Yes we’re starting and Moldova’s sunstroke have taken to the stage. Except no one could possibly get sunstroke in Oslo at the moment as it’s been hammering down for the last two days. Moist is how I’d describe it if I was going to be kind to our hosts. We’re also considerably poorer as a result of dining out twice and doing two lots of shopping.
Back to the music and my suspicions during previews that Moldova are easy qualifiers is well founded. They’ve got the plum draw in what is a dreadful semi final on the whole. A good bouncy lively performance reminiscent of first songs of past years such as Iceland 2008, Cyprus 1997 and 2002 means this is going to get the whole thing off to dashed good start. Good choreography, fiddles, manic expressions and a pretty girl singer are all the ingredients needed to get you past some the dirges it will be competing against. The stage is almost as impressive as Moscow and serves our Moldovan friends well in their performance. The male vocalist will be enough to sink it in the final, but let’s not get to that fun part of the proceedings just yet. If you were looking for a will to live in semi final one, this is it.
Unfortunately we have seven other performers coming today and not all of them would be recommended for the Samaritans switchboard on hold tune. Speaking of which I see some Russians coming….