All Countries

First time in the 2019 press centre and it all works - amazeballs!!!
Bring on the rehearsals

So congratulations, I have arrived
I'm Silvia Night and I'm shining so bright
Eurovision nation, your dream's coming true
You've been waiting and waiting for me to save you
Wham bam boom

Oh my God…

Well we came, we saw and we decided that maybe it was really a good idea if we went to bed. Been on the go since 2.30 a.m. and the words, CRASH and BURN don’t really seem to cover it - so NO! there is not gonna be a welcome video this year, NO! we do not plan on having a few drinks tonight like we’d normal do and NO! Nothing is open. Well apart from the local rip off supermarket - £60 for a few bars of chocolate and some bread and cheese and milk - oh and eggs, and (ffs) £5 for a packet of Tim-Tams - really Daniel, really?????

Before we go some very brief notes on Accreditation collection, as I’ve had about 5 billion messages already on the subject…

First the good news, it was a totally pain free experience - they did not even have to take a picture this year - Ukraine could learn a lot here!!
The slightly bad news is that the whole ESC bubble area is quite a way from downtown Tel Aviv - but a taxi from the airport - four persons plus luggage - with wait and drop us back to apartments was around £40, which I’m happy with….
As for when you get there, ask the driver (or whoever) to get you to GATE 1, then follow the road straight up for about 200m, then a left turn towards Pavilion 11 and bingo you’re at the accreditation tent. They had beer too….I asked where could I get some from but just got strange looks.

All in the four of us had our passes in under 10 minutes

More information is on the ESCKAZ.com event page http://esckaz.com/2019/event.htm

So while we are all waiting for Saturday morning to get here, why not check out some of the Promo Party clips from the last month

Is your favourite there? Did you get a shock at some of the singing? Who went up, who went down?

Riga
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUj9YGQtlfgF4e24X8HzJLHzsPaNEGwpU

London
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUj9YGQtlfgHlpQ9B3Ry-I4E7T2sx8M0U

Madrid
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUj9YGQtlfgGpsM44cLbFxuvzTq2ieGhn

and Moscow
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUj9YGQtlfgGYCADDM8H2O3WWqeZ3GqzG

I have no clue tbh, Norway, Cyprus, Israel, and even Lithuania could all pull this off....

just over 24 hours and we will know

Well first up Serbia. Neither of us saw it coming - but in the end we were very happy for them to pass to the final on Saturday - scooping up the Balkan votes on 12th May perhaps? Well done to them...

I was a little emotional for Moldova, having followed them from the National final until their arrival in Lisbon and backing them for a top 10 place - I now feel they could go one better and place in the top 5. They would be overjoyed simply to qualify - so this is great for them.

Hungary, again, with it being my favourite song/performance in the whole show, I was totally OTT when they made it through - well done to the AWS, they also announced at th press conference that they are booked for a big metal festival in Berlin later this year. Funnily enough I think they were more excited about this

Ukraine. Possible winner of the televote in this semi, kinda deserved on this performance, even though I am not a huge fan of the song. Why do Ukraine always bring it with their staging?

Sweden. With such a weak song this year I was wondering if they would fail to make it to the final this time - that said he worked the camera like magic and turned it around on the night

Australia. Bad staging, ok vocal, but still they made it. This, apart from Mother Russia, was the big "shock" from last night - I have a feeling they just scraped in in 9th or 10th place

Norway. Again hate this song, such a load of nothing - but he performed the pants of it. And now, despite what the bookies say, he's in a great position to scoop up Eastern Block votes - along with Moldova and Ukraine

Denmark. Well performed, dark and gothic, worked for them. A great bunch of guys and was happy for them to pass - can see this doing a top 10 in the end

Slovenia. Big shock for me. Just do not get this at all. Despite what colleagues on the team say. It really does nothing for me - but it must come across very very well on stage

The Netherlands - Dad Rock did good in the end. I'm sure it was Waylon's eyes that sold this to the TV viewing public

And to all the other participants - you did your countries proud, especially Romania, Montenegro, San Marino and Georgia. I am sure you were all bubbling under the top 10 and did not miss out by that much....

Footnote. Mother Russia. Gone. Probably deserved that they went home. Do we think they will withdraw now? A quick scan of online Russian media today reveals next to nothing of the mood back in Moscow - but who know's - watch this space I guess....

Norway
Denmark
Moldova
The Netherlands
Australia
Poland
Malta
Sweden
Montenegro
Ukraine

Actually this a little tougher than Semi one if truth be told

Norway
Romania
Denmark
Russia
Moldova
Australia
Malta
Hungary
Sweden
Ukraine

Though I could swop Romania and San Marino in first half and Malta and Poland in the second half...

First up we were delighted with Ireland making it to the final - first time for four years and in our opinion it was totally deserved - well done to the whole team involved and especially Ryan for making Ireland proud

Really the show was great, no technical mishaps that we noticed, so again congratulations to the EBU team for another successful live Eurovision transmission and bringing the music to peoples home's to take part in the longest running and possibly the most popular event on television

So the qualifiers;
Austria. One that I missed but Daniel got. Was happy for them in the end, it seemed to be a great performance and effectively staged. Deserved
Estonia. Both of us saw this. I'm not a fan of the song at all. Verdict probably deserved
Cyprus. Again both of us saw this, and calling her the Eurovision Beyonce maybe a bit premature but possibly the winner of the televote. Verdict Deserved
Lithuania. Daniel missed this, but I saw it from the very beginning of the whole event. Verdict, deserved, but some may disagree
Israel. Again we both got this one, again this is probably deserved, but again the song is starting to grate a little now.
Czech Republic. Fantastic from Mikolas - very very deserved
Bulgaria. This is such a grower of a song, so we both out it through but not sure if it was deserved or not in the end.
Albania. I got this, Daniel missed it. From what we heard yesterday in the media room, the delegation were stressed and a little unhappy - but in the end it all came good. Very deserved
Finland. Well she really pulled it out of the bag at the last minute - faultless performance and very much deserved int he end
Ireland. Kinda made our Eurovision week - perfect!

And shocks for us, both Azerbaijan and Armenia missing out. Thought at least one of them would go through. Sad a little for Croatia, and Greece - both of whom we count as delegations that are friends as well as co-workers. Iceland - again we were sad - but really this is because of Ari himself and not the song. Belgium, she did a great job but in the end the song was a little too clever for Eurovision. Belarus - the staging killed this, really poor showing from the delegation that usually gives us such a great show. Macedonia - even though it possibly one of my favourite songs, it did not translate very well on the live stage - so BOO!
And finally don't forget the Swiss. Great performance and they can be really proud of themselves - I think they just missed out last night

Hummmmm, like Mike this is tough but here goes

Albania
Czech Republic
Israel
Estonia
Bulgaria
Croatia
Austria
Greece
Finland
Ireland