The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 kicked off tonight with the first semi final being held. Let's take a look on the statistics regarding the outcome of the show.
Losers
Andorra and Estonia have yet again failed to make it to the final – like they did in every semi final broadcast so far. Other countries that haven’t been to the final for a while are the Netherlands, Belgium (eliminated for the fourth time in a row). In its fourth year of participation, Moldova stays out of the final for the first time.
Winners
Other countries were more successful. The countries that will have been in all Eurovision Song Contest finals since 2004 are: Greece, Russia, Romania and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Poland will be in the final for the first time since 2004 and Azerbaijan for the first time at all (as a debutant).
Running order
For the first time ever, a song performed at #2 in the semi final went to the final. On the other hand, Estonia keeps its qualification quota of 0%. A look on the running order shows that the last four songs performed all made it to the final and that seven of the ten qualifiers were performed in the second half of the show. Nevertheless, it has to be said that with only 19 countries participating, the running order may play a minor role. Furthermore, many of the hot favourites were performed towards the end. By the way, all three countries that were allowed to choose their starting positions themselves made it to the final.
Languages, songs and composers
Only half of the songs is performed entirely in English. The other five songs are in Hebrew and English, Romanian and Italian, Bosnian, Finnish and Armenian and English. This shows another trend: there will be many bilingual songs in the final (which actually have not done too well the last few years). The three songs in the contest which were composed all by women(from Israel, Poland and Norway) made it to the final while singer-songwriter Hind who also co-wrote her song has to stay in the semi final. Dima Bilan, Laka and Jarkko Ahola (of Teräsbetoni) made it to the final with their own compositions.
“Gimmick” entries
2008 has already been named the year of the gimmick entries. However, both Estonia and Ireland (and also Belgium, which is sometimes also regarded as a gimmick entry) did not make it to the final. The Azeri and the Bosnian entry, which also face a lot on the stage performance (as well as Teräsbetoni from Finland with all those fireworks) made it to the final as well as Russia and Greece with their rather visual entries.
