Nick: I’m not entirely sure what the Leskovac style actually is, but these are the 36th country to rehearse and I’m rapidly running out of serving suggestions. I like this. It’s cute. There’s a very odd visual effect at the start, where at first it looks like water’s condensing on and then running down the camera lens, but it turns out that it’s all being projected onto the video wall. The rascals! It’s a very wet looking video wall generally, so I hope nobody’s needing a toilet break at this stage, it’s quite off-putting. They’re now trying one with some completely different watery effects. It’s all plinky-plonky Greek taverna, but Evdokia Kadi is in good voice, the staging (replete with four backing singers/dancers and a guitarist) is just-complicated-enough-to-be-interesting-without-looking-over-the-top, and it’s the complete opposite of Semifinal 1. I’ve got 15 songs in my Top 10 here, and there are still another two to come. Complicated!
Franko: More ‘Moia Stikla’ than ‘My Number One’ but harmless enough. I don’t mind it but it’s slightly too ethnic to qualify I think. They do some pleasant Zorba type dancing but then part way through the song she gets on a table and the four male backers pull bits of red cloth from off the table. I don’t quite see the point anymore than I understand most things about this whole ESC experience this year but I’m sure it makes perfect sense in Nicosia… sorry Larnaca. Get some plates out and smash them, it would be very appropriate during this performance. Meanwhile back luck Cyprus, try again in next year’s semi finals.
Phil: Now up until three minutes ago, I thought this was the worst song in the contest. I was clearly wrong. This is actually quite a damn good song in an “I am not supposed to like this” kind of way. However, it is full of stupid-ness and it is just the wrong side of errrrr for it to fail badly. Sorry