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Semifinal 2: The Winners' Conference
Join esctoday.com live in the press conference hall as the ten winners from tonight's show join the press to draw their running orders for the final, and answer journalists' questions.
The hall is packed and flags (particularly Azeri ones!) are filling the air. The winning songs are being played as the artists are preparing to come into the hall. Finally, the artists appear to huge cheers from the crowd. Different groups of supporters try to drown each other out with conflicting chants of their performers' names.
Croatia draws number 5 in the final.
Igor talked about the support from other Balkan countries which followed his small tour of the region, which he believed helped him in getting used to the whole Eurovision project.
Norway draws number 20 in the final.
Alexander said that 20 is his new lucky number - changing it from 6 (which was also his number in the Norwegian final). As it was Alexander's birthday this week, the compères led the hall in a rendition of happy birthday. Alexander was presented with a letter from his grandmother in Belarus, and given the promise that all of Belarus will vote for him, especially given that Belarus was knocked out of the competition on Tuesday.
He was also quizzed about his ideal girl. The answer: "every girl in Russia is pretty". But he doesn't have time to meet any Russian girls due to his hectic schedule - so hopes that he will be invited back to do a concert here some day!
Denmark draws number 16 in the final.
Brinck was asked for his message to Europe now he is through the semifinal. His simple response: "thank you - spasibo". Asked whether Ronan Keating has sent his congratulations yet, Brinck explained that he has turned off his mobile for now as it is already full of messages - so has not yet been able to check whether Ronan has sent one too!
Azerbaijan draws number 11 in the final.
Before answering any questions, AySel announced that she had a present for Arash - a symbol of power - an amulet. AySel and Arash were asked about their goals for Saturday. Of course - first place was the answer! Quizzed about their feelings for the final, they admitted they feel scared, excited and special all at the same time. Arash explained that together, he and AySel can achieve anything.
Greece draws number 8 in the final.
Sakis was asked to sing some of his winning song from tonight, and he happily obliged, to huge applause. Sakis then faced the difficult question of his close connection to a member of the Russian jury - namely Phillip Kirkorov. Sakis explained that Russian television chose Phillip despite knowing that Sakis has worked with him for the last five years. In Sakis' words: "I couldn't help that. He's an amazing person, a great friend. He publicly supported me in representing Greece - so what can I say? I absolutely believe that he is very, very professional, and wouldn't jeopardise his fame and reputation, and he will do what he thinks is right - whatever that is. It's not my responsibility." He added that he would like to thank everybody who voted for Greece, and promised to do his best on Saturday to make sure the party would be in Athens next year.
Lithuania draws number 1 in the final.
Sasha Son was told how much support he has back in Lithuania, and asked about his number in the draw - "it sure looks good!" he replied. He admitted that he was overwhelmed tonight, but very happy - and thanked everyone who believed in him and the song, Sasha's second question involved the choice of language. He explained that he has lived in London for many years, has a Russian father, and is Lithuanian. Hence, the language choices represent everything that he has experienced through life. He added that he sings about hope, and hope is something that we all live for.
Moldova draws number 13 in the final.
Nelly was asked about a possible Moldovan win, and it was suggested that Moldova would not cope with accommodation - "will I have to bring my own tent?" was the slightly flippant wording. Seeming slightly offended, Nelly quashed all fears.
Albania draws number 19 in the final.
Kejsi told the press how happy and proud she is to represent Albania this year at just 17. But she explained that youth does not necessarily mean a lack of talent - she feels confident in her abilities. She then asked her green dancer to stand up in the middle of the hall, and he received a warm round of applause.
Ukraine draws number 21 in the final.
Svetlana wasted no time in climbing onto the table to give an acappella version of her entry. This was followed by huge Ukrainian excitement and chanting!
Estonia draws number 15 in the final (with a little help from Ukraine to open the matroshka!).
Sandra was asked if she has someone special in mind during the performance, being the reason behind her sweet smile. She explained that the thinks about good people - in particular, family and friends. The Head of Delegation expressed his happiness that Estonia is finally in the inal, and explained how the contest is a great opportunity to promote rtists like Urban Symphony. Asked about the advantage of having one the almer songs in the final, the Estonian Head of Delegation agreed that thesmoothness of the song and its effective build will help. Sandra added that the song has a pure, natural sound.
Related polls
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- Greece decided: How much do you like Opa?
- Estonia decided: How much do you like Siren?
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- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in ESTONIA?
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- Croatia decided: How much do you like Lako je sve?
