Your Ad Here

Monday, May 16, 2011

Eurovision 2011 Wrap-Up



So I wasn't able to watch Eurovision until yesterday, and because of this had to self-impose several hours of internet exile so that I wouldn't read the results before watching.

Now that the dust has settled, here are my thoughts:

- The winner: lame. I thought it was a boring song with terrible staging. I honestly don't see how this was so loved by the voters and juries. It's perfectly fine, but hardly memorable.

- I was shocked at how well Sweden did. It was totally deserved (and probably should have won), but for some reason I had anticipated this flopping. I'm glad to see that Europe has good taste! Hopefully this will help Eric find the global success he deserves.

- I was also shocked at how well Italy did. I pegged this as last place (it ended up in second!). Personally, I hated this song and it was probably my least favorite. I can't believe people actually called in and voted.

- Jedward: they did well, but should have won. They balanced novelty and proper pop perfectly and put on one of the most memorable performances (with lots of kicking and star jumps!). Interestingly, according to Australian voters (whose votes obviously don't count in the final) the twins were the clear winners.

- Why had all the bookies predicted a France win? It didn't go over all that well and didn't finish well either. I'm confused as to why this was tipped to do conquer (other than the beautiful LED projections behind him)

- Wanted Finland to do better. So earnest. Estonia should have also done MUCH better than they did, even though the performance itself looked cheap.

- Germany did a TERRIBLE job hosting this year. What was up with that boring (and endless) interval act? And I hated that the video intros to each artist were basically tourism ads for Germany. They should have shown representations of each country, not local Germans from each country.

- Never underestimate the power of sand art.

- Norway's song was missed greatly in the final.

- What was up with all of the good songs being performed in a row early on in the competition, leaving a bunch of crap in their wake?

- I'm glad the pointy hatted Moldova brought some much needed whimsy. Yay for horn-playing unicyclists!

- I also liked Denmark's song and was happy to see it do so well.

- Still don't get UK's song.

- Kudos to my two favorite European countries (UK, Sweden) for giving Jedward 12 points. Yes!

My Top Three:

1. Ireland


2. Sweden


3. Hungary

Labels:

6 Comments:

Anonymous Ark Army said...

Hungary was the first one I gave 12pts. to on my voting sheet at home, followed by Ireland, Sweden and Estonia. Also Romania wasn't bad.

I also rooted for Iceland, just because they had such a sad story behind them and listening to them perform that song made me a little teary-eyed.

I am getting more used to the winning song though.

I think that you can love almost every song if you listen to it often enough ;-).

5:43 PM  
Anonymous Natasza said...

Winners won because they were the Turkey of this year. As you know, Turkey always scores high thanks to great number of its citizens living all around Europe.

I must admit that I found Swedish entry terribly annoying - yes, the song is catchy but obvious overblown ego of the singer + equally obvious preference for him during transmission (I swear he could have been the only contestant) only made it worse for me.

Italy went second as it came to Eurovision after several years of a break. "New"comers always score high.

Hasn't it always been like that that the host country uses short clips as commercials for themselves?

2:08 AM  
Blogger alesta said...

Habahaba! Agreed on Italy! Must be the juries. Or Berlusconi's wallet.

2:13 AM  
Anonymous gmisk said...

I defo think Hungary deserved to do better as did Estonia......that Italy song is awful...I was very pleased for Jedward they put on a terrific show. The blue song wasnt bad but the staging etc was terrible. The norway song should have made the final but the performance in the semi was very very poor so not that suprised. The france song wasnt all that great and performance was weak. Sweden or Ireland probably the most deserving winners IMO. But having said that lots of great songs didnt make it out of their countries (Le kid, Loreen, jenny berggren and lots more)

6:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm genuinely amazed by you all liking Jedward but each to their own! I regard myself as a pop music fan... and, for the first time in many years, I picked the song that won out as the best song on the night. It was pop, quite sweet and the only song I was happy to hear again.

12:10 PM  
Blogger Raul said...

I love the azerbaiyan song , it's very poppy with a great melody in the chorus , It catchied me in the first listen , sweet song , I loved too Sweden , ireland , UK and Hungary , I was surprised too for see the italy song so high.

4:08 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home