It’s time for me to officially preview Tuesday night’s semi final for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest which as we all know is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan. There are 18 participants and only 10 go through to Saturday’s final.

Now in my experience, I have always found the first semi final to be the weaker of the two and this year I think that is just the same. There are some really good songs, some okay ones and some just plain dire ones. I will now give you the list of the 10 songs that I think will qualify for the final. Last year I got 6 out of the 10 correct so I’ll be hoping for at least that again this year.

Here are my picks for qualification from Semi Final 1:

ICELAND – Gréta Salóme & Jónsi – Never Forget – CLICK ME – I love this one.
GREECE – Eleftheria Eleftheriou – Aphrodisiac – CLICK ME – A typical Greek entry, certain to make it.
ROMANIA – Mandinga – Zaleilah – CLICK ME – A popular choice across the internet.
DENMARK – Soluna Samay – Should’ve Known Better – CLICK ME – Something different, will sneak in.
RUSSIA – Buranovskiye Babushki – Party For Everybody – CLICK ME – Its awful but novelty…
IRELAND – Jedward – Waterline – CLICK ME – Not as good as last year’s effort but good enough.
HUNGARY – Compact Disco – Sound Of Our Hearts – CLICK ME – Probably a wild card but a great track.
CYPRUS – Ivi Adamou – La La Love – CLICK ME – A big favourite to win the entire contest.
MOLDOVA – Pasha Parfeny – Lăutar – CLICK ME – Fun and energetic, might appeal to some countries.
LATVIA – Anmary – Beautiful Song – CLICK ME – It will be all in the performance I think.

A good selection there I think, it will certainly set up a good final once Thursday’s selections are also added. I’ve also seen some of the rehearsal videos going about and I am pretty confident about my performances. Iceland is my favourite here though.

Enjoy the semi final everyone and catch me on Facebook during the show.

The motor had its service this week and while I was waiting for it to be done, I actually started reading a book! I know, hard to believe eh? The Damned United, I have seen the film and liked it so I figured I would give the book a go just to see how it compared.

To give Kell and I a bit more freedom with the computers, I bought a couple of cheaper tablet computers. Instead of the iPad (which are just far too expensive) I did a little research and have picked up two 7″ tablets for £85 a piece which was down from £130 each. They are great too, very responsive and you can get some neat little Android applications aswell, some of which Xander can have some fun with which gives him something else to do sometimes. He is particularly good at “Pairs”.

The Eurovision Song Contest is next week with, the first semi final on Tuesday, then Thursday for the second and the grand final on Saturday. What a fun week for me! I still have some blog posts to come for the semi finals before I preview the big nights. I reckon The Hump (Engelbert Humperdinck) has a great chance and his song is very underrated in my opinion. I also have money on him so I’m being very optimistic here. I do have some favourites so you will have to look at my blogs to read about them. GET BEHIND THE HUMP!

Lastly is my joy at Chelsea finally wining the Champions League last night by beating Bayern Munich at their own ground 4-3 on penalties after the game finished 1-1 after extra time. There were moments when I thought that it just wasn’t going to happen but Didier Drogba came through for us again and again. A bullet header by the big Ivorian two minutes from time took the game to extra time. His future is still a matter for speculation as his contract is due to expire. I would understand if he wants to move on, but I’d like him to stay for at least another season. Interim manager Roberto Di Matteo’s future as boss is still not certain. I want him to get the job and after he has done for the club what no other manager has managed (even The Special One – remember that) with Chelsea, Di Matteo HAS to be considered for the post full-time. I loved the moment last night when Di Matteo met owner Roman Abramovich at the top of the stairs and pointed to him shouting “I WON IT!”

So anyway, its time to get cracking. I think I’ll leave you all with this picture from last night. Well done lads!!

Well its just over a week until the big day and I’m still getting through the entries. I think I’ll have to pull my finger out here, so let’s get cracking with some Turkish Delight shall we?

