I don't pretend to be any fortune-teller, that's just the way how I feel the scoreboard will look like. Mind, that I'm sure that it's totally wrong, but who cares...

Turkey 99%
Romania 95%
Iceland 90%
Armenia 85%
Malta 85%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 80%
Switzeland 70%
Sweden 55% (jury pick)
Portugal 40%
Finland 40%
Andorra 40%
Belarus 40%
Israel 40%
Montenegro 35%
Bulgaria 15%
Belgium 10%
FYR Macedonia 5%
Czech Republic 1%

So Turkey, Romania, Iceland, Armenia, Malta, Bosnia and Switzerland are most certainly going to qualify if their performance and vocals will be identical to these of third rehearsal. Portugal, Finland, Andorra, Belarus and Israel are borderliners, while Sweden will be through as a jury pick in my opinion, even if Malene enters audience Top-9.
To sum up, that's my prediction: Turkey, Romania, Iceland, Armenia, Malta, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, Finland
Good luck to all the countries and don't miss the fabulous interval act. :)

I assume you've heard everything already but in case if you're staying by our blog and completely ignoring others, here comes a very brief recap of what we've seen on stage today. Mind that we are not judging entries and their chances by amounts of cheer in the audience crown, cause I find it rather dull.

First semifinal kicks off with a little fairytale made around some cheesy story about nomadic people who learned how to fly that ends with Tolmachevy sisters descending from the very top of the venue on some enlighted structure that appears to be a magical firebird from the logo. Then hosts appear to tell us some forseeable words. Natalia Vodianova is, without any doubt, a beautiful person but she seems either too shy or easily frightened for a host. Andrey Malakhov seems to be much better then we all expected him to be, both performers' English is far from being perfect but still understandable. Unfortunately, Andrei and Natasha just don't have any chemistry, they look way too differently.

I won't speak about each entry separately, instead of it I will underline some obvious changes.

Belarus looked pretty powerful, vocally good and, surprisingly, understandable as opposed to all other Belarusian entries to date. So with some obvious support it can make it to finals.
Sweden proved my idea that Malena won't reveal all her vocal abilities at the initial rehearsals and today we saw her in a full power.
Turkey flashed in with loads of fireworks and fireblasts to march right into the finals. There's nothing that can leave Turkey in semifinals - everything works for Hadise well.

The interval act will be definately a point of attention this night: in started with Aleksandrov (formerly Red Army) Choir performing some a-la Russe songs like Katjusha, Kalinka and so on with various "ethnic" artists dancing, jumping and beating drums around them. This ethnic horror was saved by t.A.T.u. who joined all the folk on stage and started to preform "Not Gonna Get Us" supported by every single artist who was on stage. It looked really fabulous and unique, so don't miss it tomorrow - you will be greatly amused.

So if I still maintain some prediction abilities, these are going to...

... definately qualify: TURKEY, ICELAND
... most likely qualify: BOSNIA, ISRAEL, SWITZERLAND, ARMENIA, BELARUS, MALTA
... definately flop: CZECH REP, BULGARIA, REP of MACEDONIA, MONTENEGRO
... either fail or succeed (with descenting chances to qualify): PORTUGAL, SWEDEN, ANDORRA, ROMANIA, FINLAND, BELGIUM

Jade's just cheesy, it's completely banal and blind. You may call it "classy", but it's just super boring. Everything on stage is totally predictable, she goes here, she goes there, piano's on the stage, starry backdrops glitter again, lights grow brighter as songs advances to its climax.
So forseeable that it hurts. In France vs United Kingdom battle victory goes to Patricia over this
Disney movie soundtrack.
Sir Lloyd Webber won't save it - that's something I'm afraid of.

It's even creepier then one might imagined. Screens will now show static image of Anastasia growing older and older to the age of 70! O_o
Anastasia will be wearing dress and will be on high heels. She promised that this will be her stage image from now on.
Photos and videos under More

Lips-shaped sofa is the point of attention in German performance this year. Dina von Teese, person who everyone desperately anticipated was replaced by some less-reknowned female dancer during first rehearsal. At least we can say what she's going to do on the big night: she rides that sofa like if it was a bull ride machine (I have no idea how it's called, maybe natives will fix me).
Vocally perfect, visually catchy it's still not voting-friendly and lacks something.

That in Svante's sack was that? Seriously, Anastasia stays in the spotlight in front of the huge image of herself probably begging for money or pretending to cry. Surrounded by five more puppy faces on small screens, Anastasia completely copies all movements from the national final with the only exception to the highest note that got slighty soften (read, she doesn't drop on floor anymore).
Vocally nice, but it's.... weird, I have a feeling they are saving the gimmick for tomorrow or maybe even for the dress rehearsal. Russians are either saving something huge for the next rehearsals or just came completely unprepared.
Anyway, we got all proofs that host country is heading to its worst results in its recent history.

I'm not sure if it remains same till the final, but during the sound check Russia showed us one of creepiest backrop graphics: every screen on the stage shows us Anastasia's beggin face and it scares us to hell.

As everyone expected, Patricia is just something completely outstanding and different from everything that happens to ESC in last decade. She presents, if it pleases you, old values to the contest. Song, the Name, country, lights - all these mix into some totally outlandish piece of art. This is just hard to judge but we applause France for that, performance is perfect in every bit of it. Well, you will see it on video.
Oh, and that dance she does at the end of the song is simply.... enchanting!
Photos and video under More

Ok, Sakis is back to rule the contest, after disappointing first rehearsal earlier this week, he jumped over his head today. His vocals showed the bigest improvement after the first rehearsal among all participans we've seen already.
The runway he brings on the stage operates fully now, slowly gliding him during the second verse and impressively lifting him to the top when he sings the last note. Sure finalist and will probably block Zoli.
The whole press sector is flooded by Russian funclub of (hairy armpits) Sakis Rouvas so you can imagine the amount of cheer they produce.