Give me a break ... !!

An article in Dagbladet online today about the Swedish media's reaction to the Swedish entry's 18th place in the ESC final last night. The newspaper Expressen blames, first and foremost, Norway for the bad result, saying that we have 'betrayed' them by 'only' giving them 7 points. They 'ought' to have gotten at least 10 for their piece of shit song.

OMG, GET OVER YOURSELVES ... !!! :-o

First of all, this song shouldn't even have been in the final, because number one, it wasn't the song the Swedish people wanted to send (it was the jury votes that made Hero the winner; Sanna Nielsen was the one the voters wanted and with her Empty Room she would definitely have done better than Perrelli) and number two, it didn't get the votes it needed from Europe in the semi, it only snuck in as the jury groups' wildcard. So Perrelli and her entourage + supporters should just have been grateful to be in Belgrade at all, because strictly speaking they had no business being there in the first place.

The Swedes have been some of the worst to whine about the bloc voting the Eastern Europeans are all engaging in. But now when the Scandinavian bloc voting didn't work out to their advantage, all they can do is whine about how there isn't enough bloc voting going on here!! The much-touted 'Nordic alliance' was just a mirage, Expressen's ESC commentator claims. Well, yeah, it is a mirage if they thought it was an alliance in support of Sweden regardless of the song involved!

The commentator, Andreas Häggström, thinks that Norway ought to give Sweden 'ten points as a minimum'. WTF?? This is a democratic vote, the TV audiences at home vote in whatever way they will! Should we set aside the televote and reserve the 10-pointer for Sweden every year? Is he advocating blatant cheating? This has got to be the dumbest ESC-related statement I've heard this year (and I've heard some doozies ...).

Norway gave 12 points to Denmark, 8 to Iceland and 7 to Sweden. How is that a 'betrayal'? Even with the extra five (!!) points from us Perrelli would still be languishing in 18th place. Even with every single Nordic 12-pointer I don't think she would have made it any higher than 14th. So how is it even possible to be whining about this?? If Sweden wants to win through bloc voting - which is strange, since they appear to loathe bloc voting so much when it helps other nations to win - then they should just throw in the towel right now, because the simple fact is that no Nordic country has enough neighbors to make that possible.

The answer's obvious. Send some better songs!! Hero is a piece of shit and no one ought to be surprised that it didn't get anywhere. Fortunately, the majority of Expressen's own readers seem to agree. This really is a prime example of an 'aviskrig' ('newspaper war'). An argument that doesn't really exist other than in the articles describing it.

The Swedes need to make up their minds. Either bloc voting is bad and borders on cheating, or it's a good thing and we should all be happy it exists. It really cannot be cheating when 'they' do it, and natural and even desirable when we do it. That is just not right. (In fact it's almost as bad as when people claim we need to kick the Easterners out and return to the good old days when the contest was just for us 'real Europeans'. :-o) Let's just look reality in the face: Europe is tired of the same old ABBA ripoffs that Sweden keeps sending year after year. It worked in the past, but it doesn't work anymore. Just deal with it and get up to speed.

Because that's almost the saddest thing of all. We all know that Sweden can do so much better. The national contest in Sweden is generally on a much higher level than the Norwegian one. It was that way this year too. When that's the case, and Norway still manages to get to 5th place with Sweden far behind in the dust at 18th ... that's when it's time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Good luck next year, Sweden. I know you can do it ... if you really try. :-)

Jeg må le ... :-)

Dagbla' på nett har åpna for debatt på en artikkel om finalen. En tulling skriver om vinnerlåta under overskriften 'Motbydelig' (jeg har ikke rettet på skrivefeil):
Tidenenes mest jævlige vinnerlåt. Her var det ikke talent, her var det ikke melodi, og den fyren burde ikke vunnet en sang konkuranse, han burde ha feid salen etterpå.
Og resten av top 5 var pauseinnslaget fra pornofilm messen i Las Vegas.
Nå må vi se å dele denne konkuransen i gamle EVF land og nye. Vi kan ikke fortsette å pøse penger inn i en konkuranse hvor Balkansk og Slavisk kultur og diplomati får lov til å holde på med dette. EVF var ille nok før, så nå må vi følge Italia, Luxenburg og nå også Østerrike og komme oss ut av dette.

Haha, jeg må le!! Hvorfor i alle dager ser sånne folk på MGP?? :-D

Han har fått et kongesvar fra en eller annen:
Lag en bedre låt da. Folk har stemt, så sitt ved din mening og hold kjeft.
Konkurransen blir avgjort på en demokratisk måte.
Hvis du ikke takler at Norge kommer på 5. plass så LA VÆR Å SE PÅ MGP.
Du kan gå og feie salen selv.

