Next up was Azerbaijan, making its first Eurovision appearance. Reminding me of last year’s Vampires Are Alive by DJ Bobo, Elnur & Samir entertained the crowd with Day After Day. Resembling good and bad with costumes of an angel and a lesser goth, the show was too theatrical to be considered credible. A nice rock beat with great composition, the melody was a little bit weak.

[…]

Armenia did well for, let’s say, Armenia. No, really, the song had promise, starting quite weakly before moving into what I can only describe as bongo country. An entertaining song, danceable, a good performance, leggy Sirusho bought us Qele, Qele! If I ever met her, I would be inclined to say: “Away, away!”

http://movebackmoveon.blogspot.com/2008/05/normal-life-first-semi-final-review-esc.html

The good news is we made it to the final, and Sirusho will be singing 5th. The bad news is - our girl was definitely in a bad shape during the first semi-final. We all know Sirusho is beautiful - so can someone please explain who on earth decided to do THAT to her hair?

Coming to the dance - she started up with two guys holding her feet, so Sirusho would lean forward - that apparently requires a lot of phisical effort - which could easily take the breath out of anyone, let alone a tender girl like her. No wonder the vocals of the song that followed afterwards were so disappointing. Moreover, with rather demanding vocals in a song, one should be careful not to move so much, so as not to run out of breath. After all the kicking-jumping that Sirusho did on the stage (which was kinda hot - I admit), it is no surprise she had difficulty catching the high notes, and was shouting all the way through the song. And I’m not alone in being disappointed with her vocals.

http://ditord.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/sirusho-made-it-to-the-eurovision-2008-final/

Firstly, Sirusho’s performance is not a lost cause. She just needs to practice hard before the final, I think

Secondly, it was weird to see so many Azerbaijani flags on H1. I was also impressed that the Armenian voiceover didn’t make any snide remarks about that from the segments I saw, anyway.

I hope the same situation was true in Azerbaijan when Armenian flags appeared or when Sirusho was announced as a qualifier. I hate Eurovision, but it is meant to bring nations together. Not sure we can expect that yet, but I’m glad to see that politics was put aside.

From the parts I saw, anyway.

Azerbaijan: Two years too late for the shite goth rock. Bad in so many ways.

[…]

Armenia: Big hair. She appears to be singing the Greek entry from about two years ago.

http://bevismusson.livejournal.com/118709.html

Azerbaijan “Day After Day” - Elnur Hüseynov & Samir Javadzadeh

[…]

“Highest voice since the Bee Qees”

Oooo… boy in angel wings… this can’t be all bad!

What theatre! Love this set.

Well the song was more Eurovison than the others we have had so far so all credit to them!

[…]

Armenia “Qele Qele” - Sirusho

Not the best voice in the world but the song was fun.

http://faultytowershotel.blogspot.com/2008/05/eurovision-semi-final-1.html

Azerbaijan: I have to hand it to them: First year in, and they have understood what this is all about…..providing some kind of kitschy spectacle for those watching to laugh at. High pitched shouting, angel costumes (with feathers!) and plenty of fire. The singing is better than i expected from people wearing feather boas, which admittedly isn’t saying much….

[…]

Armenia: Another with 80s hair. Apparently, its not just the Scandinavians who desperately want the 80s back. Fire, a boring outfit, and synchronized dancers who are more interesting than the song and the singer. I think she is singing in english, but I can’t tell you what she said. I could have sworn she said that ” instead of watching me, you should be raping me” but I seriously doubt that is the case.

http://bitter-one.livejournal.com/80397.html

Azerbaijan - I LOVE YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Now THEY get creativity points but HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WTF?!?!?!?! Azerbaijan!!! HAHAHAHAHA I was expecting some lezgi and this is what I get! HAHAHAHAHA PRICELESS!!

