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And here I go... 9.40 (11) Cyprus My benchmark for the contenders yet to come; and when all was said and done, I thought Silia was riding the razor's edge more toward defeat. Not every performance centered around dance gets an easy pass. 9.45 (8) Serbia Teya was a razor's edge non-qualifier for me before this contest started. I have little doubt the stage setup changed her fortunes here. 9.52 (5) Lithuania Where I think Silia was on the borderline, Silvester clearly was miles ahead simply because he put on a more convincing show; not to mention the music was more unique. 9.58 (2) Ireland Should it be any surprise that Ireland qualified for the first time in 6 years? Bambie Thug's performance is an example of theater done right on the Eurovision stage! Will Bambie's sorcery earn Ireland its first top-5 spot in eons, if not steal the show? Never again will they have to rely solely on generic pop tunes to qualify! 9.55 (4) Ukraine Neither Alyona nor Jerry had to mention even one word in reference to the war to reinforce the concept of resilience; and this time, with a message to the girls and women fighting their own personal battles. Lyrics definitely matter when the music is almost monotone in nature. 9.37 (13) Poland This is the second time in 3 years (Rafał, 2021) that Poland sent synthwave to the Eurovision stage; and yet, they fail once again; and yet, Luna was way better. I am disappointed with her stage, set design and wardrobe team, because they took the subgenre just a bit too far with that Flash Gordon outfit. On top of that, they would have been better off bringing the dance routine from the music video to the stage. 9.70 (1) Croatia When you have a rock song like this, always bring the band with you! Should it be any surprise that audience participation was a foregone conclusion with the lyrics? Baby Lasagna quite likely won the televote, and will probably do so again on Saturday. 9.37 (12) Iceland The Söngvakeppnin voters played it safe (maybe too safe), snubbed Bashar Murad, sent Hera with a generic song, and it was quickly sent packing. Would her backups on stage have helped? Probably not. 9.45 (9) Slovenia Someone on YouTube likened Raiven's music video performance to that of a vampire queen, much of which she brought to the Eurovision stage. Bookies were ready to write her off. 9.34 (15) Finland I sort of expected a repeat of the UMK stage performance; but I also expected that maybe Windows95man in the buff would chase away many of his would-be voters, with Henri's vocals unable to save them. Be that as it may, the rave contingent has 2 in the final, with 3 more to go. 9.42 (10) Moldova Given the stage design (which fit perfectly with the performance and violin solo), I thought Natalia would squeak in and steal a spot. She might have had that chance if her team had also brought along her backup violinists. 9.49 (6) Azerbaijan Big mistake it was for Fahree and Ilkin to leave their band (the keyboardist and 2 violinists) home. It would have made for a much nicer and more convincing setting, just as those 2 videos (presentation and official music video) did. But then again, did politics enter into the thoughts of the voters? In any case, it is becoming quite a foregone conclusion that Azerbaijan can't qualify on televotes alone, and it remains to be seen if they participate next year. 9.35 (14) Australia There is little doubt that Electric Fields' entry was being thoroughly compared to their 2019 national contest entry, "2000 And Whatever"; for which "One Milkali" failed on too many aspects. 9.56 (3) Portugal Once again, with Portugal, less is more; and Iolanda and her team delivered; and I once thought the dance routine by the backups didn't fit the song. 9.47 (7) Luxembourg Not quite the dance routine that was in the music video; but the song was strong enough that I expected Tali to qualify. [To be continued; it's getting very late here.]

Well, here it is. The good, long wait is finally here. Of course, I'll be too busy to watch the contest live, but I will catch the replay sometime after midnight. I will not view any sites (including this one) that might reveal the results. I did not watch any rehearsal clips. My picks to qualify (which I made on April 27): Croatia (my overall #2), Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus. If a VPN doesn't work, go to SVT (www.svt.se) and watch.

With my evaluations having ended (Saturday), here are my top 10; and as always, I use 10 criteria, evaluating the entries 3 times, mostly during the month of April; and this time, before rehearsals: 9.77 France (1,1,1) (Slimane was my #1 in all 3 evaluations) 9.69 Croatia (2,3,2) 9.66 Italy (3,2,3) 9.64 Norway (5,4,4) 9.62 Switzerland (9,7,5) 9.61 Greece (8,6,6) 9.59 Estonia (4,5,7) 9.53 Azerbaijan (13,13,8) (I made an exception for their official music video being released after rehearsals began, replacing their presentation video) 9.53 Ukraine (6,8,9) 9.53 Portugal (7,9,10)

When last I checked, Iolanda was not doing very well on the bookies' boards, even though I believe the song "Grito" to be top-10 material. The choreography at the Festival da Cançao does not fit the song. Too overdone for a song as emotional as that one. They need to get rid of that dance routine and replace it with something more subdued; or maybe get rid of the dancers entirely and utilize a CGI background that is appropriate for the song.

Methinks Kaleen should lose the guys, point-blank; and bring dancers, the lasers and the flashing lights! That video was so obviously un-rave-like, and should not be repeated on the Eurovision stage, if she wants to finish in the top 10!

Is it just my imagination, or is this year's Eurovision about to become one big rave revival? Here we have Olly Alexander (U.K.), Windows95man (Finland), Nemo (Switzerland), Kaleen (Austria) and Joost Klein (Netherlands), entertaining us with songs and music worthy of a 1990s rave party... ...On top of that, we have 1980s-style synthwave from Luna (Poland) and Nebulossa (Spain); not to mention some house from Hera Björk (Iceland) and art-pop from Mustii (Belgium). 🎛

Anticipation is so much more thrilling when you don't look or listen until it's the right time. Once again, as the national contests and internal selections came and went, I didn't listen to or watch a single song or video (or videoclip) until they established the performance order in the semifinals and I was ready to evaluate them... ...I started two Saturdays ago; and after one round of evaluations (I do 3 of these), my top 10 are the following: France, Croatia, Italy, Estonia, Norway, Ukraine, Portugal, Greece, Switzerland and Latvia. I don't know why Portugal is so low on the bookies' boards. Iolanda's "Grito" is reminiscent of Maro's "Saudade, Saudade".

Putin's henchmen knew exactly what they were aiming for and when.

And Loreen won without a single 12-point score from the televoters! All of her 12-point scores (14) came from the jury. Käärijä got two 12-point jury scores and 18 from the televoters! He got a televote point from every country and the world voters. He needed to be a lot closer on the jury side, though (I was counting on him to get at least 200), but he got no points from 14 juries.

10 minutes before Tvorchi took the stage, Russia launched a missile attack on their home city of Ternopil. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65586701

Well, once again, and for the 11th-straight contest (including the 2020 cancellation), I was entertained, and I will undoubtedly watch again.

And this year, nobody got goose-egged! Everyone got a point from the jury and the public.

I had a feeling we were going to see 2 countries with 500 points like in 2017.

185 for Israel! SWEDEN HAS IT! 243 POINTS!

There are 428 points remaining.