Haha! :-D

(Hva er forresten et 'EVF-land'?)

The voting begins ...

[These will be my ongoing comments as the results are revealed, little by little.]

12 points to Russia from Ukraine, what a surprise ... ;-)

Looks like a showdown between Russia and Greece. Go Russia!! Come on, Europe!!

I'm surprised that Bosnia & Herzegovina are doing so badly. :-(

But Sweden is seriously bombing. Balm to my soul. >:-)

Our commentator this year is so boring. It's her first year and she's doing a lousy job IMO. She's repeating herself and is just ... dull. Apparently she's been told by NRK to be 'neutral' or something. Bad choice. Come back, Jostein Pedersen ... !!

Russia's winning, yay!!! I knew it!! Happy happy ... ! :-D

Sweden gave us their 12 points! OMG!! Nå står ikke verden til påske, as we say round these parts. ;-)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: MOSCOW 2009!!! :-D

Russia will crush Sweden like a bug and we'll meet in Moscow in 2009!! :-D

Happy happy, joy joy!! :-D

That's all, folks!!

The voting is on. :-) I've voted seven times for Russia and three times for Croatia. My duty as a citizen is done.

I wish there was an option of giving an entry a minus vote, I would have done that for Sweden and Latvia. Blech.

The voting will be really exciting tonight, because there's no clear favorite, no one who's obviously 'ahead of the field'.

My father sent me his predictions by SMS (he's watching it at home alone as my mother is still at my grandmother's house):
'Germany worst, Spain funniest, Georgia best show, Norway best song, Ukraine will win!' :-)

The intermission show is pretty good. Fun ... and very Serbian. My Serbian friend and his Norwegian wife are dancing as I type this. :-)

Serbia, Russia, Norway

Serbia:
Shades of Molitva and of Nocturne ...
This is a good song, another one that's been growing on me.
She has a wonderful voice and it's a beautiful song. But it's too much like last year's winner for my money.
They will definitely do well, but I don't think it's original enough to go all the way.

Russia:
Yees ... !!! My favorite! Go Russia!!
Dima is a little too intense, he needs to talk to somebody. ;-)
The presentation is very Soviet :-D but I like it.
A serious contender!! Go Russia! I like this song more and more every time I hear it.
Will definitely do extremely well. May well win.
Should win. ;-)

Norway:
A good song, performed well by a singer with a good voice who really knows how to use her voice as well. (There's something to be learned from that - Czech Republic, I'm looking at you ...)
This is a good song although the lyrics are a little embarrassing at times (obviously written by a fifteen year old). And the presentation is good, it's simple and tasteful.
I think we have pretty good chances this year.

Azerbaijan, Greece, Spain

Azerbaijan:
It's almost impressive - to manage to be both vulgar and unoriginal and sing badly at the same time.
I like this song less and less every time I hear it.
This is where some of those Serbian snipers would have come in handy - where are they when we need them??

Greece:
Another potential winner. Though I hope they won't win as this is far too much like My Number One.
Not very original, but incredibly catchy.
Not a very good voice, and the performance is pretty tasteless. Tacky is the word I'm looking for. Stop importing Americans to this contest right now!!
They'll do well. But, well ... I'm not impressed with the presentation.

Spain:
Excellent ... !!
This is fun. I have a Chilean and a Serbian dancing in front of me right now. :-D This is really cool - best Spanish entry for years.
I think they may do well. But it would have been good if the audience had seen it before, that would have built up the expectations and gotten people more psyched up about it.
Good luck to Spain! They deserve it this year. :-)

Georgia, Ukraine, France

Georgia:
This song is either very catchy or very repetitive.
Not one of my personal favorites, but it's probably going to do pretty well.
The presentation would have been better if it hadn't been so obvious.

Ukraine:
The song is almost the same as Sweden's, so since it has much more charm and spirit I hope it will steal all of Sweden's votes. >:-)
The presentation is almost the same as Armenia's ... for my money the Armenian song is better. But this will do very well. Another potential winner.

France:
ROTFL!!! OMG, fantastic!!!!
12 points for humor!! Brilliant!!
One of the best presentations of the night. Certainly the cleverest. :-)
France deserves to do so well this year. I so hope they will.
But they would have benefited from being heard more than once.
France should do better this year than they have for a long time.

