Or in Düsseldorf, where the final lineup was really good until hasard decided to put basically all favourites together in the first half of the show without spreading them out the slightest.
To avoid things like these, there was a change of rules in 2013. The draw was reduced to deciding what half of the show you perform in, then the host producer gets to sequence the running order instead.
But what does it help? Out of the 27 songs in the final - I'm repeating myself but TWENTY-SEVEN? Who thought that was a good idea? Did nobody watch the horror that was the 2007 semi final? - only eight are uptempo. And seven of them are drawn in the first half. After the commercial break in the middle all songs but Georgia will be ballads or mid-tempo offerings.
The running order:
01. Slovenia, 02. France, 03. Israel, 04. Estonia, 05. United Kingdom, 06. Armenia, 07. Lithuania, 08. Serbia, 09. Norway, 10. Sweden, 11. Cyprus, 12. Australia, 13. Belgium, 14. Austria, 15. Greece, 16. Montenegro, 17. Germany, 18. Poland, 19. Latvia, 20. Romania, 21. Spain, 22. Hungary, 23. Georgia, 24. Azerbaijan, 25. Russia, 26. Albania, 27. Italy.
What does this mean, then? It means that most people that are not hardcore ESC fans or didn't hear the songs several times already will have a very long evening. A very very long evening where most of the songs in the second half will turn into one big heap of similarity, regardless if your song is good or not.
What strikes me is how this running order probably hugely diminishes the chances of both Russia and Italy - they are still convincing but the average viewer will be very tired when they come on and will have a harder time to give yet another ballad a chance. I won't count them out just yet but it isn't doing them any favours.
My guess is that the songs in the first half will find themselves with an advantage and I find it likely one of them is our winner. Estonia. Sweden. Australia. Belgium. Anything is possible.
