Well, my prediction from earlier today went so-so. I wasn't completely lost in the woods, but just like with Alexander Rybak in 2009 I managed not to predict the obvious winner.
Basically because I really hoped for something else.
Don't get me wrong, I am really happy for the Danes and the Danish song is not a bad one, but I was hoping for a surprise. And something more modern, something more daring. The Danish entry was safe all the way and I somehow don't feel that's the winner we would need at this point.
One positive thing is that Only Teardrops might have a hit potential that runner-up Azerbaijan would have lacked. Another good thing is that a huge record market like Germany recognised the quality in a song like Hungary's. Also more demanding songs like Italy and the Netherlands made top ten.
Maybe next year, the more difficult songs will get to set the tone and we will have a winner more along the lines of that.
SVT made a fantastic job and delivered a glimmering show, at least up until the voting. There were too many small annoying technical mistakes during the voting procedure and how experienced producers could allocate so little time for the points, allowing the show to overrun like that, is a mystery.
Petra Mede, however, sailed like a queen through it all. Beautiful, funny, reliable. This will be a hard show for Denmark to follow.
More thoughts tomorrow after a good night's sleep. What do the rest of you think?
Results:
1) Denmark 281 points, 2) Azerbaijan 234, 3) Ukraine 214, 4) Norway 191, 5) Russia 174, 6) Greece 152, 7) Italy 126, 8) Malta 120, 9) Netherlands 114, 10) Hungary 84, 11) Moldova 71, 12) Belgium 71, 13) Romania 65, 14) Sweden 62, 15) Georgia 50, 16) Belarus 48, 17) Iceland 47, 18) Armenia 41, 19) United Kingdom 23, 20) Estonia 19, 21) Germany 18, 22) Lithuania 17, 23) France 14, 24) Finland 13, 25) Spain 8, 26) Ireland 5.
I must confess myself bewildered by all the Hungary love, which I found as harmonically lifeless as Lithuania's (neither of which I can listen to all the way through without flinching).
ReplyDeleteI can't agree more with you about Netherlands, though. That was a real delight, and I was astounded it made it so high. But I think Anouk is an established name, which is usually worth a point or three?
Anouk is an established name, yes. But Bonnie Tyler and Cascada even more so and it didn't help much.
DeleteMy main question would be, how did Azerbaijan get second? Russia, Norway, Ukraine and many others were far better.
ReplyDeleteDenmark were good for their win. Norway would have been a good winner too, but with better staging, Ukraine could have won it. A shame for Zlata - it was a very good performance, and much better than in the semi finals.
As for the UK, they really need to look at their approach to Eurovision. It's woeful.
This is my prediction list written two days ago :)
ReplyDelete1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Ukraine
4. Italy
5. Moldova
6. France
7. Georgia
8. Azerbaijan
9. Greece
10. Netherlands
I was hoping for a better place for Moldova and France. Surprising place for Russia with those lyrics and very surprising for Azerbaijan - who would have thought?
Nevertheless, congratulations for Denmark!
Hogla
SVT did a fabulous contest, I guess the only contest that I will watch on dvd without skipping the interval act. Well done Petra Mede, well done Lynda Woodruff and well done Sarah Dawn Finer and everyone else involved. Also the stage with lights (by Mikki Kunttu again) set the screen on multicolor fire I enjoyed immensely.
ReplyDeleteI have only two words of criticism towards the show: too long.
And it is not only because of the miscalculations by the producer and director. I think that 26 songs is simply too much for this kind of show. Especially when there are telephone voters, the large number of songs not only makes the contest too long, it makes the draw very unjust for those singing in the first quarter or third of the lineup.
So my suggestion is, limit the number of finalists to 20-22 only. 7-8 songs from each semifinal to the final, and that should do it. The show would be tighter, more balanced and even better entertainment. Of course there would be more moan from the countries that don't reach the final, but they should give better suggestion then. How else could we make the singing order of the songs matter less, give everyone the equal chance and make the show last maximum three hours? THis years 3 1/2 hours was monstreous.
Three names stand out in this years contest. Petra Mede the presenter, Petra Mede the commentator of the Eurovision history and Petra Mede the entertainer during the interval act. She must be the best presenter ever, and it will take loooong before anyone comes even close!
I would also agree that the final was too long and I think 26 songs is too much, particularly when it comes to the voting, which is too spread out. However it is unlikely the final would fall to 20 countries as the EBU would never have gotten that approved by individual countries.
DeleteThey should also have limited the amount of time that can be spent on the interval act especially when part of it happens during the voting. It hardly takes all that long to collate all of the votes?
We got many mails from our ESC fans from 40 countries.
ReplyDeleteThey are very sad about these very strange votings.
According to many Betty MacDonald fan club ESC fans from 40 countries Germany, Cascada and Glorious got the most votes
in front of Norway.
We can't understand Azerbaijan's second place and this very strange song of Greece is on Nr. 6.
As we know now there had been faults in ESC voting in Azerbaijan.
Maybe there are more faults..
We got many mails from ESC fans in UK, Spain, France, Germany and other countries as well that they are going to write to their TV senders not to take part on ESC any longer.
If this happens - what I don't hope - this could mean the end of ESC.
The entries who hadn't been in half finals, Sweden, France, Spain, United Kingdom and Germany got a very bad ranking.
That's a bit strange only Italy is in TOP 10.