Eurovision Song Contest 2010

[Jvvv]

Hi,

I gladly noticed that there has been quite lively discussion about Eurovision Song Contest previous years. Are those responsible still present?

I'm personally a big fan of the ESC institution and going to Oslo this month. I'm hoping for a good result for Finland and a wonderful country to win and to visit next year!

[Plastic Nurak]

The last time that a song winning the Eurofestival became a (worldwide) hit was in 1974 (ABBA with WATERLOO) .

[simonjedi]

Eurovision isn't the same anymore now that Terry Wogan has left.

For non-british brickers. He got drunker and more sarcastic as the show went on.

[Freddie]

I can honestly say that I'm not going to the show, and stay home and watch it on TV instead, simply because the ticket-prices are outrageous. It's 1600 NOK and upwards per ticket for the final, if one is lucky enough to get them, and I am not a big enough fan of ESC to pay that price.

It's a great show, and IMO the quality of the competing songs have gone up the last years, which is all good in my book. Difficult so say which ones are likely to win, but here's my favourites-list, in no particular order:

- Germany; Lena - Satellite

- Noway; Didrik Solli-Tangen - My Heart Is Yours

- France; Jessy Matador - Allez Ola Olé

- Denmark; Chanée and N'evergreen - In a Moment Like This

- Sweden; Anna Bergendahl - This Is My Life

- Romania; Paula Seling and Ovi - Playing with fire

- Latvia; Aisha - What for

- Azerbaijan; Safura - Drip Drop

Edited May 23, 2010 by Freddie

[Jvvv]

Greetings from ESC press center! My personal favorites this year are Iceland, Belarus, Denmark and Romania. I'm right following the last dress rehearsals at Fornebu Arena on screen, let's see what will happen this evening.

Freddie, any tips for record shopping in Oslo? I visited Platekompaniet at the very city centre, in a shopping centre near Central station.

[Freddie]

Way to go, Lena! Fantastic song, and nothing but a worthy winner. And lots and lots and lots of charm to boot.

Sorry for the very late reply, Jvvv, but I frankly I haven't got any clue if there's any specially recommended record stores in Oslo, other than the one you visited.

[brickzone]

Hmmm... I thought there was nothing special about the German entry, but I suppose it is popular music so thus gets a popular vote! Not my kind of thing though. I thought Azerbaijan, Armenia and Denmark were great, even if the latter was a bit of an Abba-esque tune (catchy and effective though!). I thought the Belgian guitar/singer was good (but not something that would be in the top of my favorites) and so too were the Turkish entry.

A lot of songs that should not have had much points, had average scores due to neighbourly voting. Ireland would have had such an average score except we don't have enough near neighbours (the UK would need to separate to give us all a boost). However it was also a very average song (yet another ballad/diva performance) so although other songs were worse and got more points, I don't think it realistically affects things. We could win again if a unique and popular song was entered.

As the top entries showed, you simply need a great/memorable song that had a prospect of winning for the neighbourly voting to be irrelevant.

I don't know what the UK are thinking! Yes perhaps some songs I could stand to listen to less but really their entry deserves to get little attention. They need to scrap public voting in the UK for picking their entry and just delegate it to a panel of "experts". Either that or disband the UK and then Scotland, Wales and maybe Northern Ireland can have their own great entries and England can continue to submit poor facsimiles of pop music. Plus side, Celtic block voting :)

Anyway, it was entertaining to watch as always, a great mix of types of song despite the predominance of strong female singers and many songs with very very contrived/stereotypical/meaningless lyrics (including the winner). The Irish commentator was a bit hard to listen to during the voting, he was so depressive about our lack of votes, but I had earlier on decided against the BBC coverage as Graham Norton just doesn't stop talking - he's exactly like his Father Ted persona in my mind.

[Erdbeereis]

Woo, go Germany!

I quite like the song, haven't heard many of the others though (can't watch it in the US). The main reason I love the song is the hilarious english pronunciation of the lyrics.

[Oky]

Great entries, and well deserved winners! Both of my home countries were at the top! The German singer was indeed very good and charming, and the Turkish song was very unique, mixing belly dance music with rock. A lot of the other entries were good too; much better than the last couple of years.

