EUROVISION 2012

Sweden's Loreen seems to have the momentum this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nJcmLMb5to

But what else is really good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6S-FNLv2jQ

And some song about social networks...

I'm sceptical as to whether Loreen's going to do that well. My (actual) money is on Norway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOdRFtwTzb8

Norwegian media is scared of another win, cut back so much on NRK's sports budget the last time around. I think Sweden will actually do it this time, though.

Hour and a half to the first semifinal...

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/baku-2012

Welcome to the madness, non-Euro ILXors...

Here we go:

http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv/

Off to a good start with Rambo Amadeus.

Montenegro blowing my mind here.

This is great. Zero chance of making it through.

Love this. The horse some sort of allusion to Greece?

Truck driver's key change in Iceland's song, drink a shot...

Rambo Amadeus better make it.

Surely if anyone has a heart they won't make Greece win? Not a bloody chance of them affording to host it.

Missed Iceland. Greece too cheery by half.

xp Could be why they've rolled out a boilerplate Europop entry? Competent but no-one's really going to remember it.

so poor she couldn't buy trousers or even a skirt

Even if Greece do win, the UK can host it because next year we'll have all this Olympics stuff lying around unused.

xxxxp You could say that of several countries tbh. And Jedward have a better chance than this.

was that a shot of Roger Federer in the tourism Baku sports city

lol Johnny Logan shoutout

I WAS BORN IN DISTANT 1980

Disappointing from the nation that gave us Wolves of the Sea.

still dreaming about Mick Jagger

omg when is it actually on and can I watch it online?!

I can't seem to get subtitles on. TELETEXT USED TO NOT ONLY PROVIDE SUBTITLES BUT TRANSLATE ALL THE SONGS INTO ENGLISH. This digital age is rubbish.

Argh

xxp
http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv
it's on now

ENBB it's on now! I posted links upthread!

Albania! I guess.

Tender ballad! Maybe.

The wailing bit it the word "cry" in Albania, according to the subtitles.

little bit of Bjork Yoga

kinda off key though... not so kinda

I kinda like this, actually. Impressive whale noises.

Only thing tender is the audience's eardrums after her vocal heroics.

lol, subs just read 'cos this is what I do best now' during the high pitched wailing

Why can't I get subtitles? Grargh smash

Subs are kind of laggy and rub tbh. And I'm watching via the TV card on my PC, so I can't really help anyone else.

JEDWARD SPOTTED

KEEL THEM!!!

Not the best Costi song of the year, by a long shot, but i like it.

Moonwalking bagpipes! Yay Romania.

Romania the best so far IMO.

i think her earphones were off (not that it really mattered)

Okay finally some pyro.

BRITPOP

xp Azerbijian's natural gas reserves being put to good use.

Switzerland is the usual Eurorock with a touch of Muse.

Swiss = "We love the Killers"

FOWOWING YUH WOWDEST DREAM YUH WOWDEST DREAM

I'M BREAKING BALLS

I'M BREAKING BALLS

crying

very serious looking chick on bass

Okay no

Belgium you are boring, silence.

i kinda liked it, but i am 10 km away from Belgium so i dunno

Finnish entry in Swedish, why not

Lordi this is not.

Pleasant though.

Another competent but boring song. Maybe Jedward will win this, just by being one of the few exciting entries.

Israel ring has earring in wrong ear to win

Israel you are...strange.

brings older sister to give him a good luck kiss

This man is terrifying.

"You're the man in my playground"

this is amazing.

how creepy is it that michael jordan is still wearing that LONE, GOLD HOOP EARRING?

He looks like Dexter Fletcher's creepy uncle.

I like the Israel song! It's like a cheesy '60s proto-indiepop thing.

Mel C

Israel has a certain...something, can we all agree? Hypnotic awfulness perhaps?

"JAM SESSION"

Warnings already sounding about San Marino here.

"Are you ready for a little text?"

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

tumblr gif fave, i can see it now

probably San Marino's best entry ever (not that it's saying much)

Electronic acts are often accused of looking like they're checking their e-mail when they play live, but this could be the first time that could be said of a Eurovision act...

This is... really bad.

I guess it's kind of 'Flying the Flag' levels of shit concept, shit execution...

"GOOGLING"

Wow, you can do so many interesting things with the internets! Thank you San Marino for letting me know.

Is it the first time someone's used the word 'cyber' unironically since 1995?

