2008 in a parallel universe

In retrospect, the idea of having two semi finals instead of one must be seen as a true success. Even though many people would argue that the general standard of songs in 2008 is the lowest for many years, the final line-up was really strong, mainly thanks to most of the weaker entries getting stuck in the semis.

Initially, the 2007 formula was supposed to stay put also this year: ten countries pre-qualified for the final plus then four big ones, and ten additional finalists selected from a nightmare semi of 29 songs. Thank heavens the EBU had a change of heart.

Had the formula remained unchanged, we could have had a final line-up to look like this instead (given some artistic freedom here, selecting the top five countries from each semi, assuming they would have qualified also had there been only one semi):

01 Serbia - Oro
02 Ukraine - Shady Lady
03 Russia - Believe
04 Turkey - Deli
05 Bulgaria - DJ, take me away
06 Belarus - Hasta la vista
07 Greece - Secret combination
08 Armenia - Qele Qele
09 Hungary - Candlelight
10 Moldova - A Century of Love

11 Germany - Disappear
12 Spain - Baila el Chiki Chiki
13 France - Divine
14 United Kingdom - Even if

15 Norway - Hold on, be strong
16 Israel - The fire in your eyes
17 Azerbaijan - Day after day
18 Romania - Pe-o margine di lume
19 Finland - Missä miehet ratsastaa

20 Portugal - Senhora do mar
21 Denmark - All night long
22 Croatia - Romanca
23 Georgia - Peace will come
24 Latvia - Wolves of the Sea

A fair guess is that Hungary would have ended last in this hypothetical line-up, but all of a sudden I find myself missing quite a few good songs: Iceland, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina...

I think the actual line-up turned out stronger, and I am happy not to have had neither Moldova nor Belarus in the final. Thank you, EBU, for the new rules.

Sweden facing defeat

I am not really sure what happened, to be honest. I was expecting the Swedish newspapers to rip Europe to shreds when Charlotte did as badly as she did, but they have been surprisingly calm and down-to-earth.

One flop was one thing, in Helsinki everyone was really unprepared for the Swedish debacle and reacted thereafter. In Belgrade, it seems some tiny hint of disbelief lived somewhere deep down the minds of the present journalists, and it seems most people are more constating the fact that Sweden no longer knows how to spellbind the European audience.

Famous (or infamous) TV-critic Anders Björkman of Expressen really nailed it today: when you look at how Sweden voted, you see we gave low or no points to the top four in the final ranking - we are not exactly mainstream in this contest anymore.

There is a certain amount of sadness attached to it, of course. When Pelé was no longer the best football player in the world, he was probably quite sad as well. Nobody seems to know where to go from here, but at least there is room for discussion what kind of song to enter in the future.

Most importantly, nobody is blaming Charlotte for the lack of success. They'd better not. She couldn't have done it better, and nobody else for that matter. "Hero" just wasn't what the world wanted, however difficult it is to digest that.

Bits and pieces

Some random comments and thoughts from last night...

- 7 songs in the top 10 came from semi 1 (the supposedly weaker of the semi finals)

- 4 songs in the top 10 were sung in another language than English

- Ukraine and Russia got points from all except 5 countries

- Russia got seven 12 pointers but Armenia who came 4th got one more 12 pointer than the winner. Runner up Ukraine only got one single 12 pointer.

- In the final Sweden voted: 1p Greece, 2p Armenia, 3p Latvia, 4p France, 5p Denmark, 6p Serbia, 7p Finland, 8p Iceland, 10p Bosnia-H, 12p Norway

- The UK was rescued from an embarrassing nil points by Ireland and San Marino (!)

- Bulgaria gave 12 points to Germany only because one of the girls is Bulgarian

- Poor San Marino came last in semi 1 with only 5 points. I liked their song!

- Estonia was saved from the last place which they deserved by Finland who rewarded them 7 points. Shame on you Finns!

- Finland got two sets of 12 pointers in the semi from Estonia and Andorra (!)

- The best ballad of the year came last in semi 2 - Hungary. Shame on you Europe!

- In the semi Sweden voted: 1p Georgia, 2p FYR Macedonia, 3p Ukraine, 4p Croatia, 5p Portugal, 6p Turkey, 7p Albania, 8p Latvia, 10p Iceland, 12p Denmark

- Slovenia just missed out on the final coming 11th in semi 1

- FYR Macedonia would have been in the final instead of Sweden if the jury hadn't been picked to choose one entry. Bulgaria also got more points from the viewers than Sweden did.

Bosnia 12 points

And if there was one performance that bettered France, then of course it must be the wonderful weirdness of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Laka and Mirela and their knitting ladies is my favourite entry out of all 43 this year.

Sir Terry Wogan of the BBC hated this one completely and more or less quoted it as a reason to give up on Eurovision altogether. Poor Terry, not to see the beauty and mastermind of this.

