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I'm not a fan of Delta Goodrem, but boy am I proud of this. It was presented in a delicate way to begin with. It had posturing towards the middle and then became more alive in the end. They chose well in playing Delta in gold, possibly the best dressed artist of the show. They chose well by giving her a piano to play in the middle and then to have her on the piano and ascending upwards at the climax. And to add to all of this, she rose onto the piano in her high heeled shoes.

How did this happen? I don't know what witchcraft, blackmail voodoo the Italians perform on the voters each year that they finish up so high on the scoreboard. Is there some sort of subliminal message that is shown which I am not getting? I don't like it this year. I didn't like them last year either.

Let's begin with the best parts; the dancers. They had extraordinary skills and were highly polished and highly choreographed. They looked like they had real mates as they performed. The concept where they are preparing the blonde one getting married is incredibly clever and it was worked really well. There was a joy to the dancing and it felt like good fun. It was staged very nicely too. There was an elegance to the background and the performance, too. There was a nice moment when the would be husband and wife were dancing alone, and that was sweet.

I was bitterly disappointed for Finland finals night, but it was beaten fair and square. Taking an epic performance from a national final and placing it on a new stage can work in most cases without too much hassle. The entries that scored higher than Finland had recreated their national final performances in some new way or adapted them for the new stage. The Finns didn't as much.

I was disappointed when this was chosen to open the song contest final. But I was incredibly happy to see that it came equal second in the juries in the final. But I'm disappointed again that it didn't do better overall.

Danish entries have always been a bit weird to me. There is always something a bit strange about them in song or production that makes them feel a little strange or off. This year though I am full behind this entry.

It had a concept, it had a large clear perspex box, it had excellent dancers, it had a costume change and it had a man who can dance and sing at the same time. There is an undercurrent of darkness, seediness and menace that I appreciate from the entry. It wasn't just the dark images on the stage or the firey red flames towards the end. They took their lighting in a way that they were performing in a dark nightclub and the confined space on a dance floor.

I'm not sure how I feel about this performance. The song sounds like nonsense, but they packed six languages in this entry which seems like a lot for three minutes. It is the type of song that people get behind because it is an upbeat fun song and because of that it came forth with the public. It isn't really for me, but it is loud and infectious.

There was a moment before the song contest where I believed this would be up for a chance of winning the song contest. I will mention that it is due to an assumption I made which this year was completely untrue. The Ukraine are the masters of the prop and the assumption that like each year there will be something. But there was nothing like that except curtains that draped down from the ceiling in the middle.

I really enjoy this song. The lyrics paint a very wonderful image of colours and textures, but they used a simple stage, with black and white for the majority of the song. I love that man was their with his instrument quietly and inoffensively, so Leleka was the focus. Leleka used her physicality on stage to punctuate the entry and the wind machine moving her hair and her dress fringe around giving more character to the piece. I liked that various fabric textures were used in her background from light and wispy to the heavy velvet one towards the end.

Oh Jesus. There was so much hype behind this. So many Tik toks and appearances and excitement. And for three minutes we ended up with that as the end product. Disappointed, underwhelmed and annoyed is how I feel when I am watching this back. But it's not all bad news.

The first third of the performance is good. It has a decent introduction to the song. The big screen to start the game was great. The big Akylas running behind him as he performed was very attractive. The mirrored tunnel was too short and would have been good to reappear. The 'Elena Paparizou' moment with the strings was good. Good backgrounds to show more candy crush games and the graphics where it is all around him and on the ground were clever. The scooter was annoying but well within the theme of the song. All fine so far.

This is where it falls apart for me. Clearly, he went to the end of the catwalk as a diversion (big prop) and it felt unnatural and rushed when he made his way back to the main stage. Here we meet three people: a mother, a statue and a gold man representing wealth. I don't get how these people fit into the song and the performance. Part of the game? understand the gold man, but the other two. It again felt rushed and awkward having them do the dance and go running down the stage. Blah.

This year's French entry is a triumph. I think it is magnificent, and it would have broken people if an operatic entry won for the third successive year. To this I say, so what? If the best song is a song that is sung by an operatic person, then so be it. It did not happen of course, but it would have been a worthy winner if it did.

I do not think there was a whole lot of people who liked the Polish entry before the song contest. I think the song was more jury bait than televoter. The song itself was complicated and integrated. The vocal arrangement was perfectly executed as we expected as Alicja has the lungs and swagger to perform this effortlessly.

The performance on the stage was well thought out from the lighting at the beginning, images on the screen and on the floor. The choreography she performed and the dancers on their paper hill was in keeping with the song. I like that they used shadows as additional components in the performance as well to give the performance depth. I also like that she started on the catwalk, and made her way through the performance to the stage and the dancers. There were too many people rushing around everywhere. This shows that this was the Alicja show and she will do it at her own pace.

Albania has a habit of getting their entries very right or very wrong. I don't like a song about people singing about their Mother. We had one last year that was quite good, but the ones from Belarus in 2006 and the Belgian one from 2014 are hideous and unforgivable. And then we have this dark and moody number, which I would count as a good one.

The opening to this performance is goosepimple inducing. What a dramatic way to open a song. To have a song about a mother with a mother figure looking down on Alis as he begins the performance. I didn't much like her loitering around the stage, but she did look considerably worried for her boy. It was such a mothering thing for her to remove his glasses so she could look into his eyes and the handing of the pocket watch was also a great ending moment to the song.

Alis is the star though. He had the right voice and performance for the song. His garment looked like he was going to war in some form of medieval place where there is jousting and fencing. The performance is very considered with his choir of men looking down at him, a collection of mothers standing by and the subtitles in English made it easier for everyone to understand the meaning of the performance.