Eurovision 2011

It's that time of the year again, Eurovision 2011 in Dusseldorf will start this week with the first semi final on Tuesday at 21:00 CET (or 3 PM EST), second semi final on Thursday & the final on Saturday same time

This year has 43 participating countries, four more then last year with the return of Austria, San Marino, Hungary, & Italy (who is now in the "big 5")

Here are the countries in their semi and the song & artist representing in order

Semi Final 1

Poland: Jetstem- Magdalena Tul
Norway: Haba Haba- Stella Mwangi
Albania: Feel the Passion- Aurela Gace
Armenia: Boom Boom- Emmy
Turkey: Live it Up- Yüksek Sadakat
Serbia: Caroban- Nina
Russia: Get You- Alexej Vorobjov
Switzerland: In love for awhile- Anna Rossinelli
Georgia: One More Day- Eldrine
Finland: Da Da Dam- Paradise Oskar
Malta: One Life- Glen Vella
San Marino: Stand By- Senit
Croatia: Celebrate- Daria
Iceland: Coming Home- Sjonni's Friends
Hungary: What about my dreams?- Kati Wolf
Portugal: Luta é alegria- Homens Da Luta
Lithunia: C'est ma vie- Evelina Sašenko
Azerbaijan: Running Scared- Ell & Nikki
Greece: Watch my Dance- Loucas Yiorkas Feat. Stereo Mike

Semi Final 2
Bosina & Herzegovina: Love in Rewind- Dino Merlin
Austria: The secret is love- Nadine Belier
Netherlands: Never Alone- 3JS
Belguim: With Love- Witloof Bay
Slovakia: I'm Still Alive- TWiiNS
Ukraine: Angels- Mika Newton
Moldova: So Lucky- Zdob si Zdub
Sweden: Popular- Eric Saade
Cyprus: San Aggelos S'Agapisa- Christos Mylordos
Bulgaria: Na Inat- Poli Genova
FYR Macedonia: Rusinka- Vlatko Ilievski
Israel: Ding Dong- Dana International
Slovenia: No One- Maja Keuc
Romania: Change- Hotel FM
Estonia: Rockafeller Street- Getter Jaani
Belarus: I Love Belarus- Anastasiya Vinnikova
Lativa: Angel in Disguise- Musiqq
Denmark: New Tomorrow- A Friend in London
Ireland: Lipstick- Jedward

Final
France: Songu- Amaury Vassili
Italy: Madness of Love- Raphael Gualazzi
United Kingdom: I Can- Blue
Germany: Taken By a Stranger- Lena
Spain: Que me quiten lo bailao- Lucia Perez

Who are your favorites & who do you want to win this year?

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UK might not do that badly this year, holy shit.

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The UK is one of the many favorites to win this year, along with France (being the #1 favorite), Bosnia, Sweden, Germany, Azerbaijan, Estonia & Hungary.

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Can't see it with Bosnia. I don't get it. Azerbaijan too, that's a bit dull.

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In my opinion, I think this year winner might be Estonia or Hungary, and for some reason, I really hope that Slovenia & Austria make it to the top 10 this year, they are both fantastic live singers & deserve it this year. Who knows, maybe Germany can win again (yet I'm really not fond of Taken By a Stranger)

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I'd quite like Hungary winning. Because we've never really HAD a Eurodance track winning. 2001's wasn't brilliant. I don't even remember that one.

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2001 winner isn't my favorite out of the past years winners. Judging how the last two year winners are, who are young performers (Alexander Rybak was 19-20 when he won? & Lena was 18-19 when she won last year) it might be another young winner

The first semi final is live now! http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv

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The french song is very good. But it's corsican, not really french, what a pity

But Corsican is a part of french so ...

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I think its unique that its in Corsican, it sounds very fancy. The singer reminds me of Josh Groban if anyone knows who he is

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Sognu of France makes me goosebumped. Nice to hear, ala Josh Groban but in alto voice.

Finland keeps getting a cheer from the crowd whenever the clip gets shown again. Interesting. Very 'Me and my guitar' from last year.

Finland was very good, I can see them being a dark horse this year.

