MACEDONIA ROBBED! ROBBED I TELL YOU!

Thank you so much for voting for Estonia. :D

Congratulations to the other countries that made it.

Commiserations to the countries that didn't make it.
So many good songs didn't make it. :(

The dog is crying, WE HAD A DOG and a car

anyway congrats to everyone that made it

congratulations to those countries that qualified! good luck to us in the finals :D

felt bad for those that didn't make it but still a great job guys!

Not surprised about my non-qualification.

A lot of well deserved qualifiers though. I'm especially happy for Lithuania and Netherlands in the other semi. I thought both were underrated by the odds, so I'm happy to see them advance.

Malta, Croatia, Serbia and MONTENEGRO were robbed. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Iceland robbed!!

Malta was robbed too!!

Congrats for the qualification!

Thank you to those who voted for Romania!

As far as notable non-qualifiers in my opinion, I feel Iceland was the second-best song in my semi and despite the odds, I'm shocked they didn't qualify...

This is Luca's opinion which was posted in the other forum and I think it's bring it here too.

"Before I start I wanna clarify that what I am writing is a general speech not because of Montenegro cuz I knew it wasn't qualifying.
Can someone explain to me why in semi 2 no balkan has qualified? I am surprised.
This semi has confirmed that there are countries of series A and other of series B and everyone knows the balkans are in this second.
(not sure what this next phrase means)
We can't send any type of ballad. If we send turbo-folk song we don't do well.
If we send songs similar to the rest of Europe we don't do well.
What should we do? You think it is right that Bosnia doesn't qualify for 15 editions?
Our industry isn't as strong as the rest and I can accept it. We always send or almost always song with a different sound to show that the contest matters a lot to us.
But when I see whats going on in the final I ask myself whats going on with the contest.

1- I see countries Like Monaco, Israel, Greece, Ukraine, San Marino, Estonia and Hunagry that go always or almost always go trough (the last two in lesser degree without a doubt) whatever type of song they send
2- I see as well countries Like Sweden, Denmark and Ukraine always or almost always sending very generic songs that sometimes even get top 10.
3- Countries Like Andorra that send OT songs every edition or very famous songs in Spain.
4- Overrated countries Like San Marino, Estonia and Hungary, a lot of times (in the semi specially).
And I could go on. I'm sorry but I'd rather listen to a song a bit different then a song that does "tunz tunz" all the times (not sure how to translate this but he is probably talking about generic songs).
You can now understand how we feel when we see our efforts put up against this situations (specially for the situations described in number 2)
Now I'm here since ESCT 24 and my blood is 100% balkan and at this point I dont intend to elect a new country because I believe every balkan should fight against this situation that exists since a lot of editions.
So I invite all the balkans (I don't include Greece and Albania for the reasons exposed previously).
Slovenia and Cyprus are also invited.

At this point I invite all balkans to consider this proposal:
1- We leave together as the balkans for one edition as a signal of boycott.
2- Noone leaves the contest and next edition we vote giving the highest points between us if we are in the same semi or having in account that there are countries of series A and B.
Portugal, Latvia and Iceland are also invited to participate if they want to."

First of all I want to thank you to all the people who voted for Hungary with low or high points. We are expecting any kind of result but finally we could made it through, so thank you so much again. It's pretty sad that there are no Balkan country in the Grand Final, it seems that people doesn't stop to listen to them carefully, it's Like in ESCT people "hate" these country while in other contests they are usually in the Final. Well, here is my thoughts:

Semifinal 1

Iceland,  Belarus,  Malta and  Macedonia deserved to be in the final, they are really good songs IMO, specially the 3 first songs and I thought they might have had a chance. What a pity :(
Andorra and  Denmark, are a bit overrated but congrats for qualifying!
I'm so happy for  Georgia,  Romania and  Slovakia, they have such good songs whose countries are not very common to see in the grand final, so congrats!

Semifinal 2

Montenegro,  Poland,  Bosnia and  Croatia were really underrated. I guess the first 2 songs were really good and they were different from what we are used to hear from them...
Sweden is the only country a bit overrated for me but it deserved to qualify according to the quality level of this semifinal.
Glad that  Netherlands,  Lithuania and  Moldova qualified after many editions missing the grand final. Congrats to  Monaco who wanted to send something different with a "new style", so congrats sweetie!

Good luck to every country and don't be upset about the results, greater things are yet to come!

I want to give my opinion about Luca's post, I agree with him that it seems there are countries from group A and group B. I don't know but I have the feeling that if  Montenegro's song would have been sent by  Sweden,  France or  UK (just giving some random examples), they would probably have qualified.

As I said before, it seems there are people that see the name of the country and they are not aimed to listen to that country and therefore not to vote it, and this situation could be extended not only to the Balkan countries but also to other countries Like  Georgia,  Azerbaijan,  Belarus, Turkey or  Latvia among others... I want to remark that this is my opinion in a general way, I'm not pointing to anyone.

However I can put myself in some underrated countries' shoes, who usually try to find something different and work hard on that, when they see that "strong" countries usually send the first song they see in their National charts top10 without working hard at all, however that's also accepted cause they are not breaking the rules at all, but "weak" countries could feel frustrated too.

But what it's intolerable is trying to creat a bloc voting as a protest, which it goes against the rules and you're trying to manipulate people to do so. If we are usually complaining about bloc voting at Eurovision, why we want to bring in to ESCT then? That's pointless.

If you want to protest about being underrated countries, withdrawing for one edition at the same time of several countries is a good idea, cause it's not against the rules, cause you have right to do it. But let's try not to devirtualize the contest, cause this contest is about finding out new music, artists or bands throughout Europe and enjoy with that, it's not about voting our neighbours or voting because of pity. There are always some ROBBERIES OR INJUSTICES, always, but not only in ESCT, also in Eurovision or Lucavision.

The worst of all this drama is that maybe some Balkan countries could be affected in future editions due to Luca's comment, but as far as I know, any of them support this idea and I wouldn't Like to see them affected in future editions by not being voted because of this drama, specially Luca who I think he will be the most disadvantaged country in this scenario.

Btw I translated that :D sorry copyright issues ;) jkjk

Why isn't Macedonia invited we are balkan

I mean we should judge the song and not the country or the alliances the country is in

GRAND FINAL ESCT33

Last night we could find out who were the 10 qualified countries from each semifinal and like every edition we experienced happiness, disappointments, anger, robbed entries and surprises. Once we already have the 25 finalists which will compete to reach the final prize, we can start with the voting process. Since now, all the participating countries, even though the non-qualifiers, must vote to choose the winner of this 33rd edition held in Turky.

Since today, Monday February 4th and until next Tuesday, February 12th all the countries have to vote for the winner, giving 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point to the songs you Like the most. The live show with the results will take place some days after the deadline, the day and hour will be revealed coming soon.

You should send your votes to me Аlexito. If any of you can not vote on time for any reason, you should notify me as soos as possible to get some jurors as back-up votes. If any of you don't vote on time without giving any reason you will lose your country.

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You can also post your thoughts about the possible winners or countries who can finish top10 or bottom, or anything about the betting odds. Please don't forget to send the pictures of your SPOKESPERSONS and cities.