No more Balkan ballads, bring us things like these from now on, please!



Laka - Pokusaj - Bosnia-Herzegovina 2008
10/25

France 12 points

I know you all saw it yesterday, but I have to blog it anyway. It is just such a classic masterpiece. We will never forget this wonderfully silly French offering. 19th place, but 12 points from Becks!



Sébastien Tellier - Divine - France 2008
19/25

Bitterness, anyone?

Just looked through the BBC broadcast of the ESC, where Sir Terry Wogan was less than enthusiastic throughout the voting. Apparently, he expected a grand score for the, frankly speaking, bleak and lucklustre UK entry and made no effort to hide how disappointed he was with the rest of Europe.

It was always Sir Terence's way to mock the contest and make fun of it, but it seems that was just enjoyable back in the days when the UK used to come out on top. Now, as other countries keep winning, the bitterness shines through in a less than pleasant way.

"This is not a song contest anymore", Terry said. "With the political voting, we knew beforehand that Russia would win!"

Such rubbish. I always wished sore losers would bite their tongues. It is one thing to be disappointed, but to diminish the Russian victory into pure political voting is very rude and also very incorrect. If the UK pulled out somebody with the same star quality and similar popularity as Dima Bilan (instead of somebody who couldn't control his dancing legs to save his life), they would stand a chance too.

I wish the BBC would take a deep breath, look into the matter and come up with a real contender next year. I promise it would be worth it. (I wrote a post about it a few months back. Feel free to have a look at it before making any decisions for 2009.)

Winners and Losers

The show looked fantastic on TV last night and I didn't feel bitter at all not being present in Belgrade. Honest. It brought me back to my childhood and how much I longed for Eurovision every year and how exciting it was to see the numbers for the first time. I haven't seen ESC home on a sofa since 1999 when I was still in school.

I'm pleased to say that I predicted 7-8 of the songs that finally made it to the top 10. Hurrah for me! But I am not happy at all with the winner. The song in itself is ok but Dima Bilan was too much this time around and I can easily pick 10 songs that are better suited as a winner. On the other hand I say congratulations to Russia as they have tried really hard to win this contest ever since they started participating. Just a shame that it wasn't with one of their stronger entries. I've been to Moscow and it is an amazing city and I'm sure they will make a splendid show next year. It's itching in my fingers to work with the contest next year again and re-visit Moscow. Their schwerma is worth the trip alone! :)

Then Sweden. What happened? Charlotte Perrelli made a flawless performance and is not to blame for the result. Neither is "the Eastern bloc" that the Swedes will try to say. Why? Because "the Western bloc" didn't vote either. Not even our Nordic neighbours gave high points. Only 12 points from Malta, much thanks to the Schlagerboys' participation in a Maltese tv-show where they begged everyone to vote Sweden. Go Schlagerboys! Thank you.

The only explanation I have for the 18th place is that Ani Lorak nicked the "pop song with strong female singer in silver dress with a dance routine"-votes and that the rest of the voters simply didn't like the old Scandischlagersound anymore and thought it sounded dated. Anyone with other explanations?

The popularity of Charlotte Perrelli in Sweden won't fade because of this though. Of that I am fairly sure. Everybody loves her here and rightly so.

Goodbye?

Now the votes are cast and while one country is the winner, quite a few feel like losers and that they have been had. For a while, there will be talk about who will come back next year and who will drop out.

The Netherlands have been very keen in the past on declaring that they won't take part unless they qualify, but they already confirmed participation next year. But what about the others?

My guess is that most of this year's 43 candidates will show up in Russia next year, but there are some question marks. Hungarian MTV likes taking part as long as they get good placings, so will they get cold feet now? Andorra failed to qualify again, is the international exposure of being seen worth it or are they getting tired of never going through? Tiny San Marino, did they enjoy the experience despite their last place in their semi?

There were also some talk about Azerbaijan only going to ESC once and that would be it, but won't they want to continue after their excellent placing?



Alma Cardzic - Goodbye - Bosnia-Herzegovina 1997
=18/25

Semi final shocker!

When you see the complete results of the semi finals, there are quite a few things there to make your jaw drop or at least to make your eyebrows go up more than usual:

SEMI 1

01. Greece 156
02. Armenia 139
03. Russia 135
04. Norway 106
05. Israel 104
06. Azerbaijan 96
07. Romania 94
08. Finland 79
09. Bosnia-Herzegovina 72
10. Poland 42
11. Slovenia 36
12. Moldova 36
13. Netherlands 27
14. Montenegro 23
15. Ireland 22
16. Andorra 22
17. Belgium 16
18. Estonia 8
19. San Marino 5

SEMI 2

01. Ukraine 152
02. Portugal 120
03. Denmark 112
04. Croatia 112
05. Georgia 107
06. Latvia 86
07. Turkey 85
08. Iceland 68
09. Albania 67
10. FYR Macedonia 64
11. Bulgaria 56
12. Sweden 54
13. Switzerland 47
14. Malta 38
15. Cyprus 36
16. Lithuania 30
17. Belarus 27
18. Czech Republic 9
19. Hungary 6

Lucky break for Sweden, thanks to the new rule that nine songs qualify through televote and the juries select the tenth "Hero" was not out on its ears already in the semi.

