Results From The First Semi-Final

Eurovision 2014 has officially begun! The first semi-final took place in the B&W Hallerne music arena in Copenhagen. It was a fabulous start to what looks to be a landmark year for Eurovision. And we have ten finalists! They are, in no particular order:

Aram MP3 from Armenia. No surprise here, he's a frontrunner in the competition.

András Kállay-Saunders from Hungary. Another obvious choice, although I still don't know how I feel about a pop song about child abuse.

Sanna Nielsen from Sweden. Looking and sounding beautiful, Sanna!

Dilara Kazimova from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan always puts on a good show, and this year is no exception.

Pollapönk from Iceland. A fun, silly song about loving others.

Tolmachevy Sisters from Russia. These poor girls were actually booed when it was announced they made it through the semi-final. The audience was not feeling Russia.

The Common Linnets from The Netherlands. I was blown away by this performance. Very beautiful and subtle. And I am an American, so I have a soft spot for country music.

Mariya Yaremchuk from Ukraine. A fierce performance from Ukraine. Loving the hamster wheel.

And, for the first time, Montenegro and San Marino both qualified for the final! Congratulations to Sergej Cetkovic and our girl, Valentina Monetta! And congrats to all the finalists.

Great News From San Marino!

According to esctoday.com, Valentina Monetta will be representing San Marino again in 2014!

There will always be a place in my heart for Valentina because of her first entry, 2012's "The Social Network Song (Oh-Oh-Uh-Oh-Oh)," which was a hot mess. And when she returned to Eurovision this year, she took a very different approach. She did well (finishing 11th out of 17 in the semi-finals), but not quite enough to qualify for the finals.

Will 2014 be Valentina's year? And the first year for San Marino to make it to the finals? I think the Sammarinese are onto something. We wish you the best of luck, Valentina!

Look At How Far She's Come

This is Valentina Monetta. She is currently representing San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest, being held right now, in Malmo, Sweden.

Valentina has been trying to represent her country at Eurovision since 2008. She finally got her chance last year, with "The Social Network Song (Oh-Oh-Uh-Oh-Oh)." Which was an amazing disaster of a song, full of poorly translated English lyrics, too-tight ponytails, and very thinly-veiled advertisements for Facebook.

But despite all that, it finished 14th in the semi-finals, making it San Marino's best ever placing in Eurovision. Though it didn't qualify for the finals, Valentina made history for her country.

So the Sammarinese (that's the people of San Marino, look it up) got smart and brought Valentina back for another try at Eurovision. This year's entry is rather different from "The Social Network Song."

Who knew the Facebook girl from last year could actually sing? Now, I have no idea what "Crisalide (Vola)" is actually about. It could also be a song about Facebook. But don't you get the feeling that Valentina only signed on to do the Facebook song because they promised her a chance to do something actually good in the future?

Unfortunately, Valentina is not going to the finals this year either. She failed to qualify. I'm a little heartbroken over this. Our little flower bloomed into a beautiful young woman, only to be shot down again. Scores haven't been released yet for yesterday's semi-finals, so I don't know how close she was to qualifying. But I hope she'll be back next year with a song about Twitter called "Tweet Me (Beep-Beep-Oh-Oh)."