Eurovision 2009

[Gavin Chipper]

The new voting system was a massive success.

What was the new voting system? It looked the same to me.

[Andrew Hulme]

WOGAN is missing -> Eurovision will never be worth watching again imo.

[Ian Volante]

The new voting system was a massive success.

What was the new voting system? It looked the same to me.

Half phone votes, half decided by five musical professionals in each country.

I never heard how exactly that works. Maybe the pros rank the songs, the phone vote ranks the songs and then the two lists are combined. Ties decided how, I'm not sure.

As for no Wogan, I listened to Ken Bruce with the telly sound down, much better.

[Hannah O]

I think that despite Terry Wogan being missing, Eurovision still worked- Graham Norton's comments were still amusing, but they were mostly funny as opposed to Wogan's snide. Also, he didn't say nearly as much as Terry Wogan, leaving us to listen to the songs and enjoy most of the event! While the bloc voting was partly disrupted, notice that the Top 5 were bloc-ish- two Scandinavian countries (Norway, Iceland) and two Eastern countries (Turkey, Azerbaijan). We were the odd one out!

[Ben Wilson]

WOGAN is missing -> Eurovision will never be worth watching again imo.

Nah, I thought Graham Norton did a fantastic job.

[Michael Wallace]

I think it's important that in the excitement of the final, we don't miss the fact that the jury choice for the second semi was Croatia

Pretty astonished at quite how well Norway did - I'm another in the camp of "I can see why people like it, but I don't see why people like it that much". I think the biggest shock for me was Iceland coming second - I know they have their Scandinavian friends to help, but that style really didn't strike me as one that would go down well. Pretty pleased with our performance - I'm not sure how much is down to the new voting system, and how much is down to us just sending a song Europe might like for the first time in years.

I'm also a little shocked that we gave our 12 points to Turkey. I mean, really?

[Daniel O'Dowd]

All the signs point to a UK win this year. We're the 4th favourites, apparently, which must mean people like our song. We'll have Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on stage, a well known figure, which may get us a few votes as well. And we have a favourable running position, the antepenultimate song, so we should be fresh in the voters minds. Also, I reckon people will vote for us just to piss the British taxpayer off at a bad time for finances- spending loads of money hosting the thing next year if we do win will really please people!
Remember, you read it here first!
If we don't win, Norway probably will, although I really hope they don't. They may be the favourities, and I can sort of see how people may like their song, but it just doesn't do anything for me. Out of the other favourities, I prefer the Greek song, although there are other songs that I prefer even more. The performance is worth watching though.
From the rest, I'd like to see Estonia win. IMHO, they just have a really nice song. They've never won it, so now would be a good time to start. And as I said earlier, I also really enjoy the Finnish song.

Wrong. Copenhagen 2001 they won with Tadel Panar/Dave Benton, Everybody.

I loved Norway, I'm glad it won because it had the most amazing fantastic hook, and energy and joy, but I agree Estonia's song was fantastic and brilliant, as well as featuring a really gorge lead singer. Albania was also fantastic, Moldova was like a better version of 2006's Moja Stikla, with great progression within the song, and of those who didn't qualify I most enjoyed the pure fun of Serbia and the sheer beauty (song AND singer) of Cyprus.

[Michael Wallace]

Oh yeah, and I also thought Norton was pretty good.

[Allan Harmer]

Overall I thought that it was a good show, that the songs were pretty good and music was more to the forefront than usual. I didn't get the water show. It didn't appear to work televisually but may have been better if you were there.

I liked Sweden, Portugal, Malta, Norway and Iceland musically and Germany visually.

Does anyone agree that the Swedish singer looked like Rhyddian in drag?