Horrendous to see Hungary last in their semi. What were you thinking, televoters?

Ukraine is the best

Well, yes, Russia won. That is true. But just look at the Ukraine and be amazed at how well they do in this contest. And rightly so. No other country comes up with such a breath-taking variety of styles and acts, and nobody does so consistently well. Three entries out of six has made Top 2 in the voting.

There is no country quite like the Ukraine, and when we gather what songs were the most commercially successful this year, I think we will have another strong showing from the Ukraine there.

The entries of Ukraine with placings:

2003 Oleksandr "Hasta la vista"
14/26

2004 Ruslana "Wild dance"
1/24

2005 Greenjolly "Razom nas bahato"
20/24

2006 Tina Karol "Show me your love"
7/24

2007 Verka Serduchka "Dancing lasha tumbai"
2/24

2008 Ani Lorak "Shady Lady"
2/25

I think we could all be heading to Odesa some time in the near future...

Ex-Soviet and Ex-Yugo

There have been so much complaining going on among journalists and eurofans that "those people" take over "our" contest. The countries from the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia, that is. Let's have a look at how well they did then, shall we?

Taking part in 2008 were no less than ten countries that used to be republics in the former Soviet Union: Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Six of them managed to get into the final, where they all got decent placings:
1) Russia
2) Ukraine
4) Armenia
8) Azerbaijan
11) Georgia
12) Latvia

Also, a total of six ex-Yugoslav countries competed: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro, of which "only" three found themselves in the final, and only two of these went through the semi (Serbia being pre-qualified), placing:
6) Serbia
10) Bosnia-Herzegovina
21) Croatia

I honestly fail to see what many people are so afraid of - that old countries that split into several new ones will totally dominate this contest and not let anyone i to share the fun. The ex-Soviets did well this time, but they did less so last year. And compared to the impact of the ex-Yugoslavs, then the Nordic domination is way bigger.

Nordic points

All five Nordic countries were in the final for the first time since 2000, which is a great achievement in itself. We should all be proud and happy about it, but then it is in our nature to hope for more than just initial success.

Norway made us all proud and defended the Nordic flags in the top five of the scoreboard. Maria had great luck in the draw, but more importantly she sang very well and managed to be totally likeable on stage. A strong chorus that deserved to be Norway's best showing since 2003.

Iceland at #14 is a tiny disappointment as well. I thought the song would reach out and grab more people in the end, but making it to the final for the first time since 2004 should be enough to keep the icelanders happy. And they did beat Denmark in the last round of votes. Rightly so, may I add. Danes are lovely people, but all their last entries (including this one) leave me totally cold.

Leaving people cold is apparently what Sweden did also. Taking this contest more seriously than the EBU themselves, a second consecutive 18th place is very hard to digest. I don't for a second think that Charlotte or "Hero" deserved to go so low in the ranking, but the points talk frankly: this passed the voters by. Not even the Nordic neighbours spilled points over it. There is something in the Swedish recipe that passed its date of expiry, without the Swedes noticing. Being elegant, cold and impeccably produced won't take you far anymore. I just hope people realise that Charlotte is not the one to blame here - it just didn't work out. Sometimes the world is like that.

Finland had managed to whip up a frenzy on home ground, thinking Teräsbetoni could actually win the grand final. As soon as the initial disappointment goes away (who would be happy with a 22nd place?), the Finns will calm down and feel satisfied with being in the final for the third year running. And, hopefully, get the message from Europe: rock was really fun for a while. But now we would like something else.

Congratulations, I guess

Russia is the winner, and given how hard they tried to make it in the past, it must be a big relief for them to finally come out on top. Just too bad that they did just like Estonia and Yugoslavia: to win it with one of their less convincing acts.

Only two years back, I loved Dima Bilan. He was so sweet and convincing, and there was a heart beating steadily behind his stage show in Athens. But somewhere down the line, he got a bit too fond of himself and that is never a great thing in the long run.

"Believe" is an OK song, and as a song maybe a deserved winner. But it makes me a bit sad to see Europe buy something as cheesy and overloaded as the stage act that went along with it.

"Chef, the food we made is not very tasty!" - Then pour ketchup over it!
"It is still not tasty!" - Then cover it in mayonnaise! And if that is not enough, pour on chocolate sauce. Everyone loves chocolate sauce. Well, it seems everyone does.

