eurovision

It was Eurovision this weekend.

As per usual it took me somewhat by surprise.  For some reason I have it in my head that it is held later in the year.  I think this might be because the Eurovision's I mainly remember watching were either as a kid or as a Student and in both my memories are largely of it being warm and late light (the student ones often involved drinking).  Therefore in my head Eurovision is associated with summer.

Anyway, this year was okay.  It was held in Sweden and was much more "traditional" in the sense that they hadn't gone mega bonkers with the whole thing.  A lot of the Russian satellite states (who had quite a string of wins when they all joined and only voted for each other) seemed to get into a bit of a staging war, with ever bigger productions.

Sweden just put it on in a reasonably-sized hall with a single presenter on a fairly basic stage with a basic presentation.  Really it's about the songs, after all.

The songs were genuinely of an okay standard this year.  There were only a couple that stood out with Eurovision-weirdness, and this was mainly in the staging, rather than the songs themselves.

I thought the winner was okay.  I got a bit mixed up with what was meant to be the favourite, but I think a perfectly okay pop song won in the end.  Although I would have liked something like Greece to have won, as there's was more fun and definitely more memorable.

The UK did poorly, as has become the norm in recent years.  There is obviously the Balkan effect nowadays, but to be totally frank it was another largely forgettable and uninteresting song.

Just recently they seem to have decided the best tactic is to have a 'star' name sing the song, but a star name from the ancient past.  Last year it was Bacharach and this year Bonnie Tyler.  I'm puzzled by this approach - isn't it mostly youngsters (or at least families) that watch Eurovision?  So what youngster knows Bonnie Tyler from Adam?