Eastern European countries among surprise winners in Eurovision Song Contest semifinals
Friday night Helsinki Party will hamper downtown traffic
At the semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest, which were held on Thursday night at the Helsinki Arena, ten countries were chosen from a total of 28 to move on to the finals on Saturday.
The new finalists are Bulgaria, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, and Latvia. They will join 14 other countries that already have a place in the finals.
Unexpectedly large numbers of votes went to Macedonia, Moldova, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
Some surprising names were among those eliminated at the first stage, including Switzerland’s DJ Bobo, Malta’s Olivia Lewis, and Evridiki of Cyprus, as well as the favourite among teenage girls, Anonymous from Andorra.
Belarus and Serbia, which had been favourites in a poll taken at the contest’s media centre, went into the finals. Representing Belarus is Dimitri Koldun, the winner of the Russian Idols talent search television programme, with the song Work Your Magic. Serbia’s entry was Molitva, a touching ballad by Marija Serifovic. Another advance favourite to get into the finals was the fast-paced Shake it up Shekerim by Turkey’s Kenan Dogulu.
It came as a slight surprise that Georgia’s My Story by Sopho Khalvashi went through; the piece had been considered by many to be too artistic for this contest. Singing in Italian, the tenors of Latvia’s Bonaparti.lv, went into the final, along with a true oddity in the blues served up by Hungary's Magdi Rúsza, another Idols winner. Blues, however well delivered, is not a genre normally associated with the Eurovision Song Contest, and it will be interesting to see how she fares in the final.
The semifinals were a source of tension among many of the artists, some of whom stumbled slightly during their performances.
Moldova’s Natalia Barbua was forgiven for faltering in her rock-style Fight. Also making it into the finals in spite of slight hesitation was Bulgaria’s Elitsa Todorova, the first performer in the Thursday night show.
Doing much worse was advance favourite DJ Bobo of Switzerland, whose vampires failed to come alive, despite the claims of the song's title.
Drama Queen by Denmark’s DQ and Norway’s Guri Schanke’s several mid-performance costume changes failed to win the necessary votes. Also eliminated from the finals was Estonia’s Gerli Padar. Finland and Sweden are the only Nordic representatives to win a spot in the finals.
Poland’s visual presentation focused on scantily-clad dancers, who will not (perhaps unfortunately) be seen on Saturday night.
The European Broadcasting Union estimates that the live broadcast had an audience of more than 100 million viewers.
The Finns watched with the usual trepidation that the event would be a colossal national embarrassment, but the production was slick and professional, and the two comperes Mikko Leppilampi and Jaana Pelkonen did not look out of place on the big stage.
The video postcard inserts, another source of concern in advance, were also broadly well received, since they presented Finland as a country that likes itself, takes plenty of healthy exercise in the wide outdoors, and yet is not above laughing at its own foibles.
On Friday night, a Helsinki Party will take over much of the centre of the city, with free entertainment and various activities.
Traffic in the centre will be affected, and motorists are advised to use public transport if at all possible.
On the betting markets, Serbia's Marija Serifovic is currently 2nd favourite at 6/1 with British gaming firm Ladbrokes, behind Ukraine's Verka, the punters' fancy at 5/2.
You can still get a generous 33/1 or better about Hanna Pakarinen repeating Lordi's triumph. The UK entry, also guaranteed a place in the finals, is not drawing much support - Ladbrokes are still offering 28/1 if they win it, suggesting locals are either not interested or not confident of the band Scooch's chances.
Lovers of a big-priced outsider could do worse than the Lithuanian and Armenian entries, both at 125/1. If there is a large enough Armenian diaspora, who knows what could happen...?
Update: Money seems to be pouring on for the Serbian girl, now down to 4/1 and even 7/2 with some bookmakers, while Ukraine remains favourite at around 3/1, though some bookies have lowered the odds further to 5/2 as the buzz continues to circulate around the drag artist Verka Serdyuchka with the bizarre song Dancing Lasha Tumbai. Belarus are also strongly fancied at odds from 4/1 to 6/1.
The Swedish entry from The Ark has drifted out in the market to around 10/1 in places, and could represent quite good value at that price, as might also the Russian entry at much the same odds.
It is noticeable that the serious money seems to be weighted towards performers and songs from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, reflecting the same sort of pattern as was seen in the semi-final voting.
Whether this means the founding members of Eurovision - the countries of "old" Europe - are losing interest in the entire event is another matter altogether.
Nevertheless, considering that British bookmakers are willing to offer only a measly 8/1 that their own song will get the dreaded "null points", and considering that both the UK and Ireland entries are among the favourites in betting on "who will finish last", there are signs that the Eurovision tide is turning in favour of the newer EBU member-states.
More on this subject:
 Serbian ballad wins Eurovision Song Contest - Belgrade hosts in 2008
Nearly the best Eurovision Song Contest ever
Previously in HS International Edition:
Eurovision semifinal Thursday night (10.5.2007)
Links:
Videos of entries in the 2007 ESC
Eurovision Song Contest (YLE)
Helsingin Sanomat
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