Latvia, Sweden, Denmark

Latvia:
Boo hiss!!
This is just crap. I can understand why some intoxicated people may vote for this ;-) but it really is ... amateurish, not on the level of the rest of these entries ... or most of them, anyway. ;-)
It must be sad for their choreographer to see this.
It's mindboggling that this made it to the final.
Blech!!

Sweden:
They are trying to use that gimmick of theirs, but fortunately the camera people haven't understood what they're trying to do and ruin it for them. Tee-hee. :-)
Charlotte is awful, the performance is awful and the song is awful! They are all robots and the song is a soulless monster. ARGH!! Don't vote for this, Europe!!

Denmark:
I do like his outfit.
He has a good voice and a good stage presence.
This is a pretty good entry, but I don't think it's got what it takes.
Good luck, Denmark, but I don't see this very high on the list.

Iceland, Turkey, Portugal

Iceland:
This is a sort of good party tune, a good beat and catchy as far as it goes. But it sounds kind of old, like something from the late 90s. Not very original. Very standard. And same with the presentation.
And what's with that hair, and the costumes ... I know this is the ESC, but aren't there some limits to how gay these things can be?! ;-)
They shouldn't get very far with this. It's just totally standard and so ten years ago.

Turkey:
This is good!! One of the best entries from Turkey ever, IMO. The presentation is good, not that creative perhaps but it suits the song very well. I like this a lot - I don't think it has any chances of winning, but the Turks can certainly hold their heads up this year. A good entry.

Portugal:
This song gets better and better every time I hear it. First time around I thought it was pretty boring, but it has soo grown on me. This is the fourth time I'm hearing it today and I think it's a beautiful ballad. And she's fantastic!! What a voice and what a performance. Good luck, Portugal!!! They deserve to do soo well this year and I think they will too. :-)

Finland, Croatia, Poland

Finland:
I like this song ... and serious kudos for singing in Finnish. Finnish is a good language for this type of music. ;-)
I was really surprised when this song made it through from the final, but it is really pretty good.
Their performance is better tonight than it was on Tuesday.

Croatia:
Awww ... !!
This song is just so lovely. Absolutely beautiful. I love it. :-)
That old guy is really just too adorable. The dancer is beautiful and dances very well (I love it that she's barefoot!).
I love this song, I think it's actually my favorite. I'll have to vote for this as well as for Russia. ;-)
12 points for charm ... !!

Poland:
OMG, look at her teeth ... !! I think I need sunglasses. :-o
V. unbecoming dress. Her hips are just too wide for that type of dress.
It's an OK ballad, but IMO it's pretty boring. I don't see the charm in this. Especially coming right after Croatia, I really don't see it.

Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Israel

Armenia:
Excellent!!
This is a potential winner, definitely. Yerevan 2009?? :-)
Very well presented. Although she did sound a little out of breath towards the end there. :-)
Nice dress and she certainly knows how to shake her ... fringe.
V. good all round.

Bosnia & Herzegovina:
One of my favorites.
Original and creative, and great presentation.
I hope they do very well, they deserve to. I have high hopes for them this year.

Israel:
His voice keeps getting better every time I hear it. And the presentation is striking.
But I think the song is boring. I suppose they may do well, but I hope it won't. It's too standard ... there are a number of more original and entertaining songs in the lineup this year.

Romania, United Kingdom, Albania, Germany

Romania:
A song that gets better every time I hear it. Though it would have been better with just him, she kind of ruins the song a little bit for me.
She's changed her dress, a silver dress, what a surprise!! :-D
A good song. They'll do well.

United Kingdom:
A perfectly alright song, and the singer's really good. Good stage presence, good voice, puts a lot of effort into it, and I love the light effects. :-) But they'll do badly - because this song is 20 years old. Stock/Aitken/Waterman could have produced this in 1988. This poor guy is totally wasted on this song. A shame, actually.

Albania:
A good song! She's sweet and she has a really good voice, and the song is a beautiful ballad. It won't take much to make this Albania's best result ever, they've never placed higher than 16th. They deserve to do well with this IMO. A lovely entry.

Germany:
Blech.
These women look like drag queens at a distance.
Awful costumes. Awful presentation.
The song itself isn't that bad, the entry could have been much better. But hopefully they will do badly with this.

The show is on ... !!! :-D

It's started ... !!

Amazing opening act!! A rocked up disco version of Molitva, totally gay :-D ... awesome!! Fantastic, I'm loving it.

An excellent opening to what I'm sure will be a fantastic show. :-)

Seven hours and counting ... !!

Not long now ... !! :-D

I'll venture a few guesses, I've had some more time to think it over now. :-) Let's see.

If Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Armenia or Norway win, I will not be surprised.

If Sweden wins, I will not be surprised, but I will be sad. :-(

If Croatia or Bosnia (or Portugal ... ?? :-o) wins, I will be a little surprised, but happy. :-)

If any other country than these wins, I will be surprised. In some cases very surprised.

If Latvia wins (yeah, right) I will be FURIOUS.

These IMO deserve to do well, apart from the above:
Albania
Romania
Turkey
France
Serbia

These IMO do not deserve to do well, apart from the above:
Germany
United Kingdom
Poland
Iceland
Denmark

If I were to get everything my own way :-) I would want Russia as the winner, Latvia at rock bottom with zero points, Sweden not much above them (but they will do well though, sob) and excellent results for Bosnia, Croatia and France. Other than that, let the points fall where they will. :-)

The latter three I think deserve a lot of recognition for making such a great effort this year. France has really made a serious effort, their song is very good and it's so great to see such an unusual entry. I wish them the best of luck with their entry. Bosnia & Herzegovina deserve serious points for originality and creativity. And Croatia deserve points for the same things, and also for just having hands down the most charming entry of all this year. Maybe they should just win the whole thing?? :-) I would be thrilled for them if that happened. They have never won before, and they have never deserved it more than now. :-)

The night before ...

... the big day ... :-)

I am so excited, this is like Christmas to me. :-) Almost better than Christmas. ESC final night is definitely one of the highlights of the year for me. If only I had a life, maybe I would have more important things to think about ... but there you go. In Norwegian, we have a saying: you don't get any more fun than you make yourself ...

I'll be watching the show at a couple of friends' house with, let's see, we'll be six or seven people. Oh, it'll be so much fun, I can't wait. :-) Who will walk away with the honor & glory?? My guess is it'll come down to a fight between East and West - either Russia or Ukraine on the one hand, or Norway or Sweden, on the other. I'm rooting for Russia, but I'll be happy with any of these four except Sweden. That song ... 'nuff said. Anything but that. Vote for Russia ... !!!!

(The dark horse this year is Bosnia. The best of luck to them. I'd be thrilled to see them win, too.)

I was talking to my friend Anea earlier today, about the contest (she's a big fan too) and about the debate on the BookCrossing forum that she checked out a couple days ago. She has a theory about why the debate got so heated at first, when I slammed the Irish entry - why certain members reacted as they did and why I don't understand their reaction. I think she's right. The point she made was that those people who got so upset with me don't care about the contest. They only care about the song, because it's a matter of national pride for them. Whereas I, on the other hand, care rather passionately about the contest ;-) but I don't care much about the songs, as such. My 'opponents' or whatever want the Irish song to win, for the sole reason that it is the Irish song and they are Irish. (Substitute whatever nationality comes to mind here.) I however don't want the Norwegian song to win just because it's the Norwegian song. I want a country to win that really deserves it, by having an excellent entry. Let's suspend disbelief to the extreme for a moment and say Norway had won last year - OMG, I would have been so ashamed!! :-o But for some people, the quality of the entry is irrelevant, as long as 'their' song does well that's all that matters.

I guess that's just an attitude that I don't understand. Maybe I'm just not nationalistic enough. ;-) For my money, all of Europe are my friends on Eurovision night, and may the best song win!!!

The results are in!!

Ukraine. Of course. As if there was ever any doubt. ;-)

Croatia. Yes!!!

Albania. Oh, that's so nice for them. I thought they might. :-)

Iceland. What?!? WTF??
I so did not expect that.

Georgia. But that was less unexpected. ;-)

Denmark. WTF again?? Surprised, again.

Sweden. Nooo ... !!! :-(

Latvia. WHAT?????
Europe, you disappoint me ... !!! >:-(

Turkey. Yeah, I thought so. :-)

Portugal. Not entirely surprising.

Malta, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia, Portugal

Malta:
Finally a nice outfit again ... or pretty nice, anyway. Didn't notice the boots at first.
A really good voice and a professional, confident singer ... pretty good presentation ... and a catchy, upbeat song.
But. It gets really annoying really quickly.
I can feel my blood pressure rising as I watch this ...

Cyprus:
And we're back to the hideous gowns ...
Ouch, she changed, and now it's almost even worse! :-o
This song is catchy and sort of has many elements that one ought to like, but I don't like it anyway. It seems very calculated to me. Kind of heartless, like the Swedish song.
I don't think this will get to the final.

