Eurovision - It's Finals Time!!!!!!!!! The "Big Five" and host country entries...

Tonight's the night, as the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest take place in Lisbon, Portugal at 3pm Eastern Standard Time (NYC, Philly, DC and such). After 37 countries battled in the semi-finals to take 20 spots tonight, they will be joined by the winning country, Portugal, and the "Big Five", the five countries that give enough money to fund the ESC that they get a fast-pass to the final. You can check my recaps of semi-final 1 and semi-final 2 by clicking the links, and here's the six making their debut tonight...

1. "Tu Cancion" ("Your Song") - Amaia & Alfred [Spain]

After last year's dreadful surfer-dude entry, Spain returns with a simple love ballad sung by two youngsters who appeared on that country's singing competition Operacion Triumfo, where they (cough) fell in love in time to get this song to head to Lisbon with. It's definitely a no bells and whistle approach that worked for Portugal last year, and they seem to have a general happiness for being there, so don't count them out, but their running order spot at #2 is a big hindrance.

2. "O Jardim" - Claudia Pascoal with Isaura [Portugal]

Speaking of Portugal, they represent their homeland in Lisbon with this sapphic dirge which is beautiful but damn depressing all the same, if you know the lyrics. However, casual ESC watchers may be simply hypnotized by this and forget it happened Men In Black style. Especially placed after Norway's previous ESC winner Alexander Rybak's juvenile "That's How You Write A Song".

3. "Storm" - SuRie [United Kingdom]

Britain, perennially in the "right side of the chart", send Annie Lennox 2.0 to the contest. She's got a sunny personality and sweet voice, but this song's chorus seems almost non-existent, like a build-up to another chorus that doesn't exist. Paired with the country's Brexit woes, this has the probability to end up on the bottom.

4. "You Let Me Walk Alone" - Michael Schulte

After a listless couple of years at the contest, Germany returns with this ginger softie, and the Ed Sheeran-esque Mother's Day-ready "You Let Me Walk Alone". It's tailored to pluck at heartstrings, and the projection behind him at the contest (see that, Portugal?), playing like a lyric video, will grab the attention of everybody of any language (note: this is the sole one out of the "Big Five" that doesn't sing in their native tongue). Easily the song that causes the biggest emotional response with me, and this is my bet for the winner out of the "Big Five", save perhaps for...

5. "Mercy" - Madame Monsieur [France]

You can't get any more "French" than this duo, who have IMHO the best of the "big five" songs in its studio/music video form, which firmly symbolizes the plight of refugees to the country (in fact, "Mercy" was the name of a Nigerian born on one of the boats). The orange and gold foil vest on the various people in the video are a great personification on this crisis. However, using the bare-bones template Portugal wanted, at the competition it's just them alone, and non-French-speaking viewers/voters will have a hard time deciphering the message. Expect a high "jury" vote though...

6.  "Non mi avete fatto niente" ("You Haven't Done Anything To Me") - Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro

Between their own entry with Eugent Bushpepa making the finals, the Balkan country of Albania has had a very good Eurovision this year, with Eleni Foureira, born in Fier, the betters' favorite to win for Cyprus, and Ermal Meta, also from Fier, part of the duo representing Italy with this very very serious anti-violence song closing the show. They have "lyrics" shown as they perform, but they'll be in all sorts of languages, so I'm not sure how that'll translate to a casual viewer who'd be better served by watching the music video above.

Well there it is....I'll return to update the results after the festivities....Party on, and Good Luck to my favorite, Moldova! Here's a behind the scenes look at how they did their entertaining-beyond-entertaining staging with only 5000 euros...