Wednesday 12 February, 2025
THE SECOND SEMI-FINAL of the Eurovision Song Contest is now over, and sadly it ended in disappointment for Ireland.
Though Can-Linn and Kasey Smith did their level best and gave a great performance, they didn’t garner enough votes to move forward to the next level of the competition. Competition was extremely tough, as we soon discovered.
Here’s how it all went down:
Here’s the important bit: Ireland’s entry is the ninth performance of the night, just over half way through.
The rest of tonight’s running order is as follows:
Are you all watching Father Ted? GOOD.
Just in case you’re not up to speed on how it works tonight, here’s the deal.
Only people in the 16 countries that are actually competing can vote, plus three of the “Big Five” nations, ie. the countries who dish out the big moolah to make this thing happen.
Voting is split 50/50 between phone lines and juries from these countries.
Did you know that the neckpiece the lovely Kasey Smith is wearing tonight was designed by a Game of Thrones costume maker? So now.
Here we go! Tonight’s opening montage is all a bit X-Factor-y, isn’t it?
Hello Marty! Our lovely commentator is in exuberant form, as usual.
Now we’re seeing a family being lead by blue orbs. Lead… TO THE EUROVISION.
Last night’s proceedings began with a rendition of 2013′s winner, Only Teardrops.
Tonight, we get men in boxes. Hmm.
After that rather impressive dance performance, we meet our hosts for the second time.
All still very handsome. The Style tonight is marginally better than last night, though I’m not sure about the tiny disco balls on Lise’s hips.
“We’re in fighting form.”
Yes we are, Marty. Ireland are going to do this.
First up is Malta, and we’ve got some Mumford and Sons-inspired stuff right here.
The lead singer is staring unblinkingly into the camera.
Unblinkingly.
See what we mean? Unblinking.
Now we have us some Israel, and what appears to be our first big ballad of the night.
Mei Finegold certainly has some impressive pipes.
Was that a…key change?
Israel bringing our Key Change Count to 1.
Nothing particularly Eurovision-winning so far, don’t you think?
Will Norway bring out the big guns? Unfortunately, the piano and mopey singer says NO.
It is a nice song though. We’ll give them that.
Right. Georgia are giving us some “jazz-fusion” according to Marty.
Jazz-fusion rules decree your bass-drummer must ALWAYS wear a parachute. Always.
I don’t think anyone in the Georgia entry fully agreed on what to do for the performance, so they just did everything.
Poland attempting to tap into the popularity of Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea et al with a female rapper, I see.
Not sure what the alluring washerwoman is doing there, though.
Yes Niall, I believe they did. EUROVISION.
The Polish butter churner is going down a storm on Twitter, anyway.
IT’S CONCHITA TIME.
Don’t lie, you were waiting for this. We all were.
Fantastic frock. Fantastic voice.
Conchita, you are fantastic.
Kim Kardashian WISHES for that contouring.
“Oh good heavens, I may never shave again.” Marty, on Conchita’s performance.
Nor I, Marty. Nor I.
Lithuania have a tough act to follow. The singer and dancer are sporting Tron-inspired costumes.
See what I mean?
Finland are up. That means just one thing…IRELAND ARE NEXT.
STOP SCREAMING, FINLAND.
OK. Are we ready for this? This is our moment. Our time to shine.
As you can see the Celtic theme is strong again this year, with Irish dancers and bodhráns. Will we ever lose the bodhráns?
Kasey’s looking and sounding mighty, and the backdrop is very pretty altogether.
I bopped in my seat when the key change kicked in. Did you bop?
Marty bopped. He’s “worn out” he says.
Cheesecake? This couldn’t be ANOTHER song about cakes, could it?
Cake To Bake is still lingering in our heads.
I told this story
But I’m so sorry
I lost my train of thought
When you called me, “My Sweet Cheesecake”
Riiiiight.
FYR Macedonia next.
