Lopez Blogs

Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that I predicted one too many qualifiers for tonight's semi-final. I obviously didn't notice till tonight ha ha....

Anyway that aside, I'm drowning in a river of Alexander Rybak-esque self-satisfaction on realising that I got most of my predictions right, although that necessarily doesn't mean that they were my favourite songs.

Tonight's show was all "show" and some very poor vocal performances.

Even the favourites couldn't escape the curse: Alexander wasn't perfect - although he's still my tip to win - and Sakis was drowned out by his backing vocalists...and left me cold.

Elsewhere:

Serbia not qualifying - what a shock! Do people not like joke entries anymore? (They must do...Ukraine got through after all)

Ireland: what more do they have to do? That Pink/Kelly Clarkson/Avril Lavigne style is still very big in Europe - but Eurovision plays by some very different rules.

Slovakia/Slovenia/Latvia: some very painful moments tonight, maybe not in the class of Bulgaria 2009 but ran it pretty close.

Poland - this was a major surprise for me as it wasn't actually that bad.

Lithuania - strange song. Lots of words and not much of a tune, but the subtlety and the hand-on-fire gimmick must have been enough.

Estonia - A bewitching and subtle song sung by a captivating girl with fabulous hair. A very nice change from many of tonight's choreographed-to-death circus acts.

Denmark - one of my pre-contest favourites, but holding something back. Hopefully he will find the magic again in the final.

Hungary - On record this is fabulous, but tonight he fell victim to the off-key curse. I've got the Kleenex here Rachel, if you fancy sharing a box with me. Saturday night won't be the same without him. (Of course there is always Regina, singing, as my mum calls it, "the battle hymn of the republic" lol)

I still think Norway will win, which probably means they won't.

Oh, and I think Royaume-Uni might just spring a surprise: I may not particularly like the pile-of-mince that is "It's My Time" but the one thing you can say is that it has a memorable chorus. Which is more than can be said for many of this year's contenders.