Be Excellent To Each Other

Anyone did see the 1st eurovision semi final yesterday. I only got to see the last 3 and the small segment of every other contestant. I got to the following conclusion:

- Finland wasn't really Finland this year, and therefore should have been eliminated
- Malta had the most annoying song i've ever heard, and the singer's english accent is nothing short of amazing
- Bulgaria song was very silly, and i'm sad they didn't pass
- Belarus had an almost power metal song with a very gay looking singer. Unfortunately, they were also eliminated.
- Portugal has kept the tradition of taking fat singers, but i like the song. And we're through

I'm pushing things with the wife by watching the final, so I won't be seeing any of the semis.

I didn't, but I'm heterosexual.

Ah, Eurovision parties are great fun. Get a bunch of pals together, tank yourself up on booze, and laugh at Johnathan T Foreigner.

I never watch the semis - I like to be horrified on the night itself.

I'm looking forward to this on Saturday. Mrs C, her parents and I will be making our usual scorecards.

Go go Lloyd-Webber!

However - Mr Sad Face that Wogan isn't doing it. Fingers crossed that Norton brings the funny.

From PB:

Wait a dang second... there's semi-finals now? What?

[quote="chinnyhill10"

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pah, its russia. What did you expect?

Hey, the time-machine called. They need you in 95'.

Oh man that'd be so cool. I'd have just met Helen again and we'd be fucking like rabbits.

I can't see me watching this, as I can't see Norton being anywhere near as funny as Wogan.

Unless the GF and kids want to watch it, and then I may be forced

Malc

Er, indeed.....

Pretty dull lot this year, personally I'm torn between France, Russia and Estonia as my faves (and therefore none of them will win). Greece without doubt was the worst, while Spain have been machiavellian in their choice by having choosing a 'chalga-esque' choon.

I voted for Germany and Ukraine.

I have been very, very surprised by how much I've actually been enjoying Graham's commentary, despite him being wrong a bit too often. I feared the worst, but I think he's done a very good job.

He's been very good, if a bit snippy about the Germans.

How are Norway winning?

We gave 12 points to Turkey...I'm emmigrating.

ZOMG, Norway is winning. "This never happens". They are going menkle.

I hope this contest is going to put pay to all the 'East votes for east' nonsense. Can someone give the BBC a history lesson? There are Balkan states (who hate each other), Baltic States (who quite like each other and the Scandavian countries), Central European Countries and Caspian Countries, they are not a Bloc anymore.

Well I was proved wrong twice.

1) Graham was at least 100x better than I expected, he's welcome back anytime.

2) Lloyd-Webber was basically right, at least half our problems were the approach and not anything political.

It won't because it was still true in most cases, Bosnia got 12 from everyone you'd expect for example. A lot better sure but "Vote for our neighbour" was by no means gone.

So? That's always been an issue, Ireland gave us a bunch of points.

What was truely sad was the Maltese, UK and Iceland entries. There is nothing wrong with a power ballad, but the song has to do something, rather than 'getting a bit louder towards the end'. It just goes to prove that Weber is a hack.

I've always thought it was natural that neighbouring countries would vote for each others songs. The are likely to have heard of the artists, and be used to that type of music...

Now, I'm amazed that no-one else has really tried to emulate Lordi. They were something completely different, they were controversial, they were obviously musicians, and they put on a performance. They then won with a record number of points, by being memorable.

Best Eurovision entry ever, in the best contest ever.

I was completely face-palming at the German entry. An Epic Fail attempt at the erotic.

I kind of have respect for Portugal and Croatia for entering with something more "ethnic", and not generic pop music. Perhaps their national broadcasters deliberately wanted to lose to avoid the cost of hosting the event next year, but either way, fair play to them.

Bollocks it never happens:

I didn't hear it but I doubt it to be true. For a start you are forgetting the year Mr Dave and Mr Chris entered the contest. A sure fire top ten placing until Mr Dave entered the stage about a minute in:

I think Ukraine were best. Finland also very good. Germany possibly third but I did rather like Armenia and Moldova. Didn't turkey enter that same song in 2003?

