At the Eurovision After-Show Party, Jade poses for a photo with Lys Assia, winner of the very first Eurovision back in 1956. Photo: (c) Glenn Webb, EBU
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/news/05_may/180509_aftermath.shtml
Well, it's the morning after the weekend before, and the dust is starting to settle on the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. All of the acts sang their little socks off on stage in Moscow, and as we now know, young Alexander Rybak from Norway walked away with the trophy with his tune 'Fairytale' - which he not only sang and performed on the violin, but he also composed the song and wrote the lyrics as well. A multi-talented young man indeed! If you missed Alexander's performance, you can watch it again on the BBC's YouTube channel.
After years of loitering down near the bottom of the table, the UK's pride at Eurovision was restored by Jade Ewen, when she grabbed an admirable 5th place. At times during the contest it looked as though a 3rd or even 2nd place might be a possibility, but the ever-unpredictable voting left Jade just pipped for fourth place by Hadise from Turkey, with Iceland and Azerbaijan grabbing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
So it appears that a combination of factors were behind our Eurovision success in 2009. First and foremost, we sent a performer in Jade that was more than able to 'stand proud' on the European stage. The combined songwriting expertise and presence of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren must have helped too. Also the shift to include jury votes as 50% of the total score seems to have gone some way towards stopping the 'block voting' problem that many people felt had undermined the contest in recent years.
So, our thanks go this year to the following countries for giving points to the UK:
Albania (8 points), Andorra (4), Armenia (7), Belarus (3), Bosnia (4), Buglaria (7), Cyprus (7), Croatia (4), Czech Republic (6), Denmark (3), France (4), Germany (8), Hungary (1), Ireland (10), Israel (4), Latvia (2), Lithuania (3), Macedonia (6), Moldova (1), Malta (10), Netherlands (3), Norway (2), Poland (4), Portugal (10), Russia (6), Serbia (8), Slovenia (3), Slovakia (7), Spain (10), Ukraine (6)... and mostly to Greece, for giving us our one and only legendary Douze (12) Points!
However, the following nations are definitely off the UK's Christmas Card list for failing to award us any points: Azerbaijan, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Montenegro, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Tsk. Must do better next year. See us after class...
So it's all off to Norway next year - but to which city? To the capital, Oslo, as might be predicted? Or perhaps another regional city such as Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim or Lillehammer? Amazingly, it's only going to be about another 7 or 8 months until the first songs for Eurovision 2010 are announced...