But yeah, her accent was quite thick, wasn't it?

[roamingstop]

I don't know what the UK are thinking! Yes perhaps some songs I could stand to listen to less but really their entry deserves to get little attention. They need to scrap public voting in the UK for picking their entry and just delegate it to a panel of "experts". Either that or disband the UK and then Scotland, Wales and maybe Northern Ireland can have their own great entries and England can continue to submit poor facsimiles of pop music. Plus side, Celtic block voting :)

#Set Irony=High

Way to go UK. Reminds me of why I left for Switzerland. Oh wait... Switzerland did not even qualify. Exactly why I like Switzerland...

#Set Irony = normal

Splitting the UK into the four nations? Whatever next? Capercaillie / Runrig or similar could win for Scotland no problem, especially since their fan base is so massive in Europe. Wales and Cornwall could submit some great choirs...

[awesomebrick]

I didn't really think us Irish had a chance...

Anyway Lena did a great job and she deserved to win!

The Turkish band maNga were also very good!

awesomebrick

[LEGOMAN132]

The last eurovision song I liked was Bosnia and Herzegovinas 2006 Lejla. But this years Croatias and Greeces songs were not bad.

Edited May 31, 2010 by LEGOMAN132

[Jvvv]

It was a great contest, though I wouldn't have guessed Germany could do that well. Congratulatios to them, it's nice to finally visit Germany next year! Lena was so cute when she won, "I really think I can't take this (the Winner's Statue) the whole time..." Winning song is good, not my favourite, but easy to like. Luckily Turkey didn't won, it would have been pain to listen that song over and over again the next year round...

Oslo was a wonderful city and the public transport was great. Prices were unbelievably high, as told beforehand. When flying home, normally so expensive "bear&bagel 7,50€" was really a good deal, in Oslo you couldn't get just the beer anywhere that cheap...

Freddie: Dont' worry, I found few more Platenkompaniet's and a good used-record-store (Råkk & Råll), so I got rid off my money well, thanks. :D

Almost all new LEGO sets (Kingdom, impulses, World Racers...) were at the stores, but the prices were so high (and my wallet so empty) that all I could afford was the Farmer-impulse.

[Freddie]

Figured I'd highlight my personal favourite moment of the show:

Media here are reporting that MadCon's the real winner of ESC 2010, thanks to that.

[Oky]

That is so cool! How did they choreograph that? And what was up with that one guy on the island in the North Sea?

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

[blhc11]

What leaves me amazed by this post is the fact that nobody mentioned the best part, during the second song, I'm talking of course of the guy that invaded the stage during the first spanish act(they had to perform it again, I personaly think Spain would have gotten more votes if people thought that the guy was par of the group... rofl) the contest was the usual "meh" for me, but it's only because the performers usually ruin their career after participating... also wasn't it belruss that participated with the "butterfly" song? after thoose snapy costumes I thought they would get last place at best, the worst being them falling on the stage because someone had some intestinal problems because of the looks of the wings or being charged for murder because a person had suffered from a heart attack when they opened the wings or something(THIS IS ALL FICTION, MY MIND IS WIERD... I would go to the extent of saying I'm a mindfreak... pun-intended) none the less it was a good night with the friends around, all making fun of several things that happened during the competition(also, when they were showing the votes, the comentator that was translating for my country constantly referred the fact that we got few votes, I thought he was seriosuly angry, like Chuck Norris is angry when they forget to put salt on his french fries(MINDFREAK!!!!), yes that angry).

It's funny to see that eurobricks isn't about Lego but about the people who enjoy it, thus they focus alot around it but also around the other interests of the people that belong to the comunity...

Until my next post: "Hasta La Vista, Blocky!"(seriously, I have to stop, this is getting way too cheesy )

[Freddie]

That is so cool! How did they choreograph that?

With a bit of cheating, actually. All of that wasn't live, but pre-recorded (with the exception of the german dancers). Still, the choreography, the dance-moves and such, were available on YouTube, and everybody interested could sign up to participate.