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- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in MOLDOVA?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFROMANCE not to qualify in MOLDOVA?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in CROATIA?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in CROATIA?
- Lithuania decided: How much do you like East European Funk?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in LITHUANIA?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in LITHUANIA?
- Denmark decided: How much do you like In a moment like this?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in DENMARK?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in DENMARK?
- Norway decided: How much do you like My heart is yours?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in NORWAY?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in NORWAY?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in ALBANIA?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in ALBANIA?
- Albania decided: How much do you like Nuk mundem pa ty?
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Sashas performance was great, but why did he sing english and russian? I have friends lived in Greece and they are disappointed so much.............. .... Memories of russians ocupation still are so fresh.... .Sasha didnt use language of his home country- lithuanian. He could sing in 3 languages(english, lithuanian, russian) told to me my lithuanian friends
And now before the final goes very hot disscusion about last refrain of"Love" performed in russian
Well....strange situation
Norway got just the place I hoped for - 20 
Not sure if it's a good thing Ukraine performs right after us. They soooo do not deserve another #2 place, but I fear that's how it will happen once again. 
S F R J:
I cannot believe what you wrote. For the love of God, this contest is not about politics but about MUSIC! Hence why do you think that if these 6 countries were one 20 years ago, that means they should help each other? As if I care what position will any of you finish and as if it will make me any difference if Bosnia or UK or Azerbaijan wins, they are all just different countries to me, they have nothing to do with my one....
EX-YU and Balkan countries ! UNITE one more time and stop this manipulation !!! Show the Europe that no new rule nor jury can stop us winning with right song!!! VOTE BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA!!!! SARAJEVO 2010
Ajmo Slovenija,Hrvatska,BIH,Crna Gora,Makedonija i Srbija!!!!
Pokazimo sta znaci SFRJ 
Glasajte za BOSNU jer ima najrealnije sanse da pobedi!!! Veliki Pozdrav Iz Srbije!!!
GOOD LUCK FROM BELGRADE!!!!
dimitris i think albania has a good draw and being my favorite one after the other albania norway 19-20 i think that is really cool
i think she will go top 10-5 i know she gonna give her best and not be nervous like in semi th crowd loved her
well i don't hear as many complaints about this semi-final but I think Tuesdays show was far superior in every way The songs were almost all good and the results near perfect. Just missing Montenegro.
Last night however there were quite a few average/poor songs.
also the sound seemed less good quality than on Tuesday. And fewer of my favourites went through.
Norway, Greece, Azerbaijahn, Ukraine were certs to qualify.
It was great to see Albania qualify and Denmark was ok
But the final would have been better with Slovenia, Hungary and Netherlands in place of Croatia, Lithuania and the dreadful Moldova
@ Costis
I will speak about Lithuania which is among my top favorite songs this year: Great vocals, fantastic melody and very mature lyrics.
Please, can someone explain me what was nice about the Lithuanian and Dannish entries last night??
1. ALBANIA
2. NORWAY
3. GREECE
4. TURKEY
5. ESTONIA
6. SPAIN
GO GO GO LITHUANIA !!!!
Lidia Kopania (Poland) was the best, gave perfect performance and didn't qualify to Final :'( :'( 
Eurovision have lost, not Lidia. I hoped she will have a chance to show to a bigger audience in Final, she deserved that final..
She had great but difficult to sing song and she was magnificent.
Rules should be the same in semi-finals like in final, now some countries are even a bigger victims, only big 5 is happy, they have final for nothing
I love ballads, ESC audience(?) seems to hate them no matter what quality.
It is sure that for example Mariah Carey on ESC09 wouldn't qualify from semi final (for sure if no one heard about her before) or Alsou with her song Teardrops instead Solo. But most important there is a political swindle on top of that, killing the whole contest. "Friendly" block vote has done it again..
In final - swindle will probably decrease because jury will have 50% of points.
Same rule should be already in semi-finals otherwise it is hugely
continuously unfair for some countries!
Croatia deserved to be in the final. Moldova was great, fantastic. Albania was also very good. Please, stop talking nonesense. Nobody wants to talk about that c...p from Ukraine. Did anybody understand a single word pronounced by Loboda? And yes, Netherlands got ousted unfairly. They were really good. Azerbaijan and Lithuania got through but they didnt deserve to be in the final. So Ukraine, some baltic countries and Azerbaijan are the biggest disappointments of the second evening.
think that Albania will win...the Jury will be impressed by her singing talent, she will get the votes from her neighbours (maybe not Serbia though), and the fact that she sings in English will put her at an advantage!
