Quote Originally Posted by jens
Romania is a Balkan state and is a slavic nation - this helps them a lot. : There are simply so many countries from this region with a similar cultural background that it's hard for the Western European states to compete against them.

Estonia has a few neighbours, but certainly not enough to compete against Balkan states. : Although to be honest, I haven't been impressed by our songs of the last few years either. Finnish rock tends to help them out (thanks to the votes of 'heavy' fans), we probably need to find our niche too.

The fact that Slovenia and Montenegro didn't make it into the finals really surprised me - usually almost all of the Balkan states have made it into the finals. :

Next year also Kosovo will participate - Western countries must divide themselves too to have more chances.

About Belgium and Ireland - at least they differed from others with something (which can also be said about Azerbaijan), but I remember nothing from the others. Just a grey mass.
Punctually:
1. Romania IS NOT a slavic state. ( and deep in my soul I hope it will never become one ).If you listern to our entry who's half in italian and half in romanian you'll see the similarities between the 2 languages.
Our balkanic neighbours don't like us ( generally speaking ) and never give us points. The only traditional ally who never fails to give us 12 points is Spain.
2. A few years ago Estonia managed to win and I'm not sure it was only because of the song's quality. It's a fact that the ex soviet states also give votes to each other. On the other hand I've noticed that Estonia always gets points from the scandinavian coutries. However this year the entry was too poor to get through but I think in the past it was always in final.
3.All that Western countries must do is coming with good songs. Listern to the songs from Spain and France and you'll see what I mean. The little help from neighbourhood in undoubtful but when a song is too poor ( see Montenegro ) it's not enough.


Don't forget: Tonight it's the second semifinal.