Cav's Place

Not a bad edition, all told, though the final could have been better if not for certain particularly strange decisions made by the juries and the voters in the semifinals, as there were four or five good entries that didn’t make it. Still, it was definitely better than last year and, while the top pick has been obvious ever since the national finals, there were several other songs I wouldn’t have particularly minded to see as number one, in case the voting would have somehow gone against all predictions.
Unlike last year, I once again knew all the songs before the competition, though there were a few that I only listened to once and without even really paying attention and I didn’t bother with trying to watch images from the rehearsals or read articles describing the acts before the actual competition, so exactly what each participant did on stage wasn’t known to me ahead of time and that definitely allowed for a few nice surprises.

As I said, the fact that Denmark was the top pick was obvious ever since the songs became known and this was probably the clearest winner in a very long time, at least in terms of being known ahead of time and resulting from the performance itself and not from marketing, “political” votes or various other such processes. I wasn’t particularly happy with how it was sung during the competition, but thanks to an outstanding composition and a suitable show value, the overall package was good enough regardless.
Azerbaijan once again sent an excellent entry in terms of the overall package, the show value making up for a song that, while still among the better ones, wasn’t exactly one of the best in my opinion. If they keep this up, I’m sure it won’t be long before they’ll win a second time.
Ukraine had a good and also interesting song, with some sounds that will probably grow on me even more if I’ll listen to it a few more times, so I’m not complaining about it finishing third, despite the rather static performance after the moment at the beginning.
On the other hand, I’m quite bothered by Norway finishing so high, probably as a result of marketing, at least according to what I heard. I can’t say that the song itself isn’t decent, but it didn’t stand out to me and when you couple that with a largely static performance, I see no real reason for it to be above so many better acts.
The Russian song was nice in itself, but on top of that it also had a good message that also fit this edition’s theme, and the show value was definitely notable thanks to using the crowd properly, in a way that hasn’t been done before. As a result, the overall performance was great and it might have deserved to finish even higher.

My ranking system is still the same, giving one mark for song and another for show value, plus a positive, neutral or negative modifier, and ranking first according to the overall mark that is the result of averaging the song and show ones, then according to the song mark and then, if both marks are equal, according to the modifier. In case all three are equal, the ranking is the result of me trying to quickly compare the performances in question at the end, but that thankfully happens less often now that, since 2011, I have decided to allow half-point marks as well, although this now results in me giving 6.5 a whole lot.
Once again, still largely for my own use, I’ll list all the information here, with the first number being the position in my classification, the one between parentheses that follows it being the actual position, the first number that follows the country name being the overall mark, the second being the song mark and the modifier, if not neutral, being listed at the end. All links are from the official channel, so they shouldn’t vanish.

1. (1.) Denmark (7.25, 7.5)
2. (5.) Russia (7.25, 7, plus)
3. (15.) Georgia (7, 7.5)
4. (11.) Moldova (7, 7)
5. (2.) Azerbaijan (7, 6.5, plus)
6. (24.) Finland (7, 6.5)
7. (3.) Ukraine (6.75, 7, plus)
8. (16.) Belarus (6.75, 6.5, plus)
9. (13.) Romania (6.75, 6.5, plus)
10. (25.) Spain (6.75, 6.5)
11. (20.) Estonia (6.5, 7, minus)
12. (21.) Germany (6.5, 6.5, plus)
13. (8.) Malta (6.5, 6.5, plus)
14. (14.) Sweden (6.5, 6.5, plus)
15. (18.) Armenia (6.5, 6.5)
16. (26.) Ireland (6.5, 6.5)
17. (6.) Greece (6.5, 6.5, minus)
18. (19.) United Kingdom (6.5, 6)
19. (17.) Iceland (6.25, 7, plus)
20. (4.) Norway (6.25, 6.5, plus)
21. (12.) Belgium (6.25, 6, plus)
22. (9.) Netherlands (6, 6.5, plus)
23. (10.) Hungary (6, 6.5)
24. (22.) Lithuania (6, 6, plus)
25. (7.) Italy (5.75, 6, minus)
26. (23.) France (5.75, 6, minus)

I got Denmark and Sweden right, was one place off for United Kingdom, two places off for Iceland and Lithuania and three places off for Armenia, Azerbaijan, France and Russia. On the other end, I was at least ten places off for Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and Spain.
As for the semifinals, sticking to my system, from the first I’d have taken Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia through instead of Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania and Netherlands, but I otherwise wanted Netherlands to go through and had little interest in seeing Slovenia or Austria make it, these two only being in the list because I had to pick ten. From the second, whether we’re talking of a purely personal opinion or of the results of applying my scoring system to the competition, I’d have very clearly taken Israel, San Marino and Switzerland through instead of Armenia, Greece and Hungary.

And now let me briefly explain my top ten picks, as I usually do.
There’s little left to say about Denmark other than the fact that, considering her performance during the national final, it could have sounded even better than it did during the actual competition. As I said, it was definitely still good enough to be the clear winner even so, but it could have been even better and she definitely has what it takes for it, so I wonder if she was simply too nervous or something else was going on.
Little left to say about Russia either. It was a good song with a nice message and an equally good show value relying on a new element. As an overall package, it was better than anything except Denmark.
I was uncertain about the Georgian entry all the way, but eventually decided to give it a high song mark despite noticing some issues with how the first part of it was sung. It is, in my opinion, an outstanding song, and those issues went away as the singers got into it, but it could have had a better show value.
Moldova had a good song, the singer had a great voice, despite appearing to have an issue or two at some point, and the show was interesting as well, despite being rather static. There may be a couple of slightly better songs ranked below it, but as an overall performance it was particularly solid.
Azerbaijan was boosted by the show value, the guy performing inside that glass cage offering an excellent and unique show of skill. As I said, the song was one of better ones as well, though not particularly one of the very best.
I put Finland so high due to the relevance of the performance under the current context. The song itself wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly one of the better ones either, so what made it particularly noteworthy was that it was something about marriage ending with a kiss between two women at a time when the issue of gay marriage is a hot topic in many parts of the world, so it’s a rather bold statement that, regardless of the exact reason why it was made, needs to be supported.
Ukraine had a very good song that, as I said before, will probably grow on me even more if I’ll listen to it a few more times, so I don’t mind that it ended up higher than it is in my classification. It would have helped if the performance would have been less static, however.
Belarus had a happy, “sunny” song that was performed well enough and also benefited from a reasonably good show value, which was good enough to set it above the others that follow it.
Not sure if I was biased in placing Romania higher than where it ended up finishing, I’m tempted to say I wasn’t, because the guy’s vocal qualities are unquestionable and the show value was quite decent as well. What’s unfortunate is that the composition itself didn’t rise to that same level, because I believe he could have done much better than that if given a song that’d have truly emphasized his particular abilities.
As for Spain, it simply struck me as an interesting performance. Place it later during the show or perhaps in another context and I might have ranked it lower, but ask me again and I’ll say that, in hindsight, I should have given Malta another half point for show value as well and therefore have it end up tenth instead, so I’ll stick with my initial assessment and say that, at that particular moment, it seemed quite good and I can’t recall being bothered by any element of it, which you see wasn’t the case even for some of my top picks, much less for any of those ranked below it.