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Eurovision 2015, Semifinal One Post-Mortem Written by on May 19, 2015 | 9 Comments

Well, we have our first ten winners (in no particular order, of course)…and our first six losers. Let’s take a look at this year’s Semi One qualifiers, in order of their performance tonight:

Armenia:
Tonight’s qualification brings their record to 8 Final appearances of 9 attempts.

Belgium:
3 Final appearances of 11 attempts (with 2 of the 3 sponsored by Walloon broadcaster RTBF). This marks their first Final appearance since 2013.

Greece:
Greece’s perfect qualification record has been maintained, making it 9 of 9.

Estonia:
5 of 12, first Final appearance since 2013.

Serbia:
5 of 7, first Final appearance since 2012.

Hungary:
7 of 9, continuing their qualification streak that’s been going since their Eurovision return in 2011.

Russia:
Perfect qualification record maintained, 8 of 8.

Albania:
Albania’s record is now 6 of 11, and they perform on a Saturday night for the first time since 2012.

Romania:
Perfect qualification record maintained, 9 of 9.

Georgia:
Following last year’s last place finish in their semifinal, Georgia comes back to the Final, making their qualification record 6 of 8.

Keep in mind, some of these nations had appeared in more Finals, but those Saturday night performances were due to high scores the previous year.

Drawn into the Grand Final’s first half are:
Armenia, Belgium, Estonia, Serbia

Drawn into the Grand Final’s second half are:
Albania, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Russia

Of course, we still have to see Thursday’s qualifiers, but it appears that with the exception of Georgia, the latter half of the Final is beginning to appear more ballad-heavy. Let’s see what the next few days brings.

As for some other stats seen from today’s First Semifinal:

  • Out of this year’s non-qualifiers, we say goodbye to Moldova (marking the first time that Moldova has missed out on two consecutive Finals in their history), the Netherlands, Belarus, Finland (all three of whom are missing the Final for the first time since 2013), Macedonia (making this their third consecutive Semifinal drop-out), and Denmark, who are missing out on the Final for the first time since 2007.
  • This year, four of this year’s qualifiers were performed in the first half of the Semifinal, with the other six performed in the bottom half.
  • We’ve lost both of this Semifinal’s Scandinavian entrants; what will this mean for Thursday’s Semi, or Saturday’s Grand Final?
  • Bands in this semifinal had a 50% qualification rate tonight (Romania and Armenia in, Finland and Denmark out), as did duets (Estonia in, Belarus out). Songs performed primarily in other languages also faced a 50% elimination rate (Finland out, Romania in).
  • The average BPM (beats per minute) rate of tonight’s qualifiers was 92, as opposed to 109 BPM for the evening’s non-qualifiers.

About The Author: Samantha Ross

Vaguely aware of the Contest since childhood, a fanatic since 2008, and an ESC blogger since 2009, Samantha Ross made her first sojourn to Eurovision in 2011, and was quickly welcomed into the fold at ESC Insight. Over the years, she's been interviewed by BBC World News, SVT, LBC Radio, and many others. She was a semi-regular contributor to Oystermouth Radio's weekly dedicated Eurovision program, "Wales 12 Points". Furthermore, Samantha contributed to BBC Radio 2's coverage of the Copenhagen contest, and was a member of the official JuniorEurovision.tv web team in 2014 and 2015. She also worked as a member of the Bulgarian Delegation, serving as Assistant Head of Press in Kyiv and Lisbon. She is also the creator of the podcast "12 Points from America", an irreverent look at Eurovision from a US point of view. When not at Eurovision, Samantha is a regular on the Twin Cities pub quiz circuit, and has volunteered as a moderator for the local high school quiz bowl for over ten years. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but is wistfully looking for opportunities to get geographically closer to the heart of the Eurovision action. You can follow Samantha on Twitter (@escinsider).

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Have Your Say

9 responses to “Eurovision 2015, Semifinal One Post-Mortem”

  1. Fatima says:

    Must be significant that Moldova and Belarus didn’t make it. Twelves, tens & eights which might have gone to them could go to Russia

  2. Very true, Fatima…and you could also say that points that could have gone to Denmark and Finland are now heading Sweden’s way…needless to say, it’ll be fun to look at the numbers after the Final!

  3. Respect due to you, ‘Stats Woman’! Impressive article, especially so soon after the end of the show…

    As far as the Scandinavian stats go, I suspect there will still be three in the Final after SF2.

  4. Seán says:

    I think if Sweden and Russia are going for the win they’d take 12’s in those countries anyhow.

  5. Seán says:

    I may be putting a massive political foot in it but could the absence of Ukraine help Russia?

  6. Jaz says:

    Great rundown, Sam! I love a good serving of Eurovision stats.

    RTBF deserves another round of applause after the one I gave them for Roberto Bellarosa in 2013. Belgium was so cool, contemporary and unique last night, just like ‘Rhythm Inside’. Yes, I said unique – you wouldn’t see Lorde pulling out dance moves like that on stage! I think Eurovision moving in musical directions like this is a definite plus.

    I kind of feel like Denmark should have squeezed in to the final in place of Greece. I swear if ‘One Last Breath’ was coming from Belarus or the like, it wouldn’t have qualified. But that might be my ‘nine out of ten correct predictions with a fail on Denmark’ talking.

  7. John Egan says:

    Watch your back the press room, if the Estonia’s find out you didn’t include them in Scandanavia 😉

  8. All I have to say to that, John, is: https://satwcomic.com/party-crasher 😉

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