Eurovision Song Contest - The Grand Final (Saturday 16th May 2009)

[Corki]

Now, with just under 20 minutes to go until we head back of to Moscow for the 54th European Song Contest. I hope everyone is getting settled in, whether it is front of the TV or using the live streaming from the official Eurovision Website (you need to install something called OctoShape to get the streaming working, which is linked from the website).

http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv?program=2750

 

Now is the time to get your supply of beers, wine, spirits and snacks. I'm pretty much set up and waiting for the show to begin.

 

Tuesday and Thursday saw the 2 semi-finals to find the 20 other qualifiers to go with Russia (the hosts and champions), the UK, Spain, Germany and France, who all qualify automatically. Some good songs made it through, while a few surprises slipped through (Armenia - absolute tripe!). There a few names not appearing yet again, like the Netherlands and 7 times winners Ireland, who failed to get out of the semi-finals.

 

Despite Greece and Norway being tipped to win, I don't like those songs. My personally favourites to win are Iceland and the UK (there is no favourtism - I think Jade Ewan has the best voice in the contest), with Portugal and Malta up there. Expect Azerbaijan and Moldova to be dark horses.

 

This year sees a 50:50 split between juries and public telephone voting to determine each country's points. This should hopefully stop the bloc voting that has blighted Eurovision for the last few years - from the West's viewpoint. We shall see when the points are awarded at the end.

 

And we get new hosts tonight as well. No more of that rubbish from Tuesday's and Thursday's pair of hosts - they were awful!

 

That is enough yapping! So let's get comfortable and let the fun begin!

[Corki]

Time to advertise this again:

 

1) The latest "Tune or No Tune", featuring Johnny Logan's 1987 winning song, Hold Me Now for Ireland:

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43213.0.html

 

2) "It's A Knockout" - two threads up, splitting Eurovision somewhere roughly down the middle. And the winner of each thread will then go head-to-head to claim the title of DM's best Eurovision song.

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43128.0.html (1956 to 1982)

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43129.0.html (1983 to 2008)

 

3) And a general discussion thread covering all things Eurovision

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43120.0.html

 

Some time after tonight's final, the Band will be hosting it's very own Eurovision Song Contest to see who we would pick as a winner from the Final's 25 songs, and whether we agree with what Europe has to say.

[Corki]

Despite a technical hitch my end (stupid streaming stopped), we are now off!

 

We are getting some recital in Russian (??), and now some guys spinning around in rather large hoops. There are lots of acrobats spinning around the ceiling and on stage as well. It's all rather impressive. And it's the Cirque du Soliel (or however it is spelt).

 

Do I see last year's winner, Dima Bilan, coming onto the stage? I think I do, which means a rendition of last year's winning song, Believe, is on the way. And here it is - more extravagant than last year! He's flying - with help of pulleys etc etc!

 

And I am getting annpoyed with these error messages I keep getting with the streaming.

 

And here are the new hosts for tonight!

[Corki]

And there one minute on stage is much better than the 2 nights of the other hosts!

 

And we're off!

 

1. Lithunia - Love performed by Sasha Son

- a piano ballad to start the evening off

- his hat needs a feather!

- a solid song

- good amount of effort

- gets the thumbs up

 

2. Israel - There Must Be Another Way performed by Noa & Mira Awad

- the peace anthem --> sung by an Arab and a Jew

- not liking it as much as the semi-final performance

- don't think much of the singing --> a bit screechy

 

3. France - S'il Fallait Le Faire performed by Patricia Kaas

- a huge cheer for the French artist, who is massive star

- quite gutteral

- quite sombre --> does Eurovision want such a sombre song?

- massive cheer from the crowd

- I'm undecided

 

4. Sweden - La Voix performed by Malena Ernman

- I lost all streaming during the song --> stupid ESC site

- "opera-dance"

- a fantastic voice from what I caught, but she is an opera singer

- I felt it was better than the semi-final performace

 

5. Croatia - Lijepa Tena performed by Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea

- more streaming problems

- a soft ballad song from what I gathered

 

Now on BBC website, so less problems I hope

[Majsju]

I am more and more getting a feeling that the big ballads, UK, Poland, Iceland and Malta, will cancel eachother out. None of the songs is very strong, so the vocalists have to carry the entire thing.

