My Picks: Semifinal One

Well, tomorrow is the day when Eurovision begins in earnest, with semifinal one.

Sadly, I'm going to be stuck at my office, crunching numbers while Europe votes for their favorite songs.  So between projects I'll be furiously refreshing my web browser to find out the ten songs that will move on to the final.

And like most people who blog on the Eurovision Song Contest, I'm choosing my ten songs and we'll see how they do.

1.  Finland  "När jag blundar"  Pernilla Karlsson

This song in my favorite of all the songs in the contest this year; I would have never thought that a Swedish language song would be that way.  I hope that Ms. Karlsson will get enough jury votes to make it through to the final, because where it's placed, I don't think the viewing audience will vote for it.

2.  Austria  "Wiki mit dein Popo"  Trackshittaz

Although I can see why this song can offend people, I like it and hope it makes it to the final.  It has a crazy energy that no other song has this year, and that energy makes it one of my favorites.

3.  Israel  "Time"  Izabo

Out of all the songs in the contest, this is the song that has the seal of approval of the lovely Janet S., which means that it's going to delight the other people at my Eurovision viewing party.  Any Eurovision song that is accessible to my Gen X friends is A-OK in my book.

4.  Moldova "Lăutar"  Pasha Parfeny

Who doesn't love a little bit of Moldovan fun?


5.  Albania "Suus"  Rona Nishlu

I have to say this song has grown on me, but I doubt that this will  appeal to enough people who hear it for the first time to make it through.  It's just so dramatically different than anything else, having it in the finals will


6.  Russia  "Party for Everybody"  Buranovskiye Babushki

I love the idea of them more than I like the song, but they're sure to make it through to the final, but there's still


7.  Denmark  "Should've Known Better"  Soluna Somay

This is the song that I still think could potentially make it were it released by a known American artist like Kelly Clarkson.

8.  Greece  "Aphrodesiac"  Eleftheria Eleftheriou

It's Greece by the numbers, but it's still peppy and you can tap your feet to it.  That's good enough to catch the ears of most people.

9.  Iceland  "Never Forget"  Greta Salóme and Jónsi

 There is something to be said for a really decent pop song presented by two seasoned performers.   I just hope he's not wearing that stupid string tie.

10.  Romania  "Zaleilah"  Mandinga

This is the catchiest song in the semifinal and probably my guilty secret song, because it's not the type of song I go for.

The sad thing is that I'm certain one or more of the songs on my list are going to be dropped, and I'm suspecting the two weakest songs on my list are Finland and/or Albania.     One of them is going to get replaced by the "dynamic" duo from Ireland for certain, and a number of other songs could take out the other without any problem.

But we'll see tomorrow night.