Will It's My Time, surely now up on iTunes, chart today? If not, it was not a real hit. After all the enormous exposure, if it has any commercial appeal it should be No1.

And will Fairytale chart? If not, the Norwegian winner was simply the best in the contest and not a genuinely popular hit.

My POP-I chart - Popularity Index - intends to reveal the most popular tracks of each week. For example, Susan Boyle and I Dreamed A Dream would have been No1 a few weeks ago. But popularity, these days, does not always mean sales.

For example, people may genuinely want to hear Fairytale a few times over the next few days but might not want to buy it. No problem. Why must popularity equal a desire to purchase? In these days (sadly, some may say) something can fascinate and bring pleasure without bringing financial profit.

That is the reality of online and downloading and we have to accept it, frightening to huge corporations though it may be.

My personal feeling is that neither Jade nor Alexander's tracks are real hits. Nor, for that matter, is Susan Boyle's track. They are interesting for the moment but none of them measure up to my harsh hit sensor.

I thought the Serbian entry was the rightful Eurovision winner two years ago, but not a hit. Ditto Dima last year - though I DID think his No2 entry WAS a real hit (potentially) when it was beaten by Lordi (not a real sound hit but a terrific visual hit).

I was certain Just A Little Bit was a real hit for Gina G and so it proved. More of a hit, in fact, than Love Shine A Light, though that won by being visually stronger though musically weaker.

Since I left Eurovision the contest has reverted to more TV/visual and less music/sound quality.

And popping up on BBC News - our ex Tip Sheet employee Paul Kramer in a silly hat delighted that he (and several million others) tipped Norway to win.

I'm always delighted to see ex employees succeed.
Mind you, originality and invention are never their strong points.

Paul (Kramer) calls his Tip Sheet lookalike the Hit Sheet and Paul (Scaife) who ran the Tip Sheet and the Record of the Year for a time calls his site Record of the Day.

If imitation is the highest form of flattery...

although it is a song contest, it is a televised song contest and the better you present your song the more votes it will get, hopefully
hence the show / visual side has increased
take the eastern countries,
some of them really do put on a show
the armenian song was never going to win but the presentation was very good
ukraine was too much but what an effort,
azerbaijan was excellent,
whilst jade sang well who chose her dress?
very dull especially when you consider that she can wear very colourful outfits
iceland, she sang very well and looked fantastic, a blonde wearing a blue dress. it is not difficult

Appearances have never been that important to me as a music fan. Quite often I close my eyes to listen, even if it's on TV. The sound is what matters. I know I'm probably different to many others who put image first.

Likewise, I remember when I bought a Boney M album someone said "You do realise it's not really them doing the singing?" I didn't care. I wasn't buying the group I was buying the sound.

I hope that's not too off topic with the main thread.

Just to remind you - though we finally won in 1997, this was, I felt, the ultimate Eurovision entry...

Plus the good sense to have, probably the best backing singer in the country... Good old Miriam.

Having done a trip around the charts of Europe and found a few choice cuts i can report the following, Sakis is number one in Greece. Fairytale is top ten in Norway and Sweden but nowhere in Denmark and Finland. In Finland, Waldos People rule the roost with their hats on backwards retro dance.Fairytale has yet to chart in Russia. Whos Miriam b the way?

It's nice to see you so enthusiastic about it, JK, but I hated it then and it still does nothing for me now.

Sorry. Just a matter of personal taste.

giles2008 wrote:
Whos Miriam b the way?

Margolyes........ No Miriam Stockley.

giles2008 wrote:
Having done a trip around the charts of Europe and found a few choice cuts i can report the following, Sakis is number one in Greece. Fairytale is top ten in Norway and Sweden but nowhere in Denmark and Finland. In Finland, Waldos People rule the roost with their hats on backwards retro dance.Fairytale has yet to chart in Russia. Whos Miriam b the way?

Giles it will be interesting to see European chart placings in a week or two from now.

When the chart placings you quoted were recorded most people across the continent will have only just heard the songs on the night, so it's a bit early if you ask me.

Alexander Rybak is already number 3 on iTunes UK (not sure what that means) and it is being played on Radio 2. He also has cuteness by the bucketload, and will do well if he gets tv coverage.

Iceland's Yohanna was at number 39 on iTunes last time I looked. Not as confident of her potential as of Norway's, as she may not get much airplay.

It's early to say, but I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time in ages that Eurovision has remotely bothered the charts (maybe I'm wrong?)

Another point- Patricia Kaas' song "Et s'il fallait le faire" won't figure on any charts as it was already a hit a few months back in a number of countries ( a bit like Russia's Dima Bilan last year who had already had a hit with his song before the festival).

just my thoughts

david

Winning the Eurovision has never been particularly connected with hit music. Love is Blue and Volare (nel blu di pinto di blu) are still remembered as classics after decades, but failed to win their respective contests. Persuade 1% of the population to buy your song, and you have a hit, but the criteria for persuading a cross section of Europeans to regard a song they have probably never heard before as better than the other 23 is a different matter. Just once in a while, a song may tick both boxes.

JK, sorry I didnt get the chance to send a post at the end of the contest. It was nearly 2:30 Russian time, and I needed to get that coach to the after-party! I found it all a bit anti-climatic with the hot favourite winning by such a huge margin, and that feeling was replicated by most, I think. I would stick to something I posted early on in Moscow, that the Norwegian song was not particularly good, but it had a hard to quantify quality that cons people into thinking it has class. There were several better examples of song writing in this contest. It may chart briefly with Eurovision fans buying it up, then it will disappear and be forgotten about.

Anthony wrote:


JK, sorry I didnt get the chance to send a post at the end of the contest. It was nearly 2:30 Russian time, and I needed to get that coach to the after-party! I found it all a bit anti-climatic with the hot favourite winning by such a huge margin, and that feeling was replicated by most, I think. I would stick to something I posted early on in Moscow, that the Norwegian song was not particularly good, but it had a hard to quantify quality that cons people into thinking it has class. There were several better examples of song writing in this contest. It may chart briefly with Eurovision fans buying it up, then it will disappear and be forgotten about.

You don't need to apologise Anthony. You did a fantastic blog for us.

I remain unaffected by the Norwegian song still and can't see past the novelty of someone miming the playing a violin and singing a song that sounds like a rejected track from "Fiddler on the roof".... but then I have been out of touch for a very long time.

I think it's a very ordinary song but he is very cute and it worked in a simple, charming way, like the lovely Ah-ha singer Morten after a youth transplant.

Strangely enough the seventy second most popular download on itunes last year was Dont Stop Believing by Journey. This song is currently on the chart at 97 down from 81 last week. it must have been hanging around for a while with steady sales. If "Fairytale is at 2 and Johanna at 39 then both may make the top 40 due to the large sales. My own favourite was the Andorran entry even if it was a Lene Marlin rip off.

I too really enjoyed your posts from the contest, anthony.

david wrote:
I too really enjoyed your posts from the contest, anthony.
+1