 

Malena did a great performance. Still struggling a bit woith the pop parts, as opera singers tend to do, but those are not the key parts of the song. She should get a good place.

[Corki]

6. Portugal - Todas As Ruas Do Amor performed by Flor-de-Lis

- one of my favourites this year

- very psychedelic colours

- nice "folky" style song

- a happy song

- good voice

 

7. Iceland - Is It True? performed by Johanna

- my favourite this year

- fairytale feel to it

- brilliant voice

- but could Iceland cope financially if they won?

- nice relaxing ballad

- great performance

- good cheer!

 

8. Greece - This Is Our Night performed by Sakis Rouvas

- one of the favourites

- doesn't seem to have a strong enough voice for the Europop feel of song

- does have a funky box though

- lacks in the singing department big time

- good actions

- audience loved it

 

9. Armenia - Jan Jan (Nor Par) performed by Inga and Anush

- time for the tripe --> yes, I don't like it at all

- annoying voices and music

- next please!

- crowd liked it...

 

10. Russia - Mamo performed by Anastacia Prihodko

- a huge cheer for the host country singer

- is she wearing a shower curtain?

- a simple song --> lots of emotion

- good vocals

- clever visuals

- ending ruins a nice song

[Corki]

11. Azerbaijan - Always performed by AySel and Arash

- my dark horse

- a nice catchy song

- she gets my thumbs up!  ;D

- vocals complement each other

- good performace

- massive cheer --> biggest of the night so far

 

12. Bosnia & Herzegovina - Bistra Voda performed by Regina

- quite a sombre song, but one you can enjoy

- a military feel to it

- grows on you

- I like it

- good cheer from the crowd

 

13. Moldova - Hora din Moldova! performed by Nelly Ciobanu

- time for our favourite Tavern Wench!  ;D

- something traditional with an electro feel

- I do like it

- nice vocals

- very energetic

- good cheer

- it has one UK vote from my Dad

 

14. Malta - What If We? performed by Chiara

- back to the ballads

- third time lucky? --> has been 3rd, and 2nd, now 1st?

- powerful voice

- an outside chance, in my eyes

- good performace

 

15. Estonia - Rändajad performed by Urban Symphony

- electro-classical song

- nice and simple

- Enya-like

- good range of vocals

- gets the thumbs up

[Liitha]

i tend to disagree to a point, icelands song is lovely, but not sure if it has what it got to make the attention, its a lovely song of the type you can easily listen over and over to times 10, but its not one that says boom here i am and get stuck on your brain

 

as far as englands...well i guess it says something of my view that i remember the vocalists eyes better then how the song went or what text there was or whatnot..she had lovely deep warm eyes btw

 

but yeah i am watching too, so figured would take you up on the invite from warder Corki as no one else seem to want to listen to my ranting of watching it (or other rants for that matter) tonite *lol*

 

while i dont really that much care if we win or not, the only reason i taken notice of MGP (norwegian shortening for Melodi Grand Prix), this year was because we have a song you got to love to hate, i heard it once and it stuck on my mind. And since then i argued with myself if i hate it for that, or find it interesting enough to like it with its rhythms mixed with violin etc

 

 

[Corki]

16. Denmark - Believe Again performed by Brinck

- one name - Ronan Keating

- it's Ronan Keating in disguise

- Ronan Keating wrote it

- I don't think it is anything special

 

17. Germany - Miss Kiss Kiss Bang performed by Alex Swings Oscar Sings

- did you see Dita Von Teese?

- something Ricky Martin might do?

- what about those shocking silver trousers?

- mediocre

 

18. Turkey - Düm Tek Tek performed by Hadise

- huge cheer

- here's the traditional belly dancing

- catchy rhythm

- not bad singing

 

19. Albania - Carry Me In Your Dreams performed by Kejsi Tola

- poor guy in a Green Gimp Suit

- good vocals

- not bad Europop

- lively acrobatics

 

20. Norway - Fairytale performed by Alexander Rybak

- the favourite...but annoying in my eyes

- don't like his shouty vocals

- he's good on the violin/fiddle though

- massive cheer from the audience

[Corki]

Liitha - good to see you here. It isn't England that has entered - it's the UK (i.e. England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland).

