Opening act makes fans’ hearts beat higher

One of the highlights of the show happened right at the start, when hosts Volodymyr and Oleksandr joined with dancers and instrumentalists on stage to perform a medley of Eurovision winners, Ukraine-style. It was a heartwarming mix consisting of recent classics such as “Euphoria”, “Rise Like A Phoenix”, “Fairytale” and “My Number One”.

A big fan favourite misses the final

It was already rather obvious during their performance that Koit Toome and Laura from Estonia wouldn’t qualify for the final. Their song “Verona” was one of the biggest fan favourites this year, conquering the hearts of Eurovision fanboys and fangirls around the globe. But then their live performance started with a microphone failure, and moreover, their presentation of the song was far from convincing. And so “Verona” joins the club of fan faves that have stumbled at the semi-final stage, such as “Je t’adore” (Belgium 2006) or more recently “Same Heart” (Israel 2014).

image: Andres Putting (EBU)

First proposal in a Eurovision show

Not only did we find out last night that the Macedonian entrant, Jana Burčeska, is expecting a baby, but we even saw the very first marriage proposal in a Eurovision show! The more experienced fans among us were probably immediately reminded of another ESC “first”, when the Danish representatives Birte Wilcke and Gustav Winckler performed the first kiss on the Eurovision stage, back in 1957, right at the end of their entry “Skibet skal sejle i nat”. Eurovision and romance have always gone hand in hand…