Turkey have had some great entries in the past and they are usually certain qualifiers. Can Bonomo and his song “Love Me Back” isn’t such a hot tip for the final in my opinion. I think it’s one of the poorest tracks from them in quite some time. The guy seems to have a big Curiosity Killed The Cat thing going on and I’m afraid it’s poor points from me. See what you think though, the traditional Turkish sound is still there which might get them through to Saturday.

After the disappointment of last year, Estonia can really get some points this year with their entry. Ott Lepland sings “Kuula“. This guy has a real Gary Barlow look and sound about him and I think this is a very dark horse in this year’s contest. It’s a nice song and has some power in it towards the end. The obligatory key change makes it, for me, a definite qualifier and I hope to be watching it on Saturday night if he gets through. Lets just hope he can sing like this live.

Today’s third choice is Slovakia. I hope that my friend in England will be watching or perhaps reading this as she hails from that country and their record at Eurovision is dismal. Max Jason Mai sounds like a good artist. This song “Don’t Close Your Eyes” really sounds like something that 30 Seconds From Mars would put out and I really like the song. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the Eurovision audience will agree with me, although it would be nice to see it qualify for the final just so that there is something else in the way of style to watch other than quiet ballads and techno pop. I hope it gets through.

Lastly today is another of the big hitters, Norway, although their record in Eurovision is also a poor one. This year though they have really pushed the boat out and hired an MTV presenter by the name of Tooji who is Iranian by birth but moved to Norway when he was just 1. His track “Stay” is certain to qualify in my opinion and is one of the songs that has a real chance this year. It’s a well polished, dance number that would probably do well in the charts here. The song also has the hint of Arabic influence in it which will sit well with some viewers of Eurovision. Here is the song.

Moving on with some more entries for the second semi final.

First up tonight is Slovenia. Now I’m not sure why Eva Boto’s backing singer has a giant shower hat on in this video for her song “Verjamem“. This very slow ballad just doesn’t go anywhere for me and I don’t think this one will qualify. It’s pretty boring, although songs like this have won before so you just never know. Slovenia don’t have a good record in qualifying, maybe this year will be their year. See what you think…

Next up is another of the Balkan countries, Croatia. In another ballad, Nina Badric sings “Nebo“. Like Slovenia, it doesn’t seem to go anywhere in a hurry and kind of withers out into nothing. I’m not a fan of this one either and again, I don’t see it qualifying. I think most of the ballads are poor quality this year and after last year’s winner I think we will see a dance track take the crown in 2012. Here is Croatia entry anyway…

Third today is one of the big hitters at the bookies right now, Sweden. The country that hasn’t won since Abba, but still enters good tracks every year have turned to their own Katy Perry soundalike this year and Loreen perfroms “Euphoria“, a big pop/dance track that you either hate or love. I for one though am going to go with the latter. Its just far too much for Eurovision and would be better in a club in Ibiza rather than in Baku this year. It will certainly qualify, but a winner it is not. I don’t reckon much to the literal dancing either…

Last one for today is Georgia. Wow, we really have covered a lot of Eastern Europe today huh? Well what can I say about Anri Jokhadze’s song “I’m A Joker“. Well in my ever present brutal honesty, I have to say that I reckon Georgia are joking entering this track. Much in the horribleness of the UK’s 2007 entry by Scooch, this song irritates me beyond belief and I firmly believe that it WILL NOT qualify for the final. I’ll let you judge for yourselves…

So on this afternoons agenda will now be the Spanish Grand Prix. It will be interesting to see how Lewis Hamilton gets on from the back of the grid after being stripped of his pole position yesterday. Well..what did he expect, when your team gets caught cheating and you try to cover it with a lame excuse, you’re going to get punished (unless you’re Michael Schumacher of course)
Then after the racing cars, it’s the final day of the Premier League and there are a lot of things still to be decided there. Unfortunately for Chelsea, none of them concern them. We have won the FA Cup and we have the Champions League final next week to look forward to, so all is not lost yet. Personally, I’ll be happy if Manchester Utd don’t win the league, then we won’t be the most hated team in the league anymore and everyone will start having a go at Manchester City for a while for buying the title. =)

Xander has been in mixed form this morning. After waking us up far too early, he settled down into a good mood and did some great counting sums while getting ready for the trip to Asda. I think he is going to be an academic rather than a physical child at school. He is already working out basic addition and subtraction sums like 5-3 and 2+2 which I think is very smart for someone just 3 and a half years old. He s currently watching The Spiderwick Chronicles which is quite a decent movie actually and he likes the goblins in it.

