It came back!! After a clip show last year, we got a full song contest again! With traditional takeaway curry and spreadsheet of course. Scoring categories for me were song, voice, choreography, outfit, staging, and of course, novelty value (some years I’ve called this “Eurovisionosity”!), and as every, categories get weighted differently! Here are my top five this year, and below are my detailed scores!
Germany
Iceland
Greece
Malta
Russia
So it wasn’t a Eurovision Song Contest this year, but on Saturday night, Rotterdam still hosted a 2 hour show with clips of all 41 songs that would have competed had the contest been able to go ahead.
There was a load of filler too, some better than others! Favouites included a message from Bjorn, a song from Netta, and buildings of Europe lit up while the Rotterdam Philharmonic plays Love Shine a Light. I’m a bit sad they haven’t put the interview with Graham Norton up – it was completely hilarious but he also got a bit choked up at one point, which was moving.
Because we only got 30 seconds of each song, scoring was a bit hit and miss, and probably didn’t do it as well as other years (even after removing some of my categories to make it easier!), but here are my five favourites from this year.
Iceland
Russia
Sweden
Ireland
Australia
There seemed to be a fair amount of serious songs this year, including ours and the winners, which was a shame, but these were my top five.
1. Australia
2. Denmark
3. Czech Republic
4. France
5. Spain
Also a honourary mention for the weirdest song this year for Iceland…..
Also need to share with you one of this year’s interval acts (not Madonna!). They got four of the most Eurovisiony acts from the last few years of competition and had them sing each other’s songs – outstanding.
I had SUCH a good time on Saturday. Takeaway, Eurovision and a spreadsheet! Acts were scored on Song, Voice, Choreography, Costume, Set and Novelty Value – some of those categories were weighted higher than others. This is sort-of my top 5. Mathematically Greece should be in it, but I just didn’t love it like I loved these five… Clearly more work needs to be done on my scoring algorithm for next year.
Moldova
Netherlands
Romania
Croatia
Sweden
For some reason I scored Greece higher than Croatia and Sweden, but it really wasn’t a favourite of mine, so it doesn’t make the top 5 – sorry Greece!
Austria and Italy tied with Sweden, but I just found Sweden far more entertaining!
I have to mention Azerbaijan. It was creepy and horrible, but the insanity meant it did very well in novelty value. Definitely worth a watch….
Penguin books chose a slightly unfortunate hashtag for Mother’s Day
Overseas aid to be set at 0.7% by UK Law
Consent explained by the metaphor of tea
This woman hasn’t produced any rubbish in two years
Bride leaves groom at the alter when he fails a simple maths test
https://instagram.com/elona_x/p/z-p7o6vUb8/
Life was much harder for 90s kids
27 things to do before turning 27 – (the age 27 is irrelevant, just good changes to make in your life!)
A mum lets her toddler choose her outfits for a week
More fun job interview tactics!
Australia are entering the Eurovision Song Contest this year – utterly ridiculous
A guy tries to guess nail varnish colours…
Has the Simpsons all been in Homer’s mind since he went into a coma in 1993?
Katy Perry quoting the bible at the Superbowl
Eurovision is a bit of an event in our house, an institution almost, there is takeaway, there are snacks, and there is an epic spreadsheet scoring over various categories. Here’s how my top five ended up this year 🙂
#1 France: Moustache – Twin Twin
To be fair, we watched the show with the English subtitles, which made this so much better – complete nonsense 🙂
#2 The Netherlands: Calm after the storm – The Common Linnets
Not very Eurovision, but great!
#3 Denmark: Cliche love song – Basim
“the Bruno Mars one”
#4 Iceland: No Prejudice – Pollapönk
There were several songs about unity, equality, freedom and peace this year, not just standard pop – some good messaging!
#5 Malta: Coming Home – Firelight
“the Mumford and sons one”, also not very Eurovision-y but loved it
Special mentions to a few countries who did best in their categories but didn’t make my top five:
Azerbaijan for staging and costume
Spain for staging
Montenegro for choreography
Belarus for their song (called “Cheesecake”)
and Romania, for their circular piano!
