I was very excited about being able to watch the Eurovision this year with my family. There was a bit of worry, but fortunately, the contest this year didn’t take place on either of the two convention weekends I ended up going to.
I thought the building bridges theme was a good one for this year’s Eurovision. There were a couple of serious songs as well as the usual ‘fun’ songs a lot of countries have as entrants. Although I liked the UK’s entry, I didn’t think it would be a winner… as revealed by the scoring. But, hey, 5 points is better than nothing!
I didn’t have quite as many favourite songs in this Eurovision as I have in previous years. There were some that did have potential, but some of them didn’t have much of a ‘hook’ – some of the songs were very tame, with no build-up to the crescendo. I did like Russia’s song, though it failed to hook me completely. War’s For Nothing (Hungary’s song) was very bland… even though I felt the lyrics had a lot of meaning.
Estonia’s song, Goodbye to Yesterday, was particularly catchy. The female member of the duet, in particular, seemed to be really emotionally invested in the song. Since it was telling a story, I felt that worked really well. I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it again, but I wouldn’t switch it off if it came on something I was listening to. I liked listening to Serbia’s entry, too. It was also good to see that some of the songs told a story… though there were times the stage did detract from the song itself.
There were some pretty cool costumes in this Eurovision. The costume worn by Georgia’s entry was reminiscent of Xena: Warrior Princess. I also found the costume for Poland to be particularly… unique.
It was really good to see how much the stage was utilised in this Eurovision. France’s entry was particularly effective… and the use of shadows in Estonia’s was really effective.
I felt that all of the entries were definitely worth watching, but I was very pleased to see my favourite win. Sweden’s entry was incredibly ambitious… and I felt it worked really well. I watched through to the end and was pleased to see the stage utilised just as well with the song played the final time.
I definitely plan to watch the Eurovision next year. Including Australia set an interesting precedent and I personally think it would be good to open up the contest internationally. Of course, it would then have to be called by a different name.
Ink of Blood 