Blue tried their best...
But we wuz robbed again! Once more, the voting system of the Eurovision Song Contest was exposed as a succession of countries voting for their neighbours rather than for the genuinely decent songs.
Our "house scores" ended up with a top five of UK, Sweden, Ireland, Spain and Serbia. But what actually won? The anti-gay country of Azerbaijan. The song was crap, but got 12 votes from guess where? Russia and Turkey, and ten points from Croatia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. Bloc voting? Never!
Admittedly, our beloved Blue boys did very well in comparison to previous years, coming in eleventh with 100 points. At an early stage we were top of the list, which prompted BBC host Graham Norton to ask someone to take a picture! Others in our top five didn't do too badly either - the lovely Eric Saade came in third for Sweden, and the hyperactive twins Jedward came eighth for Ireland.
Our party was a blast, no matter what the scores! Among our guests were "plucky Leif Ericsson", several Gypsies, "La Saraghina", "Josephine Baker", an East German General and "Lozana the lusty Andalusian Woman"... The kitchen table was heaving with the food of all nations (we still have enough various cheeses to stock a shop!), and the booze flowed healthily enough to keep us going long after the disappointing vote 'till the wee small hours.
Once again, a brilliant evening - and despite everything I have no doubt we will be doing it all again this time next year!
Here are some highlights from the Gay World Cup, starting with our "Top Five".
UK:
Sweden:
Ireland:
Spain:
Serbia:
Now the actual winner, Azerbaijan:
And a couple of fave moments:
Funniest moment? When the pretty lead singer of the Denmark entry mouthed "I love you. I want to fuck you." at the camera.
Best surprise? Seeing Raffaella Carra presenting the scores from the Italian jury.
Roll on Eurovision 2012!
Eurovision Song Contest on the BBC
You will let me know if any of your friends but their dressing up box items on ebay won't you? I especially like the turquiose turban. HTxx
ReplyDeleteAh, "something borrowed, something blue" - the turban is in fact the treasured possession of the other half (aka Madame Arcati), who eschewed it for the evening in favour of the mantilla and fan... I'll let you know if it heads eBay-wards, but somehow I doubt it! Jx
ReplyDeleteWell, if memory serves then the UK gave 12 points to Ireland, Iceland gave 12 points to Denmark etc... Some things never change.
ReplyDeleteThe winning entry did score points from all over Europe, so I guess it was a pretty clear winner (and at least a better one then bloody Italy!). I really liked Sweden, as you know, and Spain was a delightful surprise on stage! Another fun surprise was of course Raffaella Carra, and Danny giving the votes for Sweden.
I think Blue did pretty well, especially after the performance which wasnt as good as it should hav been (I blame the "strangled cat singer").
Overall, a fun evening and am I already looking forward to next year! And BTW: I LOVE the Liza-like shirt you were wearing!
I try to be a bit tongue-in-cheek when I rant on about "bloc voting", as I am aware that Scandinavia traditionally clubs together, as do Greece and Cyprus, UK and Ireland, etc etc. I just don't think Azerbaijan was good enough, really...
ReplyDeleteI was a little pissed off at the way the sound worked against Blue - Lee Ryan's mic was far too high, and Simon Webbe's cut out halfway through! Mind you, several acts sounded pretty distorted - as also happened in the semis, I believe - so probably heads will roll in the technical department...
Jx
PS My "Liza blouse" had its second outing on Saturday, and shed sequins everywhere. I may need to "put it out to grass" if it looks too tatty!
Did Isreal make it through the Semi Finals …??? I liked Dana International and Ding Dong x
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ReplyDeleteDana was left way off:
ReplyDeletehttp://barbarellasgalaxy.blogspot.com/2011/05/
results_16.html
I agree on the winning entry - it was not nearly good enough to win (but still better then, say, Italy!)
I think many of the entries were better than Italy's - we collectively cringed every time her screeched that "note". However, as everyone has subsequently commented, it was a "welcome back" vote, nothing to do with the song... Jx
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