Super Semi Saturday Round-up

There were six shows in the world of Eurovision tonight and that is quite a lot. You’d have to do something really special to watch all these shows live and you’d obviously miss some of the results. So that’s why we’re giving you the round-up of tonight! And with six shows, none of which were finals, we can really call this the Super Semi Saturday. Check out below how these six shows ended tonight! We’ve also searched YouTube to find you all these songs with their performances, so you can often click the song to listen to it!

Ukraine – Semi 1

In Ukraine, nine acts were competing for just three tickets. Before the show, four acts were hyped the most: Anastasia Pridhodko, Jamala, Aida Nikolaychuk and The Hardkiss. That already brought us one familiar issue: We have just three tickets, so one favourite was always going to fail. It however wasn’t expected that two of them were going to be knocked out…
The results in Ukraine tonight. The jury ranked the songs from 9 points down to 1, televoting did the same:

So both Aida and Anastasia were knocked out. Jamala was the clear winner, ragging up the top vote from both juries and televoting. She managed to get a whopping 49.22% of the televote, even. Also: Ruslana cried during her song, so that’s a tradition remained intact. She cried during Mother in Belgium’s 2014 national final, she cried during her own performance in Romania’s national final last year and now she cried during 1944. Back to business, Jamala really is the major favourite in Ukraine now.

Hungary – Heat 3

We already had twelve semifinalists in Hungary, but that wasn’t enough. So that meant ten more acts were going to fight for the remaining six tickets. The biggest question was if there was going to be a song that could come close to the scores Freddie (Heat 1) and Kállay Saunders Band (Heat 2). So far, they were the only two acts to score over 40 points. Five qualifiers were chosen by the jury, one qualifier went through on televoting. Here’s how that ended:

Petruska – Trouble In My Mind: 42
Szilvia Agárdi – It Is Love: 40
Parno Graszt – Már Nem Szédülök: 38
B The First – You Told Me That You Loved Me: 36
Nika – Emlékkép: 34
Olivér Berkes & Andi Tóth – Seven Seas: 34 (Televoting qualifier)
Viki Singh – Katonák: 34
Bálint Gájer – Speed Bump: 33
Ív – Love Kills Me: 33
Júli Horányi – Come Along: 31

We see that Petruska has tied with Freddie on the highest score of the heats as both scored 42. Kállay Saunders Band follows on 41 and then it’s Szilvia Agárdi on 40. One could expect that one of these four will take the ticket to Stockhilm. The jury had to make a tough decision for their final qualifier as, as you can see, three songs tied in fifth place. The jury eventually chose Nika, with televoting giving Olivér and Andi another shot. It’s a sad end for Viki, Bálint, Ív and Júli.
Next week, the semis will start. The eighteen remaining songs will be divided into two semis of nine songs. The top four of each semi will then qualify for the final of A Dal 2016, which will take place on Super Saturday, 27th February.

Sweden – Deltävling 1

Sweden was full of drama and skandals earlier this week. Not only did Charlotte Perrelli manage to get herself taken away from the task of hosting next week’s show, we also had the songwriters of Himmel För Två not realising their song, which had already been released as a Moldovan contender in 2014, was ineligible for Melodifestivalen 2016. Poor old Anna Book got disqualified, but, as we have now learnt, SVT have basically promised her a spot as one of the 28 acts for 2017. Her song will have an ABBA vibe and will be written by Fredrik Kempe.
More to the point, we only had six songs remaining tonight (although Anna did deliver her performance with class), of which four would, in some way, progress to the next stages. Two would go to the final immediately, two others will need to try their luck again in Andra Chansen. Here’s how it ended:

Final:
Ace Wilder – Don’t Worry
Robin Bengtsson – Constellation Prize
Andra Chansen:
Samir & Viktor – Bada Nakna
Albin & Mattias – Rik
5th: Mimi Werner – Ain’t No Good
6th: Pernilla Andersson – Mitt Guld

Ace Wilder seems to be the winner of this semi, with many deeming her to be a frontrunner in the final as well. Her Don’t Worry could launch into the charts right now, but also brings back some vibes of the 90s. It will be interesting to see how her position will look in the upcoming weeks, with many fans also praising Robin Bengtsson and some real contenders fighting for a place in Friends Arena in the next three semis.

Finland – Semi 1

No points were given out in Finland to keep things nice and exciting. UMK kicked off with six acts fighting for three final tickets. At the end of the show, the three qualifiers were announced and that was that. We have no idea how any of these actually scored! Here are tonight’s qualifiers:

We (sadly) said goodbye to Pää-Äijät and their epic entry Shamppanjataivas. The other eliminated acts were Clemso and Mikko Herranen. The favourite in this semi seemed to be Saara Aalto. She’s often mentioned as one of the UMK frontrunners. A nice surprise was Eini. The 55 year old schlager veteran managed to pull off quite a show and got herself into the final and back into the spotlight.
Next week, another six acts will take on the task of fighting for three tickets. Among that bunch are hot favourites Mikael Saari and Cristal Snow, as well as fan favourites Annica Milán & Kimmo Blom. That semi could end up being a true blood bath.

Lithuania – Show 5

We’re what you could call halfway through in Lithuania. Eurovizijos had its fifth show tonight and there’s five more to come. Tonight was all about artists being matched with songs. These artists didn’t apply as a ‘package deal’ of song and artist, but told LRT to just match them with a good song. So no Donny, no Rūta, no Erica tonight.Televoting and a jury, made up of an international jury and a Lithuanian jury, eventually decided which eight out of ten acts qualified for the next phase. The results tonight. The first number in brackets is the jury score, the second is the televoting score:

So yes, somehow the juries gave out 4 points twice. It didn’t help either one of them, as both Berta and Baiba are now eliminated. In the case of Berta vs. E.G.O., the rules of Eurovizijos state that the jury takes preference as soon as there is a tie. Both acts scored 8 points in total, but the jury 5 for E.G.O. made them the borderline qualifier.
A classic move by LRT shows us that we actually have no idea how the next three shows will look. There are now sixteen acts left and one of them will represent Lithuania in Stockholm, that’s what we know. The semi will be on 5th March, the final a week later, but there will also be shows in the next three weeks. Stay tuned to find out what’ll happen there!

Iceland – Semi 1

Continuing the Nordic feast of semis tonight was Iceland. They were the last ones to start, mainly because of the time difference with mainland Europe. Just as in Finland, we got six entries on stage and three of them were going to qualify for the final of Söngvakeppnin 2016.
Among the contender tonight was Greta Salóme, who represented Iceland back in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Also in the field was the much hyped entry by Sigga Eyrún, Kreisí. Unfortunately for those fans, Sigga didn’t manage to qualify. These three however did:

It has to be said, in addition to this list, that Greta Salóme delivered a visual performance like we had never seen before in Söngvakeppni. She made use of the background screen like no one ever did before, so check that one out, she may well be on her way to a second Eurovision ticket…

Next week

Next week will be packed with Eurovision shows and that’s mainly thanks to one country: Italy. Sanremo will start on Tuesday and will run for five days (yes, it’ll feel like a 24 hour show each night, but it’s worth it). On Friday, we’ll also have Austria selecting their entry for Stockholm.
Saturday will be packed with action again with a grand total of nine shows taking place. There will be finals in Italy, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as semis or heats in Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Hungary, Lithuania and a new face: Estonia. To keep that all structured, we will be offering you another schedule, like you’re used to from us!