When the Cheshire emerges...

The biggest singing contest in the world has never been known (to those outside Europe) for having particularly high standards in performance, lyricism or hosts’ presentations. It’s known as a kitsch showcase of a different scene, but in retrospect even sans high standards there’s always some expectation of a real spectacle. But 2010 failed to deliver. While all the elements were there something was missing. Luckily, an unexpected component managed to somewhat fill the void.

The songs themselves were fairly lacklustre, in both the semis and the final itself. There weren’t any standout Euro-trash pop hits we’ve learnt to love (Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Deen’s In The Disco from 2004 will always have a place in my heart) and the ballads far outweighed anything else. Perhaps the European Union’s crisis with their currency mellowed the mood a bit. Certainly did with the hosts (three making one too many), whose zany nature only showed promise in the final – especially Erik Solbakken - although their outfits weren’t reflective of that nor changed nearly enough. No serious mood for Greece however, with Giorgos Alkaios & Friends shouting ‘OPA!’ like nothing had happened. One half of SBS Australia’s hosting team Julia Zemiro saw the irony and posed the burning question: ‘If Greece wins next year, can it afford to host it?’ Line of the night. No, actually, Giorgo’s reponse was… ‘I’ve been asked that question for the last three months.’ Poor poor bugger.

Not even a song from two-thirds of the Stock/Aitken/Waterman powerhouse trio could save teen Josh Dubovie and the UK from sinking to another wooden-spoon finish. With just two countries to go, Belarus scored an unprecedented 12 points (Unprecedented? Don’t be stupid, it was from an Eastern European country!), and left the poor darling to languish. Australia’s other hosting half Sam Pang anticipated this too, and we saw that even Dubovie was startled as the frank question was posed before the voting. The hosts were really on the ball all night, even when half the viewers missed serial pest Jimmy Jump crash the Spanish choreography.
 

The prelude to the night’s climax was the biggest highlight - even bigger than Lena’s disgruntlement at last year’s winner Alexander Rybak’s cheeky lip kiss. Shock horror, the 15 minutes we had to wait was INTERESTING! Hip-hop duo Madcon stunned us with Glow (why weren’t they an entry?!) and cities all around Europe dong the Flash Mob Dance. With choreography like ‘bow-and-arrow, bow-and-arrow, click, click, click, click’ choreography, households across Australia were up and dancing with them. Well my friends’ was anyway. That managed to salvage the event from being anything less than a spectacle. And then it was over. For as soon as it crept up on us, Eurovision was gone for another year. I can only wait until May 2011 for Berlin with excited anticipation - for the spectacle and Australian Tweeters going crazy for it as a Trending Topic.