"feel the entry between you and me"!?

first time "chemistry", second time "energy" would have been so much better...

I've already forgotten everything about the Cyprus entry.

wtf @ that BBC gypsy commentary?

i am not hiring a proper drummer for this c'mon

Hahah that drummer.

HYPERcellist

Clearly the budget didn't stretch to a costume for the cello player.

By the way, did anyone notice that they mentioned that you could only have six people on stage at Eurovision? That must be a new thing, right?

serious INSTANT STAR vibes from that one imo

Anyway, bozhe moi

xxp Definitely a new thing. Even last year there were acts with way more than six people on stage.

nothing scarier than a Russian granny in her natural habitat

I do love the Russian grannies, but wish this BBC twat wasn't hyping them so much. Kind of makes me want to hate them just because I hate him.

is that a coffin

Bozhe moi indeed.

Can't hate on babushki though.

xp It's an oven.

:) (and it actually works!)

..

i quite spectacularly like it

This song will be played on a loop in Hell.

How could anyone not like the Russian grannies ... OMG they're baking cookies!!

"Our six sing-ing golden girls from Russsia!"

GREEN ROOM IDIOCY!

Oh god, a San Marino interview

Via Singles Jukebox on Hungary: "this is what it would be like if Pendulum did a ballad"

This is horrible.

Hungary must be stopped.

Trackshittaz up next!

Trackshittaz - Austria's answer to LMFAO.

who here doubts the power of TRACKSHITTIN

Moldova, pah, unless you let Sasha Bognibov do your entry then you're nothing to me, NOTHING!

Saving the best until last, Jedward.

Jedward approaches...

BBC commentator just said that if Jedward didn't win, they'd keep coming back until they did! Now that's a threat!

Jedward get a silver shower...

Albania! Yes!!

Rambo Amadeus woz robbed.

uh, Jedward through...

I'm up for Albania and Russia, they're good entries.

Jedward in again. Cartwheel mania!

I am kind of praying that Trackshittaz will disappear quietly from Austro tv and radio within a month or so. State broadcast monopolies kinda suck especially hard at Eurovision times.

OKAY WHY IS IT THAT I AM JUST NOW LEARNING ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF TRACKSHITTAZ

Hahaha

Anyway, video clips galore:

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/multimedia/videos

Can't believe Trackshittaz was robbed.

Tonight I'm cheering for Slovakia, Turkey, Georgia and...hmm. This really is a poor semi, isn't it?

cheering for belarus, esp if they all wear the motion capture suits again

There's something very 'early 90's Euroballad' about this Serbian song.

There was an amusing rumour today that Belarus have been paying people in poorer smaller countries to vote for them.

This Macedonian song is very ex-Yugoslav.

Ummmm. What is with the headress?

The Netherlands' answer to Kate Nash.

off to the casino in my local navajo resort (err whatever it's called)

Clean sweep on the fiddlers so far.

lmao that goober with the fiddle

Malta is our first taste of bosh tonight iirc.

hell yeah Malta bitches eurohouse

This is stupid but awesome at the same time. Could do well.

otm

the foot dance alone is killing me

This is the best song so far

yeah Malta was in need of some better performers, but the song and stage antics were pretty much winning

at the falsetto ending I was daydreaming of the Maltese guy screaming 'This is for you Robin'

maybe in some parallel universe

ok where's that crazy microphone stand thread

"We are the weiners"

Belarus use the mic stands that Muse rejected for looking too wacky.

Time for more bosh. Sad how Ukraine have lapsed from their glory days.

ponders Whitney Houston joke

oof

can we just get the "I AM SECURITY" guy to sing something in this slot instead

As much as i love Gaitana, i'm really not feeling this.

Beat my guest?

Praying for FEMEN protest to interrupt this now.

Trumpets!

What is it with the preponderance of Eurodance in this semi?

God, this is wall-to-wall shite today.

All part of the international conspiracy to screw Trackshittaz out of a placement. Thank you, international conspiracy.

I hope Trackshittaz come back next year. Like Jedward.

Maybe they could collaborate on an album.

Slovenia draft in Ulrika Johnson to sing the high bits...

God we're in a poor stretch here.

bosh bosh and Euroballads = ZZZZZZZ
At least the 1st semi-final had the entertainment value of frequent wacky Eurovision incompetance and non-sequiteurs.

bring back the bosh tbh right now

speaking of which, Sweden's up next

Some of these countries really love their 80's power ballads.