[Hannah O]

After purchasing some songs from the iTunes store (as it wouldn't let me buy the whole album! ) and listening to them again, it's become evident how catchy they are, and I think that the visual part of Eurovision can definitely be a distraction sometimes! The only songs I didn't really like were France, Lithuania and Sweden- why did Sweden need to sing their chorus in French? And also I don't think the song was suited to her voice- she clearly excelled at the high end of the scale, whereas a lot of the song was at a lower pitch and I think she may have struggled. Also, I think Russia's visual gimmick of the singer growing older was distracting, because now I'm listening to it, it's vaguely catchy. Also, I wasn't impressed because I'm sure part of their song was in something other than Russian- upon looking it up, I've found it's Ukranian! In fact, the singer herself was Ukrainian- though that's not as traitorous as Ronan Keating working for Denmark!

[Ian Dent]

Are you serious?

[Eoin Monaghan]

Norway deserved to win, but Denmark and Finland should have got much higher. 387 is ridiculous though!

[Eoin Monaghan]

My predictions for thye top 10: (actually what I hope happens)

1. Finland
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4. Greece
5. Armenia
6. Denmark
7. Albania
8. Germany
9. Iceland
10. Turkey




25. United Kingdom

[JasonCullen]

Ended up voting for the catchy Azerbaijan tune last night! Wasn't crazy about the winning entry and was a little surprised that Efron-lookalike won by a landslide! Full credit to Jade Ewen though whom I thought was excellent. One for the future that gal

[Phil Reynolds]

I liked Norway, but the singer reminded me of Zac Efron

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Neil Zussman]

I liked Norway, but the singer reminded me of Zac Efron

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Well it is cos it means he got lots of votes he didn't deserve based on his looks not his music. Of course the fact that the Icelandic song did so well was because it was, er, written and sung so beautifully.

[Michael Wallace]

Well it is cos it means he got lots of votes he didn't deserve based on his looks not his music. Of course the fact that the Icelandic song did so well was because it was, er, written and sung so beautifully.

Tbh, I think it's hard to believe that Norway wouldn't have won with a less pretty singer - you might be able to argue that if it was close, but when they score almost double anyone else it seems kinda unlikely.

[Neil Zussman]

Well it is cos it means he got lots of votes he didn't deserve based on his looks not his music. Of course the fact that the Icelandic song did so well was because it was, er, written and sung so beautifully.

Tbh, I think it's hard to believe that Norway wouldn't have won with a less pretty singer - you might be able to argue that if it was close, but when they score almost double anyone else it seems kinda unlikely.

Well there may have been less hype surrounding the song in the build-up, and people may not have got carried away on the euphoria of finding a song that was passable coupled with a singer who was good looking, and may instead have taken a more balanced view of things.
I don't, of course, believe for one moment that if the singer was ugly they would not have won, but it might be an interesting (or not) social experiment.

[Hannah O]

Interestingly enough, the singer for Norway, Alexander Rybak, was born in Belarus. It's a nice song, but a bit melancholy in terms of the lyrics. I prefer Ukraine and Germany, especially the former, what with their "I'm your anti-crisis girl!"- I'm pretty sure that's bordering on Engrish.

[Gavin Chipper]

I'm also a little shocked that we gave our 12 points to Turkey. I mean, really?

I think Turkey's position was boosted by the visuals.

[Martin Bishop]

I prefer Ukraine and Germany, especially the former, what with their "I'm your anti-crisis girl!"- I'm pretty sure that's bordering on Engrish.

I loved the Ukrainian entry, because it was the most aggressively sexual song, completely at odds with the message of "Be my valentine". I also now plan to use the phrase "sexy bon bon" in everyday conversation.

My all-time favourite example of a song getting lost in translation is Croatia's entry in 2004, with its repeated declaration that "Even in my dreams I really need to feel you". It was obviously meant to be romantic, but came across as creepy.

[Michael Wallace]

So I came across a dance remix of the Malta entry.

It's not particularly amazing (and is fairly crudely done), but I remember thinking at the time it would lend itself rather well to such a treatment.

Edit: And observe how Norway's really isn't particularly suitable...