EUROVISION: THE ONES THAT SHOULD HAVE QUALIFIED FOR THE FINAL BUT DIDN'T, BECAUSE.....

... because there has been some different system for qualification in use.....

If the Eurovision song contest semi-final qualifiers were very straight forward with top-10 qualifying from 2010 onwards, before it was a different story.

In 2009 only the Top-9 qualified while the 10th qualifier was chosen by a jury, to a criteria only known to themselves. And they surely used their power with variable success.....

In the first semifinal the qualifier would have been Macedonia's Next Time (10th) with Nešto što kje ostane. The jury decided to skip also the 11th one, Montenegro's Andrea Demirović's Just get out of my life and lifted to the final instead Finland's Waldo's People (12th) and Lose control, that then placed second to last, 24th, in the final. Of course as a Finn I was happy for the sudden turn of the things :-)

In the second semifinal it was ever more cruel: the jury chose Croatia's Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea with Lijepa tena that only placed 13th in the semifinal thus surpassing Serbian Marko Kon and Milaan with Cipela (10th), Ireland's Sinéad Mulvay & Black Daisy with Et cetera (11th) and Poland's Lidia Kopania (12th) with I don't wanna leave. Igor placed 18th in the final. This blogger was quite happy here, too, as I liked Croatia a lot, a bit less Serbia and especially Ireland.....

In 2008 the jury actually did pick up as their joker the song that came 10th in the first semi-final. Poland's Isis Gee with Life. In final it finished second to last, 24th, just like Finland the year before. The 11th was Slovenia's Rebeka Dremelj with Vrag naj vzame, I would have sent into the final San Marino's very much underrated Miodio with fantastic Complice.

In the second semi-final 10th was Macedonia (again!) with Tamara, Vrčak & Adrian and Let me love you. 11th was Bulgaria's Deep Zone & Balthazar with DJ take me away. However the jury picked up 12th placed Eurovision song contest 1999 winner Sweden's Charlotte Perrelli with Hero. A very understandable decision for many reasons. It went on to finish 18th in the final and avoiding the very first Swedish non qualification..... And it's still a great and remembered song - hands up who remembers either Macedonia or Bulgaria? Thought so....

Last but least we have 2007. The current top-10 qualifies system was in use BUT there was only one semifinal and 28 songs in it. A. Total. Massacre. Poor Portugal placed 11th with Sabrina's Danca comigo, 3 points short of the final. Andorra's Salvem el mon by Anonymous was 12th, 11 points short and Iceland's Eurovision veteran Eirikur Haukson was 13th with Valentine lost.

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Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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