I agree that Kate is firming up as a dark horse but I just fear we’re going to have a repeat of 2016 whereby even if she ‘should’ win (like arguably Dani Im should have), the European voting public will ‘shun’ her because she’s from Australia
Fingers crossed. I think the problem will be the public vote again though. I was scrolling through comments on the official Eurovision Facebook page and literally nobody was even mentioning Australia.
For those interested - a number of countries experienced some technical issues with the broadcast of Semi-Final 1.
Viewers in the Netherlands and Macedonia have reported that commentary from Tel Aviv was lost for part of the show. Polish viewers were unable to hear Artur Orzech in Tel Aviv, as a result TVP replaced commentary with another person in Warsaw.
While in the United Kingdom and Germany, the feed from Tel Aviv was lost for part of the show. In the United Kingdom, the last few minutes of the show following the announcement of the qualifiers cut out and went to a screen apologising for the loss of the broadcast. While France Televisions also had audio issues during both the Portuguese and Belgian performances.
A few controversies during the Grand Final this year.
Firstly the jury in Bulgaria was dismissed after the members of the jury revealed during an interview which countries they had voted for during the first semi-final
During Madonna’s interval performance of “Future”, two dancers respectively wearing Israel and Palestine flags on the back of their shirts were seen embracing.
And During the unveiling of results, members of the Icelandic entry Hatari were also seen presenting a banner containing the Palestine flag, eliciting a negative reaction from the audience. A statement from the EBU was released later that night, explaining that “the consequences of this action will be discussed by the Reference Group (the Contest’s executive board) after the Contest”
Also of note - now the voting results have been released - although Australia only placed 9th in the Grand Final, it actually came 1st in the combined vote during the First Semi-Final.