Half of tonight so far has sounded like a piss-poor Ministry of Sound compilation.

Celine Dion on beats

Did she just ninja kill that dancer dude?

Erotic disco monks. Now we're ok.

Back on course.

I'M A POKER
IN THE LOCKER

I'm a joker I'm a rocker I'm a fucker

i'm a hairdresser more likely

Are we sure this isn't Sasha Baron-Cohen's new character?

this rules

My ship is made from rope jism for a bay?

hop onto my ship baby, I'll make you fly

lol boat-head-man

A flying ship made from men wearing sheets.

This does not rule.

WRONG

ALL -- BY-- MY-- SE-ELF, Don't wanna be...

He was on Estonian Pop Idol. Nice to know that other countries don't give a shit about sending some unknown Johnny as their entry.

That was actually quite lovely.

Come on Slovakia!

Oh, I thought this could be good but the singer is too Bon Jovi. False metal!

It's Def Leppard!

IT'S THE FI-NAL COUNT-DOWN!!!

Please be in tune, i have money on you.

sharivari otm

The best entry tonight so far.

BUT THIS RUSSIAN IS MAKING ME STRONGER

is he talking about putin?

Pitch went all to hell in the last minute.

actually I like Sweden better (btw they share 1 x songwriter)

She's about the right age to be the lovechild of Joni Mitchell and Ming the Merciless.

"Euphoria" is both anthemic + catchy enough to be a bona fide worldwide (well pan-European at least) hit even outside ESC season I think

That piano had better transform into a fire breathing robot or I'll fall asleep.

Don't want the expense of hosting the contest next year? Simply get someone from a TV talent contest to sing your entry!
A tactic more and more countries are using.

I'm not sure all ESC-heads regularly check the Bobby Bare thread, so I'll post this fun fact here as well. Just think what might have been, with Engelbert only the second-oldest old-skool star in this year's final...

Bare was a participant in this year's Norwegian selection final for the Eurovision Song Contest, partnering up with some other dude. They finished third.

http://g.api.no/obscura/pub/298x1000r/04173/1329041281000_tooji20120212_4173568298x1000r.jpg

(Bare second from left.)

Lithania's answer to Josh Dubovie.

Here we voted for Malta, Turkey, Slovakia, Georgia and Indian Joan.

But I'll be happy if we avoid a Balkan power ballad sweep.

I think they'd be happy to avoid that too.

Balkan power ballad gold.

"I left a bowl of shit for you"?!

stoked turkey made it through

Bummed Turkey made it through. Like a bad comedian attempting to act like Marc Almond c. 1989.

Can't believe people voted for Estonia AND Lithuania - how much tedium can one final take?

Had to miss today's coverage but sounds...off.

You'll see bad comedian attempting to act like Marc Almond c. 1989 on Saturday, though. :p And a Sweden WIN one supposes. (I had high hopes for the song sung in UDMURT, but it is useless alas.)

Felt like Loreen's show didn't really come together tonight? I equivocate back and forth as to whether the song has general appeal outside of boshland.

That said, I have a 100% record at failing to predict Eurovision winners.

^^^ I'm sure I'll be sitting here on Saturday night saying "wha? people like this?!"

I think it's a pretty decent Eurobosh single but i'm not sure there's enough there to win over the older audience.

I guess it's between Sweden, Russia and Italy. Beyond that: ??? I don't think we'll see a runaway winner.

Russia is going to run away with this.

Kinda happy Italy has gone with the times and entered what is apparently a contender (only heard abt 20 seconds myself), rather than griping about it not being like The Old Days and withdrawing in a huff

If the juries vote for Russia they're a lock. But I dunno if they will.

(i'll grant the first 15 seconds of Russia are good, but then it is direct unto oompah crapper, I feel)

Oompah hasn't done well for DECADES; but still some countries insist on sending it. Netherlands this year. Idgi.