[…]

Armenia - Worlds oldest country. She is pretty and I want her dress. Catchy song but can’t song for the life of her. She will go far. Qele qele! What does that mean anyway??

http://bahar1090.blogspot.com/2008/05/eurovision-semi-final-number-1.html

Armenia. So what does ‘qele’ actually mean? And where did she get that dress with all the fringe? Very cute. And where did she leave the song’s key? And how fit are those dancers? She may not be able to sing, but she still has 3 fit guys falling at her feet. It’s not all bad. Well, the song is…

[…]

Azerbaijan - He’s wearing wings! He’s wearing wings!

http://jadesfire2808.livejournal.com/223876.html

AZERBAIJAN - we are still baffled by the appeal of this noisy song but have to admit that it was well staged - theatrical and flamboyant, it worked far better than we thought it would. No surprise to see this one qualify.

[…]

ARMENIA - a bit flat and disappointing, actually. But we still love the song and weren’t a bit surprised to see it in the final.

http://eurovisionblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/semi-final-the-first-our-verdict/

Azerbaijan

High concept: Elnur is dressed in white as an angel, and Samir is dressed in black as an evil guy, but the twist at the end is that Samir has a face turn and changes into a white outfit. This is so very silly, and so very shrill. In other words, it is everything that’s right about Eurovision and wrong about Eurovision all in one over-the-top package.

http://lemur-love.blogspot.com/2008/05/chris-eurovision-semi-finals-one-recap.html

Armenia

Sirusho oversang this by a mile, but “Qele Qele” a great song. I suspect it’ll do well, although that’s in part because Armenia always does well. If she goes through, I hope she dials it back a bit.

http://lemur-love.blogspot.com/2008/05/chris-eurovision-semi-finals-one-recap_20.html

Azerbaidjan was fantastic. […] Armenia’s Sirusho and her performance seemed somehow unfinished and she missed a note or two. This left a feeling this could have been so much better!

http://ilkar.blogspot.com/2008/05/eurovision-2008-semifinal-1-seen-by-me.html

AZERBAIJAN
They did well live, but I thought the cocktail would prove a bit too much for the average viewer. It seems the average viewer is capable of more than I thought.

[..]

ARMENIA
A video went around Youtube of Friday night’s rehearsal, where Sirusho sang quite flatly all the way through. Tonight she sounded a lot better, and danced with more gusto. But it feels like the director of the show is not her best friend - lousy camera work on this one.

http://eurovisiongossip.blogspot.com/2008/05/semi-1-not-too-bad-eh.html

Azerbaijan
So awesome! Two guys, one dressed as an angel (with a seriously high soprano voice! :D), one as a devil. The song has no melody whatsoever, but it looks so cool on stage! I’m so stoked they’re in the final =)

[…]

Armenia
Beyoncé 2.0. xD A drop dead gorgeous girl… with not that much of a singing voice, but good moves and a sexy dress. This was a shoo-in.

http://caesaria82.livejournal.com/144080.html

Unzipped: Gay Armenia also has something to say on Sirusho’s performance:

Well, Armenia with Sirusho is through to final, but… Sirusho’s performance today was definitely better than last night’s rehearsal. Three-male dance show was much much better and looked quite OK. But what I always considered her strongest part, vocally it was rather disappointing. I know she can do much better (I heard it!), I do not know what happened to her voice over the last few days. Let’s hope that for final on Saturday it will get improved. She desperately needs it if there is any chance to finish in top ten. And someone from our team in Belgrade, please do something with her hair: she has beautiful hair but they are not properly set for her performance and rather interfering badly with it.

http://gayarmenia.blogspot.com/2008/05/eurovision-in-final-but.html

This year sees the first time that the semi-final (still relatively new anyway) has been split in two. This was done to make things a bit more fair by eliminating the block voting that was already becoming de rigeur (last year it was all the Eastern European countries that made it into the final as they all voted for one another). This year you can only vote in the semi-final in which your country is participating, which meant that Ireland and the UK couldn’t vote for each other - and neither could all the usual neighbourly / political voters.

[…]

Azerbaijan - quite possibly the most amazing vocal range I’ve ever heard from anyone, male or female, and an awesome, show-stopping performance.

[…]

Armenia - good song, but not the best performance - rather disappointing.

http://kellsmurthwaite.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/eurovision-semi-final-1/