Eurovision 2006 Reviews

Well, where do I start? I should point out that I really have enjoyed making the site, reviewing the songs and coming up with predictions, so I hope you all come back for the fun next year, and keep checking the site until the 'Eurovision 2007 Season'. I thought most of the entries this year were great, some better than last year and some worse, but all in all it was certainly a show worth waiting for.

Thursday 18th May, the Semi-Final. I waited with much anticipation to see how many of the songs would fare - Belgium, Estonia and Iceland in particular. Andre kicked off the show with a reasonably impressive performance from Armenia and some great vocals and performances followed - Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine and Sweden to name a few. I must admit, the 3 songs I was anticipating the most were probably the three big let downs, but nonetheless were still enjoyable.

I was in dismay when the envelopes were opened - although I managed to get seven out of ten right in my predictions, my favourites weren't there - no Belgium, no Iceland, no Estonia and no Slovenia. I was especially surprised to see Armenia (after a hardly spectacular performance) Ireland (still not quite sure how that happened) and Russia (though he managed 3rd in the Semi - the performance was hardly great, he certainly wasn't dancing to the same song he was singing, unless he has some sort of nervous twitch) make it through. Nonetheless, the Turkish entry certainly lived up to the hype with a spectacular performance (now one of my favourites) - and Ukraine caused a big surprise, with a thoroughly enjoyable performance involving "bells, tassles and tambourines" (Paddy).

There were two big shocks of the night. The first was Belgium's misfortune, after being a favourite among the fans in so many polls, Kate Ryan's performance was a slight let down, but surely still deserved to qualify, no?! Europe obviously didn't think so! The second was the qualification of Lithuania. They did provide a lively performance and the song wasn't quite so bad live as it is on the recorded CD version, but nonetheless, I still don't think it was a worthy contender, despite what the rest of Europe think.

So on the 20th May it was on to the Final, the Contest that would decide the 2006 Song For Europe. There were many tough contenders - would it be Greece's power ballad, Germany's country 'n' western number, Sweden's big Europop number, Bosnia & Herzegovina's ethnic ballad, Romania's dance track, or Turkey's mixture of west and east european pop? As it turned out, none of them and the winner's of a 'pop song contest' were hard rockers, Lordi, from Finland.

The entertainment throughout the night was wonderful, with much better performances than I was expecting. The live versions of the songs really lifted them and great shows came from Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Romania, Finland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK to name just a handful. Some surprising performances came from Moldova, Israel and Croatia - which I thought were actually rather enjoyable.

Despite having so many pre-contest favourites, when it came to the voting there were a few surprises as to who would do well and who would flop. Of course, Cyprus gave Greece 12 points, France gave the UK nothing, and all the Balkans all stuck together. Do I think it's political? No, I'd say the only case of political voting happens between Greece and Cyprus, as it's such a dead cert each year, but if it were political, Finland could hardly have won - right through the 90's 'til the Semi-Final was introduced, Finland only appeared the even numbered contests due to relegation on every occasion, so they can hardly rely on political votes. If neighbouring countries voted for each other, the UK would only have been able to recieve a maximum of 12 points from Ireland and vice versa, Russia would win hands down every year, Iceland would never recieve a point (despite not making it through the Semi they did manage 62 points) Switzerland (right smack bang in the middle of Europe) would score more than 30 points and despite their poor showing, people can't still blame Germany 50 years on from WW2. If neighbouring countries ie. the Balkans and the Baltics do share points, that's only because their artists are famous in the surrounding countries and they have similar cultural tastes in music.

Another point, just to prove why I think it IS about the music - we had 5 very different song genres in the top 5 - rock from Finland, midtempo pop ballad from Russia, ethnic ballad from Bosnia & Herzegovina, a dance track from Romania and a big Europop number from Sweden - not to mention a novelty entry from Lithuania and a quirky number form Ukraine in 6th and 7th. If people are sore about the UK not scoring well, I'd say it's because of the genre of the song. Although rock music represents Europe this year, surely rap music never will - is it not too American for Europe?