The Eurovision Song Contest 2018's second semi-final round on Thursday was weird even by Eurovision standards.
One of the trends throughout the night was the use of dancing inanimate objects. For example, a troupe of dancing robots made their worldwide debut on stage in Lisbon as part of San Marino's, ermm, unusual routine.
Entrants Jessika and Jenifer Brening's wacky performance of 'Who We Are' integrated a fleet of mini red-and-white bots to pull off silky dance moves that'd make even Miss Vanjie jealous. (Okay fine, they really just moved their arms up and down a lot.)
What was the point of having the robots on stage with "size doesn't matter" signs? Don't ask us...
Seeing as the robots followed only minutes after a group of creepy of mannequins danced with the Romanian entrants, it was just an extra bizarre night overall. Still, BBC Four host Rylan Clark-Neal had plenty of fun introducing San Marino's robots.
"These popped over to the UK and made full advantage of that Toys R Us [going out of business] sale," Rylan snarked.
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Later, Rylan read an email from a viewer who compared San Marino's Eurovision routine to "a dodgy Dragons' Den pitch with rubbish toys".
Yet, some viewers couldn't help but dance along:
While others were confused and/or unimpressed:
Others questioned if the robots and mannequins pushed these two countries over the Eurovision rule limiting each performance to six performers on stage:
Before you pan the Eurovision viewers as heartless, keep in mind that they loved Israel's chicken-clucking entrant Netta during Tuesday night's (May 8) first semi-final round. Maybe those robots were actually just creepy...
Neither San Marino's robots or Romania's creepy mannequins got through at the end night, as the finalists for the evening were Serbia, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Slovenia and the Netherlands.
Graham Norton will be anchoring BBC One's broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 final starting at 8pm on Saturday (May 12), with Ken Bruce hosting the simultaneous Radio 2 coverage.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
