Cav's Place

Overall, it was a pretty good edition, with few poor or poorly performed entries. None truly stood out, however, and I can’t say which deserved to win more, or even which I’d have actually wanted to win, due to reasons I’ll explain a little more below, when I’ll go through my top picks. There were a few entries which should have been in the final and didn’t make it, however.
Rather like last year, I once again didn’t bother at all with this before March, and even after that point I didn’t follow news or reports and didn’t watch any images from the rehearsals. Unlike last year, however, I did listen to all entries carefully before the competition, most of them more than once and some quite a number of times. You can even say that a few more or less made it into my regular playlist over these past two months and a half, as I even got rather stuck on them for a while.

Sweden’s victory was clearly in good part thanks to the show value, as the song, while nice, was not quite one of the best. Still, I don’t exactly disagree with the result, as the overall package was definitely one worthy of fighting for victory. In fact, if they’d have added some more people on stage I may have been inclined to add another point to the show rating, which would have boosted the entry to the top of my classification as well, but with only one person visible I couldn’t do that.
Russia had a good song and, while the performance was static, they did enough for a decent show value as well. Good message as well, but you’ll excuse me if I have a certain unpleasant reaction when I see something like that from Russia at the moment, and I definitely feared the consequences of a Russian victory while this entry was leading.
Italy had one of the best songs in the competition and it may have ended up at the top of my classification in a number of ways, the most obvious being if it’d have had some actual show value on stage as well. However, there were also some slips which I had to take into account at least to some extent, even though it was obvious that they had sound problems and may have been unable to hear themselves while they were singing. And there’s also the fact that they didn’t sing in English, though I’m not sure that would have made me do more than add a positive modifier to their marks, which wouldn’t have changed their rank.
I have absolutely no idea what Belgium is doing in fourth place, as I placed them last in the final and next to last in their semifinal. Disliked the song itself, didn’t see particular qualities being proven by the performance overall and other than filling the stage with dancers there was no notable show value, not even making any real use of the screens and lights.
And couldn’t exactly say what Australia is doing in fifth either, though the fact that they can finally enter the competition definitely counted for something. Still, unlike Belgium, there was some show value, albeit not necessarily in a good way in my view, and the song was all right, if still nothing I’d care about.

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.
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. (14.) Slovenia (7, 7.5, plus)
2. (21.) Spain (7, 7)
3. (3.) Italy (6.75, 7.5)
4. (2.) Russia (6.75, 7)
5. (1.) Sweden (6.75, 6.5, plus)
6. (10.) Serbia (6.75, 6.5)
7. (27.) Austria (6.75, 6.5)
8. (19.) Greece (6.5, 7.5, plus)
9. (8.) Norway (6.5, 7)
10. (25.) France (6.5, 7, minus)
11. (7.) Estonia (6.5, 6.5, plus)
12. (20.) Hungary (6.5, 6.5, plus)
13. (23.) Poland (6.5, 6.5, plus)
14. (16.) Armenia (6.5, 6.5, plus)
15. (12.) Azerbaijan (6.5, 6.5)
16. (15.) Romania (6.5, 6.5, minus)
17. (18.) Lithuania (6.5, 6, plus)
18. (5.) Australia (6.5, 6)
19. (24.) United Kingdom (6.5, 5.5)
20. (11.) Georgia (6.25, 6.5, plus)
21. (13.) Montenegro (6.25, 6.5, plus)
22. (26.) Germany (6.25, 6, plus)
23. (22.) Cyprus (6, 6.5, plus)
24. (17.) Albania (6, 6, plus)
25. (6.) Latvia (6, 6)
26. (9.) Israel (6, 5.5, minus)
27. (4.) Belgium (5.75, 5.5, plus)

