Eurovision 2014

Any fans? Worth it this year for Conchita Wurst the bearded lady from Austria alone...

 

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/timeline

My predictions....

#1 Sweden
#2 Austria
#3 Hungary
#4 Finland
#5 Slovenia
#6 United Kingdom

 

Thanks for the reminder! Haven't seen any of the build-up or heard any of the songs, but I always watch the final. Surprisingly, there are usually a few good entries, though not often from the UK!

 

Not a fan reallyy, but my wife and daughter is, so I will be watching it tomorrow. Being a Swede myself it would of course be nice if we won, but I think Austria and the bearded lady should win - fantastic singing in a good James Bond-like song. My personal favorite is the Netherlands with their laidback country duet, also with very good singing (not so usual for this competition overall ).

 

If being over the top is the key to victory (which almost always is in this competition) it will be a walkover for Austria this year.

 

I enjoyed the performance of the girls from Poland.

 

Wait... the Poles had a song?!?!

 

We get both semis and the final here. But its all a day late so I have to do a media black out on Sunday!

 

The Aussies had a song this year, but only as a special guest.

 

Isn't the Eurovision extremely popular in Australia?

 

Song? please, read my words more carefully. I talked about the performance

just go to 1:31 and pause

 

Yes! Thats how they scored a spot!

 

Now here is the Winner!

 

Saucy!

 

It's too bad that UK never gets to be in the Semifinals. I think it is a huge advantage for the contries that get to perform their songs twice, and really get them "settled" with the audience. UK (and Germany, France and the other countries that has a free ticket to the Final) start like 100 meters behind the rest.

 

The Austrian entry is like a Bond theme, and judging by the response and enthusiasm for the artist in the hall last night, it must surely be a real contender.

 

That's a good point. I think only Lena won for Germany since those countries started getting a bye to the final.

 

It's ironic really. I think the big five get the "free" ticket because they contribute the most funds to Eurovision itself.

 

Wait a minute, wait a minute! Of course The Netherlands is going to win:

 

I just finished watching the two semi finals back to back.

I think the field is actually really strong this year, lots of good songs. I've not heard the UK entry yet, and the Swedish entry (which is our household's other "home team") isn't the best I've heard from them (it's no "Euphoria", that's for sure...)

But I really enjoyed:

Finland (The Killers crossed with Coldplay- and yes that's a good thing.)
Armenia (Standard-ish ballad gets interrupted by massive dubstep pounding and goes somewhere totally different.)
Iceland (Reminded me of Franz Ferdinand or something, and loved those colourful outfits...)
Netherlands ( Really strong, non-Eurovision-y country song)
Austria (You guys said it all- it was a Bassey Bond theme sung by a bloke in a dress...)

There were definitely more I liked, too, but I can't remember off the top of my head. The little I saw of France's song sounded like fun, too.

However, I was very disappointed that Georgia didn't make it through, since they seemed to have managed to condense a Yes album into 3 minutes, as well as having aliens and skydiving drummers.

 

Forgot the Ukranian hamster wheel, and Romania's circular piano - both were accompanied by fairly catchy songs too, I thought...

 

Regarding Sweden.....it's Eurovisions 60th Anniversary next year, so if Sweden were to win, and thus be hosts again next year, it would be a possible scenario for an ABBA reunion performance which has been doing the rounds recently.

 

Not keen on Latvia's Bake A Cake song!

 

It was quite amusing a few months back to spot Ireland's Jedward boys walking around here in Newtown, not being recognised by anybody at all. I did a double take on passing them. Their hair was down as I recall! I think they were playing some local shows in Sydney, and were wrestling with some very heavy looking luggage. Obviously not quite famous enough to get it carried for them in Oz!

 

Jedward are the butt of at least 50% of the jokes on QI