Eurovision 2007
This was the first year when I started being interested in it several months ahead of the actual contest. Of course, that’s mostly because I keep trying to find things to keep my mind busy with, not that it ever works…
Anyway, I knew all the songs and most presentations, but I did put all that out of my mind and ranked them during the show as I always do. The only change was the fact that I was harsher this time around, knowing that many performances will be good. It seems that it was one of the best ESC shows I’ve seen, big difference compared to last year’s, which was probably the worst overall. Check out the official site for more information.
What Lordi did manage to do last year was open Pandora’s box, a lot of genres were represented this time around. That’s a good thing, but let’s see how things will be after they settle down. One can notice that all the “heavier” songs that were in the semi were eliminated, but also that nothing, not even Ukraine, stood out nearly as much for show value this year as Finland did last year. Then again, the only thing that can even remotely be compared to that performance is Ukraine’s performance from 2004.
On another note, right now, Western countries are outraged by the way the Eastern ones vote for each other and demand changes in the voting method.
Serbia. Excellent song, but it didn’t stand out for me. Apparently this was the backlash from last year, people mobilizing to vote for a good song over a good performance. Yet, there were other good songs that also had something to make them stand out. I think the fact that it was Serbia’s debut as an independent country helped them as well.
Ukraine stood out for show value, albeit a tasteless one. The song was absolutely silly, but it was enough to draw attention.
Russia… As always, they have guaranteed votes. Russia could bring anything and they’d still be in the top. Enough said.
Turkey’s performance was dreadful from my point of view, but what can you do? As I said last year too, there will always be “political” votes at ESC. See what I said about Russia above…
Bulgaria stood out. It was a solid, unique performance. Not enough to win, but clearly something to be remembered. The best overall performance from the top 5 if you ask me.
But, since I mentioned asking me, here is my classification, as I wrote it down during the show (actual place between parenthesis):
1 Slovenia (15)
2 Moldova (10)
3 Bulgaria (5)
4 Ukraine (2)
5 Finland (17)
6 Serbia (1)
7 Lithuania (21)
8 Sweden (18)
9 Romania (13)
10 France (22)
11 Belarus (6)
12 Macedonia (14)
13 United Kingdom (23)
14 Georgia (12)
15 Latvia (16)
16 Bosnia (11)
17 Russia (3)
18 Spain (20)
19 Hungary (9)
20 Armenia (8)
21 Turkey (4)
22 Greece (7)
23 Germany (19)
24 Ireland (24)
Got the last place right. One place off for Latvia. Two off for Bulgaria, Ukraine, Macedonia, Georgia and Spain.
At the other end, at least ten places off for Slovenia, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden, France, United Kingdom, Russia, Hungary, Armenia, Turkey and Greece.
I seem to have been pretty far off overall, so I’ll explain my top choices a bit.
Slovenia had great vocals, clearly stood out even if you’ll say that Latvia also had something along those lines, and I liked the trick with lighting her face while all other lights were a dim blue.
Moldova had an outstanding overall performance. Very good voice, good song, nice stage presence. Probably the best overall value, but there was something that wouldn’t let me put it over Slovenia.
Bulgaria, as I said before, was a solid performance that stood out. Nothing like it this year and I’m not even sure there ever was anything along the same lines.
Also as I said before, Ukraine stood out for show value, though the song was just silly.
And Finland was the “heaviest” entry left, after all those from the semi were kicked out. Didn’t sound bad at all actually, but was lacking something…
Then I put Serbia and Lithuania. Both of them are great songs, but they didn’t have anything to be remembered by. That said, Lithuania scored about as much as I expected them to score, but Serbia… Talk about a backlash, just put this song next to last year’s winner. Hard to find a greater contrast. Oh, and the song title means “prayer”, add that to the contrast.
As for Sweden, Romania and France, they just were interesting songs. Actually, Sweden stood out as well, but not enough for me to put them over Serbia and Lithuania.
And that’s it with the top ten, the rest were pretty much what you’d expect at ESC…
As for the semi, I did better than last year. Six of the ones I wanted to qualify, did. The difference was that I wanted Andorra, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Iceland to make it instead of Belarus, Hungary, Georgia and Turkey. Ok, it was obvious that Belarus and Turkey will qualify and Andorra and the Czech Republic won’t (Czechs got a single point!), also likely that Georgia will qualify instead of Iceland, so the only surprise for me was Hungary qualifying instead of Cyprus, but I’m talking about who I wanted to make it, not who I thought would. No, I’m not at all surprised that big favorites Switzerland didn’t make it. They seem to have forgotten to take their voices along with them for the trip, so it was obvious.
