Semi-final wishlists

Now all the songs are known, the next thing we are awaiting is the semi final draw. We already know which half of which semi the songs are in as well as the voting split for the 6 already in the final but everything is up for grabs. This is not a prediction per se, more my idea of a perfect running order. I have also used ideas about props and prepping time to inform my decisions and I have also had to kind of guess where the 'commercial breaks' might be. So here's what I'd like to see

SEMI FINAL 1
Estonia Elina Nechayeva "La forza"
Belarus         Alekseev "Forever"
Azerbaijan Aisel "X My Heart"
Bulgaria        Equinox "Bones"
Czechia        Mikolas Josef "Lie to Me"
Lithuania      Ieva Zasimauskaitė "When We're Old"
---
Belgium        Sennek "A Matter of Time"
Iceland         Ari Ólafsson "Our Choice"
Albania        Eugent Bushpepa "Mall"
Israel Netta "Toy"
Ireland Ryan O'Shaughnessy "Together"
Croatia Franka "Crazy"
Armenia       Sevak Khanagyan "Qami"
---
Macedonia Eye Cue "Lost and Found"
Cyprus Eleni Foureira "Fuego"
Austria         Cesár Sampson "Nobody but You"
Greece Yianna Terzi "Oneiro mou"
Switzerland Zibbz "Stones"
Finland          Saara Aalto "Monsters"

I think having one of the favourites on first is a bold move but being such a unique song I think it sets a fabulous ambience to the night (and also put some of the ones afterwards to shame). The Czech song is the most obvious to put on first but considering the other songs in this half I don't think it fits. This semi also has very few non-english entries so I have tried to separate them out throughout the show, as well as keeping apart similarly tempoed songs and acts.

SEMI FINAL 2

Moldova            DoReDos "My Lucky Day"

Russia Yulia Samoylova "I Won't Break"

Netherlands Waylon "Outlaw in 'Em"
Serbia Sanja Ilić & Balkanika "Nova deca"

San Marino Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening "Who We Are" 

Denmark           Rasmussen "Higher Ground"

---

Australia          Jessica Mauboy "We Got Love"

Romania          The Humans "Goodbye"

Norway          Alexander Rybak "That's How You Write a Song"

Hungary          AWS "Viszlát nyár"

Slovenia          Lea Sirk "Hvala, ne!"

Ukraine          Mélovin "Under the Ladder"

---

Sweden         Benjamin Ingrosso "Dance You Off"

Latvia Laura Rizzotto "Funny Girl"

Poland Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer "Light Me Up"

Montenegro Vanja Radovanović "Inje"

Malta Christabelle "Taboo"

Georgia         Iriao "For You"

Moldova's uptempo number seems too obvious a choice of opener, but it is an eyectacing song so will demand attention. I could not resist having Alexander Rybak and AWS on after each other - that I gong to be one hell of a contrast -  but I wonder as to whose benefit it might be? Sweden start off the third part mainly due to their bulky staging although if the producers wanted to make it obvious how pro-Sweden they are, it'll be on last. That said, the Georgian lilting choral singing makes for a very peaceful, rousing and suitable full stop. Anything on after this is going to feel like an anti-climax In this semi, non english entries are more prevalent and have tried to split them up but is almost impossible in the second half.

Of course if some entries need more time for staging purposes they may 'demand' to be put on before or after a commercial break or first/last which may affect things. Maybe when the list comes in we can work out who this might be the case for or who the producers are favouring this year.