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10 countries to the final
Results analysis: the statistics
Losers
Andorra and Estonia have yet again failed to make it to the final – like they did in every semi final broadcast so far. Other countries that haven’t been to the final for a while are the Netherlands, Belgium (eliminated for the fourth time in a row). In its fourth year of participation, Moldova stays out of the final for the first time.
Winners
Other countries were more successful. The countries that will have been in all Eurovision Song Contest finals since 2004 are: Greece, Russia, Romania and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Poland will be in the final for the first time since 2004 and Azerbaijan for the first time at all (as a debutant).
Running order
For the first time ever, a song performed at #2 in the semi final went to the final. On the other hand, Estonia keeps its qualification quota of 0%. A look on the running order shows that the last four songs performed all made it to the final and that seven of the ten qualifiers were performed in the second half of the show. Nevertheless, it has to be said that with only 19 countries participating, the running order may play a minor role. Furthermore, many of the hot favourites were performed towards the end. By the way, all three countries that were allowed to choose their starting positions themselves made it to the final.
Languages, songs and composers
Only half of the songs is performed entirely in English. The other five songs are in Hebrew and English, Romanian and Italian, Bosnian, Finnish and Armenian and English. This shows another trend: there will be many bilingual songs in the final (which actually have not done too well the last few years). The three songs in the contest which were composed all by women (from Israel, Poland and Norway) made it to the final while singer-songwriter Hind who also co-wrote her song has to stay in the semi final. Dima Bilan, Laka and Jarkko Ahola (of Teräsbetoni) made it to the final with their own compositions.
“Gimmick” entries
2008 has already been named the year of the gimmick entries. However, both Estonia and Ireland (and also Belgium, which is sometimes also regarded as a gimmick entry) did not make it to the final. The Azeri and the Bosnian entry, which also face a lot on the stage performance (as well as Teräsbetoni from Finland with all those fireworks) made it to the final as well as Russia and Greece with their rather visual entries.
Related polls
- Eurovision 2008: best multilingual entry?
- Best winner of the last 25 years?
- Worst winner of the last 25 years?
- National finals 2008: which runner-up should have won?
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Reactions
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ISRAEL!
ISRAEL was the prove that WITH NO GIMMICKS, NO ENGLISH, NO GOOD DRAW (2nd in the draw) you can do well, so it's just a big respect for Israel for doing such a wondeful performance with the best voice on the contest, and without any gimmicks!
Only vote 7 For Israel in the Final! good luck to all!
POLAND THE BEST " OVERALL SONG."
I did like SAN MARINO though....BoS&Herz??? what was that?
Azerbijan...well interesting.!
Moldova was the worst along with Azerbaijan. She could not sing live at all. Or is that how "jazz" is supposed to be? Sing as falsely as possible?
Armenia was bad live too, very cheap performance and she had a horrible hair.
Poland wins the fakest woman of the night award.
Norway did the best live performance vocally. Bosnia was lovely to watch, Belgium should have qualified. Greece had a good performance, but she's too bimbo and loves to show off. Just like a billion other female artists - nothing new.
Finland rocked the show! The only song with some POWER in it! I love the drumming in it.
How the hell could Azerbaijan qualify? Psycho song, sick screaming...
Most of all, I am sooooooo glad Ireland didn't! But of course they didn't, ugly unfunny song.
Check out this video here if u`re fan of Sirusho`s famous tit trick:
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=8toHY-IuihM
and don`t forget 2 vote 4 her, she rocks 
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@Van T --English is out??? Erm not quite-slight exageration...what is not out it seems are some silly comments on here based through dislike and bias as per usual but atleast it is working AT LAST !
Happy ESC everyone.
@Murat- Moldova bless her for the effort she put in failed to qualify because it simply was not matching the standard of other entries that did qualify.In itself it was a Sunday afternoon tune for play in an old peoples rest home(and even then it may get turned off).Too many good/great songs makes a very average one fail - fact of life when there is justice at ESC.
It's so sad that Moldova did not qualify.
Simply the song and the performance was over qualified for Eurovision, and it did not match with poor music taste of average "middle aged" European household.
It's easy, just watch some German (ZDF/ARD)or French public tv on Sunday afternoon. This will give an idea how poor is the music taste of an average "middle aged" Western European.
Grüsse aus Istanbul
I still can't believe Poland qualified! The song was crap and the singer's fake tan and bleached teeth were too horrifying to look at. Nothing for the ears nor the eyes there.
