Bring back Lordi!
It might seem like only yesterday.. but it’s now time to bid farewell to our Eurovision OverLordies and choose a new regime for the year ahead. The Guardian’s former CultureVulture, Anna Pickard may, or may not, be live-blogging the event.. but someone else definitely is.. According to the BBC report, “Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka is the bookies’ favourite”.. although their reporter likens the act to “Les Dawson trying to sing Gina G.” ANYhoo.. let’s just say I’ll not be placing any money on Dervish.. nor on Scooch for that matter. And Serbia wins.. Serbia wins..And so, to the contenders.. btw the beeb think Germany have a chance..
Not Dervish.
Not Scooch.
Verka Serdyuchka?
*shakes head*
Can we vote for Lordi again?..
And, with a reminder that Ireland [or rather RTÉ - Ed] is the most successful nation since the competition began in 1956, with seven wins.. a final word from Sir Terence..
“It’s a pity it’s not about the songs any more.”
Indeed…
Update Your winner.. apparently.. is Serbia.. this is an earlier performance.. *still shaking my head*
Sammy
which is probably why they got their only decent amount of points from Ireland…
… and Malta.
Miss Fitz
Yes, spot on.
The big issue, in fact, is the phone voting. This means it is possible to stroll up to your country’s border, access another country’s network, and vote for your own country. Hence lots of “neighbourly votes” (like, even from Croatia to its great friend, er, Serbia…), as well of course as the “diaspora votes” (Turkey in German-speaking Europe, Lithuania in Ireland, Romania in Spain etc – all 12-pointers).
The answer is simple – do away with phone voting and go back to juries.
I always said democracy was overrated…
Apologies for posting twice on different threads – but this would have won for Ireland I swear !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xveARYIk4jk
IJP, I think the presence of large ethnic populations, especially ethnic Russians in former eastern European satellites of the USSR, and migrant workers in other countries has as much to do with it.
Plus, being on Eurovision is asense of arrival on a stage for these ‘new’ countries. The western European countries are bored with it or, like the UK, just take the piss.
The Irish entry was embarrassingly awful, you would leave a pub if they came on.
By the way, since when did we drive on the right?
truth is that without the organised net campaign from metalheads voting for Lordi last year it was all too predictable…Sweden’s camp rockers The Ark (who played in Belfast in 2006 supporting The Darkness) had a new take on 70s glam rock, Hungary had a decent but dated blues track and France camped it up with retro-rock in pink…Apocolyptica deserved an entry all to themselves…circle headbanging cellists would have gained points for kitsch and drawn the metal community to text…
I’d two disappointments with this year’s Eurovision final.
One – They resurrected Linda Martin from her crypt to give the Irish results. I supposed it tied in with the Lordi theme.
The Second was that Albania gave Ireland 5 votes – A perfect ducks egg would have been more fitting.
Despite warnings from the first night it was viewed, the song had a coma inducing opening 30 seconds. And it only takes 5 to 10 seconds before someone decides to write off a song and switch to watching Tony Blair or his European equivalent.
John Waters was so in love with the drivel he wrote (not even the Czechs liked or understood it) he kept in an unintelligible, mumbled and pretentious (archipelago my arse!) opening.
Oh, and finally, picking a band with such a limited singer BEFORE picking the song was mind bafflingly stupid. I actually feel sorry for Dervish.
Give it to TV Three next year!
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2007220083,00.html
Nobody accused Lordi of not being original!
Gav
You’re quite right – we share points among those who drive on the left!
Your other point is what I meant by “diaspora”-voting.
At least the “UK” bet “Eire”. Last and second last. Neither will ever live it down. It is good to see Serbia exacting sweet revenge on us all by winning with their dirge. But the the Eurovision is revenge writ large in any event.
Having Linda Martin giving the Irish vote and Terry Wogan the BBC commentary says a lot about the entries from these Islands… middle aged and out of touch with the voters.
The Irish entry was boring and how Dervish (a good band) allowed themselves to dance around like Leprechauns god only knows. I expected at any moment Benny Hill to appear in the UK entry chasing after a Hostess !
The Finnish Eurovision production was terrific, did not take itself too seriously and was a lot of fun, the opposite of John Waters.
Serbia had my vote for a powerful,brilliantly sung song. Ukraine was great fun and a good laugh and those Russin girls have a certain hit.
What gets me is how Wogan always go on about how outrageous the block-voting amongst the Eastern Europeans is, and then says casually, with no sense of irony, “At least we [by which he means the UK, even though he's Irish] can expect to get a decent number of points off the Irish”.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00246/fans2_246834g.jpg
The real reason perchance?