Last night I saw the contest with a bunch of fans on SVT HD. We actually saw Alexander Ryback spitting during his performance, that's how good HD-TV is. Haha. Edward af Sillén and Shirley Clamp were very good as commentators and I hope they (or Ed at least) get to do it again next year. We laughed about Dima Bilan's jacket in the otherwise spectacular opening act, praised the high quality of songs and specially singing voices compared to the semi finals and had our own voting procedure. If I remember correctly Armenia was our winner. My points changed slightly from what I posted here earlier yesterday.
Posh votes after seeing the acts live: 1p UK, 2p Moldova, 3p Albania, 4p Azerbaijan, 5p Sweden, 6p Armenia, 7p Estonia, 8p Bosnia, 10p Iceland and 12p France.
On to the songs...
LIT: Stop wailing!!! It ruined the whole song, even if it was dull to begin with.
ISR: Mira is quite a stunner! Would like to hear more Arabic in Eurovision.
FRA: Goosebumps! The intensity. The voice. The eyes. Gorgeous performance. My number 1. So glad it got into the top 10.
SWE: Malena looked beautiful, smiled and flirted with the camera. Sang well. I was proud. Less good camera work. Such a shame it only came 21st in the voting. Was it the juries that didn't like it (like in Melodifestivalen)? Because in semi 1 she came 4th with televoting only... That's a rather big drop.
CRO: Competent but dull. Looked good on stage though.
POR: Nice and cosy but would go nowhere. The singer herself got touched by the moment in the end. Sweet.
ICE: Good camera work - it worked well with the song. Mild, haunting ballad. Made a very good impact.
GRE: First one that didn't sing too well. Great act but Sakis was OTT. Stop showing your tummy! Stop ripping your shirt open! Embarrassing. We weren't allowed to see Dita's nipple but Sakis dito is ok?
ARM: Happy. Oriental. Exotic. Better performance than on Thursday. I just wanna get up and dance!
RUS: Stop screaming girl! Boring song. The LED screens looked good though.
AZE: AySel was so much better than on Thursday. Good voice. Flirty. Beautiful.
BOS: Stunning Balkan-ballad with drums but lost votes by not once looking into the cameras. Difficult to connect with the singer then. Shame as it deserved better than finishing 9th.
MOL: Full of energy and joy which went through the TV-screen. This grew for me.
MAL: Boooooring. Sang better than in the semi. Just stop winking into the camera!
EST: Wonderful! Classy and sophisticated. Beautiful singer with perfect skin.
DEN: Completely dull. Nothing new or original. 13th?! I really don't get it...
GER: Oscar was OTT. Glittery pants - a good idea? Really? Dita von Teese got lost on stage with the camera work. Much a-do about nothing.
TUR: The singing was so-so but a good number. Maybe not top 4 material but I can live with that.
ALB: Kejsi was cute in a girl-next-door kinda way. Happiness in her eyes. Not the best mover but much is forgiven when it comes from Albania.
NOR: Much better performance than in the Thursday semi. You could hear the crowd cheering from the start. Had winner written all over it with that late draw.
UKR: Energetic stage show but weak voice from Svetlana. Better than in the semi.
ROM: Ok pop song but not interesting enough in this line-up.
UK: What's up with the vibrato? Was it always there? Looked good. Classical ballad. Jade got knocked by a violin. Nice to see the UK 5th. As soon as Wogan was out of the picture they were back in the game. I wonder what's next?! An established singer in Oslo?!
FIN: Karoliina's voice was not as strong due to a cold. Shame. But last? Poor Finland.
SPA: Why darkness on stage in the beginning? The camera work didn't help either. The performance looked too busy and Soraya's voice wasn't on top.