I don't really know what could have qualified in it's place though. Very weak semi final. I hope tomorrow night will be better.
for me the netherlands, moldova, slovenia and andorra deserved to qualify and not norway romania finland and bosnia.
i predicted that russia greece azerbaijan armenia poland and israel will qualify. so i predicted 6 of the ten qualifiers rightly. the netherlands was the best....
the best chance to win has israel, i think, because it is comparable to serbias song in 2007.... it is actually better than molitva!
best wishes
http://delirium.fm/
http://delirium.fm/
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http://delirium.fm/
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http://delirium.fm/
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mor ve otesi (TURKEY)
CRAZY
CRAZY
CRAZY
CRAZY
SUPER SUPER SUPER
This is great. Th gimmicks are out, English is out, the turkeys are out! Soon the contest could command respect form all once again
Then only song that qualified and was really interesting to me was from Bosnia and Herzegovina, their performance was something completely different and surprisingly funny.
But then there were few songs that didn't qualify and were just amazing, for example San Marino and Belgium.
What to say about Rebeka's performance? She was looking very confident on stage and didn't dissapoint, but we knew that it would be difficult to qualify with such average song.
@ Number 1...Well Dima certainly put on a performance. He mimed the entire song. ow what's that called again? Oh yes...cheating.
DannyT :
For your information i was out, and i came home at that time, so i turned my computer on to see the comments on the site about the show and everything, and then i saw your stupid comment!!!
haha
Danny T:
For your information i was out, and i came home at that time, so i turned on my computer to see what r u ppl talking about the show, and i saw your stupid comment!!!
BOSNIA JUST SUCKS....let's see what will happen to MALTA !!!
How on earth can songs like the ones from Azerbaijan and Bosnia go through???! I agree that it's a blow for countries that had songs worth going on to the final, such as Moldova's.
Worse performances of the night: Russia's Dima Bilan (puts on some weird ice-skating guy dancing around him, unbuttons his shirt and that gets him to the final ........please Europe wake up!!!!) and obviously Armenia's Sirusho Harutyunyan with Qele-Qele who strugled to keep her voice going - she pretty much burried the song!
BELGIUM was so sweet and original compared to the others, definitely outstanding in all simplicity. I'm sooo disappointed 
I feel sorry, for Slovenia, Netherlands, Andorra,& Moldova, they must be in final, so what, there r awful songs pass to final i dont understand how, especially Bosnia-Hers. its funny song,& Finland metallic song(i dont like) plus Azerbeyjans song its not my favory its operatic not for eurovision, all of them must change place with that countries whose lose.
@ nole
I can't believe you are telling me to get a life when you were commenting on a eurovision site after 3 your time in the morning. I think you crossed that bridge too
@ Stockholm calling
I will admit that the Scandinavian thing was definitely a tenuous argument, I was just annoyed Ireland didn't get through because for me the song's performance and humour was ten times better than many of the entries that did pass (Azerbaijan)
I really like Norway's entry although I thought the performance was a bit cheesy, but I am confused about Finland though!
I'm sorry but Andorra didn't deserve to pass the Semi this time (and I'm a big fan of Gisela and Catalan-speaker).
About Ireland and Estonia, I have to admit that I laugh a lot while watching them, but I'm happy none of them qualified.
The only country I miss this time is the Netherlands. The song was not very special but the live performance was really good.
I totally agree with Gregor Hassink about Israel, Slovenia and Poland. Isis Gee looked really frightening and her song was boring. I wish Slovenia could have qualified. Israel on the other hand was brilliant!
I was happy with all the qualifiers except for Poland, Finland (even though I am Finnish) and Azerbaijan. The Azeri screeching just made me wanna cringe and the performance was ridiculous. The whole 'angels and demons'-theme is over-used (remember Finland's Jari Sillanpää with Takes 2 to Tango)
Danny T:
Dustin was great. I expected him to qualify. I feel sorry for the Netherlands too. I wouldn't say that the Scandos stuck together as there were only two of them. Norway and Finland must have got a lot of votes from other countries or the jury votes.
I'm happy for Azerbaijan and Bosnia. I loved their performances.
For me Israel was by far the best in this semi-final, what a voice! Israel doesn't have to fear anything from the weak sung ballad from Russia. If justice will be served Russia won;t even make it to the TOP-10. I just feel so sorry for Rebeka Dremelj, for me Slovenia was top and that is the only country I really will miss in the final!!! They deserved to go through and not that awful song from Poland. So please swap Poland for Slovenia and I will be 100% happy!
Azerbaijan and Bosnia&Herz did not deserve to qualify!!! I was impressed by Russia as I converted of liking the Russian entry after I listened it to the whole song for the first time yesterday!!
edin, could you give a link? cant find any..
The best songs of the night :
I am almost sure that the Spanish points must have bee for:
12 points: ANDORRA (very known spanish songer)
10 points: ROMANIA : The best song of the nigth . In the ESC spanish public like the Romania songs very much .
8 points: Poland . She praises interpretation of a beautiful ballad.
7 points: Finland Of the taste of the youngest public
In Spain is in the habit of voting for the good music 
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