Having gone to a non-Eurovision BBQ last night (though someone did eventually turn on the TV so the voting could be followed), I’ve yet to watch the Eurovision coverage. That’ll be tonight’s entertainment, watching the songs, fast forwarding through the “postcards” between acts, and listening to Terry Wogan’s witty comments introducing each country’s performance.
Most of the voting footage can then be watched at speed, dipping into the no-doubt pessimistic commentary talking up UK and Ireland’s chances in the later rounds, before the resignation to defeat sets in and the well-meaning mocking of the poll’s leaders begins. Maybe I’ll be wrong.
With the UK coming joint 22nd (with France, another of the four nations with a guaranteed place in the final) and Ireland finishing last (24th) for the first time in the contest’s history, it wasn’t a great night.
The ESCtoday website has a page full of facts for Eurovision fans.
- There’s often a feeling that singing in English wins a song the widest audience and the most potential votes: this year, a song sung in Serbian won.
- Of the big four countries who pay the most into the European Broadcasting Union, they all finished in the bottom five: Germany 19, Spain 20, France tied with UK at 22/23 (though France go ahead when the tie-break rule is applied).
- Italy hasn’t taken part in the contest since 1997 (when they came 9th). However, last night’s Latvian entry was performed solely in Italian!
Reading through some of the press coverage—knowing the result won’t really spoil my viewing—I stumbled across a comment by Tim Moore, author of Nul Points
... there was praise for Scooch from author Tim Moore, whose book Nul Points tracked down Eurovision acts which had failed to score any points.
Marija Serifovic won for Serbia with her ballad Molitva
“It’s supposed to have a bop-along camp kitsch, which I have to say I thought our entry did pretty well,” he told BBC Radio Five Live. “I listened to Scooch - it was silly and they had all of their slightly odd innuendo... but that should have been worth a few points at least, in the Eurovision tradition.”
At least Tim Moore’s got no new acts to visit after last night’s performance!
3 comments:
Hi there!
Thank you for using my image here!
I didn't like the results, and Scooch didn't deserve such low points.
I agree Scootch didnt get as many points as they deserved!
Thanks for using my badges picture, but can I ask you to link it to my Flickr page, like you've done with the others?? Cheers.
Done! Sorry about that. I'd added your photo after the other two, and forgot to fix blogger's link.
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