The Eurovision power shift

by Benny Royston 90 views

A shift in power at the Eurovision Song Contest may be occuring after looking at the results of the two semi finals this year. Only two former Yugoslavian nations have qualified for tomorrow's final in Oslo, whilst countries that have struggled to qualify from the semi finals in the past have made it to the final. All former Soviet nations with the exception of the Baltic states have also passed to the final.

Belgium won their first place in the Eurovision Song Contest final since semi finals were introduced in 2004 whilst Cyprus qualified last night for the first time since 2004's Lisa Andreas entry, Stronger every minute. Ireland's qualification is only their second success in a Eurovision Song Contest semi final, the previous time being in Greece when Brian Kennedy took nineth place in the semi final and 10th in the final with Every song is a cry for love.

Making way for the returning nations are Sweden, who failed to reach the Eurovision Song Contest final for the first time since 1976. Along with Finland, two Nordic countries are making a rare miss for the grand final. A similar situation in the former Yugoslavia sees only Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia represented in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Both qualified on Tuesday, when FYR Macedonia missed out. Last night, Croatia and Slovenia both failed to meet them in the final.

The Baltic states are also missing from tomorrow's Final, with Latvia and Estonia failing to make the top ten on Tuesday and Lithuania missing out last night. Yet all seven former Soviet states (excluding the Baltic states) will be present in the final. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia all passed through the second semi final to meet Moldova, Belarus and Russia in the final.