The Estonian lady was very pretty.

I didn't watch the BBC broadcast as it wouldn't stream on my pc. So I watched the eurovision.tv stream instead.

Also I dare say that next year is going to produce a string of cute boys singing about fairytales then.

i was very surprised at Norway winning. I liked the song, and it really deserved it, but i was more expecting people to vote for shit like Greece and Turkey. And Norway isn't really a country of emigrants (apart from the Scandinavian block votes), so it shows it was deserved.

I liked the Portuguese song, it was just a regular band that went into contest and happened to win the nationals. It was something much more unique and true than everything else. Also liked Moldova song, it was very catchy.

Malta and Sweden were atrocious. Really, the Swedish song scared me.

Yes, and in '04, '05, '06, '07 and '08, oh, and before that in '02, '01, '00, '99, '98 ...

When it came on I started to mock it but I ended up really liking it. It was just a happy song, and the performers were clearly enjoying themselves.

I liked the pretty girl with the long black hair, straight fringe and violin, also the twins with the medusa-type plaits in the hair and costume (sorry, I am useless at remembering which country fielded which entry), but still, we voted for Germany, because that was daft, and the guy was wearing silver trousers.

Turkey, though, was the same old boring Turkish entry - how did we vote them top? Also, did our entrant get a boff in the face for getting to close to the violinist on the right hand side?

You didn't hear it?

Watched this round at my brother's place with six of us laughing and rating each song. Was fun.

Oddly, in previous years of doing this, nothing scoring abovr 5/10 by our panel of judges has ever won.

Imagine our surprise when our favourite was Norway (9/10) and our second favourite was Iceland (also 9/10). They came first and second! Well done Europe, you actually voted for the right people this year!



In order, our favourite ones were:

Norway
Iceland
Moldova (primarily for the comedy dancing)
Portugal
Ukraine

Five countries tied for dead last with a pitiful 2/10 (how Bosnia&H weren't one of them I will never know):

Croatia
Armenia
Russia
Malta
Germany (they lost massive marks for hiring Dita von Teese and then not having her on camera for the first 9/10ths of the song... and also for being terrible at singing)

Pundy's plan for Eurovision domination:

Write a rock song.
Get Fozzy to perform it.
Spend a ton on pyro.

There are three keys to this strategy:

Getting rockers in - one of the major reasons Lordi won, was that their entry was publicised in all the rock and metal rags, all over Europe... thus rockers and metallers watched, and then voted for Lordi.

Getting wrestling fans in - The frontman for Fozzy is the Ayatollah of Rock'n'Rollah himself, Chris Jericho. Anyone who has an interest in wrestling will be watching, and will vote.

Putting on a spectacular performance - pyro everywhere.

And then you can have a big Battle Royale instead of voting.

Germany's entry was frickin' brilliant Eurovision music. The Dita von Teese thing was silly, though. But the tune was aces.

I am fully full-on baffled how Turkey got so many points, seeing as they just reused the same song from the last 53 Eurovisions. Is it just the belly dancing that gets the votes?

The German tune could have been good, but the guy singing it had a voice that totally didn't suit the music.

Surprisingly, I did not have nightmares last night involving green-clad gimps and 17 year-old girls. That one was just freaky (even by Eurovision's standards)

The midgets were good dancers though.

See also: migrant populations. Ever since the phone-vote came in, we seem to give big points to Turkey and Poland f'rinstance. I'm convinced that that's the reason why all the Republic Of You And Me And I'm Not All That Sure About You nations always end up voting for each other, not any sort of Sinister Conspiracy (honestly, if you're going to the trouble of putting together a Sinister Conspiracy, haven't you got anything better to do with it than win fricking Eurovision?).

Also: Norway was rubbish, I don't care what anybody says. Portugal or the Ukraine should have won it.

Also also: Armenia had midget Jokers doing headspins. We had Andrew Lloyd-Bloody-Webber playing the piano. We're RUBBISH at Eurovision.