Also she is singing in 19th place.
In 2005, in Kiev, Greece sang in 19th place and won
so in 2009, in Moscow (neighbouring Ukraine!), Albania (neighbouring Greece!)- I think she will win!
(Norway in 20th singing place will find it hard to follow her!)
KUSH
Get real!Albania will finish between 14-18 in the final.Not a chance to win or even be in the top-5!I don't have anything against Albania but this is not a winning song or performance.They made her look like Kalomira.
I see some of you wondering how Croatia got through..... Thanks God it did! Powerful, reminiscent, meaningful ballad as opposed to heaven-forbid crappy The Netherlands, ultimately boring UK, thousand-times heard Iceland, Moldavian folklore-jumping, Ruslana-copycat Norway, Ukrainian kitsch, and so on and so on.....
@ Allan A.
You forgot that Croatia sounds a lot like Spain, LMAO...
Bosnia and Herzegovina sounds a lot like Russia too
@ Milan...
tell me... where is Serbia this year?
Let me remind you...in the semi finals, where it belongs.
Albania will do (or at least it should do) very well!
Croatia, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia, Bulgaria, as well as Greece would award it at least 10 points (if it was televotes alone this year as well). Slovenia and Bosnia award poorly to Albania, and Serbia only award enough to look friendly!
@Kush
Have you been in touch with reality lately?
I think that Albania will win...the Jury will be impressed by her singing talent, she will get the votes from her neighbours (maybe not Serbia though), and the fact that she sings in English will put her at an advantage!
Also she is singing in 19th place.
In 2005, in Kiev, Greece sang in 19th place and won
so in 2009, in Moscow (neighbouring Ukraine!), Albania (neighbouring Greece!)- I think she will win!
(Norway in 20th singing place will find it hard to follow her!)
@ The "Fairytale" of the North - Sara ©
Yeah it`s true, it`s unfair to say that Norway got through just coz of neighbor voting, but what is true is that he got through coz of his ETHNIC origins. I bet all of Belarus, all of Russia and also lots of ex USSR countries voted for him. His song is SO Russian sounding, the dancing behind him is also very much Russian looking (yeah you can disagree and say no, it`s all pure Norwegian, but come on the similarities with Russian dancing is huge) the whole act looks like it`s been taking out of an old USSR cartoon, so I`m sure lots of ppl in the ex USSR countries got nostalgic and voted for it, specially also coz of him being from an ex USSR country.
This year is a weird year... Azerbaidjan is sending a mixture of Swedish song with few oriental tones, The Greek song is pure Swedish schlager, Spain is going all Greek and Norweay turns all Russian.
The second semi final good
MyToP5:
1.Turkey
2.Spain
3.Greece
4.Azerbaijan
5.Ukraine
Hadise's voice and dancing supeer.. Go Turkey..
The "journalist" who made this question to Nelly is a racist and an idiot. You can't ask such kind of questions to an artists who has just qualified! EBU should take his license away.
Malena is going to be in Top5!!
@ robin
theres four countrys returning to the final...
estonia
lithuania
malta
moldova
but yea i dont like how apart from those four, all other 21 countrys were in the final last year... tad strange
i think the jurys will have chosen croatia's song, it was well sung i sopose... i think cyprus or serbia would have been 10th.... maybe netherlands due to there final draw
but norway 20th :| argh
still its good that all the other ballads are at the beginning of the contest so jade stands out a lot more... maybe we have the chance of top 10 i hope.. anything over 15th is good for me
still think bosnia will win though
How the hell did Croatia get through?
I thought tonight was a bit disapointing.
Semi 1 is my best semi of the year, there were so many lame songs in this semi.
And again, how did Croatia get through???
Take out Croatia, take out Lithuainia, and take out Moldova, and put
Ireland
Netherlands and
Poland
in instead.
I expected more Eastern Countires to go through in the second semi final, I'm from the UK and while I know block voting exists lets be honest the West do it too (Greece+Cyprus and UK+Ireland for example).
Overall I'm pretty happy with the draw, Jade having the only ballad in the latter stages may or not help our chances with the public vote.
2004 first scoreboard part
2005 second
2006 second
2007 second
2008 second
2009 ?
@ Sara
Denmark is a good qualification... but for the songs you said its true...
Its just a bit sad that weve don everything... but the sound was horrendis at the beginning and the project behind them wasn`t the write one as well...
i think the jury vote took the Dutch place...
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