Here's who I want to make it to the final

Norway
Serbia
Hungary
Turkey
Azerbaijan
Amernia
San Marino
Switzerland
Iceland
Finland or Albania

Official Finalist (in random order)
1. Serbia
2. Lithunia
3. Greece
4. Azerbaijan
5. Georgia
6. Switzerland (I'm surprised they made it!)
7. Hungary (YES!)
8. Finland
9. Russia (not a shocker in my opinion)
10. Iceland

Shocking results in my opnion. I am extremely surprised that Turkey, Norway & Albania did not make it this year

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Turkey didn't qualify (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Greece did (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Anyway, with my verrry sophisticated marking out of ten system, I got seven out of ten right. Turkey, Albania and San Marino were in my ten (Turkey was top!), and I missed out Iceland, Lithuania and Greece.

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I'm quite shocked also Lithuania & Iceland made it, my guess is the jury saved them. San Marino had an great performance too, sad to see them not qualify =( Of course Greece & Russia was going to make it, specially Russia.

Also did commentators say about the backstory to Iceland entry about the original performer of the song Sjonni Brink dying before his national final performance & his friends performed in his honor, beating out the favorite Yohanna. Random viewing, I realized everytime Iceland is in the final, they are usually the last one to be announced to the final

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Iceland was probably saved by the sob story.

Turkey's elimination means that the diaspora voting is steadily going away. Sadly, for fans of good music, the Islamic diaspora fell between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Armenia rather than the Aegean involving Greece and the 495 countries it borders, meaning that Turkey is gone, but not Greece.

Turkey had a contortionist woman in a Gladiators Atlasphere who turns into a phoenix! What the hell is wrong with that!?

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I liked Turkey entry this year, wasn't like Manga last year, but it was enjoyable

Thinking about it, Azerbaijan now have to give their 12 points to someone else besides Turkey for once in the finals (probably give it to Greece & LOL Cyprus gives 12 points as usual)

I think Armenia should had gone with Ayo instead of Boom Boom

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There's no way in hell Turkey's friends would give Greece anything (they've not gotten over the whole war involving Cyprus, and I don't think they ever will, really). I think they'd either give them to Cyprus or (shock) give them to the best song.

Also Armenia won't give points to Azerbaijan. I remember in 2009 a news report on an Azerbaijani man being questioned by the goverment on why he voted for Armenia. Honestly.

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That is Cyrpus makes it to the final this year, they barley made it to the final last year (beating Sweden by 5 points, I still think Sweden should made it last year >__>) Second semi final could be anyones game now, if Norway & Turkey couldn't make it, who knows can make it on Thursday (Hoping Austria & Slovakia make it this year)

There was a huge controversial moments between Armenia & Azerbaijan in 2009 relating to Eurovision. Azerbaijan blurred out the number for Armenia if I can recall.

Speaking of the second semi, this is my list of who I want to make it to the final
Austria
Slovakia
Slovenia
Estonia
Denmark
Netherlands
Romania
Sweden
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Cyprus
Latvia, Moldova or Ireland (preferably Lativa)

Oh & forgot to post about the number positions for the first semi winners for the final performance

Serbia- 24
Georgia- 25
Switzerland- 13
Hungary- 5 (yikes)
Lithuania- 4
Greece- 9
Azerbaijan- 19
Finland- 1
Russia- 10
Iceland- 21

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Yeah, Cyprus probably wouldn't get to the final. Have you seen their entry? Their video is hilariously bad.

Anyway, I haven't seen much of the second semi list at all, but I just want to see Netherlands through (as it's the best song they've done in YEARS) and Ireland on the first plane home. Sweden and Romania getting through would be good, too.

I believe that should Sweden get through the semi, they may just end up winning. But I said that about Belgium last year, and well, yeah.

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Vocal wise, Cyprus is impressive, but song wise, it's ok. If it makes it to the final, it would be over the mark

Agreed with Netherlands, it would be great to see them in the finals! If Sweden makes it, I won't be surprised, Eric Saade is a good singer, just hope he can pull it off like he did in Melodifestivalian, plus he's been having some problems with the glass cage trick when in rehearsals like this one (In my opinion he's relying on that too much instead of vocal wise)

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