The second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 is over! Time to look at some facts and give a personal verdict on the show.

The ten happy qualifiers are:

• Latvia
• Georgia
• Bulgaria
• Australia
• Ukraine
• Serbia
• Poland
• Israel
• Lithuania
• Belgium

The ChatVote analysis

Just like after semi-final 1, let’s look at how this result compares to the ChatVote 2016 final.

The chatters probably weren’t as happy last night, as only six ChatVote finalists qualified in the real thing. Belgium, Lithuania, Israel and Georgia didn’t qualify from “our” semi-finals, whereas Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Macedonia got left behind in the real semi-final.

Apart from the 6 automatic finalists in both events, there are now 14 songs that qualified for both the ChatVote 2016 final and the actual Eurovision final.

Felix’s personal verdict

You will be able to read Martin’s and Shi’s personal verdict in their upcoming articles, but for now here is mine.

While I still stick to my view that this Eurovision feels too technical, cold and routinized, I found last night’s show so much better than the first one, in all regards. The entertainment was a bit more charming, the camerawork was a bit better, the general vibe was a bit more friendly. Hosts referring to certain acts is no new thing either, and just like on Tuesday, let me get Ingvild Bryn out of the comparison box again – together with Constantinos. Younger readers might want to watch ESC 1996 to get my reference, but I don’t blame you if you don’t. It’s not worth it to watch a 20-year-old contest just so you get my point. Really.

What I wanted to express here is that I am glad that Eurovision still refers to itself, keeps old elements alive, even if this year doesn’t really feel like “our” Eurovision anymore – or maybe that’s just me getting old.

Back to the songs – I’m certainly not too old for these. Personally, I’m very happy about Latvia, Belgium, Ukraine, Israel, Australia, and especially Bulgaria qualifying.

Now we have a real damn great line-up in the final, and I’m very much looking forward to the final third of the running order, which is going to be quite an epic sequence and should go into the Eurovision history books for its high and entertaining standard. Here’s to Saturday night!