As promised, I’ve got a report today about last night’s Eurovision 2014 Semi-Final #2.

First, to update you on an issue I brought up yesterday, Ireland did NOT make it into the finals, one of 5 acts from last night that did not move past the semi-finals. The Irish singer get it her all: she was dressed up like some sci-fi Irish chieftain, with two bouncing Irish Step dancers (men) criss-crossing the stage behind her, and several back-up female vocalists, plus a woman who double as a traditional Irish drummer as well as violinist. But, that wasn’t enough to win votes last night.

Now one thing that was striking from last night’s semi-final, though, was that no act was really awful the way a few of the acts were on Tuesday night. In the end, 10 acts made it past the semi and into Saturday night’s live final round. All together, 26 acts will compete on Saturday, hoping to get the top douze (12) points from each country in order to win the Eurovision 2014 title. But no one act was terrible, or even that bizarre.

OK, wait, there was that group from Georgia who were out of tune, out of sync and out of rhythm. And whose drummer sported a parasail all through the performance for no particular reason. Thankfully the did not make the cut, so we won’t have to listen to that song attempt again!

And then who could forget the Lithuanian singer dressed in the black and blue tutu complete with the cup-holders. Well, OK, so she didn’t really have cups in the holes in her tutu, that’s just a snarky description I read online that I’d have to agree with. Lithuania did not fare well and are out of the competition.

And yes, there was that guy from Norway who couldn’t manage to sing on key, even though he thinks he has what he takes to be a musician. His cousin penned a special song for him to perform at Eurovision. He’s a carpenter by training and experience, and Chris and I felt he should keep his day job. However, he inexplicably made it into the finals.

But the rest of the acts weren’t really all that odd or memorable: there was the straight-up indie pop band (Finland – made it); a folk pop band (Malta – made it), a bunch of singers that stood rooted to the spot with lights flashing all around them, etc. I had high hopes for the performance by the group from Greece, who had been advertised as having an act with them bouncing on a big trampoline. But it was a bit of a let-down; the camera angles didn’t show you the pro gymnast who might have been there bouncing around the whole time, and the singers themselves only bounced on the trampoline for the last few seconds of the performance. They did make it into the finals, however.

Of course, the performance that had sparked all the controversy and all the anti-Eurovision petitions in the run-up to Eurovision 2013 was Conchita Wurst from Austria. But although she sang like a diva in a big gold dress, that’s all the performance was. She stayed rooted to the spot and sang. She made it into the finals, but was the last finalist announced: they milked the suspense there for all it was worth, dragging out the announcement for a good 30 seconds, I’d say.

But otherwise, I think the acts in last night’s semi were robbed, in a way, since most of them were about the same, and yet only 5 of the 10 were going to be able to get through to the final. We were hard pressed to pick favorites — or even ones that we thought absolutely should NOT make it to the finals.

Well, except for Georgia – their act really just was so atonal as to be painful to sit through.

Anyway, since today is Friday, I was happy to discover that in the absence of the Latvia cake, there was still something to talk about for Eurovision Food on Fridays post, since there was plenty of cheese to go around last night. The song entry from Belarus is called Cheesecake. Unfortunately, the performance was just cheesey as all get out. First, the boy band singers came across looking like a 1960s lounge act, and the lead singer’s beard was so poseur as to be laughable. As one blogger I read put it when describing this act, “Like cheesecake, it is delicious but unhealthy in large doses.” Well, I guess we only have to survive 3 more minutes of it, since,  yes, they made it to the final.

But the other form of cheesecake came from Poland. The female singer was dressed in a mini-skirt version of a traditional Polish dress. She sang — well, rapped, actually — about how Polish woman are sexy and serve food. A group of female dancers surrounded her during the performance and were attired in traditional Polish outfits with extremely low-cut shirts. The real oddity, though, was that on either side of the stage, an extremely well-endowed woman seductively did traditional Polish woman tasks: one suggestively churned butter while the other washed clothing on a washboard.

Cheesiness at its finest, that’s all I have to say.

Ah well. Over all, I think what I liked best last night were the 30-second flag segments). For example, Macedonia used acoustic waves to create their flag: their singer sprinkled colored powder on a plate, and played notes on a cello to form the power into lines to form the flag. Impressive.

Macedonia flag, Eurovision 2014

Also impressive was Poland, who also used the sound waves. For Poland, though, the sound was sung into a computer program by the Polish lead singer, who sustain the note for a whle at just the right frequency in order to form the flag. Also very impressive.

Poland flag from sound wave pattern; Eurovision 2014

But it was Romania that stole my heart. Romania set off fireworks, and then took a photo of the reflection of the colors from fireworks on a river. Wait – a reflection of fireworks colors n the water to create the flag? Really?!? Wow!

Romanian Flag created from fireworks reflections

Douze points to Romania!

Well, at least for their flag. 😉

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P.S. Since I don’t have as much time today to add in all the links, go to this page to see all the clips from last night’s semi-final, both winners and losers: http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/05/08/second-semi-final-results-qualified/49902/