So, congratulations Russia. I am happy you won. I just wish you had done it with another act.

The result, 2008

This is the way it ended yesterday.

Nota Bene: Since 2003, no placings are shared at the Eurovision, all ties are automatically separated. Same amount of points does not mean same placing.

1. Russia, 272 points.
2. Ukraine, 230
3. Greece, 218
4. Armenia, 199
5. Norway, 182
6. Serbia, 160
7. Turkey, 138
8. Azerbaijan, 132
9. Israel, 124
10. Bosnia-Herzegovina, 110
11. Georgia, 83
12. Latvia, 83
13. Portugal, 69
14. Iceland, 64
15. Denmark, 60
16. Spain, 55
17. Albania, 55
18. Sweden, 47
19. France, 47
20. Romania, 45
21. Croatia, 44
22. Finland, 35
23. Germany, 14
24. Poland, 14
25. United Kingdom, 14

If you compare to my prediction yesterday, you will find I didn't get it quite right. (Grumble) At least I picked the last place correctly...

Ukraine will win

This is the last post before the show starts. I would be less surprised if the sky fell down than if anyone but the Ukraine would win.

So, secretly I hope for somebody else to do it. Just for the sake of the surprise. (As long as that somebody is not Russia, Latvia or Spain.)

Enjoy the show!

Mil etter mil, French style

France is one of my favourite songs in this year's contest and yet I predict them to end up at the very bottom. How come?

Well, remember Norway 1978?

What fun is taking part if you know you can't win? Then it is better to be last! People are more likely to remember you if you end last than in, say, 14th place. And in Sebastien Tellier's circuits, it is probably more worthy to come last at Eurovision. So he does everything to turn voters away.

France nul points?



Jahn Teigen - Mil etter mil - Norway 1978
20/20 (nul points)

Becks' prediction

Me, Thomas Lundin, Eurofivestar and some other people have had a competition of our own for the last few years. You rank all participants from first to last, according to how you think the final result will be.

If you get the winner and/or the loser right, they give you ten points each. For every correct country on spots 2-5, that will earn you an extra five points. And finally, every correct placing between 6-24 will give you one point.

This year, I will get at least ten points. I am so sure Ani Lorak will recieve flowers at the end of the show. But for the rest? I am just guessing. In my last spot I have the UK - not because they would be bad, but because they are not good enough to stand out anywhere - but they could just as well be 12th with a good performance. I just don't want Germany to come last again. They are really trying, and a second last place in only four contests? Unfair!

Well, here goes:

01 Ukraine
02 Greece
03 Armenia
04 Sweden
05 Iceland
06 Bosnia-Herzegovina
07 Serbia
08 Russia
09 Israel
10 Norway
11 Croatia
12 Turkey
13 Georgia
14 Finland
15 Romania
16 Portugal
17 Albania
18 Azerbaijan
19 Spain
20 Poland
21 Denmark
22 Latvia
23 France
24 Germany
25 United Kingdom

Voting order

For the ones of you who take a keen interest, this is the order in which the countries will vote in tonight's final:

01. United Kingdom
02. FYR Macedonia
03. Ukraine
04. Germany
05. Estonia
06. Bosnia & Herzegovina
07. Albania
08. Belgium
09. San Marino
10. Latvia
11. Bulgaria
12. Serbia
13. Israel
14. Cyprus
15. Moldova
16. Iceland
17. France
18. Romania
19. Portugal
20. Norway
21. Hungary
22. Andorra
23. Poland
24. Slovenia
25. Armenia
26. Czech Republic
27. Spain
28. Netherlands
29. Turkey
30. Malta
31. Ireland
32. Switzerland
33. Azerbaijan
34. Greece
35. Finland
36. Croatia
37. Sweden
38. Belarus
39. Lithuania
40. Russia
41. Montenegro
42. Georgia
43. Denmark

Votes from Posh

Good Evening Europe!
My votes in Eurovision 2008 are the following...

1p Greece
2p Serbia
3p Iceland
4p Romania
5p Armenia
6p Sweden
7p Ukraine
8p Bosnia-Herzegovina
10p France
12p Norway

That concludes the voting from Posh.

Shock and horror!

Not to brag, but the fact is - on the day of the final, for the last five years, I have just suddenly known who is going to win. In 2003, my head settled for Sertab, in 2004 for Ruslana, in 2005 I actually knew even before the day of the final that Greece would walk it. I woke up confident of Finnish victory in 2006, and last year God (or whoever it was) spoke to me and said "Russia? Germany? You fool - the winner must be Serbia!"

Today is the day of the final and the song playing in my head is... "Nomads in the night". What on earth? I want my money back! The function seems to be out of order.

Lucky break it happened this year. Seriously, folks. It has to be the Ukraine. Any other winner and my jaw will hang between my knees in sheer surprise.