For me the excitement is less than it was during the semis because we’ve already seen 19 of the 25 songs performed. Still, we’re all pretty happy, dressed as we are as either “random Eurovision fans”, Denmark, Azerbaijan (pretty impressive display there), Belgium/Iceland (a combination) and “er… I’ve got a green T-shirt… I’ll be Greece”. Some people really don’t make enough of an effort. (our photos, and photos of random Eurovision parties)

( on with the show )

It's the second semi-final and already I’m feeling the exhaustion. I really can’t handle that much excitement, I am getting older you know. This time we’re making do with Cornald, the Dutch commentator because Belgian TV is too cheap to show every single Eurovision event this year. Shame on you, VRT. And no I will not press my digital red button, you bastards! I don’t have one of those. And I don’t want one either. Cornald will do just fine, and he immediately welcomes “all the Flemish viewers” as well. Bit cocky, isn’t he.

( There we go )

I'm hoping for: Iceland, Sweden, Ukraine, Albania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Portugal.
Oh, god that 's only 8... ok then. FYR Macedonia and ... alright, Malta can also go on.


I doubt this will resemble the result tonight.

Eurovision night, highlight of the year. Thanks to the ever-expanding contest, I now have three highlights in my year. Thank you, Europe!

Score sheets needed to be made and printed (and the first thing your guests say is “oh, a slight point of criticism, I’d have liked a second column to make my predictions for the final, as opposed to just checking my own favourites”. Cretins! … of course they’re right and the matter shall be taken care of next time.), you need something funny to put on your walls (a photo of that dress is funny in its own right), flags must be hung up, cats need to be told to behave and –of course- your outfit must be perfect. The Girlfriend went for a classy black/yellow/red ensemble and we tried to recreate that dress with a red skirt and t-shirt and some white tape for me.
I opened the door to our guests, amongst others a Marcel Vanthilt-lookalike, a second Soetkin-from-Isthar-in-that-dress, a Michel-from-Ishtar (with guitar) with their Kolossali Krokodili, and the Games could begin…. (Photos to follow)

Don’t panic, in case you missed it, you can watch it again on the official website.
( and this was the show. Spoilers within )

( Hungary, Malta, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia and Portugal )
And that’s it for the second semi-final.
Of these 19 songs 10 will qualify to join the top 10 from the other semi and the 5 automatic qualifiers in the Grand Final. From those 25 songs the winner will be chosen. It’ll either be a Bombastic Ballad, a turkey, a political conspiracy vote or a trashy dance song -probably something to do with the devil-. I can’t wait.
Still to come: Spain, the UK, Germany, France and Serbia. Well, and the actual shows of course.

Because posting two songs every day is too slow for me.

( Croatia, Bulgaria, Denmark and Georgia )

Ooh, action in Eurovision land! The rehearsals have started today. For those obsessives, you can read reports of the rehearsals on All Kinds of Everything over on Livejournal. They're Irish, so they'll go mad over the turkey. What have I learned so far? Moldova lost their bubbles, Israel is selling man-candy and Estonia is still the same. For me, this is the highlight of my day.

But on with the previews, because otherwise we'll never get this damned thing finished and the first Semi is just over a week from now.

( Lithuania and Albania )

( Romania, Russia and Greece )
And that's it for our first Semi-Final, airing on May 20th. Don't worry though (or no time to rejoice yet, depending on your point of view), we've still got a second Semi-final and five finalists to go.
Next up: the übergaying of Eurovision in the beginning of the second Semi-Final.