2009 Final: Reflections On A Classic Night

Wow, what an amazing Eurovision.

Yep, really. I think it's probably six years since a contest left us enthralled rather than hacked off. Some of us never thought we'd see such a day ever again and were preparing more with each passing year to write an obituary for the song contest. The catalyst of course was the decision of the organizers to introduce 50/50 voting this year where each countries vote was based half on public voting and half on a panel of music experts. The fact that in a tie, the public vote in each country would take precedence led a lot of us to assume that the end result wouldn't be that different. Weren't we so wrong!.

Saturday's voting was an utter delight. Countries voted for other countries who in many cases had never received anything from them ever. Ex-Soviet and Ex-Yugoslav countries actually cast big votes for countries outside their immediate back yard.

The downside from an entertainment point of view was that Norway's victory was pretty much assured very very early, yet that had more to do with the length of the voting process and the insistence still that everyone (finalist or not) gets to vote, and the utter superiority of "Fairytale" over everything else. Another contest with total televoting would no doubt have been closer, with the likes of Turkey, Greece, Armenia and Ukraine pushing Norway, but better a fair result than an orgy of ex-pat cheating like the last five years. It was utterly wonderful to see both Greece and Ukraine fall on their arse after their arrogant singers and ridiculous props, let's hope as Graham Norton proclaimed that this a permanent return to a SONG contest.

A quick look back at results versus predictions:


1. Norway 387 (we said 4: we of little faith - see above)
2. Iceland 218 (11: we thought too gentle but happy to be wrong)
3. Azerbaijan 207 (8: we thought to poppy but happy to be wrong)
4. Turkey 177 (3: still did better than it should have)
5. UK 173 (9: we thought too weak a song.... etc... you get the jist)
6. Estonia 129 (20: honestly gobsmacked at this result)
7. Greece 120 (2: Give up Sakis, you're old and you've been rumbled)
8. France 107 (12: Great result for a classy lady)
9. Bosnia-Herzegovina 106 (7: Near enough :o)
10. Armenia 92 (5: Armenia get their worst result with their best song)
11. Russia 91 (6: like Armenia, shifted down by the juries, hurrah!)
12. Ukraine 76 (1: Mega-Hurrah! this pile of poo got the result it deserved, now go away!)
13. Denmark 74 (15: Near enough)
14. Moldova 69 (14: Spot on, miraculously)
15. Portugal 57 (13: Near enough, didn't understand the fan hype over this)
16. Israel 53 (18: Near enough)
17. Albania 48 (25: OK it was catchy but still happy with the result)
18. Croatia 45 (24: Lack of other ex-YU to vote for the only reason this elevator music was elevated)
19. Romania 40 (19: Spot on, see Moldova!)
20. Germany 35 (16: In a pool of averageness we were a little wrong)
21. Sweden 33 (17: see Germany)
22. Malta 31 (10: Chiara sang so much better in the semi and this was her weakest song)
23. Lithuania 23 (21: We knew this piece of class would be forgotten, still a great tune)
24. Spain 23 (22: Serves them right for going Turkish)
25. Finland 22 (23: The semi-final jury chose this! FFS!)

As for the UK, we were mightily critical about the UK selection show as Jade, bless her, was parachuted in and the UK public were brainwashed to vote for her in an appalling set of events, yet credit where it's due, she recovered spectacularly from an early on-stage collision (see the video below) to deliver a stonking show and a top five result like manna from heaven for the UK. Whether she'll ever be heard of again is another issue.



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