EUROVISION 2012

oh i've missed the russian grannies, such a shame.

I thought the parping brass tune was being made by her for a minute.

Hammer pants.

"I forget my lyrics"
oh I wish you would...

edward norton here.

trumpet strumpet?

"This rabbit makes you my girl"

Colin Farrell

I will never not love Moldova. Probably the single most reliable Eurovision nation of recent years.

Moldova's dancers do a homage to the TISWAS 'dying fly' dance.

xp They try hard, but there's always a faint ridiculousness about them.

which one of these is the dictator's daughter again

Moldova had great staging but only middling song at best.

I like Iceland much more in the recap.

No interval act? It's just all the postcards edited together. What a swiz.

Just in during the break. Ought to be Sweden, Cyprus, Ireland or France. Or Norway.

I sincerily hope the Albanian lady screaming horribly onstage early in the show got some medical help afterwards. She sounded like she was in serious pain.

interval act is after the voting right?

I never flagged Geir for a Jedward fan.

They're very melodic. They sing in several keys at the same time.

Albania was insane-alien enough for me to actually give it a vote. Five others as well: GBR, FRA, ITA, SWE, FYROM.

They're very melodic. They sing in several keys at the same time.

That's what I thought of the Greek act.

12 points to Greece!

Norway, UK, Ireland and Ukraine all on 0.

Romania too.

Norway and Denmark still haven't scored anything!

teh curse of goth retaliation works pretty well it seems! 12p for Albania from both SAN MARINO and SWITZERLAND

Not far off being uncatchable, I think.

Anyone understanding the Albania vote? Seriously?

At least it was distinctive. The Azeri song was completely anonymous.

I love this "Swedish" woman.

"Hi there in Azebrgj, Azrarbajj, BAKU!" Good sjow, brit-swe lady! :-D

Actually, Swedish people sound British when they're drunk.

Yeah, but not like Adele, surely?

i'm told it was a "bit"

God I love Finland :-D

Germany are a bit cruel putting somebody on her period counting their votes.

Anke's the only person to allude to democracy so far.

Israeli announcer sounds like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

Poor Tooji.

ESC trivia: has ANY songwriter ever been both the winner and last-placed in the same year? I don't have the answer, but wd to Peter Boström!

Still cannot figure how Tooji even made it to the final when doing this badly in the final. Something about the starting position maybe? It was considerably more favourable in the semi final.

Tooji was in a very poor semifinal; thus, he proceeded. For NOR as for GBR, I suspect it was top-15/20 but not top-10 for many countries. Fair enough. Best song won.

No doubt about the best song winning. And obviously also one with huge hit potential, which is important for Eurovision. The Eastern European winners of the past years haven't even registered on the hitlists in Western Europe.

Tooji might have been poor in the dress rehearsal when the jury makes its vote, i suppose.

It'll be interesting to see the public / jury split on some of these.

Sweden was a deserved winner - most of the last decade's competitions have had deserved winners. It's 2-26 that's usually mystifying.

Geir, you seriously need to stop saying "hitlists".

"Hitlists", in English, means, unless I am much mistaken, "people you want to kill". It does not, unless I am much mistaken, mean "songs that are hits". Just thought you might like to know. The word is "charts".

(det heter "hitlister" på norsk nemlig, så det er en fair feil å gjøre, men etter så mange år? brrrr...)

It'll be interesting to see the public / jury split on some of these.

Pretty certain the jury is to blame for the horrible Albanian entry performing so well....

Oh come on, Albania was somewhat DISTINCT at least! :-D

i liked ukraine, romania, moldova..... is the whole thing a stitch-up or what?? i.e. sweden can afford to host it yadayada - forgive me if this has already been answered

This year's UKR was teeth-on-edge HORRIBLE to me, but that is of course just a matter of taste. ROU and MLD I cannot honestly say I remember, so they were probably OKish.