Today was the first day the press center was open for all the accredited press, and it was the first time the press could see live performances of no less than 14 entries of this year’s contest. These 14 acts are all in Semi-final 1; they are respectively: Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Moldova, Croatia, Denmark, Austria, Greece, and Portugal.
Portugal was added to the end of today’s program, because the Portuguese delegation had a COVID-19 scare. One of Maro’s singers has COVID-19, and needs to quarantine for at least a week. Maro and the other singers could rehearse, but when they were not performing on-stage they all needed to wear FFP2 medical masks.
We have written down a pro and a con of each song, so that you get a summarized overview of the opinion of the ESCplus International team.
Albania
Ronela Hajati – Sekret
Pro: Energetic performance with lots of dancing and the strong ethnic voice of Ronela.
Con: Can come across as (heavily) overdone, and sometimes less is more.
Latvia
Citi Zēni – Eat Your Salad
Pro: Energetic, colorful, and full of sass without losing class.
Con: Maybe too energetic, and will enough people understand the message of this “go vegan” song?
Lithuania
Monika Liu – Sentimentai
Pro: Sexy old school disco with matching dress and hair-do.
Con: Very old school and when the song is over you felt like you were waiting for something that was never going to happen.
Switzerland
Marius Bear – Boys Do Cry
Pro: Very sweet, small song about boys and men also being humans who feel sadness and joy.
Con: The song and the staging seem to come from separate worlds; the whole thing is not sure about what it wants to be, sweet and nice or cool and rough.
Slovenia
LPS – Disko
Pro: American ‘70’s high school disco band with old school flair.
Con: Just like Monika Liu’s song, which is also disco, people might understand what is going on or might think that it is a song that goes nowhere significant.
Ukraine
Kalush Orchestra – Stefania
Pro: The ethnic beats of the song combined with rap.
Con: They are announced the winners before the contest has even started, but is this really the best song out of the bunch…?
Bulgaria
Intelligent Music Project – Intention
Pro: Old school rock like rock was meant to be, with guitars, fire, and lots of lights.
Con: So old school that younger audiences might rather skip it.
The Netherlands
S10 – De Diepte
Pro: Beautiful girl sings edgy and modern, yet Lana del Rey, inspired ballad.
Con: The staging makes it look a little flat and simple.
Moldova
Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers – Trenulețul
Pro: Ethnic sound that remains in your head for weeks to come.
Con: Again, Zdob şi Zdub? Really? The same type of song…again?
Croatia
Mia Dimšić – Guilty Pleasure
Pro: Early Taylor Swift type of vibe, the song calms the mind.
Con: Too sweet and soft to really get stuck in your head.
Denmark
Reddi – The Show
Pro: Cool rock chicks sing a song that seems to start as a ballad, and then changes into a rock song.
Con: Is it edgy enough for it to be modern and appealing to many types of audiences?
Austria
DJ Lum!x feat. Pia Maria – Halo
Pro: It is a real banger this one, is stuck in your head immediately.
Con: The lights, the DJ’ing on-stage, the outfit of Pia Maria…too much of everything?
Greece
Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord – Die Together
Pro: Cool staging with lots of props that convey the story of the song, which makes it easy to understand the song.
Con: Is the stage eating Amanda; you sometimes forget that she is actually there.
Portugal
Maro – Saudade, saudade
Pro: Very loungey, on-the-beach kind of music that calms the mind.
Con: Not everyone will think it is calming, but might find it strange that this song is so calm on purpose.
Conclusion?
Our conclusion is that Semi-final 1’s qualifiers might not necessarily be the ones which are doing great with the bookmakers, we believe that qualifying for some songs can even become a real challenge, like the Netherlands. Of course, we are not sure, but for some songs we thought that there would be more of a show, and then it turns out there is not.
Let’s see what happens on May 10th 2022 when the contestants of Semi-final 1 go head-to-head.
What about you?
What do you think of the songs mentioned above? Let us know in the comments below!
Eurovision Song Contest 2022
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place on the 10th, 12th, and 14th of May 2022 in Turin, Italy.