Grand Final Review
“…A fierce, primitive fighting force that smashes relentlessly forward against impossible odds. That is the circus. And this is the story of the biggest of the big tops, and of the men and women who fight to make it “The Greatest Show on Earth.” – from the movie “The Greatest show on earth”- 1952
A hamster wheel, a trapeze, a trampoline, fireworks, tribal dancers, rain, holograms and a bearded lady. This sums up this year’s Eurovision “Circus” . Add up an amazing stage, super lineup of songs, and a lot of controversy, and you get one of the best Eurovision in the latest years. For everybody agrees it was one of the best. Starting up with no clear favourite, it kept its surprise till the voting of the last 3 countries. Following up two years of clear favourites ( Loreen and Emelie de Forest ), this year Eurovision managed to keep us in suspence the whole contest.
With a spectacular performance, the best song in the contest, raising the issue of freedom of expressing one’s self and a beard, Conchita managed to have it all in order to win this year. And what a win it was!!!
We will try to review the final in a few words in order to get a better understanding of what happened this year:
Ukraine – an average song, very well staged, a beautiful and talented singer, a hamster wheel used as a metaphor, and a “political” controversy, these are the ingredients that got Ukraine the 6th place.
Belarus – an even more average song…really I don’t understand how it managed to get through to the final. (I would have chosen Israel over Belarus. At least it had a message. But Cheesecake..???..)
Azerbaijan– missed out big time this year. Maybe because it was too early in the final, maybe nobody got the trapeze thing …we really don’t know what happened cause everyone expected massive voting for Azerbaijan, from all the turkish communities aroud Europe. They only managed to get 10 from Russia and 12 from San Marino. For the haters I ask you: “ Where are the political votes now”??? We think it was a very beautiful entry.
Iceland – average from all points of view.
Norway– as expected they managed a top 10 , but lower than some media gave them credit for. Only 8th place. They got only once 10 points from The Netherlands. Otherwise average.
Romania– a surprise to all of us , because we really expected a top 10, and we were close , until the last voting country we were on the 9th, but then Spain and Denmark took points and we dropped in 12th. A song that many say it was weaker than the 2010 entry and a very “desperate” staging, these I think were the ingredients of failing the top 10. When we say “desperate” we don’t mean the actual singing of the song, which was perfect, Paula being amazing as always, but we refer to the static performance, with a very weird choreography from Paula, a useless hologram at the beginning and no message to transmit to the viewers. It was a bit cold. The only stand outs for this entry were the round piano and Paula’s high note. They threw too much into this, the national final was way better, very simple and effective. Apart from that, we are very proud cause they represented us with dignity, class and they stood by for what they belived would bring them victory. It just wasn’t ment to be this year!
Armenia– as expected it finished top 5.
Montenegro – a beautiful ballad which, if it was sung in English, would have been much higher. Nobody understood the message of it, and neither the ice skating woman.
Poland – we expected it much lower in the top. It lacked the melody , but it had boobs 🙂 .
Greece– why..???..I don’t get it, we expected it to go a lot higher. But I guess it was one of those hit or miss songs. A risk Greece took, and very well they did. We need this kind of songs in Eurovision. Club anthems are always a treat for eurovision fans, and usually are the only songs they remember 🙂 Anyway good job Greece.
Austria– The Winner- high class all the way. PERFECT !
Germany – this song was in no way worse than Poland and Belarus…it was a very good song actually. The presentation though, lacked everything. It was correctly sung, but it had nothing else. The studio version is actually very good.
Sweden – as expected…top 3. A lot of people said this would win. I didn’t 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, it is a perfect Eurovision song, a perfect Eurovision entry, and a perfect staging. Everything was TOO SAFE and TOO PERFECT.
France – Where do I begin..? 26 th place with only 2 points. I probably should stop there 🙂 The entry itself is not bad. The staging was a mess , but in a good way. Everybody expected that. France will not be in Top 10 if they don’t take this seriously. They did that when they sent Patricia Kaas and they managed a respectable place.
Russia– they received points from : Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Malta, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Portugal, Israel, Georgia, Lithuania and Macedonia. So, not only the ex-soviet countries voted for them. It was a decent song, with a very interesting staging, it had the talented twins, overal I say it was a well deserved place.
Italy – Emma was sooo out of it…. really! I loved the song, the costumes were very glam rock…It had all the ingredients to be perfect. She didn’t transmit anything to me. How could this be.?she is a very good singer. Even when she tried to “wipe” the floor … she didn’t manage to do that credibly… sorry 🙁
Slovenia – didn’t expect 25th place. At all. A very decent entry. Actually a lot better than a few songs in the top15. Even if the jurys thought it was good, the televoting made the difference.
Finland– copycat. In a good way I mean. It sounded good, but not a power-house song.
Spain – class act all the way. We expected it to do soo much better. Ruth delivered, and that rain was true magic. Bravo Spain!!!!!
Switzerland – Catchy tune, with a Rybak feel, and an infectious wistle. Good placing.
Hungary – top 5 as predicted. No suprises there.
Malta – The worst song in my opinion. It had nothing. Sorry, but not my cup of tea this year. Just plain monotone. I cannot think of anything to remember it by. I expected it much lower.
Denmark – Happy tune, nice staging, very well sung. Plus it was the host country. Good place for Denmark.
The Netherlands – Dark horse here, cause before the semifinal, a few people credited it with a Top 10. But the performance was so intimate, so low key… it actually drew attention buy its simplicity. A very good song ( they won The Marcel Bezencon award for composition).
San Marino – they qualified, which in fact is an amazing performance. It was a good song, for sure not deserved to be that low in the top. I expected it top 15.
United Kingdon – They could have done so much better. It was too static, and it didn’t transmit the right message. The staging was as simple as it could be. It deserved so much better. Really sorry for UK.
Conclusions: Don’t follow any receipts when you enter Eurovision. They don’t exist. You can make sure you have a good song, a good voice, a message to transmit to the 180 million people whatching, and a “twist”. Then pray Europe is on the same wavelength with you, and you might get lucky..:))) I am just kidding!
One thing to remember though: keep the equilibrium between simple and sophisticated in the right position. Too much can ruin things, and less is more sometimes.
Ionut Demetriad for escromania.com
photo: eurovision.tv