FYR Macedonia:
This song is just really boring IMO, there's nothing to it that makes it stand out in any way. And nothing much that's special about the presentation either.
I don't have much to say about this. It's just completely standard issue all the way.
I hope it doesn't get through, it doesn't deserve it.

Portugal:
A better presentation that in their national final. Rather striking.
Maybe overly theatrical for my taste. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
She has a very good voice and this is a beautiful ballad. And the similarities to last year's winner have been toned down a lot. So now I'm starting to think they may not be so off the mark with this. :-)
No chance of winning, I don't think, but may get to the final, I won't be surprised if they do.

Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Hungary

Bulgaria:
This is seriously cool. I love that they've gone out on a limb with a new genre like this. And the song is really good.
I like this a lot and I think they have a chance of doing really well this year. I hope and believe we'll see this on Saturday.
Regardless of the results, this song will be playing constantly all over Sunny Beach all summer ... ;-)

Denmark:
Hm, they've changed the opening ... so that it doesn't sound so much like that other song. Imagine that.
Meh, again. It's catchy and all that, but it doesn't do much for me personally. And I'm not convinced that it will for many others, either.
The presentation seems rather oldfashioned to me. Not sure this will appeal to a lot of people.

Georgia:
When the singer is blind, you'd think someone would offer to help her pick out a dress ...
A good voice, and her heart is certainly in it.
The song is not at all bad - if only I couldn't understand the lyrics, it would be so much better.
Not digging this presentation though ... starting to get a bit too obvious for my taste.
Maybe, maybe not. I think it can go either way for this song.

Hungary:
A wonderful voice.
Less wonderful outfit ...
And I wish I couldn't understand the lyrics! It's a lovely melody. The more I hear it, the better I like it. If Poland could get through, this certainly should make it too.
OK presentation, except her dress or whatever that thing is that she's wearing.

Ukraine, Lithuania, Albania, Switzerland

Ukraine:
This is a shoe-in. Dodgy lyrics and not the best diction, but hey, English is difficult. :-) Seriously cool presentation. This song doesn't start off too well but it gets better very quickly. Me like ... and the rest of Europe will no doubt like it too.

Lithuania:
BURN ... !!!!!!!!
This is the one song in this year's contest that I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone at all can see anything in. Or hear. All the other shitty entries, Ireland, Latvia, even Estonia, and, yes, Sweden, I can see how people may like something about them. They don't do anything for me, but I have no problem accepting that others may. But this? Seriously: This guy's mother must be ashamed to see this. This is so far beyond bad that I have no words to describe it.

Albania:
A lovely ballad, with some elements of rock. Their best ever, definitely. She has a wonderful voice. This is a good entry, well presented. This definitely has a chance for a slot in the finals. I think it's a song that may appeal to a lot of different demographics (argh, that word) in the audience.
Good luck, Albania! They deserve to do well this year.

Switzerland:
Even better than I remembered!! A great presentation! :-) Wow! :-)
They should definitely be in the final. Good song, good singer, good presentation, what more can we ask for. And certainly he got them going in the Arena.
I'm optimistic about Switzerland. :-)

Iceland, Sweden, Turkey

Iceland:
Meh.
The song is OK as far as it goes, but it's just so absolutely nothing special. Can't imagine we'll be seeing this on Saturday. It's a good party song, but it's oldfashioned. It's a kind of song that just isn't sent to the ESC anymore, normally. Maybe ten years ago this would have done well, but that was then and this is now.

Sweden:
Fortunately they've been given the worst possible slot ...

Out of the light, like a star, like a hero
Love will survive
Taking the fight is the life of a hero
Staying alive

WHAT does any of this mean???? It means NOTHING!!! It's like this is being sung by a person who doesn't know the language she's singing in. It is so utterly devoid of any semblance of meaning. The last phrase in this chorus is 'staying alive' ONLY because 'alive' rhymes with 'survive'. That is the ONLY reason. I am offended by these lyrics. Humans have brains and cognitive capacities, why deny this??
She looks SO AWFUL ... !
Yep, they're doing the b/w thing. But it doesn't work as well here as it did in the national final. It isn't that clear here that that's what they're doing.
She really is made entirely out of plastic. Everything she does is just rehearsed, mechanical. This is so awful. How can this possibly be a favorite?!?
Charlotte Perrelli's own personal hero is her mom. Oh, gag me with a spoon.

Turkey:
Serious kudos for singing in Turkish!!
Yeah, this is good!! Turkish rock! They definitely need to be there on Saturday. I think I would vote for them if I could.
I think this song is cool, it really does rock :-) and they are professionals on stage. Much better than the weirdness Turkey normally sends. V. good!!