Eurovision 2009

[Fate]

Mrs Marilyn Manson divorced him actually.

yes indeed. thats what you get using old repeats of sexetera for your information

[Fate]

anyone else thing swden sounded like the singer from fifth elemtn?

[Si Hunt]

IT'S A HIT!!

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

1st Iceland
2nd Malta
3rd UK
4th Azerbaijan
5th Germany
6th Greece

1st Norway
2nd Iceland
3rd Azerbaijan
4th Turkey
5th UK
6th Can't remember.

I got 3 of the top 5.

[duncan]

I got two in the top 5. UK and Iceland. I'm surprised by Malta. I thought their song was the best by a country mile. Europe was fooled by a gimmicky song performed by a bloke with an average voice and broken bow strings!

[Philipnet]

I like this thread 'cos I get to hear all about the EuroVision song contest in the space of about a minute, which is much shorter than watching the damn thing !

[Stephen Morgan]

I like this thread 'cos I get to hear all about the EuroVision song contest in the space of about a minute, which is much shorter than watching the damn thing !

You should try wine and smoked salmon, it makes the evening go in a whirl let me tell you.


Mind you, I couldn't have had too much of it, my spelling;s still ok.

edited to add, even if my punctation isn't.

[Pip Madeley]

I had a few cans of Fosters and some Brussels pate on crackers, good evening.

[Stephen Morgan]

I had a few cans of Fosters and some Brussels pate on crackers, good evening.

Sounds ok to me, though if you'd made the Fosters Stella I'd have joined you.

[Stephen Morgan]

Time for bed, and something else first, my bladder's rejecting the chardonnay.

[Larry]

only watched the scoring and just from trhat Graham Norton got on my nerves when Terry Wogan, made a comment about how some one was dressed or their hair it was always very tongue in cheek but with norton it just seemed bitchy. Also he kept going on about us finishing in the top five right up to the last song when it was already certainof a top 5 finish with 4 countries left to vote.

[duncan]

Norton spoke a lot in places where Terry would have kept quiet which got annoying and he was very rude about the size of the woman that sang for Malta. Saying that she "filled the hall" and "she's never met a Malteser she didn't like" came across as very rude and bitch something Wogan would never have done.

[Si Hunt]

I think there's a bit of rose tinted glasses going on here. Surely the whole reason people liked Wogan's commentary was because of the cheeky micktaking of the acts. I'm afraid it seems typical to me that there are cries of "Wogan never used to do that". Sorry, but that's exactly what he used to do! He once called the presenters "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy", for example, how is this any different?

At least Graham didn't get confused about who won.

Si.

[Fate]

graham norton did a fine job. he could have gone ott as in his chat shows but seemed to be just right

[Simon R]

Wogan once described one of the larger backing singers as a "fine lump of a woman".

[duncan]

I think there's a bit of rose tinted glasses going on here. Surely the whole reason people liked Wogan's commentary was because of the cheeky micktaking of the acts. I'm afraid it seems typical to me that there are cries of "Wogan never used to do that". Sorry, but that's exactly what he used to do! He once called the presenters "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy", for example, how is this any different?

At least Graham didn't get confused about who won.

Si.

As someone has already said, it was tongue in cheek with Wogan. I view what Norton said as a cheap shot. Don't get me wrong, on the whole, Norton did OK for his first one. I am not looking through rose tinted glasses at all. It's my opinion I am stating. I would have preferred that he didn't poke fun out of someones size.

[Si Hunt]

Ok well I guess you're entitled to your opinion. I still can't see how one is "a tongue in cheek comment" and the other "a cheap shot". Surely that's just two different ways of describing the same thing. Like when people use "whined" or "bleated" to mean "complained" or "objected to", or "demanded" instead of "asked". Same thing, just one makes it sound worse.

Si.

[duncan]

I can see what you mean, I really do. But there are other things he could have made a witty comment about or even kept it to the one "malteser" joke. But to come out with a second comment after she sang just wasn't funny at all in my mind.

[Fate]

it still sounds better than my moms commentary. every time we have a maltese entry or votes from malta she says 'they like us they ate rats for us in the 2nd world war'. its part song contest part history lesson

[Si Hunt]

One thing we were surprised about was the news that the Jury votes had been made before the show even started, based on the rehearsal performances. That didn't seem quite right to me - surely a bit unfair, to vote based on a performance other than the one given on the night? It can't be that hard, to collate Jury votes along with public votes, during the live show. They can collect and count millions of phoned in votes in 15 minutes, but not scores from a small table of experts in each country...

Anyway, I really enjoyed the reading of the votes this year. Because we did so well, for the first time in years (ever, for me really) there was a real feeling of tension and excitement every time we got some points. It's just a shame there was a runaway leader, as we were never really in the running for first place, but all the same it was thrilling watching us jostle for 3rd/4th/5th place.

Si.

[Fate]

but doesnt that mean that the change in voting systems means that our relative sucess this year isnt completely to do with andy webber? i mean evern france did well and their song was a bit poor

[Si Hunt]

Who can say? Even the jury voting was descretely combined with the countrys score so you couldn't tell which one we'd done better out of. It could have been the fairer voting, it could have been the different style of song. But I think you'd be silly to ignore the big touring drive that we undertook this year - Jade visited lots of the countries that voted for us in the recent weeks so a lot more people knew the song beforehand this time. Fair enough - maybe a lot of the problem previously was that we just "turned up on the night" where-as other countries treated it seriously and really tried to win.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

It was a good show, in the end. I thought Graham Norton was an acceptable replacement for Terry, his line about '30% of the world's LCD screens are here tonight' won me over.

I was very worried about the first five or six acts all dressed in black and not really dancing. What was going on? Have they not seen Eurovision? Don't they know the form?

At least the UK entry had a surprising guest appearance from Crazy Frog on the piano. Our 'dance' consisted of woman walking down steps very slowly, so it wasn't all great, but the song was a fine effort.

Everyone I've spoken to seems to agree that Moldova were robbed!

[Fate]

white and by that i am meaning dazling white seemed to be the colour of choice for costumes. mom has terry wogan on this morning who saiid the voting system was much improved though irland gave 12 pts to its nearest neighbor ... us!!!!

[Si Hunt]

We might be able to get away with saying that Ireland probably have much the same TV shows as we do, and thus would be quite familiar with the song because of all the coverage it's got.

However, overall the remnants of 'neighbourly voting' annoyed me. By the time Ireland's scores were read out we needed some points so I wasn't sorry they gave us some (although are you sure it was the full 12, Fate?) but given the choice I'd rather neighbourly voting was stamped out. When you got countries like Greece whose presenter almost merrily acknowledged that they were automatically going to give 12 points to Cyprus, I just thought "You stupid, stupid people, you're the reason this competition gets unfair. Why can't everyone just vote for their favourite song? Then it would work". Personally, there's no way I'd vote for our neighbouring countries just because they are close... why on Earth would you do that? What's the point? Vote for the song you like the most, it's quite simple! Had I voted, I'd have gone for Iceland because it was a good song!

Si.