Venue: Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Hosts: Edsilia Rombley, Chantal Janzen, Jan Smit, Nikkie de Jager
Green Room:
Date: Tuesday 18 May 2021
N.B. Any use of "tonight" or "this evening" throughout this post means Tuesday 18 May 2021. All times in this post are in BST.
The Opening
After the initial opening sequence, the first semi-final began with the 2019 winner, Duncan Laurence performing The Songs
Eleven minutes after the start of the show (20:?? BST) it was time for the first song. Each song was introduced by a postcard film related to the appropriate country.Song 1: Lithuania - The Roop “Discoteque”
#LTU It’s always difficult being first to perform, but this is a very lively, catchy song to start the night. I particularly like the chorus “Let's discoteque right at my home, It is okay to dance alone, I got the moves, it's gonna blow”. That’s a really catchy moment, the perfect hook for this song. To me it has a hidden meaning. The way I see it is this; due to lockdowns from time to time the past year, people have been unable to go to discos / nightclubs to dance with their friends, so the chorus gives the message that it’s acceptable for one to dance alone at home. Unsurprisingly, the group, who were dressed in their yellow outfits, danced along during the choruses. The visual effects were amazing too. I definitely want this in the final, and this will almost certainly be there. See you Saturday, The Roop.Song 2: Slovenia - Ana Soklič “Amen”
#SVN First off, it’s ironic that this is titled “Amen” and not “Hallelujah”, because there are a lot more instances of “Hallelujah” than “Amen”, and furthermore the instances of “Hallelujah” are more dominant than “Amen”. A reasonable song, and Ana has quite a good voice, but her style of singing during the bridge was too over-powering; I think that spoilt the song. As far as staging goes, I like the starry effect in the background. I wouldn’t mind this in the Grand Final, but I won’t miss it if it’s not there.Song 3: Russia - Manizha “Russian Woman”
#RUS What on Earth, in the world, is this? The only bits which resemble singing, and which I sort of like, are the bits starting “Boryut·sya, boryut·sya”. I like the way the second of those is accompanied by rows of faces on the background screens. The rest of the performance is what I call an utter mess; hardly a song. The costumes are good though, and I like the way messages appear on the background screens. Russia is certainly being adventurous sending something as unusual as this to Eurovision. This is one of the entries I least want in the final, but mark my words, it’ll almost certainly be there. See you Saturday Manizha.Song 4: Sweden - Tusse “Voices”
#SWE I watched Melodifestivalen 2021 Final live online from the UK, Although I ranked Tusse second on My Eurovision Scoreboard that night, I’m nonetheless pleased to see this at Eurovision tonight. This is impressive right from the very beginning. The chorus is really powerful and memorable. Altogether this has everything; Tusse has a good voice, it’s a well-structured song which is powerful and memorable enough to keep people listening from start to finish. The staging, including lighting effects, in Rotterdam is even more impressive than at Melodifestivalen. I’d definitely like this in the Grand Final, and it has a strong chance of being there.Song 5: Australia - Montaigne “Technicolour”
#AUS Australia has had to use a live-on-tape performance, due to travel restrictions, but it’s still impressive. Another lively entry, Montaigne was accompanied on stage by three dancers, and the lighting effects were amazing. My only dislike is the song structure, I think there are too many different styles of singing into the verses. Nonetheless Montaigne demonstrates her ability to sing in those styles. The chorus is catchy, I like the way she sings “Techni-technicolour” rather than just Technicolour; perhaps it’s to have a greater impact. I wouldn’t mind seeing this in the final.Song 6: North Macedonia - Vasil “Here I Stand”
#MKD A beautiful, operatic ballad from North Macedonia. Vasil has an excellent voice, and demonstrates his amazing ability to vary his voice in the manner he does. This is well staged too, varying from near dark to amazing visual effects in the background. I’d like to see this in the Grand Final, but realistically it’s unlikely to be there.A short break followed at this point.
