Martin (12:20)

The day after a Eurovision semi-final is always an interesting time. Hangovers are nursed, and not only literally – although while we’re on the subject, we did have a very late night in the Euro Fan Cafe enjoying the Macedonian/Bulgarian party and the “Balkan” DJ set that followed (Azerbaijan is not in the Balkans, people!). Got the opportunity to meet Esma (!) and groove along to a full set of drumming and wailing by Elitsa and Stoyan, which was surprisingly fun. Maybe it was just the bucketloads of wine coursing through our veins by that point.

But the hangovers have also hit home in the psyche of the non-qualifying countries. The “Balkan wipeout” in semi 1 met with surprise and shock in the respective local media sources, as you can see from clicking on the montage below (OK, we couldn’t really find anything for Cyprus).

So what does this all mean? Certainly, a huge number of Balkan votes are now up for grabs in the final – if Macedonia can somehow qualify tomorrow night, they could be in for their best ever result. And if not, will Saturday be a particularly fertile night for the likes of Bulgaria or, in particular, Greece?

We’ll take a look at the betting situation on Friday in our now-traditional review of the various odds that are available for those wishing to put a bit of money on the contest. For now, it’s time to prepare for this evening’s first dress rehearsal of semi 2 – which we will, of course, be live-blogging – and time for me to move to a new apartment for the last four days of the stay here. See you from the new sofa!

Felix (14:33)

I am now back to the press centre and want to apologize that we haven’t done any coverage of the Big 5 + Sweden this morning, but personal things have come in the way. But now we are back to prepare for the first dress rehearsal of the second semi-final!

“We Are One” works very well so far. It comes close to “Share The Moment”, in its meaning and in the experience on site. I think both contests, 2010 and 2013 can be compared.

A few words about last night:

We were quite average with our prediction. Danny got 7/10 right, both, Martin and I got 8/10, making it a total of 23/30. Personally, I think, the biggest shame about the results is, that Montenegro didn’t qualify. It would have been an important part in the final to make the contest younger and cooler, but now it’s left out. Otherwise, I’m very happy with the result, and I regret it a lot, that I didn’t film the reaction in the press centre, when Netherlands was announced as last qualifier.

Felix (15:26)

Did I talk about my favourite Eurovision dancefloor ever yet?

It’s all around the central station. At every exit/entrance, they set up colourful lights and play random Eurovision songs loudly over the speakers. So far, we already danced to Armenia 2010 and Netherlands 2012, and you can still use the bus stop as dance floor as well. Definitely worth a try.

[singlepic id=4895 w=500 float=none]

Felix (15:41)

Talking about predictions, the OGAE prediction poll in the press centre got 8/10 right (with Austria and Serbia missing).

[singlepic id=4898 w=500 float=none]

The press centre applause meter got the same score (with Cyprus and either Slovenia or Montenegro missing), as did we in average, even though there was no qualifier who was missing on the list of at least one of us.

Now let’s already have a look on the OGAE prediction for tomorrow, before the first dress rehearsal begins:

[singlepic id=4899 w=500 float=none]

According to this, Hungary, Macedonia (and thus the whole of the ex-Yugoslav countries), Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Latvia would be out of the contest. At this point, I think some people will be surprised about Hungary doing well. We’ll see what the standings are after the dress rehearsal!

Martin (18:50)
Due to various personal reasons (including the aforementioned house-move), we were unable to get to this morning’s second set of rehearsals by the “big 5” and Sweden – but we can recommend the overview by Daniel Gould at Sofabet, always an intelligent commentator on these kinds of things. Check it out here.