Oh, go on, admit it – you’re secretly jealous. A tiny bit at the very least. For all the ridicule and scorn from people when I said I was going to Eurovision, a surprising number of people then admitted watching the contest, even if the excuse was “I want to see you on telly”. Well, actually, I do believe I was on TV – albeit it Spain and Germany, rather than Britain.
I actually have no idea where to start, to be honest, as there is so much I could say. I will leave general pictures observations about Oslo and Norway (of which I have plenty) for another day and simply stick with Eurovision for now.
Oslo itself was well decked out for the event. Trams, buses and billboards were full of adverts for the event, there was a Eurovision Village and also a Euro Cafe! I managed to befriend a Swedish woman who reeled off Eurovision statistics at a rate of knots that even I was struggling to keep up with. It was also bathed in glorious sunshine for most of the weekend, aside from a little thunder on Saturday morning. Transport to and from the event was fantastic. But anyway, the contest itself…
Firstly, congratulations to Lena, the German entrant, who was both my tip and personal favourite to win. I was sat directly behind a couple of Germans who were going wild as the points flew in. In fact, it was a little too extravagant at one point! At the other end of the scale, the United Kingdom finished bottom. It didn’t dampen too many British spirits on the night, although the next morning was worse, compounded by a bunch of Aussies rubbing it in…
Josh didn’t sound awful in the Telenor Arena, but he certainly didn’t sound great either. I met a British man on the way to the bus back to Oslo who said he’d received a message from someone watching in the UK saying the end of Josh’s song was “worse than Scooch”. I thought that was perhaps a little strong, but having watched the BBC’s TV coverage this evening, it really was terrible. It is easy to see why it came last. In fact, it’s rather more surprising we got ten points for it, although admittedly some did come from Ireland, who are usually quite nice to us anyway.
As you may have seen from the picture above, I managed to get a few shots of the artists as they arrived on the Sunday night. I wedged myself between Dutch, Spanish and German TV. I searched around for British TV, but they were nowhere to be seen. I stuck my head in on a bunch of German fans singing a rendition of Lena’s “Satellite” for a pre-record for German television. We were all waiting for our fellow entries, and Lena, who was definitely the fans’ favourite. Sadly she was rather late arriving, and so I missed her, but those of us who wedged ourselves between the media saw a number of people, including the a couple of the Norwegian Royal Family, the Spanish, French, British, Icelandic and Moldovan entrants, some of whom stopped for a quick chat. A couple even gave away free CDs and even a couple of books, though sadly I didn’t manage to pilfer one for myself. The TV crews were good banter too, although the Germans did ask what I thought of the British entry. Thankfully, they didn’t record the response…
The atmosphere in and around the arena was fantastic. There were plenty of fans from almost every country, including some of the losing semi-finalists, like Sweden. Oh, and like I previously mentioned, some Aussies too! I spotted Canadians and Americans dropping by as well – for whatever reason they wanted to turn up for! The warm-up started about forty-five minutes before the show went live, with a little practice for the interval dance flashmob,which everyone quite enjoyed.*
Last year’s winner, Alexander Rybak, got a fantastic cheer when he came on to perform his song, after which the show really began. I have to say, I did love the entry from Azerbaijan. It started the show off fantastically well. Spain then followed, with a mini pitch invasion. Actually, in the stadium, a lot of people didn’t notice Jimmy Jump invading the stage, and he did fit in rather well – although on TV, it was pretty obvious.
The Norwegian entry sent the crowd wild, as you would expect. In fact, they went pretty wild for Iceland and Denmark too, who both had very good entries as well. The Moldovan entry was good for dancing to, but after that, it died down a little until Ireland came on. Ireland’s entrant, Niamh Kavanagh, has actually won the contest before, and I very much enjoyed her song, but it wasn’t so popular across Europe. Greece were next up. with a catchy track, though they may not be disappointed not to have won considering the country is mortgaged to the rafters and may collapse under the cost of holding the show!
I will ignore the United Kingdom’s dismal entry, and instead mention the French track – also their official World Cup song – which set the room alight. I did love it, although it being French, I could obviously never vote for it! This was followed by a solid piano-assisted effort from Romania. The Russians then came on, and, whilst the track itself was popular, Russia itself bombed, with a sound boo resonating at every mention of the country’s name. The crowd soon forgot, as Lena appeared and the whole place went nuts. Denmark rounded off the twenty-five with a well received song, followed by a repeat of the previously-interrupted Spanish entry, which was, well, weird, wasn’t it?
As voting closed, it seemed the mood of the Norwegians nearby was with Denmark and Germany, though many like Azerbaijan’s entry too. As the votes started to come in, it l0oked like we might have a visit to Copenhagen in store for next year, but as it progressed, Germany became odds-on favourites. They were, if you ask me (and tough if you don’t), worthy winners, though Denmark would have been great winners too! I was rather surprised Norway and Ireland didn’t do better too.
So, who’s coming with me to, most likely, Berlin next year?
*Now you won’t know this, but I have studied the video of the contest carefully, and so I can tell you this is true. At the start of the flashmob dance, you will see Norwegian security pushing a guy aside from the picture. A few seconds later, the professional dancers start, and you can see a member of Norwegian security mistakenly trying to stop one of the dancers. She, in fact, is the person in charge of the dance routine. FACT. Amazing that II know that, huh?