Song 7: Ireland - Lesley Roy “MAPS”
#IRL I quite liked this song during the preview video, but I’m disappointed with her live performance. The staging consists of cut-outs, all of which of are off-white, which isn’t bad, but it could have been better. It’s probably best if this song stays out of Saturday’s Grand Final.Song 8: Cyprus - Elena Tsagrinou “El Diablo”
#CYP I had mixed opinions on this whilst watching the preview video. I’m not at all keen on the verses, which seem to be a cross between singing and rap. However, I quite like the choruses, which are lively with a good beat; I like the flame effects on the background screens during the last chorus. Altogether a lively banger of an entry from Cyprus. I think I’d prefer this not to qualify, but mark my words, it’ll be in the Grand Final no problem.Song 9: Norway - TIX “Fallen Angel”
#NOR I watched MGP Norway live online from the UK. Just like the MGP performance, TIX has his angel wings, and chains between his wrtists and the stage. I like the light beams on the background screens, the lighting effects on the stage floor, and flame effects at various points in the song. I’d like to see this in the Grand Final, but I fear this being a doubtful qualifier.Song 10: Croatia - Albina “Tick-Tock”
#CRO A disco style song from Croatia. I like the way the chorus has a regular beat sound, presumably that’s to resemble the ticking of a clock. Interestingly, one chorus is sung in Croatian, whilst most of the song is in English. Altogether a lively, catchy song, well staged, and accompanied by dancing. I’d like to see this in the Grand Final.Song 11: Belgium - Hooverphonic “The Wrong Place”
#BEL A ballad from Belgium. In the preview video, I thought the instances of “last night” overpowered the rest of the words within the first and second verses. The instances of “last night” seem a bit toned down by comparison, but I still think the lead singer’s voice isn’t strong enough during the verses. The choruses were better, but on the whole, I’m disappointed with this song. I’m surprised strobe lighting was used in some parts of this song; I feel they were totally inappropriate for this ballad. One unexpected surprise was seeing the upright piano and drumkit onstage, but no doubt they were only being mimed. I have my doubts as to whether this will qualify, because it’s a forgettable song, between the upbeat songs from Croatia and Israel; in any case “The Wrong Place” is a song I’d rather not see in the final.Song 12: Israel - Eden Alene “Set Me Free”
#ISR This has a relatively slow start, but from the line “Feeling like in prison” Eden sings at a faster pace, and in a bouncy manner, which I like. This verse is accompanied by a good beat. Once this verse ends, there is an extended length chorus; however, the first four lines are the same as the four-line chorus which appeared earlier. This extended length chorus includes a few more “I'ma I'ma Ah” lines and two other Hebrew lines. The extra lines are accompanied by a good beat. Another lively, catchy song, I’d like this in the final.A short break followed at this point.
Song 13: Romania - ROXEN “Amnesia”
#ROU Romania has gone for a ballad this year. Roxen has a good voice, and “Amnesia” is quite a nice song, but I don’t think her voice was strong enough. As far as staging goes, I liked the on-stage cloud effects early on. However, I feel the brief use of strobe lighting was unnecessary for this style of song.Song 14: Azerbaijan - Efendi “Mata Hari”
#AZE The song opens with the title, "Mata Hari", and after some eastern style instruments, the first verse follows. The eastern style instruments can be heard during the first verse and the pre-chorus. Interestingly the pre-chorus includes the line “Just like Cleopatra”; effectively the title of last year’s song has been included in this year’s song again. The final line of the pre-chorus, which presumably is performed by the backing group, is “Yalan da men, yanan da men, yaman da men”. I like the way that’s been included, it adds to the eastern style of the song. The chorus is entirely made up of the title “Mata Hari” (some lines are preceded by Ma-Ma-Ma), and is accompanied by a good beat, and more use of eastern style instruments. Altogether the chorus is catchy and memorable.Song 15: Ukraine - Go_A “Shum”
#UKR When I first heard the preview video for A “Shum”, it sounded to me like a Chinese / Japanese style song. I’ve since found out this is Ukranian folk, but anyway, it certainly sounds unusual. The song speeds up considerably towards the end, and just like the preview video, the final word is performed at a high pitch. The staging is excellent too, both the imitation bushes on stage, and the impressive background images. This isn’t my cup of tea, and I’d rather it didn’t qualify, but it almost certainly will.Song 16: Malta - Destiny “Je Me Casse”
#MLT The final song of tonight’s semi-final already, it’s surprising how time flies! This was the favourite to win outright recently, but has since slipped in the odds. I prefer tonight’s live performance of this song to the preview video. Destiny was accompanied on stage by dancers, and the staging was impressive. Altogether a lively, catchy song to end on, I’d like to see this in the final, and I’d be shocked if it’s not there.A short break followed at this point.
