Eurovision 2009 report

Ahh, Eurovision. It is something that you have to see to believe.

When most of the countries in Europe (and there are quite a lot of them) gather together in one big event to sing and dance, you know that it is going to be some event.

This years outstanding performances were...

Ukraine. They went with a 'sex on a stick' style performance, which was similar to Germany's song, though Germany didn't have glitter studded Roman centurions and a drum being pulled across the stage. The choreography and costumes left little to the imagination, that is if you could see the performance beyond the blinding lasers, lights and fireworks that were going off.

Albania was obscure, with two dwarfs and a 'green man' as backup dancers. If they were trying to convey some meaning, they failed, spectacularly.

England tried really really hard to win with an inspirational song. But it came across as a sad "woe is me, me, me, me myself and I" and more me me me me's than you could poke a stick at.

Iceland had a nice euro pop song, though it really didn't do anything spectacular for me.

Norway though was the crowning champion of the evening (by a record 300 points), with a tradition/pop mixed song titled Fairytale. YouTube it or do something like that, it's worth listening to.

Spain's entry was a massive disappointment, it was like they just pulled a singer off the street. Plus they were one of the big five that automatically gets in (they should have put a lot more effort into it!)

Russia's entry was good, very dark, guttural and obscure but worth listening to.

I was disappointed with Germany's song. It was very jazzy (which I liked), but they just over-sexed the visuals to try and bring in the votes (to which it didn't)

The performances as a whole - higher quality than last years, which was good for the ears. Unfortunately though, that meant less humour and funny entries.

Russia hosted a magnificent performance, costing over $50 million, used 40% of the worlds LCD TVs and was the biggest Eurovision ever hosted. A splendid array of performances were given by the host country, maybe with the exception of the 'pool performance'

Suspended above the crowd were shallow pools with clear bottoms. Girls splashed around, swam and half danced in the water with lights and visual effects that were quite amazing. The pools were then lowered into touching distance of the audience (many health and safety jokes were made) only then for the dancers/swimmers to "belly flop" onto the clear surface covered only by 1cm of water. It looked frightfully painful, but the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Overall, a fantastic event, to which I will wait with eager anticipation untill Norway 2010!