Final draw is up:

01 United Kingdom English Engelbert Humperdinck "Love Will Set You Free" —
02 Hungary English Compact Disco "Sound of Our Hearts" —
03 Albania Albanian[39] Rona Nishliu "Suus"3 Personal[40] 4
04 Lithuania English Donny Montell "Love is Blind"
05 Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnian MayaSar "Korake ti znam" I know your steps
06 Russia Udmurt, English Buranovskiye Babushki "Party for Everybody" —
07 Iceland English Gréta Salóme & Jónsi "Never Forget" —
08 Cyprus English Ivi Adamou "La La Love" —
09 France French, English Anggun "Echo (You and I)" —
10 Italy English, Italian Nina Zilli "L'amore è femmina (Out of Love)" Love Is Female (Out of love)
11 Estonia Estonian Ott Lepland "Kuula" Listen
12 Norway English Tooji "Stay" —
13 Azerbaijan (host) English Sabina Babayeva "When the Music Dies" —
14 Romania Spanish, English Mandinga "Zaleilah" —
15 Denmark English6 Soluna Samay "Should've Known Better" —
16 Greece English Eleftheria Eleftheriou "Aphrodisiac" —
17 Sweden English Loreen "Euphoria" —
18 Turkey English Can Bonomo "Love Me Back" —
19 Spain Spanish Pastora Soler "Quédate conmigo" Stay with me
20 Germany English Roman Lob "Standing Still" —
21 Malta English Kurt Calleja "This Is the Night" —
22 Macedonia Macedonian Kaliopi "Crno i belo" (Црно и бело) Black and white
23 Ireland English Jedward "Waterline" —
24 Serbia Serbian Željko Joksimović "Nije ljubav stvar" (Није љубав ствар) Love is not an object
25 Ukraine English Gaitana "Be My Guest" —
26 Moldova English8 Pasha Parfeny "Lăutar"

My predix for top 5: Serbia, Italy, Norway, Ukraine, Sweden.

Skeptical of Sweden if only because my Facebook feed is full of people going "LOREEN TO WIN" and "WORK LOREEN!" and these people otherwise only post about RuPaul's Drag University, so they are not really representative of Eurovision voters as a whole.

Yah but I, for one, give no thoughts ever about RuPaul, and I think SWE is the proper Pop Hit of the bunch. It has, in a small way, the thing ABBA were good at -- in the chorus after the hook (eu-pho-ree-ah!), they provide ANOTHER hook (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-O!-oh). (ABBA would of course give a THIRD chorus hook after that just to rub it in.)

Your belief in it is giving me pause, actually. Most of the people I'm mentioning wouldn't know anything that's not charting in the UK or Sweden and haven't got any idea of what might work Europe-wide. I still think it'll be top 5 but perhaps not a winner.

I won't even speculate on the influence of SNOWFLAKE COUGH SHOCK.

Well I tend to have this kind of belief in a song, but I'm not sure I am right more than about one time in five... :)

(ie I remember being this way about Lena's "Satellite", and have conveniently forgotten my enthusiasms that *didn't* win)

Sure-to-be-wrong prediction:

1. Sweden
2. Italy
3. Russia

I'm going to go with Norway, Sweden, Serbia, Denmark, Romania.

Having some people round so not gonna be able to liveblog with y'all on this thread tonight. I've decided I'm supporting Albania, though, in goth retaliation for the overbearing sunshine and heat of today.

Been watching the Song for Eurotrash episode from around '98(?), it's pretty good: Edwyn Collins doing 'Ding a Dong', Kenickie doing 'Save All Your Kisses For Me', Shane MacGowan doing 'What's Another Year', Saint Etienne doing 'La La La'.

IT BEGINS

Graham Norton, Azerbaijani government spokesman "There have been stories about riots. I've seen no trouble."

I still don't like the UK song, but Eng's vocals are better live than on the recorded version.

The Hump has a certain... presence, it must be said. Song also Not Bad At All.

Also the botox has worn off and he doesn't look like embalmed like he does in the video.

This is probably the best of the ballads, tbh.

There are a lot of ballads this year, hopefully Eng's performance has shown people 'how it's done', so to speak, and we'll get some votes out of it.

liking hungary a lot more this go-round - getting kind of a nu-george michael vibe (enough with the wobble bass already tho)

Hungary: much effort into what sounds like a bare skeleton of approximately nothing

HORSEMEN LAND

The person doing the subtitles tonight is a faster typist than whoever was doing it during the semis.

TAILPIPE MAN LAND

xxp

HORSEMEN LAND

That long plait of hair going across her chest looks like a turd.

markedly less terrible than the semifinal at least

Albania is like alien music on Star Trek...not a gd look.

emil.y does a mean goth retaliation, it must be said -- this is wtf in all the most fabulous ways

CITY OF DRIVE

It'd be funny if everyone left the building before he took off the blindfold.

Hahahaha!