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Televoting and Recap
After the songs finished, the hosts reappeared to announce the start of the voting at 21:23 BST. A recap of the songs followed. The UK was unable to vote in tonight's semi-final, and therefore UK viewers saw a message "UK viewers cannot vote tonight" at the bottom of the screen during the recap.Back to the top
My Preferences
Here are my preferences based solely on all of tonight's performances:Definitely want to qualify: Lithuania, Sweden, Australia, North Macedonia, Norway, Croatia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Malta.
Wouldn't mind qualifying: Slovenia, Romania.
Prefer not to qualify: Ireland, Cyprus, Ukraine.
Definitely don't want to qualify: Russia, Belgium.
So these are the ones I want to see Saturday night: Lithuania, Sweden, Australia, North Macedonia, Norway, Croatia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Malta, plus either Slovenia or Romania.
Had the UK been voting in this semi-final, I would have voted for:
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Eurovision Song Contest 2021 First Semi-Final Results
Here are the results, which were announced in a random order before 22:00 BST. Any use of "tonight" still means Tuesday 18 May 2021.
My desired qualifiers: Lithuania, Sweden, Australia, North Macedonia, Norway, Croatia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Malta, plus either Slovenia or Romania.
Actual qualifiers (in order of announcement): Norway, Israel, Russia, Azerbaijan, Malta, Lithuania, Cyprus, Sweden, Belgium, Ukraine.
Bold entries represent the actual qualifiers that match my "Definitely want to qualify" preferences, and italic entries represent the ones that match my "Wouldn't mind qualifying" preferences.
OUT: Australia, Croatia, Ireland, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia.
I’m overjoyed that Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Azerbaijan and Malta all qualified, as all were impressive entries tonight, and hence why they all ended up on my “Definitely want to qualify” list. Azerbaijan’s entry had everything you could ask for from an Azerbaijani song. Lithuania, Sweden, Norway and Israel all have lively, catchy songs, and all had amazing staging tonight. As for Malta, although I was unimpressed by the preview video, I liked it far more sung live tonight.
I’m disappointed that Australia failed to qualify. Although I was unimpressed by the preview video “Technicolour”, and ranked Australia just twelfth when I viewed all the preview videos of the First Semi-Final in performance order this morning, I actually liked the “live-on-tape” performance tonight, and so I ended up putting Australia on my “Definitely want to qualify” list. Montaigne’s performance was so well created it looked as though she was performing live, when in fact her performance was pre-recorded. So that means Australia has now failed to qualify for the first time in its participation history, breaking its 100% qualification record.
Against my wishes, Russia qualified, but I guessed they would. In fact, I’d have been shocked if it had failed to qualify. Although their entry is somewhat obscure, and not my taste in music at all, evidently enough people liked this to vote for it and thus put it in the Grand Final. I wouldn’t be surprised if this scored hardly any points with the juries, but a large enough score from the public vote to put it in the combined top ten.
I’m annoyed Belgium is through as I didn’t think much of their entry this year. I thought it was a forgettable song, and being as it was sandwiched between the lively songs from Croatia and Israel, I thought it would stand no chance of qualifying, as I seriously thought Belgium’s song was the “bungalow between two towers”. That was certainly a shock qualifier, I think. If we had to have a ballad as a shock qualifier tonight, I’d rather North Macedonia had qualified instead of Belgium, as I thought Vasil deserved a slot in the Grand Final much more than Hooverphonic. Vasil really demonstrated his amazing talent to sing in such a varied operatic style, whereas the lead singer of Hooverphonic, I felt, didn’t sing strongly enough during the verses.
Although Ukraine was on my “Prefer not to qualify” list, their Ukrainian folk entry was, in my opinion, not as bad as Russia’s entry, and hence I’m not too bothered that Go_A are in the Grand Final. I guessed Go_A would qualify, whatever my views on “Shum”.
So, six of my nine “Definitely want to qualify” songs went through, and neither of my “Wouldn't mind qualifying”. Not bad I suppose. At the end of the day, I cannot expect to have all the songs I personally want in the final, and all the songs I personally don’t like eliminated.
Anyway, no matter how I personally feel about which countries' songs went thorough and which ones didn't, all the artists who performed tonight deserve equal respect. Congratulations to the ten countries which qualified to the final, and commiserations to the six which failed to reach the final. So that means sixteen finalists are now confirmed and six countries have been eliminated. Another seventeen countries will battle it out for the ten remaining places on Thursday evening.
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