Good start; I've always liked Dima Bilan and felt he should have won in 2006 instead of Lordi; but is it just me or do all "big" shows look exactly the same on TV? Surely time some bright TV exec (contradiction?) realised that a spectacular event looks boring on TV.

I always like the Croatian entry; there's something very original and interesting musically about that country.
I must go there.

Really like the Portugese one.

I seem to remember the BBC were planning to cancel Eurovision before you took over in the 90s or is that my imagination JK?

True Toby; Alan Yentob hates Eurovision and (like a predecessor with Miss World) wanted to scrap it; I revived interest and ratings by getting hits as the UK entries with Love City Groove (No7 in the UK charts) and Gina G (No1) and then winning with Katrina.

Ever since then Eurovision has topped the ratings.

I listened to the songs online earlier today. I might tune in at the end to see who wins, but it clashes with MoTD, and I'm hooked on the freak show that is BGT. If Wogan was doing his usual muttering on Eurovision it might have made a difference.

Like Ronan's Denmark entry too; could do well.

Agreed that Norway was very good. Clone-in-Keating?

I must say Norway has all the ingredients to win; it will be astonishing if it doesn't.

I can't listen to Jade now with her "Sh..." speech defect but she did a good turn and my fingers are crossed.

Ah, nostalgia, all those years it was MY time at Eurovision - and we conquered 12 years ago.

Angel wrote:
Agreed that Norway was very good. Clone-in-Keating?

Correction Denmark.

I suspected that from the pun, Angel!

I think, after seeing all the entries, Norway will probably win and my bet on Jade will go into Mr William Hill's pocket.

My top 3 are:

Romania
Iceland
Sweden

Extraordinary and rather impressive interval act; I thought it was actually rather a good show all round.

Here come the votes (and this thread has had 645 views - the BGT thread has only 42... wonder if that reflects our Eurovision connection or will the ratings be equally interesting?).

Well, as the votes come in it looks like Norway is a runaway winner and totally wrecks all that "political voting" rubbish.

As ought to happen, the best performance wins. End of Diaspora, end of "we only lose because they hate us", end of "everyone votes for their neighbours"...

And don't say "it was because of the change in voting"... Norway was the favourite, put on the standout show and probably wins.

So there we go; no surprise; Norway, always the favourite, best performance on the night.

Just as I thought Lordi was a deserving winner though I preferred Russia who came second; Serbia won and was far and away the best; Russia deserved to win last year.

Perhaps now a half decent UK entry (thanks to the BBC involving someone who knows a bit about music)... has made the top 5, the BBC might emulate my era and win (as we did in 1997) or come second (as we did in 1998) or top global charts (as Gina G, our 1996 entry, did, selling millions, even in America)...

And perhaps people will stop moaning about "political voting".

So onto next year - when again we shall be in Oslo... last time there I was so disappointed, having come up with, I thought, the ultimate Eurovision winner, Oooh Aaah Just A Little Bit.

Perhaps I'll be asked to find an entry for Malta or Croatia or Ireland or somewhere that wants to win in 2010.

Thought the inteval show was a stunning piece of performance art. Couldnt see it happening over here though. The health and safety mafia would have a fit over water filled lightrigs hovering inches above the heads of the audience. I noticed Ireland gave Iceland the 12 points. You can bet thats going to be heard in many an Irish singers set list over the next few months. Norway may have won the competition but the Iceland entry has lasting appeal and i can see it being huge. Be interesting to see the charts next week.

JK2006 wrote:


Perhaps I'll be asked to find an entry for Malta or Croatia or Ireland or somewhere that wants to win in 2010.

I'd love to see that happen JK. Any chance of you clearing your name by then ?

What was interesting for me was how close Azerbaijan pushed Norway in the semi under televotes but with the combined juries in the final it was left a mile behind.

Well done ALW for securing a 5th place and a 12 pointer from Greece (sadly our only douze points) but it was eclipsed by that gorgeous Icelandic song and Jade, unlike Man United, won't have "Giggs" in November.

Someone somewhere will have to explain to me how that diabolical Russian crap finished 11th Oh hold on, lemme check....... Israel, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Czech Republic and Armenia gave them 78 of their 91 points.Those countries sound familiar for some reason...

You know me by now JK. I have to moan about something

As for clearing my name Mike, I seriously doubt that will ever happen and even if it did, legally, I'm sure it would never happen in "the court of public opinion".

And you know what? I wouldn't want it to. My "name" is far more interesting and much more honest now. I would like more people to know and believe that I've never deliberately taken advantage of anyone, old or young, either sexually or morally, but I'm quite happy for the truth, that I've always been a privately open bisexual attracted to beautiful teenagers who wanted to experiment with me, to be understood.

Can I ever run a national contest to find a Eurovision winner again?

Why not? I can't see my youthful personal life affecting the ambitions of most countries. The UK might be a different proposition however, since we are now governed by tabloid headlines.

By the way; is anyone else irritated by the "more votes than ever before" line? Of course there were more votes than ever before - there are more countries than ever before.
I'll bet Katrina got more Douze Points in ratio to the quantity of countries voting than Norway did this year.

I saw Lithuania perorm, and was disappointed after the quality of his studio version. His live act didn't have the impact and I knew he wouldn't win. The I had to go do something else, so didn't see any more of the show. Norway had been one of my top five choices, although I would have voted for Germany, as I said before, if I hadn't completely forgotten about Eurovision, even though I knew it was unlikely they would win.

I'm sort of glad the UK made the top five, although I still think the song was rather lifeless.