[Liitha]

well i say england cause i found it listed as england winner eurovision 2009 on youtube lol when i went looking for it after talking too you...but yeah i should known, just lazy part of my mind not bothering to think about it

 

we are nearing the end though now, so soon will be down too vote...will be interesting too see how it turn out

[Majsju]

Corki, a correction. Keating did not write Denmarks song, it was written for him by two Danish songwriters. When it failed to make the final cut for Keatings album, they sent it to the Danish Eurovision qualifiers instead.

 

Another fun tidbit, Anastacia, who performed the Russian entry, first entered the Ukarine qualifiers, but was disqualified because the song had been released before the competition. Instead she came in as a late entry for the Russian qualifier.

[Corki]

21. Ukraine - Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl) performed by Svetlana Loboda

- is she really an anti-crisis girl?  ;D

- time for the hamster wheels and Romans

- lots of performaces --> typical of Ukrainian entries

- lively Europop

- she's a drummer as well as on acrobat --> all action girl!

 

22. Romania - The Balkan Girls performed by Elena Gheorghe

- it's the tree nymphs again

- more Europop

- not bad vocals

- some line dancing

- reasonable performace

 

23. United Kingdom - It's My Time performed by Jade Ewen

- that is Lord Lloyd Webber on the piano

- best vocals in the contest --> and no bias!

- shame about walking into the violonist

- big performace!

- huge cheer from Moscow!

- come on Jade!

 

24. Finland - Lose Control performed by Waldo's People

- dance crossed with rap

- Lordi won...will this?

- chorus is catchy?

- I do like it

- good cheer

 

25. Spain - La Nocha Es Para Mi performed by Soraya

- written by Swedes

- does she look like Pink?

- was expecting more --> disappointing

- her voice is not powerful enough for song

- she's disappeared --> that's new!

- average

 

And that's it! All 25 songs are finished!

[Corki]

And we're in space...who start the voting!

 

And off we go!

[Corki]

Everyone is voting for the country I am voting for - it said the line was busy! lol!

[Corki]

Finally got through and registered my vote! Yay!  ;D

[Corki]

Now, here is my top 10:

 

1. Iceland

2. Azerbaijan

3. Portugal

4. United Kingdom

5. Malta

6. Moldova

7. Bosnia & Herzegovina

8. Sweden

9. Estonia

10. Ukraine

 

Somehow, I know that won't be the top 10, as Greece and Norway will be in there (but don't deserve to be).

 

Anyway, the voting is coming to the end...about 30 seconds left...

[Corki]

And voting is now over. Time for the interval act before the joys of the voting!  ;D

[Corki]

And here is the interval act...

 

I see we have more things from the roof...and that includes swimming pools! It's crazy! I don't think we'll see a Eurovision like this ever again - Russia supposedly spent between £20m-£30m on it! It's the Bejing Olympics of Eurovision!

[Graendals favourite]

This was an incredibly great competition! All of the entries were good. When I heard the Lithuanian entry, I thought for sure that would be near the top, however, there's not room for it in my top ten.

 

Now that the voting has closed, my top ten would be

 

Suomi-Finland 1 point (This could be substituted with Lithuania, if I cannot vote for my own.)

 

Kroatia-Croatia 2 points.

 

Venäjä-Russia 3 points.

 

Bosnia-Herzegovina 4 points.

 

Viro-Estonia 5 points.

 

Moldova-Moldova 6 points.

 

Portugali-Portugal 7 points.

 

Ukraina-Ukraine 8 points.

 

Saksa-Germany 10 points.

 

Ranska-France 12 points.

 

Kaas simply took me away to another place and I forgot I was sitting in front of tv. Germany, Ukraine, Portugal and Moldova were fantastic, energetic with a very good vibe, the tighter ones won over lighter ones this time. The Estonian and Bosnian songs had a very good atmosphere. Russia and Croatia had great songs as well. I liked the Finnish one, the Lithuanian was the runner up, but very beautiful. I could accept any of these the winner, too, others did not make the list this time, though now my old criterion that I must be willing to listen to the song otherwise too does not hold, since I had to leave out Sweden, Armenia, Azerbaidzan, Norway, Romania and UK, these have an 8+ in my notes.

[Liitha]

and the first 12 points went to norway ;)

[Corki]

And now time for the votes! Yay!

[Corki]

Good start for the UK!

[Corki]

Sorry, Europe, but why Norway? It wasn't anything special at all.

[Corki]

After 4 countries, we're 2nd! Come on, UK!  :)