It was a mare chance that I watched the final of the contest, simpley because there was nothing on offer in other channels. I never watched it before,but enjoyed Terry Wogan's comments from BBC Prime.
Now, I have to agree with him in that alot of songs were very much mixture of East (Turkey, India, etc) + River dancing + Japanese inspired drumming performance. Boring pop songs were refreshing out of all the ethnic extravaganza.
Few were very funny and unexpected. Moldova ( I don't know where it is) was very funny and refreshing. I was impressed by Norwegian entry, watered down Queen + Kiss glam rock, mainly it is so unlikely from Norway. I don't know what I expected; maybe country singing that is strangely popular in Norway? The song was good, and the singer has a voice. Sweden was very good, better than most of singers in singing and performance, but a song admiring US city life may not impress European viewers nowadays. Danish entry was cute, but my husband strongly disliked silly boy-band dance steps.
What I was surprised to find out is that the contest is judged by viewers from all European country, and how each neighbors stick to each other, how strangely political it was. Norway got highest points from fellow Nordic countries; Iceland, Finland, and Denmark. Sweden and Norway are emotional rivals, which rather give Denmark 12 points than to each other.
Of course, so many tiny countries in Eastern Europe makes it difficult for three largest nations in Europe to win any friendly voting. UK, France and Germany are bitter enemies that did not want to help each other neither. Not that thier entry were any good, though. German singer was off key most of the time and painful to listen.
My husband was hoping Sweden would get better rate, and I liked Norwegian one, but the boring and simple Greece entry won the contest. I think 2 nd runner up Malta was much better.