My ranking matched the actual results in case of Italy, was one place off for Cyprus, Lithuania, Norway and Romania, two places off for Armenia and Russia and three places off for Azerbaijan. On the other hand, I was at least ten places off for Australia, France, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia and Spain and even 20 or more places off for Austria and Belgium.
As for the semifinals, I must say they were rather different. The first was clear and easy for me, as I wanted exactly ten songs to get through, with a clear separation between them and the other six, and the only difference, albeit an upsetting one, was to see Belgium take the place of Netherlands. From the second, on the other hand, I’d have really wanted to see no less than 12 again in the final and wouldn’t have minded three or even four others, leaving just one that I clearly didn’t want. To compare just the top ten, I’d have picked Czech Republic, Ireland and San Marino instead of Cyprus, Israel and Latvia, though with Cyprus being dropped down the order due to the complete lack of show value I didn’t mind it taking the place of San Marino, which could have been performed much better. Czech Republic seemed to have one of the best songs in the competition, on the other hand, and Ireland was definitely in the upper part as well, so it was annoying to say the least to see them replaced by that crap from Israel and a Latvian entry which, while admittedly valuable and well performed, simply didn’t suit my tastes at all.

And now, as usual, let me briefly explain my top ten picks.
Slovenia simply got stuck in my mind as soon as I first heard it. Not a genre I’d listen to otherwise, but her voice was definitely different. I was quite sure it won’t actually be fighting for one of the top places and being first in the final didn’t help either, but it simply stuck in my mind, I listened to it a lot of times and had this idea that if she’ll perform it properly they’ll probably only have Italy to fear as far as I’m concerned. And since it was performed well, at least in the final, and I was saying that no entry truly stood out, I went with it.
I was uncertain about Spain as I listened to it before the competition, being a quite simple song relying on a few bits showing off her voice, but she sure did show it off in the final and the show value was higher than what many others could come up with despite having only two people on stage and one trying to stay mostly hidden away. Again, with nothing truly standing out, this seemed to me to have good enough elements to fight for a top position.
Mentioned Italy above already, so not sure what else to add. Again, any actual show value on stage would have likely taken them to the top spot for me, and a flawless performance may, possibly, have done the same. It is possible that the sound issues they obviously had decided the winner in the actual competition as well, and I’m quite sure they decided second place.
Already said what I had to say about Russia as well, so won’t repeat. Like last year, did my best to rate the song and performance while ignoring my reaction to the country and I believe I managed it well enough, but have to say I’m quite relieved they didn’t win.
Same issue of having already said what I had to say for Sweden as well. Was it a deserved winner? Possibly, and definitely is one I don’t mind at all as far as the overall package goes, but there were quite a few better songs and I’d have liked more people on stage… Which makes me wonder whether those I saw at the end, when he was singing the song again, were simply some members of the crew or the actual backing singers who had been hidden away for some reason during the actual performance. Though I’m far from certain, if I’d have seen them on stage during the competition as well, I may have picked Sweden as the winner too.
Serbia had a quite good song, again with a good message, and it definitely was performed well as well. Was quite bothered by that change of pace for the last part, however, and that dropped it a few places in my classification.
Austria… I’m not sure anymore, especially after seeing them finish last, with zero points. It was an all right song, far from one of the best but definitely better than at least a few, and likely several, others in my view, and the burning piano definitely offered some show value. I may have taken that into account a little too much, however.
Greece I am sure about, on the other hand, and I wished I could have ranked it even higher. It was one of the better songs of the competition, being a well performed typical but proper ballad, the issue being the lack of show value.
Norway had another good song, and probably the best duet left since the great Czech entry for some reason didn’t make it out of the semifinal and Estonia didn’t quite seem at the level I initially thought it may be at after listening to the studio version. There were a few better songs, however, and there wasn’t much notable interaction between the two, so the performance didn’t have much real show value either.
As for France, good song, but I would have dropped it lower down the order if not for those drummers showing up at least at the end. Too little and too late, however, and if you add the fact that it was in French, otherwise entirely static and, if I’m to think about it again now, in the end quite unremarkable, I have to say I’m not surprised it ended up so low.