The strangest participants of the first Eurovision semi-final

On Tuesday, May 14, the main Eurovision Song Contest of the year 2019 started in Tel Aviv. Although experts call this semi-final a light warm-up before the main battle, among its participants, several unique frames can still be distinguished.

It is unlikely that any of these people will be able to make it to the finals, but the fact that they managed to distinguish themselves from the rest of the contenders is indisputable!

Hatari

The motto of the international song contest this year was the phrase "Dream boldly!". And it's true, the courage of some participants can only be envied! What is the eccentric Hatari collective worth, representing Iceland with the song Hatrið mun sigra. We have already talked about these guys in more detail before, but after they appeared on the stage of the semi-finals, it's a sin not to mention them again.

The band performs in a very original, one might even say, unique genre, combining dark-electro, EBM and synth-punk. But it's not so much the guys who "cling" to the music, as their provocative appearance — many viewers have already called the Hatari group a "BDSM copy of Maruv", but, as it seems to us, the Icelanders have greatly surpassed the Ukrainian singer in this regard…

Tomta

The representative of Cyprus, singer Tamta, took part in such a large-scale event for the first time, but immediately became famous all over the world and, unfortunately, not because of her vocal abilities. The thing is that a real scandal broke out around the girl's performance. Her song Replay almost one-on-one copies the composition Fuego, which was performed last year by another Cypriot singer Helen Foreira, and, by the way, took second place.

In addition, Tamta is the oldest participant in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2019 — she turned 38 years old. It is a pity that the competition does not give out a prize for the most successful plagiarism — then the girl would have every chance to win. Now bookmakers do not rate the probability of its success too highly — in their opinion, Tamta can only take 12th place in the table.

Xena

And now let's talk about the youngest participant of Eurovision 2019. We are talking about the representative of Belarus singer Zena, who just turned 16 last September! Despite her young age, the girl is already quite an experienced artist: she twice made it to the final of the national selection for the junior Eurovision Song Contest and won prizes in many other musical competitions.

The girl performed on stage with the song Like It by the composer Viktor Drobysh. The same one who last year prepared for Eurovision an outrageous Belarusian by the name of Ivanov. Despite all the originality and boldness of the guy's number — he appeared in front of the audience naked and with a wolf — he did not manage to get to the final. The bookmakers also do not see the current representative of the country at the final stage.

Yotsi Papai

Hungarian singer Jozi Papai is trying his hand at Eurovision for the second time. In 2017, he managed to win only the 8th place at the competition, but this indicator is the best among all other performances of representatives of his country.

Will Papai be able to break his record this year? If you believe the forecasts of bookmakers, the chances of the Hungarian to make it to the finals are negligible… And this is even despite the fact that the video for his song Az én apám has currently gained 4 million views on YouTube!

Papai also distinguished himself by performing a song in Hungarian. So he became one of the four participants in the semifinals who sang songs not in English, but in their native languages.

Kate Miller-Heidke

Australia this year was represented by pretty blonde Kate Miller-Heidke with the song Zero Gravity.  Throughout the performance of the girl, a mysterious man dangled from a pole behind her, who, according to the idea of the directors of the number, was supposed to symbolize the absence of attraction (this is what the composition is about).

Myself Kate Miller-Heidke performed on a stand hidden under her dress, which made her the tallest singer in this semi-final (suddenly someone higher will appear in the next stages). However, her chances of winning did not increase with the growth — bookmakers believe that the Australian will be able to take only 9th place in the competition.

Serhat

If the oldest participant of the semi-final was the representative of Cyprus singer Tamta, then the organizers call the San Marino performer Sergat the oldest participant of the entire competition. This year, the man will celebrate his 55th birthday, and, if he is lucky, passing to the Eurovision final - he should not even dream of winning the competition.

In 2016, Serhat already participated in the song contest, but could not even pass to its final stage. Despite the fact that the man cannot boast of outstanding vocal abilities, for a long time his name has been heard throughout the country! Because of this, viewers compare Sergat with the newly elected President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and the famous Ukrainian singer Mikhail Poplavsky. What he has in common with the latter is that, having no special talent, he decided to try himself in singing.

With another, he is similar in that, using his television popularity, he manages to achieve great heights in many other fields, for example, for the second time, by some miracle, he wins the national selection of the country.

And which of the participants of the Eurovision semi-final did you remember the most? Who would you like to see in the top three?