Hey lovelies! I hope you've all had a wonderful day. The weather has been beautiful here in the North West, but I had so much to check off my to-do-list today that I've been stuck indoors! How have you all spent your day? If you follow me on Twitter, you'll likely have spotted my live-tweeting on Tuesday night along the Eurovision Song Contest! Yes, it's that time of year again, when several European countries come together to put on an amazing music show packed full of the most wondeful and also wacky performances. There is always a mix of different genres of music as well some elaborate displays of costumes, dancers, instruments and stage design. I absolutely love the Eurovision Song Contest! I've been a fan since back in 2006 when Finland won with Lordi's 'Hard Rock Halleujah', a song that I still listen to now over ten years later! I have Eurovision on the brain right now, and I can't get the songs in this year's line up out of my head, so I couldn't not dedicate a post to it. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of Eurovision, you'll already know that there are always two semi-final shows that take place in the week leading up to the main finale show. Fourty plus countries usually enter a performance into the Eurovison line-up (this year, 42 countries to be exact. Originally 43, however due to some sort of conflict with the hosting country, Russia were pulled from the show), but only 26 countries can qualify for the final. Six of those countries are automatically through to the final stage of the Eurovision Song Contest; those including, the country who won the previous year's show and thus hosts the contest there, and five countries that contribute the majority of the money to pay for the show. These are known to Eurofans as the 'Big Five': United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain & France. With six countries automatically taking up spaces in the final, only 20 countries can win a spot. This is where the semi-final come in.
Semi-final One took place Tuesday with 18 countries performing for one of 10 places in the finals which will be held in Kyiv/Kiev, the capital of Ukraine this Saturday. Out of these countries, I was personally routing for Montenegro, Sweden, Greece, Azerbaijan, Finland, Moldova, Slovenia, Cyprus, Latvia and Australia (yes, they are also allowed to enter the Eurovison Song Contest, due to being members of some sort of European Broadcasting thing, I think). Me & my best friends are all major Eurofans and so we've started a tradition last year of celebrating together, since I was now back home from studying at university in Nottingham. We obviously go together for Semi-final One which ended up turning into a drinking party, haha! It was a wonderful night, a mix of excitement and disappointment with only some of our favourites from the night's line up making it through. Joining the final on Eurovision will be Australia, Cyrpus, Moldova, Belgium, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Portugal, Greece and Poland. I was gutted that Montenegro didn't qualify, and my friends were really not impressed that Finland didn't make it.
Tonight on BBC4 you can catch the Eurovision Semi-final Two. Don't watch if you would prefer a surprise on Saturday though! I'll be with my friends again, and tonight is going to be a tense one for sure! There are even more of our most loved performances in tonight's show so we are super nervous about what the results will be. Plus the United Kingdom could only vote in Semi-final One so we can't help out our favourites :( Performing for the last 10 places tonight are F.Y.R Macedonia, Romania, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Austria, Malta, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Lithuania, San Marino, Norway, Belarus, Switzerland, Hungary, The Netherlands and Croatia. You'll be able to catch me live-tweeting tonight! My absolute favourite competitor this year is Estonia, so everyone cross your fingers and toes for them tonight for me! My top ten to qualify are as follows: Estonia, Austria, Denmark, Israel, The Netherlands, Belarus, Norway, Bulgaria, Switzerland and San Marino. Norway & Belarus also have my other favourite songs of the year! So fellow, Eurofans... who is your favourite to win? Let me know in the comments.
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| Souvenirs from last year's Eurovision hosted in Sweden! |
Me and my best friend are such Eurovison nerds that last year we actually went to watch the final live in Stockholm, Sweden. It was such an epic experience, like nothing I've ever done before and although, my favourites from 2016 (Bulgia, Austria,The Netherlands & Belgium) didn't win the show, it was still fantastic to be part of the celebration. The hosts, Mans Zelmerlow and Petra Mede, performed an amazing song called 'Love Love Peace Peace' and I still can't quite believe that I was actually there to witness it. Due to this performance, I also got to be in the same arena as Lordi!! as well as Alexander Rybak who is adorable and won for Norway in 2009 (just to rub it in for you, Jess if you're reading!) If you would like to read all about my time in Sweden last year, check out this post.
Bring on Saturday! It's going to be a fabulous show and I'll be over the moon if either Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Italy or Norway won! It would be amazing for the UK to take home the winning trophy, however then I wouldn't be able to travel to a new country for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018! We had our reasons for not wanting to visit the Ukraine for this years finale so instead my best friend Aaron has organised a Eurovision party. It's going to be so much fun!! He's decorated his living room with all of the 43 countries flags and it looks really cool, and he's got party accessories in the colours of the UK flag too. We have beer pong games planned as well as a Eurovision drinking game! Everyone who's coming to the party had to choose one of the countries and dress only in their flag's colours. I obviously picked my favourite and so I have to wear an outfit in black, blue and white like the Estonian flag. I seriously can't wait!!
Thankyou for reading!
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If any of my readers are fellow Eurovision fans, I'd love to know who is your all-time favourite winner of The Eurovision Song Contest?
Curious about my trip to Sweden? Read all about it:
I didn't think this years Eurovision was that good - most acts seemed to be lacking the Eurovision spirit! My favourite was definitely Croatia!
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