After my time off this week and our trip down to Blyth so visit the in-laws, its back to work on Monday. I can’t wait to see what has been left for me to sort out on my job. It also seems that the overtime and working my day off has finally come to an end. I knew it couldn’t last forever, but it was a good run. As a treat for working all that time off I have bought Kell and myself to a tablet computer each. Not an iPad, they are way too expensive, but its a decent spec and I think we will get good use out of them. Xander certainly likes to use them, he was really good with the iPad that Pop-Pop has.

Right, lunchtime. Gotta go, have a good week and remember to check out my new movie reviews and my ongoing Eurovision 2012 blogs. I also add my posts to Pinterest, so you can find Smurfin’ The Web there aswell.

Synopsis: In this adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy, a banished hero of Rome, Caius Martius (Ralph Fiennes) seeks out and joins forces with his bitter rival Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) in order to take his revenge on the city that treated him so badly after all he did for his country.

Main Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain, James Nesbit.

The Hype: Shakespeare doesn’t really make big waves unless it’s directed by someone cool and has Leonardo DiCaprio in it. This play isn’t one of the main ones that always gets the movie treatment either, so don’t expect to hear much about this one in the news.

What I Thought: I always liked this story. The language at times is a little hard to follow, but a superb directorial debut from Fiennes himself ensures that you can still work out what is happening. This is a very contemporary version of Coriolanus, so although the language is traditional, the action is modern day and the blend is very nicely done. Even Gerard Butler manages to pull off Shakespeare with some aplomb. I enjoyed this movie a lot and would recommend it to fans of The Bard. I hope to see more of Fiennes behind the camera as this was a great start to his directing career. The action scenes are well done as would be in any war movie and carry the 2 hour length of the film with no problem. I certainly wasn’t bored.

Conclusions: Well filmed, expertly directed for a debut, good content and some nice action sequences. I reckon that if I were an English teacher, I would be showing my pupils this version for sure. Well worth a watch if you can follow the old speak.

Smurfin’ The Web Rating:

Trailer:

Moving on swiftly, today we will be talking about some more entries in the second semi final. Most of the songs today are from Eastern Europe and we will get straight on with Belarus.

Belarus haven’t had much luck in the contest over the years, with only two final appearances. This year they have gone for a more rock-based track with some major similarities to Nickelback. Litesound perform the song “We Are The Heroes” This song isn’t too bad and it might just qualify this year. I quite like it and it’s definitely better than a lot of the entries this year, I hope it does quite well.

Secondly today, Portugal. Once again they have gone for a dull, boring love song called “Vida Minha” which is performed by Filipa Sousa. This is one of my least favourite tracks from this year’s contest. They just have no desire to do well in Eurovision. They always sing in their own language which should be commended, but this one just isn’t going to get into the final in m opinion. A certain non-starter this year.

Ukraine always do well in Eurovision. This year will be no exception and although I don’t like the Gaitana track “Be My Guest“, it will qualify for the final. The song itself is a dance tune that has some very 90s roots and that will probably be its downfall in the final. I think that this entry will do better in the semi final than last year, but will fail to equal the final appearance of last year’s entry Mika Newton who finished 4th.

My last song for today is Bulgaria’s entry. Sofi Marinova performs “Love Unlimited“, a dance track which does have quite a catchy hook, but I think it’s another one that is stuck in the 90s. You never know though, maybe its the new direction Eurovision is taking, it wasn’t so long ago that every song sounded Turkish or Greek. As for a qualifier? Well it might just sneak in there, but the second semi final is the tougher of the two I think.

Synopsis: A group of African American pilots in World War II who are usually given menial flight missions are called upon by their superiors to undertake some of the most important missions of the war over Germany. Friendships will be tested and the lines between blacks and whites will blur.

