Eurovision in Baku 2012! (IX)

Continue in this post my comments to the performances of the finalists. Then I will analyze the votes.



Despite all the surprises - many unexpected - at least the victory was well assigned.

Romania 12th place - 71 points: the big summer hit in the Eurovision this year, managed to stay in the first half of the ratings table. When I hear this song, I associate it with the music that Jessy Matador led in 2010 to represent France, of course that both the music and the performance of Jessy were better (although they have been precisely the same place).
It was a moment full of energy. Moreover, the energy was so much that all was not passed out by the vocalist Mandiga.
There were some parts of the song that Elena Ionescu seemed tired, and went too static for this song. But in fact, when it moved the pitch slipping. Between the pitch and the dance, the choice was complicated: perhaps this explains the discomfort of Elena during the performance.

Denmark 23 th place - 21 points: For me it was one more major negative surprises of the night. Soluna Samay was one of the great worthy of the final, despite being in 9th place in the semifinals, was a passage almost to the letter. The unique and different style very pleased me. The funny thing, and that may have affected the whole performance was the disposition of the different band members: with the drummer was craziness, but with the young of the cello was the despair! All right that with the battery was easier to express joy in this music, but the young man could well be less tragic.
And I felt sorry that during the music, Soluna had not removed his hat as he did before.
In short, a performance considered one of the candidates for a place at the TOP (away from the successes of 2010 and 2011), and I can not explain such a bad result, despite the vocal problems that persisted until the end of the song. While all the claims of Soluna to say that she believed would bring victory to Denmark, gave an image of convinced and arrogance did not sit well who must have heard it.

Greece 17th place - 64 points: For me the result of Greece was neither good nor bad - it was a shock to the extent that Greece brokes its remarkable record of being the only one taking part since there are semifinals, was until this year always in TOP10. The only record holder that remains is Azerbaijan, but it denuted much later - in 2008.
It was a performance that can be described with one word: sensuality. And in fact the name of the song invited to it.
In the semifinal I found it worse than Cyprus, but in the final was the opposite. I thought the choreography too exaggerated and a good part of it was pathetic. And Eleftheria was much helped by the lady who did voice choir.
I believe that without juries, Greece would have a better result, but do not know if it would keep the record.

Turkey 7th place - 112 points: Turkey was again in the Eurovision TOP, getting a much better place than most of the bets predicted. A performance well-prepared and relaxed. Again Can Bonomo showed his charisma and originality. The voice was acceptable.
This year's strong diaspora was not sufficient to assign 12 points to Turkey, which were only given by its neighbor, Azerbaijan (for a change!). The traditional countries that tend to give many points to Turkey (Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and France - the first time since 2004 that Turkey, being in the end not received 12 points from France), gave much less than usual, which proves that the juries in those countries were not in line with the wishes of the public, as often happens.

Spain 10th place - 97 points: nice voice and reasonable performance, perhaps overly tragic at times

Germany 8th place - 110 points: Another pleasant surprise of the night. Germany was one of my BIG5 favorite, and liked very much that he had stayed in TOP10. The simple performance worked well, able to focus attention on Roman Lob. It was a performance worthy of a pop concert that provided a pleasant time. And this time I did not think so unbearable he repeated so often "Sanding Still", as in the official videoclip.
But after so many favorites have been classified so badly, I am amazed about the good classification of Germany. Well, if it is true that the gay public vote massively in Eurovision, associated to young women who must also make a contribution at the time of voting, is explained some of the success of "Still Standing" (without removing quality from the performance Roman Lob).

Malta 21th place - 41 points: I say as many times as begin nedded: all the effort to turn a banal song with nothing special, in a serious candidate has brought good results. In general Kurt and his band were well. Unfortunately, as much as effort being made​​, the average quality of the music hardly  provide a top position to Malta.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 13th place - 71 points: although I feel the music an interesting proposal, and recognize the vocal qualities of Kaliopi, not left to be surprised by the classification of Macedonia. The absence of much competition in the Balkans (with Slovenia out the final and the poor performance of Bosnia), the chances of a good place to Macedonia rose sharply.
As I said, music was very original and always showed a consistent Kaliopi, owner of a good vocal apparatus, although in times of agitation have left she very afflicted.
The mixture of rhythms could have been better achieved, but the whole was acceptable.

Ireland 19th place - 46 points: the exotic twins were there, but they left at home almost all the good things that led to Dusseldorf last year.
The "big crazzies" of the night, followed the line of last year, its right, but with a less original and charismatic music. This song more "serious" brought out of water (not the subject of the music was Waterline) the vocal problems of Jedward. The chorus was better than last year, but still left much to be desired.
Overall, the performance did not disappoint, but left much to be desired.

Serbia 3rd place - 214 points: Another of the big winners of the night, earned the bronze medal, which was not surprising because almost everyone put Željko Joksimović in TOP3 in the the final.
More Balkan than that was impossible. A good voice and an interesting ballad. I'm sorry to the huge legion of fans of Željko, but I can not see why so much excitement around this gentleman and this song.

Ukraine 15 place - 65 points: After the huge success of last year, Ukraine fell to mid-table. Gaitana again showed her charisma and strong and well-disposed personality.
However, the fact that represent Ukraine helped ther o achieve a classification reasonable in view of the weakness of the music.
It was a very pleasant moment that transmitted energy. All the background work, was one of the best in Eurovision this year.