There has been some opposition on Twitter to the Irish entry’s bodhráns and diddley-idle-dee factor:
Here come Switzerland with their rather dishy entrant serving up MORE Mumford and Sons-lite. How much of this can the Eurovision take? A lot, it seems.
He’s whistling. Look at how happy he is.
But his happy face obscures the dark, dark lyrics:
I am the hunter
You are the prey
I’m gonna eat you up
Errrr…
Someone in DailyEdge.ie Towers is now whistling the Swiss entry. Fess up, whoever you are.
Can you believe this is the third last song? The night has flown in. What are you eating as your Eurovision semi-final snack? I’m enjoying some Brown Hula Hoops (the best flavour, but that’s a debate for another day.)
Turns out Greece were concealing a cheeky trampoline on stage ALL ALONG. The scamps.
Let’s be real, the trampoline saved the performance.
Don’t you DARE leave, John.
Slovenia bringing us the penultimate song of the night. She’s waving that flute around like it’s a deadly weapon.
The last song of the night is a classic Eurovision duet from Romania, with that added dance edge. Because everything needs a dance edge.
Bonus circular piano:
I quite enjoy the uncertainty in the Romanian entry’s lyrics:
All the things I see
(I think I see them too)
You have to BELIEVE, Romanian singer man. Believe.
So! That’s the performances wrapped up for tonight. Now’s the time to vote, if that’s what you wish to do – just call or text the number on the screen. You can’t vote for Ireland, remember.
Here is the first of many, many recaps. So far, it’s looking like Conchita Wurst is the star of the night, and Austria will no doubt find themselves in the final. Who are your favourites?
“You won’t get a reply now,” says Marty about the text voting. Goddamn. There are our hopes, dashed.
The interval act tonight is inspired by Australia, who really really want to participate in the Eurovision but are obviously thwarted by, y’know, being in Australia.
CREEPY KOALA HEAD ALERT.
Kaspar from Borgen is urging us to make up our minds about the entrants. To be honest, apart from Austria (which is a dead cert), it could be anyone’s game. I have my fingers crossed for Kasey, Can-Linn and Ireland. PATRIOTISM.
Third time seeing that Polish butter churner and I’m STILL blushing.
Here’s 8-year-old Megan from Ireland! She was one of the lucky few Eurovision fans chosen to dance on stage at the semi-finals.
She’s tiny. She’s brilliant.
Go on Megan! Eight years old and a better dancer than I will ever be. *sobs*
The voting lines are now closed! Fingers, toes, everything crossed for Can-Linn and Kasey Smith.
Awkward green room banter. Go make a cup of tea. You deserve it.
One commenter has pointed out something troubling.
I went back and looked, and – yes, kind of.
Two seconds with Kasey in the green room. What did they talk about? Feet.
The host just gave Conchita a sausage.
And asked us to download their epp again. Epps, epps, so many epps.
The results should have been ready by now, the man in charge of the votes tells us. This means another recap. We may die here.
Although another recap isn’t so bad, as we get to see Conchita’s wondrous beard once more.
The results are in! Here we go!
The first five countries through to the final are, in no particular order:
Switzerland
Slovenia
Poland
Romania
Norway
And the next five:
Greece
Malta
Belarus
Finland
Austria
“Oh well, oh well, oh well…” We couldn’t say it better ourselves, Marty. What a disappointment. But well done to Kasey Smith and Can-Linn who did a stellar job of representing us tonight, and kudos to Conchita Wurst who so cruelly snatched our place in the final away from us.
Ah, only joking. Congrats, Conchita!
That’s it from the second Eurovision semi-final. Ireland didn’t get through. Disappointment isn’t the word, but we’re going to put on a brave face and watch the final this weekend, right?
The lovely Emer McLysaght will be taking over the liveblog on Saturday, and I will be angrily tweeting from my sofa. Stay strong. Channel Conchita.
Goodbye, my friends!
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