I sense a great disturbance in the Force.
Slovenia got a laugh from me.
You know what? The voting’s not over yet, but I’m going to go out on a limb and call it for – Norway. Yes! Call me courageous!
As I understand it, they have split the voting 50-50 between telephone votes and local juries of music industry luminaries (by which I suppose they mean the local equivalents of Simon Cowell, a mind-boggling thought). That is why the neighbour-voting effect is less evident this year. But it’s still there, with weird douze points for the likes of Moldova.
Norway must have had a good song (it’s been a long night, I don’t remember), but I bet half the points they got were from juries. Other western countries also did much better than in recent years.
Holy cow. 5th. FIFTH!
The Norwegian vote announcing dude is in national costume, because it’s after midnight and therefore Constitution Day in Norway. Between the national holiday and the win tonight, national pride may well get up to insufferable levels today.
Which means I’d better get some sleep so I’m ready to deal with it. Good night, and good luck.
Congratulations, flodnak!
I’m all in, too. Hey, Germany didn’t bottom out this year! Woo-hoo!
Aw, crap… That song is going to stay on the radio for a year now. It’s not as if it hasn’t been played all freaking day here since it won the national competition.
Someone put me in the freezer and wake me up in June 2010.
Doh, I missed this thread earlier.
So were we supposed to be impressed that our song (UK entry) was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber? It was a load of crap! The lyrics were incredibly repetitive and all the 'me me my me my me me" lines were cringe inducing. I’m surprised we came 5th TBH.
I wanted Iceland to win (well, part of me did 
) but Norway were my second pick. I’m glad I’ll only have to hear it twice though…
So, I assume Bulgaria didn’t make the finals (again)? I haven’t heard the song, but my Bulgarian friend was just bemoaning to me the other day about how bad it was. She claims that no one had ever heard of the performer and that he bribed his way to the win.
Oh, Bulgaria, never change.
Dude. She’s 18
Oh God.
That song is never going to go away, now, is it?
I’m with the Guardian on this one. Someone needs to jab him in the eye with his violin thingy. And forcibly shave his eyebrows off.
And it’s officially Constitution Day, too. (17th of May - Constitution founded on the 17th of May 1814, for anyone keeping score.) That’s it, I’m staying indoors today.
(You poor thing, flodnak. I’ve no idea how naturalized you’ve become over the years, but this shit is going to be embarassing even for the people who are born and raised here.)
Oh God.
There’s an Ompa band playing “Fairytale” outside my door.
Send help.
Boy, that Norwegian song sure was awful. I was afraid his bow would split, too. At least he didn’t jab somebody with it, like the one violinist from the UK who jabbed the singer. I actually liked Moldovia, I think they were robbed by the Scandinavian voting bloc.
…
OK I got nothing about the German pants.
Norway got scores from pretty much all voting countries, with douze points from nations ranging from Iceland to Turkey. Say what you want about the song, but this was a year where the win didn’t come down to politics. That alone makes me glad.
Iceland and Azerbajan were neck to neck for silver. Boring dolphin lady or uninspiring Arash? Ugh. Give me contrived violin boys anyday over those two.
Totnak’s school joins up with another elementary school in the same neighborhood for the 17th of May parade. The other school’s band played “Fairytale”.
“Our” band responded with “When the Saints Go Marching In” 
My unforgettable moment of this year: jacket caught in wires during the opening ceremony. The most expensive show in the history of ESC, but man still struggles with that damn jacket. 
One thing I thought was odd was when the Armenian rep was giving their votes, she kept holding up her clipboard which had a picture of some Easter Island-type statue on its underside. The same picture was displayed on a screen behind her. Here’s a screenshot:
I thought at the time it must be some surreptitious ad from the Armenian tourist board or something, but it turns out to be more interesting than that - the picture is of the We Are Our Mountains monument, which is symbolic of a disputed region which is technically part of Azerbaijan, but ethnically Armenian. It originally appeared among other Armenian landmarks in the little video clip that precedes the songs. The Azerbaijani delegation objected to the monument being presented as Armenian, and the Eurovision organisers duly removed it from the clip, to the chagrin of the Armenians.
So the Armenians found a way to still include it in the TV coverage. Sneaky.
Wow, I can’t believe I missed that. I visited that monument last year 
Way to go Armenia!
Here’s an Azeri report on the original incident, and an Armenian one. As you may imagine, they have rather different takes on it
Azerbaijan: “No doubt that the Armenians and their friends from the Eurovision steering committee used this monument in provocative political purposes…”
Armenia: “Azerbaijan, yielding no opportunity of anti-Armenian propaganda and sometimes carrying to the point of absurdity…”
God, I love Eurovision.