Yes, yet again we had a marvellous "gathering of the clans" for our Eurovision Song Contest party on Saturday. We cheered, we booed, we gave points, we drank, and the buffet I prepared (with additions from guests, all of whom were allocated to bring food from one country, booze from another, and a country to support) was polished-off nicely over seven hours...
...and yet again, the UK was dealt a crushing blow as our valiant entry Look Mum No Computer [see here for his song Eins, Zwei, Drei] received the grand total of one solitary point [from the Ukraine jury], coming last! Even if his song divided opinion [even among our little gang - some of us (myself included) loved it, others loathed it], it didn't deserve to receive no points at all from audience votes.
Sigh.
Our gang, as always, pulled out all the stops with their costumes...
l-r from top row: Madam Arcati: France, me: host/UK, Lou: Lithuania, John-John: Greece, Houseboy Alex: Germany, Baby Steve: Italy, Joe: Belgium, Russ: Malta, Crog: Australia, Hils: Finland]
John-John, Eurovision fanboy as he is, prepared our scorecards and a spreadsheet(!) for capturing them once marked. That's always a fun part of the party - being bitchy about naff acts - and it's also interesting to compare our consensus with the final scores at the "real" contest.
But, before the voting stage, there was a rather faboo interval, that featured previous contestants, some of them winners of the contest, covering some of the most notable winners over the years. Fancy hearing the eternally youthful Alexander Rybak sing Sir Cliff's Congratulations? Verka Serduchka doing Puppet On A String? Goth-metallists Lordi performing Save All Your Kisses For Me? Ruslana belting Euphoria? Or the assembled talents of the aforementioned, together with more recent entrants like Erika Vikman, Kristian Kostov and Miriana Conte on Waterloo? Now's your chance:
Once the dust had settled after that, and John-John and I had filled all the points in on the spreadsheet, the Top Five scores from the Dolores Delargo Towers Jury were:
#1:
[Click here for the official video]#2:
[Click here for the official video]#3: Bulgaria [more on that in a mo]
#4:
[Click here for the official video]#5:
[Click here for the official video]The final, final official results of the combined Eurovision juries and audience scores were a bit different:
Bulgaria has not won the Eurovision Song Contest since making its debut in 2005 - but this was indeed a fabulous performance of a rather good choon, and a well-deserved winner, for a change!
[Click here for the official video]It was an utterly faboo evening, disappointments or otherwise!
Same time, same place, next year?
YOU BET!!
Eurovision round-up from the BBC
‘I haven’t had a loo break since 2009!’ The truth about Eurovision – as told by its biggest icons [The Guardian]
That first photo is so full of joy , I adore it
ReplyDeleteIt's rather fab, isn't it? I was pleased (even if my wrinkly visage is front-and-centre). Jx
DeleteI seldom like any of the tunes (?) from Eurovision, but it's always fun to see you and your crew throw heart and soul into the night. I do like it when people dress as requested.
ReplyDeleteThere weren't that many standout songs this year, to be honest. A lot of really piss-poor efforts, which is why it was confusing that the UK's - bizarre though it was, at least it was memorable - scored so dismally. Jx
DeleteI liked Finland myself, at last from the clips, followed by Bulgaria.
ReplyDeleteI must say also, I've never seen so many up your back passage.
I've had more up my back passage! Our Sal and "Jurassic Paul" gave apologies this year.
DeleteFinland was the bookies' favourite for ages - yet it only got 6th place in the votes in the end. I don't recall any pundits predicting that Bulgaria would win, but that's the nature of any phone-in-voting contest, I suppose. Jx
Agreed - fab photos!! And I love the gold sparkly curtain!
ReplyDeleteMaybe next year we'll do better.
Sx
That sparkly curtain's just a flimsy plastic one, but it's served us well for a few years now! Maybe next year, we'll find another Sam Ryder... Jx
DeleteYou have such a great gang.
ReplyDelete"Our little group has always been
DeleteAnd always will until the end"
Jx
Europe doesn’t like us very much.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell we are used to it and had a fab time anyway!
We should be used to it, but it still seems so unfair. Jx
DeleteI won't say what I thought of this years UK's entry.
ReplyDeleteI can guess from your folded arms you didn't like it. Jx
DeleteThe Celebration at 70 was almost as fabulous as you and your gang!
ReplyDeleteOur one point is just bizarre. I never expect the UK to do very well - even when we have a great song - but Look Mum No Computer's effort deserved way more.
Wasn't that interval bit fab? [And unfortunately, that's just the edited version. On the night, Verka Serduchka led the band and the co-performers all the way out along that catwalk, and got the whole of the massive audience involved in a sing-along of Volare - which not a lot of people realise was indeed a Eurovision Song Contest entry, as Nel blu, dipinto di blu, back in 1958!]
DeleteI agree, Look Mum No Computer deserved better. Jx