Tonight, 21:00 CET: Semi-final 2

The second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 is just a few hours away, and so it’s time for us in the escgo! team to predict the ten qualifiers for the grand final on Saturday. You can see the choices of Martin, Felix and Shi in the table below – followed by a brief explanation of their choices!

Country	Martin	Felix	Shi	TEAM
1. Serbia				0 %
2. Austria	Q	Q	Q	100 %
3. Macedonia				0 %
4. Malta				0 %
5. Romania	Q	Q	Q	100 %
6. The Netherlands	Q	Q	Q	100 %
7. Hungary	Q	Q	Q	100 %
8. Denmark	Q		Q	66.6 %
9. Ireland		Q		33.3 %
10. San Marino				0 %
11. Croatia		Q		33.3 %
12. Norway	Q	Q	Q	100 %
13. Switzerland				0 %
14. Belarus	Q	Q	Q	100 %
15. Bulgaria	Q	Q	Q	100 %
16. Lithuania				0 %
17. Estonia	Q	Q	Q	100 %
18. Israel	Q		Q	66.6 %

MartinF:

I’m not too sad with my 8/10 on Tuesday, not least since the two I got wrong were precisely the two I flagged up in the accompanying text. Tonight is an entirely different affair, though. There’s every chance Macedonia’s strong song will overcome the flaws of its performer, Ireland’s “little boy lost” routine will melt televoter hearts, Switzerland’s chorus will stick like glue to every ear, Malta will get enough jury love to qualify – and then, of course, there’s the small matter of Jacques Houdek. In exchange, the likes of Austria, the Netherlands, Belarus and especially Norway could easily miss out. In the words of Stefan Raab, I am so curious…

FelixK:
I got 7/10 in Tuesday’s prediction. I mostly get either 7/10 or 8/10, so it was one of my worse days. Time to make some fixes to my prediction system! My biggest insecurities today are Estonia, as I don’t trust Eurovision anymore after what happened to Finland. I had Malta on my Q list until the very last moment (replaced it with Ireland), and I’m not very sure about Norway qualifying either. Probably my missing Qs will be Israel and Macedonia, whereas Austria and Hungary could be other candidates who might struggle.

Shi: 
I’ll join the Macedonia choir, but with a lukewarm performance early in the running order in a semi that has a lot of uptempo later on, it smells like trouble. Austria, which I had as a NQ for most of the season, made it because I feel juries consistently go for that type of thing, and as far as televoting goes, it never hurt being a good looking and likable young guy. I still think juries will hate Estonia but that it will have enough audience to make up for it. And I refuse to acknowledge the possibility of Malta or Croatia making it.

Will we be right or completely wrong? There’s only a few hours left until we find out – so whatever you’re doing and whomever you’re watching the show with, enjoy the show and may the best songs qualify!