Eurovision 2007: Fun Facts from the Qualifying Round Scoreboard

...which is now up at Eurovision.tv.

• The Portugese & Andorrans must feel a mixture of being happy and pissed off that they missed making it into the final by single digits.
• The Portugese can only blame themselves since they gave 12 to The Barbu. Had they reciprocated the 12 the Andorrans gave them, they would've been in the Final. (The Andorrans would've still been screwed though.)
• Brits loved The Diki (or there really is a huge Cypriot voting bloc in the UK) since Cyprus got 10 from the UK (and only 5 from France and Belgium, zilch from Switzerland) .
• Macedonia is now permanently in the yo-yo league, but this year it seems like it's a case of being marginally liked by a lot of countries (including Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey) which launched them into their 9th place at the Qualifier.
• That's one big gap between Georgia (8th place/123 points) and Macedonia (9th place/97 points). I'm just sayin'.
• Spain, explain your 4 points to Norway, and while we're at it, Portugal explain your 2 to Norway.
• Belgium got its sole 12 points from Georgia.
• FT (Lativan)S finished 5th, and then roundly got their behinds handed to them at the Final. Perhaps last place is lucky...if your act isn't an intentional attempt to piss people off.
• Bulgaria got through very much on merit, with a Cypriot 12, Spanish 10, and French 8.
• Personally, I don't get how anyone can claim that English aids your chances anymore, since Serbia got 5 from the UK, and Slovenia got 8 from the Andorrans. Moral of this story: English doesn't help, a good performance does.
• The Diki placed 15th, apparently lack of popularity in the Baltics killed her chances. You'd think they'd be all for aggressive women singing electroclash.
• Iceland was popular amongst the Baltics as well as the Nordics.
• Somehow I doubt the Estonian 10 for Georgia was due to Ex-USSR links.
• Austria got screwed, but if I'm being honest, ORF's decision to save money by making their song the Life Ball theme as well as the Eurovision entry (and compounding this connection with a life size red ribbon onstage) was really tacky and in questionable taste, with only the Andorrans (1 point) and Swiss (or Austrians on holiday--3 points) buying it.
• That Belgian 10 to the Netherlands was pretty friendly, yet the Dutch didn't reciprocate (Belgium got 2 from them). The Dutch don't like disco on Thursday night?
• I'm suspicious about all those votes for Albania (no diaspora is that huge), unless people really thought it was a comic entry.
• You'd think the Czechs would get at least some token support from Austria. You'd think wrong.
• Daddy Topic must be very popular in the Balkans, since only the Germans were the sole non-Balkans to support him to the tune of 2 points.
• Magdi the Hellcat's poor diction was no impediment as Hungary came in 2nd and got points from all over.
• The UK is a sucker for a drag queen, since DQ got 7 from the UK (the second highest score Denmark received).

So what have we learned, Charlie Brown?

1. Everybody is a little bit neighbourly, but there's still a lot of randomness going on.
2. RTP & TVA are still going to be in it, because they score well when they try.
3. If I was the IBA, NOS, or ORF, I'd just take the Hungarian route of grabbing a high-charting national song that doesn't violate the rules and call that your entry.
4. Even though Magdi the Hellcat went over well in English, she probably would've done the same in Hungarian. So don't try to make English happen where it shouldn't.