Main Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrence Howard, Ne-Yo, David Oyelowo, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, Lee Tergesen.

The Hype: There hasn’t been much going around about this movie certainly in the UK. It’s a Lucasfilm production which usually carries some excitement, but no-one is really talking about it.

What I Thought: This wasn’t a bad movie really, but it was the usual kind of story that the content would suggest. I guess you can liken it to Men of Honour or Glory, but in WWII planes. That story I think has been done to death now. We all know that black people were treated as second class citizens and that some managed by luck or by design to break that mould and become the sparks that changed race issues in the world, but seriously, how many more of these movies can we take? It’s getting boring now… From a production point of view, the film is well made. The special effects are what you would expect from Lucasfilm and the flight sequences and dogfights are particularly well done.

Conclusions: Not bad, but not very original.Let me put it this way – it’s just not Top Gun The film is certainly not the worst I have seen, but without the presence of a truly great original story it just becomes some clever computer generated dogfights.

Smurfin’ The Web Rating:

Trailer:

The second semi final takes place on the 24th May, just two days after the first semi final and the running order has already been decided so lets kick straight on with the first act of the night, Serbia.

Once combined with Montenegro but now competing on its own, Serbia have entered a previous act, Zeljko Joksimovic. The song he is performing is called “Nije Ljubav Stvar” which roughly translates as “Love Is Not An Object“. There is quite a lot of hype around this track and its on the ballad side of the tracks for this years contest. Serbia have chosen to sing in their own language which I always find commendable. See what you think…

Second today is Macedonia. They have also elected to enter a previous act to the contest. Kaliopi last tried her hand at Eurovision way back in 1996. This year’s song “Crno i Belo” doesn’t start out as much, but it certainly has some bite to it after a minute or so. I quite like this one but its hard to say if it will qualify. I have a feeling it won’t due to its rock-based style which doesn’t seen to be en vogue this year, but we shall see.

Next up is Netherlands. Oh dear…I really hope she doesn’t opt for this outfit in the semi final because I can see the politically correct brigade jumping up and down on her Indian (of course I mean Native American) costume. Once upon a time perhaps this might have been acceptable, but I don’t think this will get her through to the grand final. Joan Franka sings “You & Me” and this is not one of the songs that I like this year. It does have that old style of Eurovision sound to it which might get it some popularity. Not a qualifier for me though.

Lastly today, we’ll take a trip to Malta. The song is called “This Is The Night” and is performed by Kurt Calleja and is the first of our non ballad tracks in the second semi final. It has a poppy sound that will probably strike a chord with a certain age group, but I don’t think it appeals to everyone and that will be its downfall. It might well qualify though as it isn’t overdone in terms of pop music. Sometimes I fell they put a bit too much dance style in there and forget that the song has to appeal to most age groups. This is ok for me.

More tomorrow folks. I hope to see some of your comments on these entries soon. Thanks for reading. =)

Synopsis: Various superheroes are brought together by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D in order to save the world from the evil Loki and his army. The Avengers comprises Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and of course Captain America.

Main Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner.

The Hype: Some say that this is the best superhero movie ever made. The box office has taken millions and in this super special effects driven movie, it has been the quickest movie to reach the $200M mark, achieving the figure in just 3 days – and that is just in the US. Globally it has raked in over $700M!

What I Thought: Well I have to be honest. I pushed the boat out on this one and wanted to get the full experience of this movie. I saw it in an IMAX cinema for the maximum 3D effect. I needn’t have bothered. The 3D isn’t that spectacular and I think I would have enjoyed the movie the same as I did in normal 2D. The film itself is alright, but for me it wasn’t as good as everyone is making out. The story is the same old bad guy wants to take over the world and the good guys team up and defeat him. Personally I preferred the previous movies with just one superhero. Here I think there was just too much to make a great film and in the end I preferred the Captain America and Iron Man movies much more than this.

Conclusions: If you want to see it, then The Avengers is a decent watch, but don’t bother with the 3D as it’s just not worth it. For me, it’s not “all that”.

Smurfin’ The Web Rating:

Trailer: