The nude show continues – Finland advances to the ESC final!

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Windows95man’s journey continues in the final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. It is clear after Finland advanced from the first semi-final late on Tuesday night, with the song No rules.

– This is my art project that suddenly escalated, and I am very surprised that it happened, says Teemu Keisteri during the press conference afterwards, before thanking “the nice team”.

– Thanks also to Henri for coming here with me, he says and hugs singer Henri Piispanen.

Teemu Keisteri and Henri Piispanen, together with dancers Jesse Wijnans and Jasmir Vesander during Tuesday’s semifinal. NEWSPAPER PHOTO / ANTTI AIMO-KOIVISTO

They moved on

The Swedish ESC veteran Petra Mede once again had the honor of welcoming the audience to Sweden, where the competition is organized for the seventh time – this time in Malmö Arena.

As before, only the votes of the audience decide the semi-finals of the competition, while the European jury groups get to participate in choosing the winner in the final.

And the international viewers found ten favorites among the 15 entries: they were Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland, Cyprus, Croatia, Ireland and Luxembourg.

Those who did not progress were: Poland, Iceland, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Australia.

Eric Saade väckte kritik när han uppträdde med en så kallad keffiyeh runt handleden under tisdagens semifinal. LEHTIKU / ANTTI AIMO-KOVISTO

Attracted criticism

The entire evening was kicked off with opening numbers by three acquaintances from the competition’s history.

The Cypriot ESC runner-up Elini Foureira opened with an intense show, known from Lisbon 2018. Then the Swedish Eric Saade performed the song Popular, after which it was the turn of the Spanish Chanel – both with a bronze place from the competition in their luggage.

The fact that they were the ones to inaugurate this year’s ESC was presented as a symbolic gesture on the part of the production: you must not have won the competition before to be able to return as a winner on the big stage.

But Saade’s participation immediately led to controversy, as the artist wore a Palestine shawl around his arm on stage, which is against the EBU’s guidelines on not being political in the competition.

“We think it’s sad that he uses his participation in this way”, writes the executive producer Ebba Adielsson to The evening paper.

The organizers EBU also respond to the newspaper by email:

“The Eurovision Song Contest is a live show. All artists are well aware of the rules that apply in the competition, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the competition,” writes the EBU.

According to Aftonbladet, Saade has previously said that he participates in the opening act as a protest against Israel being allowed to compete this year. The country’s representative Eden Golan competes in the second semi-final on Thursday.

Johnny Logan won Eurovision in 1980, 1987 and even in 1992 as the songwriter for the song Why me performed by Linda Martin. PHOTO / ANTTI AIMO-KOIVISTO

Legends on stage

A novelty for this year is that even the so-called “Big Five” countries, which pay the largest participation fee in the competition – i.e. Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy – also appear in the semi-finals, even if they are already qualified for the final .

This also applies to the host nation Sweden, which this year is represented by the Norwegian twins Marcus & Martinus, who performed the song Unforgettable on Tuesday. Great Britain’s Olly Alexander and Germany’s Isaak also showed off their contributions before the final.

An exclamation point during the semi-finals was the fifteenth and final entry Luxembourg, which was represented by Tali with the song Fighter. With the performance, the country made a comeback in the competition after an absence of 31 years, and can now also get ready for the final.

During the voting, Irish pop icon Johnny Logan also took the stage, with a version of Loreen’s winning song Euphoria.

In 1987, he became the first artist in the competition’s history to win twice – a record that was only touched by Loreen in Liverpool last year.

De Norska twinlingarna Marcus & Martinus representarar verdnationen Sverige i år. Deras song heter Unforgettable. MAGAZINE / ANTTI AIMO-KOIVISTO

Benjamin Ingrosso, who represented Sweden with the song Dance you off 2018, also performed a medley while the votes were counted.

The presenter Petra Mede has this year the help of a newcomer to the ESC scene, namely the Hollywood star Malin Åkerman, who hosted the program for the first time.

Malin Åkerman is the program leader for the first time ever in this year’s ESC, together with Petra Mede who let show two times before. PHOTO / ANTTI AIMO-KOIVISTO

The second semi-final will be broadcast on Thursday 9.5 at 10 pm on Yle TV1 and at Yle Arena with Swedish commentary by Eva Frantz and Johan Lindroos.