Well, it’s all over for another year, and while Team Eurovision would hate to say we told you so, we weren’t in the least surprised to see Greece take top honours on the big night with Helena Paparizou’s You’re My Number One. As a result, we’ll all be off to Athens for the 2006 contest, which has already been given a provisional date of May 20 2006 (with the semi-final on May 18).
And as the dust settles on Eurovision 2005, here’s what we made of the performances:
HUNGARY – great start to the show. As on Thursday, Nox gave it their all – pity they had to go on first. Perhaps with a different draw in the running order they might have won? Still, they didn’t disgrace themselves.
UK – much as we hate to be unpatriotic, and while we acknowledge Javine had a sore throat, was this really the best she could do? She barely sold the song at all and the dancing looked seriously uncoordinated.
MALTA – we were never fans of this but we have to admit Chiara did a good job here. A great performance, and she really looked like she was enjoying herself. In an era when flashy performances tend to be the order of the day, she ought to be proud of the fact she came second with little more than an empty stage and a microphone.
ROMANIA – a great contrast to the Maltese ballad, it might not have been the best song of the night but it was hugely entertaining. Not surprised to see it do so well on the strength of this performance.
NORWAY – this was always going to be a good one, and the boys from Wig Wam certainly didn’t let us down. Although we have to say all that business with the microphone stand looked a little hazardous.
TURKEY – bit of a disappointment. We liked this song so much when we heard it that we were expecting great things, but it didn’t come across nearly so well on stage. Mind you, it did pick up quite a lot of points. So we were half right.
MOLDOVA – is it just us, or has the novelty of seeing Granny and her drum worn off a bit since Thursday? Nonetheless, this was still great fun, not least when the body-painted singer ended the song with a screech of ‘Let’s make love!’ Er, no thanks.
ALBANIA – not good. Ledina sounded like she was screaming the song rather than singing it. No surprise to see this one floundering about in the lower reaches of the scoreboard.
CYPRUS – we were suffering ethno-pop ennui by this point and Constantinos did very little to drag us out of our slump. A competent performance, but hardly an outstanding one.
SPAIN – a universal thumbs down from the whole of Team Eurovision for this one. Although one of our number was heard to remark on the recap “actually, this is quite catchy”, confirming everything we said about it pre-contest. Yes it is once you’ve heard it 38 times but since you only get one chance to make an impression on the night, Spain just about sealed their fate with this unremarkable performance.
ISRAEL – this played so unexpectedly well in the semi-final that we’d been expecting it to be one of the dark horses of the contest, and we weren’t disappointed. Shiri wasn’t quite as good on Saturday as she was on Thursday but the song still came across really well.
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO – we never really took to this song and thought the performance was pretty shambolic, it almost looked as though they were making the dance steps up as they went along. Baffled that this did so well.
DENMARK – pleasant but dull. We can only think the reason this scored a top ten placing is because it was so darned inoffensive. Those red shoes, however, have got to go.
SWEDEN – we had high hopes for this one but the performance was a disaster – where was the charisma Mr Stenmarck displayed in the Swedish national finals? No surprise to see Sweden tumble into the relegation zone for the first time.
FYR MACEDONIA -Team Eurovision was in the kitchen getting ice-cream during this one so we can’t comment. However, we caught the tail end of it and we have to say it didn’t look as though it had improved since Thursday. The horrible pink jacket was still very much in attendance.
UKRAINE – bizarre. Really, really bizarre, and strangely underwhelming reaction for what was after all the host country. A brave attempt to do something different but this felt really out of place among everything else. Team Eurovision was left wondering exactly how this song managed to incite revolution.
GERMANY – possibly the only thing we got right in our entire predictions for 2005 was that Germany would come last. And we weren’t disappointed. Absolutely awful.
CROATIA – thought this sounded better in the semi-finals to be honest, but not bad. Couldn’t help noticing how much the Croatian singer looked, er, like last year’s Croatian singer, mind you.