The 'rrrruuuhhhh' bits make him sound like the singer from Bros.

would have been better if he'd done those acrobatics with the fold on

*does somersault and nuts self unconcious on the floor*

The Boz/Herz entry is like a subdued Celine Dion B-side. Really forgettable.

For a second I thought 'what are those huge lumps on the Russian grannies' faces?', but then I realised that they were microphones.

UDMURT

I have a feeling they'll be advertising car insurance for whoever Russia's equivelent of Shelia's Wheels is.

Just turned on and those grannies are bluddy awful.

Iceland = time for a piss break

Umpty-tum nonsense. But would have been top 3 10 years ago.

OOH KEY CHANGE

if you liked that key change, you're gonna love moldova

I wait with bated breath.

This Cyprus thing sounds like a David Guetta b-side.

I must disagree with Aldo. Rabid grannies for the win!

But info quite like Cyprus ( actually I seriously do warn Enge to win, I just don't think it will happen)

France = shit.

It's a bit 'mid 90's French Eurovision entry'. They've never really moved beyond that.

Oh I dunno. It's OK. I'm quite perversely thinking of It Bites.

it's kinda like the climax of a jodorowsky film

France = ok indeed.

xp lol It Bites!

LAND OF CARPETS

Italian woman has annoyed me enormously in the build up, but the song has a chance.

Cut price Winelodge.

"you're an independant Roman after all"

Yeah, I think your right
Xpost

"Come on audience, sing along to these lyrics that are very likely to be in a language that you don't speak!"

"I bought a gunshot"?

Barry Manilow!

He needs some headphones to hold to his ears as he emotes.

Norway - if Skrillex was Turkish

PUSH ME
AND THEN JUST TOUCH ME
TILL I GET MY
SATISFACTION

"my heart beats faster as I'm scanning the crowd" > sniper?

"My meat is all peaking when I can tell you're around"

"skinning the crowd" > serial killer taxidermist

"I don't know what I'm doing tonight but this birdshit is making me stronger"

Enge is back! Come on Enge!

Bless, Arnold Dorsey forgot his stage name for a minute there.

"looking like a 8NP rally" lol Graham

LOL, I'm watching the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition (Violin this year, last two competitors of the finals + declaration of the winners tonight) instead - don't think I'll start a thread about it I guess :-)

Azerbaijan's song is a bit Sam Brown's 'Stop'.

I was just thinking the same.

Clearly they have good dentists in Baku.

Aye, me three. Sam Brown xpost

pogo! pogo!

"When you make me pee"

i like the moonwalking bagpipe player

liking the unplayed instrument with THREE brass bells sticking out of big brass bell. That can't be real, surely?

It's the pro musician's trick of storing multiple vuvuzelas in a Wangerian Tuba.

Denmark - rhyming 'stranger' with 'stranger', good job.

Denmark- she is both the Captain and Tenille (thanks for that one, Molly)

Greece definitely dont want to win this year.

I think that Greece's song is going to do well, even if they don't want it to actually win.

It's the closest we have to an obvious Shakira clone this year.

I actually thought she was miming for about the first two bars, then she hit that flat note and has been pitchy ever since. </randyjackson>

This reminds me of the Greek entry from the year their stage routine included a giant white neon stapler.

er, yes, this could really win...Germans en masse to vote for it.

"University of Surrey in London" ffs Norton, it's in Guildford.

ideas on how could they host? Def open air, for a start...taking right back to classical basics. xp

greece winning would be hilarious

if Greece wins Cyprus will host i think

Sweden sounds much better than the semi-finals.

I am loving Sweden cos I have always wanted Bats for Lashes to do a straight dance track.

A few times in the past, countries have won and then couldn't afford to host. Luxembourg won in 1973 (for the second year running?) and the 1974 contest was hosted in the UK.

I actually don't like this Swedish one.

We'll have a bunch of Olympics stuff lying around unused anyway.

I hope he saved some Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrkeeeeeeeeeeeey for us!

BOATMAN LAND

"My chef is big, uh-hunh"

This so is Sacha B-C

They fucked up the manboat.

NAKHCHIVAN!

Spain's singer looks constipated and I'm not surprised. "No pressure, but don't win, OK?"

Germany's song has 'Jamie Cullum joint' written all over it.

Agreed. Germany is diabolical.

I quite liked Spain. Germany is pretty awful though, like a cheap version of The Script. Jamie Cullum you say?

