THE EUROVISION Song Contest’s potential as a site for reconciliation and national image-building (or perhaps rebuilding) was affirmed last night as two countries at the centre of the world’s worst recent news stories, Greece and Iceland, both qualified for Saturday’s final.
A debt crisis and an air-traffic-halting volcano proved no object to Giorgios Alkaios and Friends' sing-along Opa! and Hera Björk's club-anthem-in-the-making Je Ne Sais Quoias they earned their place in the final alongside acts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Russia, Portugal, Belarus, Belgium, Albania and Serbia.
Last night’s competition was widely considered the weaker of this year’s two semifinals. Of the acts that qualified, bookmakers predict only Belgium and Greece will finish in the top 10. Among the stranger of the acts was Poland’s Legenda, in which lead singer Marcin Mrozinski was tempted by writhing women holding apples in their mouths. Nor did voters warm to the Vegas floorshow choreography of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s Jas Ja Imam Silata.
For the first time, both the semifinal and final rounds of this year’s Eurovision contest are being decided by 50 per cent public voting and 50 per cent jury voting.
Ireland’s former winner Niamh Kavanagh will perform in tomorrow night’s semi-final.