Thursday featured 18 countries competing for the last 10 slots in Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Grand Final. Who made the cut?<!--more-->
Another exciting Eurovision semi-final and another satisfying list of qualifiers came out of Thursday's broadcast from Stockholm, Sweden. Like Tuesday, 18 countries competed for 10 slots. Unlike Tuesday, this one was chock full of challengers to Russia, Armenia, and Malta for the ultimate goal of winning this year's Contest. Here are the 10 countries that qualified in the order they were announced:
- Latvia
- Georgia((!!!))
- Bulgaria
- Australia
- Ukraine
- Serbia
- Poland
- Israel
- Lithuania
- Belgium
Based on Thursday's performances, this feels like the correct list of qualifiers. Switzerland, Ireland, and Denmark offered some fine but unremarkable renditions of their entries. Slovenia and Albania never had momentum, though the song from the former grew in popularity among the WEIO team. Norway's Agnete offered a cookie cutter version of her national final performance, which offered nothing new to entice the viewer. FYR Macedonia had a particularly rough performance, ending with Kaliopi's trademark scree -- which doesn't really fit with "Dona." IVAN from Belarus appeared to have been overtaken by nerves during his performance, which underwhelmed. The rumors of his naked with wolves gameplan did lead to this delightful moment, so...thanks, Belarus!
The biggest surprise of the night came from Georgia, whose performance complemented the rock track perfectly. Thomas G:son, who is also heavily involved with the entry from Cyprus, will have two rock songs competing in the Eurovision final.
In terms of predictions, Team WEIO did okay. Lithuania and Georgia took the slots we gave to FYR Macedonia and Norway, but there are no complaints about that trade.((Other than none of us picked Lithuania to advance.))
In the next few hours we should learn what the running order will be for the Grand Final. The dress rehearsal and jury vote will take place Friday evening. Then it is on to Saturday, where one of the 26 finalists will win the Eurovision Song Contest. Are you excited? Good.