Fun fact: you can pretty much sing the chorus of last year's winner on top of this German one

xp he's co-writer

This performance would be better if he a) stopped grinning, and b) actually stands still while singing the line 'standing still'.

The Shadows are back!

THIS IS SO SHITE THIS IS SO SHITE

Those Southern Europeans must've have used all their idle time to bring it this year: Cyprus-Greece-Malta to co-host it next year.

"come on give me a hug" -wtf??

FYR Macedonia's answer to Bonnie Tyler.

Macedonia for the win.

I don't think that guy's actually playing that guitar.

Xpost

Nah, Spain's power ballad was better.

developing giant soft spot for the FYROM right now. This is NOT false metal.

JEDWARD!

Worst production of Shakespeere's 'Henry V' ever...

See, it's not as much fun now that they're borderline competent. Except for the bizarre "and the way I'm rubbing her now" line.

Love Is Not A Thing

Taking a cue from that famous song by Boston, 'More Than A Object'

"see my vest, see my vest" etc.

Actually, I like this.

omg @ ukraine

SO many songs tonight have a "na na nanana na na nanana" bit

just... no

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.

Gaitana will struggle to top the song she did about Shakhtar Donetsk winning the Ukrainian league. She's really quite fascinating - she came to prominence, as i understand it, not as a contestant on a TV singing show but on a terrifying-sounding Russian version of the Krypton Factor. She's apparently a phenomenal athlete with a spectacular IQ.

As a child, Gaitana displayed smartness, good imagination and business qualities making her pocket money by selling hamsters. I used to always have the best and the most expensive hamsters, recollects Gaitana proudly, because I painted them and combed them. They looked fat and beautiful.

<3

Albania has always had reasonable diaspora turnout, this year they obviously managed to get the juries on board as well.

Crowd favourites round our way: Malta, Sweden, Russia, Moldova, Turkey.

How did Azerbaijan do so well though? Bribery?

* I love the Albanian goth entry
* The Swedish song was unutterable shite
* We were really hoping the UK would come last just to shit up the whole incumbent-contentment thing for the Tories.
* Azerbaijan are totally corrupt nutbags
* I still wish Rambo Amadeus had made it

Oh, I forgot the most important thing... I totally shouted "too much time on ilx" when the word 'nakhchivan' came on screen. I am an idiot.

I did raise my eyebrows when they mentioned that Malta had given 12 points to Azerbaijan three years in a row. I certainly don't think they'd be above wanting to bribe juries or rig votes but i'm not sure it would be all that easy to accomplish and it would be pretty risky.

Austria came last in their semi. Fuck you Europe.

Wow, Norway really did just scrape through the semi-final - tied for tenth place with Bulgaria.

No idea Austria came last in the semi... it was a shit song though...

They should have picked bearded tranny Conchita Wurst instead of those shittrackkers - at least people would have remembered the entry..

Conchita Wurst would have been delightfully wtf. But her song did not feature the line "Your bum has an opinion".

"University of Surrey in London" ffs Norton, it's in Guildford.

― Radical Jedward (snoball), Saturday, May 26, 2012 9:18 PM (Yesterday)

lol

http://news.uk.msn.com//blog/trending-blogpost.aspx?post=94aed414-e4f5-4970-be97-ecf7f46b65b9&_nwpt=1
https://twitter.com/#!/search/%22University%20of%20Surrey%22

That "up up up" bit in the Swedish song is annoying as hell. I love Eurovison but there's too much anonymous Europop written by Swedish hacks clogging up the competition these days.

Having said that the worst songs were Germany and Denmark, which were sort of snootily anti-Europop singer songwriter bollocks that sounded like they were written on the back of a fag packet

the german song was written by jamie cullem

per comments upthread, I had to remind myself that I was watching Eurovision with friends, rather than on ILX, when this appeared:

http://i45.tinypic.com/2w4jubk.jpg

The guy reading out the votes for Finland during this contest is officially my new hero!

It was one of previous Eurovision winners Lordi, wasn't it? Ah, how I yearn for those glory days...

Yes that was Mr. Lordi, of Lordi.

from the meme resuscitation department:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pCyYyjkL9U

after a while it starts to sound like the new Daft Punk single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAXhJZ9ceUc

YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT COUNTRY IS THIS, RIGHT?

Lordi made a horror film called Dark Floors a Finnish friend described as "terrible, absolutely terrible". It's streaming on Lovefilm in the UK so i'll probably end up watching it, though.