GREECE – a total no-brainer. It might not have been the best song in the contest but Helena gave such a good, slick performance there was no way it wasn’t going to shoot straight to the top of the leaderboard. That said, it did divide those Team Eurovision guests who hadn’t heard it before – some were charmed by it, some weren’t so sure.
RUSSIA – seriously dodgy. This was the point when Team Eurovision decided to put the Ceefax subtitles on and sing along. Didn’t actually make any difference to the quality of the song, mind you.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – the cheesiest song in the contest, but it came across really well. Feminnem really looked like they were having fun – and their pale pink frocks fitted in perfectly with the mood of the song.
SWITZERLAND – another one that divided the room. It came across reasonably well but still can’t help thinking it’s one of those ones that sounded a lot better on the CD.
LATVIA – why do we not get the appeal of this song? It’s sweet, simple – and left us completely cold. And still can’t get over how gimmicky the sign language was. Certain Team Eurovision members came up with their own sign language during this song – although since this is a family website we’ll leave the details to your imagination. Knew it would do well, but we have to admit we were quite relieved it didn’t win.
FRANCE – A very dull way to round off a hugely entertaining contest – one which was reflected in the voting.
So how did we do?
We’ve been predicting and speculating for weeks over finalists, winners, losers and everything else in between – but how accurate were we?
WHAT WE GOT RIGHT
Moldova
We said: “it’s so infectious and fun that it could turn out to be the surprise package of the evening and do a lot better than anybody expects.”
What happened? The Moldovans came 6th thanks to the winning combination of a quirky song and a memorable performance.
Malta
We said: “A top five placing is a distinct possibility.”
What happened? Indeed it was. They may not have been strong enough to fight off Greece but Malta should be very pleased indeed with their runner-up position.
Switzerland
We said: “Expect to see this one in the final, and expect to see Switzerland making their mark on the leader board come finals night.”
What happened? Well they didn’t win – and their early lead was quickly eroded by Greece and Malta – but they still gave Switzerland their best placing in years – good enough to guarantee them a place in the 2006 final.
Ukraine
We said: “he fact that in the betting it’s one of the lowest ranked host countries for years is quite telling. On the strength of this, a return to Kiev next year looks highly unlikely.”
What happened? Greenjolly’s peace anthem made little impact on the night, thus sending Ukraine straight back to the semi-finals next year.
Greece
We said: “Those who are hearing the songs for the first time at the contest are unlikely to forget this one in a hurry. In short, it’s one of the strongest contenders, and certainly Greece’s best effort in years.”
What happened? Athens 2006 just about sums it up.
WHAT WE GOT WRONG
Iceland
We said: “We’re going to stick our collective necks out here and say that not only are Iceland a dead cert to breeze through the semis, they’ll do even better than that and finish in the top five of the final itself.”
What happened? Oops. Iceland came 16th in the semis and didn’t even come within sniffing distance of the final. But we think this may be the one prediction that everybody got wrong, so we weren’t overly concerned.
Hungary
We said: “Not only is it a very safe bet for the final, but the prospect of Budapest 2006 is actually a very real one.”
What happened? We were half right. Hungary got though to the final but finished a disappointing 12th, enough to send them back to the semis next year. Perhaps if they hadn’t been on first, things would have been very different.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
We said: “We have a sneaking suspicion this is going to do very well indeed.”
What happened? If finishing 14th can be regarded as doing very well indeed, then we were spot on here. Or perhaps not.
Serbia and Montenegro
We said: “In a contest full of ethnic harmonies, this one stands out as being the dullest of the lot – something which the band can’t possibly disguise despite their best efforts to make the whole thing sound epic.”
What happened? Clearly the voting public disagreed – this did far better than we could ever have suspected, the result being that Serbia and Montenegro go straight through to the 2006 final. They’re turning out to be rather good at this!
Netherlands
We said: “We reckon this will do well enough to automatically see the Netherlands through to next year’s final.”
What happened? Netherlands failed to qualify from the semis, never mind make next year’s final.