Moldova 11th place - 81 points: the night of performances ended with a song well-disposed but, unlike the general opinion, the choreography for me ruined a song with a unique style and well-disposed.
Again, Moldova can thank the diaspora and the neighborhood so good classification.


As for the voting after the results coming out, the surprises continue. In addition to the bad results that I mentioned in the case of Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Norway and Denmark), to the surprise of many, the songs taken as the worst of this edition - Montenegro, San Marino and Georgia - were not in last place of the semifinals: far from it! San Marino got the amazing 14th place, Montenegro the no less amazing 15th place (in the latter case the music was pretty funny, but destroyed everything bad performance). Even Israel, which featured a song that was definitely not the kind who eurofans liked, finished in 13th place. These three countries have managed to stay ahead of Belgium which, despite the feeble music, was represented by the beautiful voice of Iris. I agree with who have said that Belgium continues to participate for sportsmanship.
And despite the vocal quality of Rona, the 2nd place to Albania in the semifinal for me it was unexpected.
As for Georgia, managed the prodigious 14th place, just three points from Portugal, and well ahead of Slovenia that was ... in 17th place! At least in Switzerland, managed to stay in 11th place on 7 points for the 10th ranked, Hungary.
These polls were even madness.

As for the final, the best moment for me was, of course, the succession of 12 points awarded to Sweden. Until the voting of Italy I kept the hope that Sweden obtained the record of all countries to vote on it. Still, it was great to see that all over Europe, from Russia to Spain, Iceland and Ireland surrendered to Loreen and her "Euphoria". And this time, despite not having broken the record for Alexander Rybak in 2009, the votes were much more concentrated in Sweden, who received 12 point more countries, including all its neighbors (which did not happen with Norway in 2009 ) and from other countries in 2009 have not allocated 12 points to Norway, like France, Belgium, Ireland, UK, Slovakia and Finland.

As for the runners, the nice ladies from Russia, I knew they would be the delirious in the televoting, but never thought it was also so voted by the jury as to the point of being in 2nd place. Despite the joy that music brought  and the whole message forwarded to the public, that we must never stop fighting regardless of our age, the truth is that this is primarily a music contest and good voices was penalized by the sympathy these ladies have caused. Obviously I'm not blaming them: they were not guilty of the votes the people gave to them.

As for the third place, all the sympathy that the singer and the country have in Europe, together with the existence of little good competition from Balkan neighboring, allowed that both from the Balkans and the countries where there a lot of serbian diaspora (such as Switzerland and Austria) Serbian was highly scored.

But I thought the voting too fast and without any emotions. There was the usual thriller or interaction between spokespersons and presenters. Still, the best spokesperson for me was Sarah Dawn Finer, who announced the swedish votes and that gave one of the most hilarious and well-disposed moments of the night, much better than in 2009.
Of course Mr. Lordi from Finland was not anything behind her, with all the characteristics he gave to the most voted by Finland.
And I have to make even a reference to the votes of Germany, announced by Anke Engelke, one of the co-presenters of last year's edition. Her assertion that we can have a good choice and good wishes for the journey of Azerbaijan, Europe is watching them, was a clear reference to all the political problems that were associated with this issue.

Beginning with the "forced" withdrawal of Armenia who did not feel that his company would be safe to move to the country who has great animosity, passing to the threats against the winner, Loreen, by her attitude that they did not please to the government, without forget the news come from journalists, members of delegations or simply foreign supporters were assaulted and abused, and of course, what I HERE said about the threats against the gay community who often watch live the Eurovision, which ended up destroying two sites on the contest.

Congratulations to Loreen for the performance, and also for having presented us with sentences like this "Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan Every Day. One Should not be silent about such things." Which was the answer she gave against the attacks made by members of azeri government after Loreen having met with human rights activists who by coincidence were opponents of the current government, which led to the request for the removal Sweden from final by violating a nonsensical and unfounded  rule (perhaps Azerbaijan was eliminating competition for achieve the 2nd consecutive win ...).

And now its finished this marathon of five months in which I was commenting the choices of each country and bringing other news that might arise.
For those who have asked me where I get so much information, my sources were WIKIPEDIA and the EUROVISION OFFICIAL SITE, and of course my personal opinion and everything I have seen in previous editions.
And it seems that readers adhere well to my work. Last Saturday (19th) on the eves of Eurovision starts, the total views of my blog urpassed a bit the 8000 views. Today at dawn surpassed 10,700 views!
At this time among the 10 most viewed posts ever, only two do not relate to the Eurovision. Of course, the most viewed of all is the message with I comment the choices of Sweden and Russia, which already exceeds the 300 views, but beware - here are only counted people who will go straight to the message by search engines, not who also saw the message after being on the blog.

For nearly two months the most popular words in the search engines and giving access to this blog was "Tooji". Has now been largely superseded by "Loreen euphoria". The second expression is "Loreen euphoria cover". Also the expression "eurovision 2012 Loreen" is among the 10 words that have more access to my blog for search engines.

Before starting the marathon comments on European football, I pause the introduction of so many posts on my blog (yes, I have life beyond this!!!) and for a while I talk about what is right in fashion: the sovereign debt crisis! As for Eurovision, if not anything extraordinary happens, I will be back in December when they start editing the choices for 2013. Until then, I leave the news that there are already 14 countries confirmed for the ESC2013: Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden (host) and Switzerland.