainly get 12 points from Belgium, but since they won’t now be able to give 12 to Belgium, who will they give 12 to?

Nordic area
IN: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden.
No doubt these five countries will award each other plenty of points tomorrow.

Greece and Cyprus
IN: Greece. (Cyprus didn't enter in 2014).
Who’ll vote for Greece now? They won't have 12 points guaranteed from Cyprus who didn’t enter. Who will Greece give their 12 points to, now they can’t give them to absent Cyprus?

Former Yugoslavia
IN: Montenegro, Slovenia. OUT: F.Y.R. Macedonia. (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia didn't enter in 2014).
No doubt Montenegro and Slovenia will give each other high points, and get high points from Albania and F.Y.R Macedonia, but who else will vote for them? Absent Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia won't be able to give them anything.

Italy and San Marino
IN: Italy, San Marino.
We've never seen Italy and San Marino perform together on a Saturday night before, but this will be an interesting pair to watch out for. Will they award each other 12 points?

Founding Seven
By this I mean the seven countries which appeared in the very first Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano in 1956:
IN: France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland. OUT: Belgium. (Luxembourg didn't enter yet again).

And Finally
Tomorrow’s Grand Final looks set to be spectacular. Most countries I wanted to qualify are in, and most of the ones I didn't want have been eliminated. I still think Belgium and Portugal deserved the places taken by Azerbaijan and Armenia Tuesday; and that Israel and Ireland deserved the places taken by Poland and Greece last night.

More of my comments about the above groups are on my blog
Nemesis Nick's Blog: Eurovision Song Contest 2014 Analysis

The final scoreboard:
http://s7.directupload.net/images/140509/k9g2fj73.jpg

http://oi59.tinypic.com/2natni1.jpg

Slight tweak to the layout of points 1-7:
http://i59.tinypic.com/23trwja.jpg

I can imagine that'll make the 1-7 a little trickier although hopefully they're doing this so that there's a bit more banter between the hosts and the spokespersons given that they seemed to strictly clampdown on that from 2010 onwards.

First time ever that the female co-host has not presided over the voting? The only exception would be the first contest in 1956 when Lohengrin Filipello presented by himself.

Once the clear winner is announced, are they going to do the same as last year and continue with the votes from the countries left? I guess it depends if they're short on time or not...

Well you'd hope so, you'd be annoyed if you'd voted and your countries points where left off the show, you'd also be annoyed if you were someone working on the production for a broadcaster that didn't get to give their votes out.


Also wasn't it partly logistical last year as the winner had so far to go?

I think they will always continue with the voting irrespective of timings - even after announcing a winner (once their lead is unassailable)