eurovision song contest 2007

After having waited for a few days and frantically trying to decide what songs I like or what I’d be voting for the day came where everything stopped. I blocked my phone, but my MSN on “Appear Offline” and closed down anything that could disturb me for the three hours that Eurovision takes up in my evening. I even double locked my door and put a little sign on the outside saying “Derrangez-moi uniquement si vous voulez regarder sérieusement Eurovision avec moi” which makes me sort of obsessive but I don’t care. Since I don’t have a TV I had to again watch the online broadcast which was just as well since the quality was great, however there was a glitch and I ended up missing part of one entry! Boo!

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Maria

First off we have this lovely country that lately has been sending some awesome songs. Last year’s ballad rocked my world, the year before that had a schlager hit that I know all the words to (of course) but it seems they went again for the ballad. Colours were green, which was different and sort of nice but the dress that Maria was wearing was a bit distracting / disturbing. It was a beautiful song, but not really one that I liked; it was okay, it didn’t have any *eumph*. It really had the feeling of being Slavic though, and I feel as thought I’m learning some Slavic languages which is sort of nice; but really like I said this lacked eumph!

Spain: D’Nash
Personal Favourite

Let me first say that the actual song by Spain pailed in comparison to the act that they put out. What do you get when you have four young men, some moderately good looking, and some amazingly hot, wearing all white, with women drummers and visually stiumlating things in the background? HAWT HAWT HAWT; is all I could say. The way they shake their hips, the way they move, the way they sing is all so Hispanic and it’s very intriguing and stimulating. Apart from that, the song was an alright schlager pop with cheesy lyrics but it was one of my top songs, for the soul fact that those guys were eye-candy; I love you mi vida baby!

Belarus: Koldun
Personal Favourite

Our first Semi-Final qualification was the James Bond style act again. This performance wasn’t as good at the semi-final but the act was more or less exactly the same; sexy dancing, horrible English, fireworks, and a stary night. So much hype was put onto this song, but then I realised that it wasn’t really a winning song, thank goodness. Can one imagine Eurovision going to Minsk? I don’t even want to, at least not at this day and age, that’s for sure. Would they even let people come to the country? lol – Who knows, we won’t know until at least two years at minumum!

Ireland: Dervish
Personal Favourite

I love this Irish ballad, it’s so sweet and cute but honestly some of the non-anglophones sang in better English than her. I knew the words so it was better, but listening ot the song I would never have known what she was saying. She kept doing this weird thing with her voice and as a result it sounded really bad, the first last place entry in Ireland’s history, how sad; but it’s totally understandable considering there wasn’t anything going on on stage besides the band. It was sort of boring in that case, but the Irish folk music is always nice to listen to, at least for me.

Finland: Hanna Pakarinen
Personal Favourite

Rock on sister! You freaking rock my world I loved this act so much. Maybe it was the all the excitement that you can hear from the Finnish crowd, because even compared to last year in Athens I’ve never heard a home crowd be so proud of their entry. Rock is sort of growing on me, especially with the awesome bluey colour and very well written song. It’s sort of stereotypically Finnish, but I like the Finns, they are so weird and cute like that! Hurray for the awesome applause though, way to support your girl Finland! And it’s interesting to note this was the top ranking Western country! I would have gone with Sweden first, then Finland but still congrats; that’s two years in a row you beat Sweden. 😉

F.Y.R. Macedonia: Karolina Gocheava

As I said in the semi-final this song irritates me, I hate the sound of Macedonian, I hate the Na-Na crap, and I just don’t like the song. It has a decent message but it’s just an act that bothers me. She has a nice dress and she’s pretty but it didn’t help her for me; sorry!

Slovenia: Alenka Gotar

What a national jubilation for Slovenia to be in the final, and who would have thought with a schlager-opera song? Certainly not me, but despite the fact that I’m not really a fan of the song, she’s a trained opera singer so she doesn’t make a single mistake, so more or less the performance is perfect but still my mind says “WTF” ? Everyone is being critical of the little light thing that she had, but I thought it was kind of cool; but completely unrelated to the lyrics or song. Having said that, who knows what she was thinking?

Hungary: Magdi Rúzsa
Personal Favourite

Simply awesome song, but poorer performance than the semi-final. Go Hungary! I did start to notice the bus-stop which was kind of random but I guess you need to have something on stage to attract people away from what is actually happening. Beautifully written jazz song, performed well, but horrible horrible English pronouciation. At points without reading the lyrics you can’t understand what’s going on; which is a shame because it would add more colour to it, but the spice it brings is nice. A good result too, so congratulations Hungary, I hope you come back next year with something equally as funky!

Lithuania: 4Fun

This was sort of the “WTF” of the final, it didn’t really sit in with anything else, it just sort was random. She just sat there with her guitar singing with the sillhouettes in the background as a band? It wasn’t such a bad song that sort of grows on me after a million listens, but it was simply too boring for anyone to remember or vote for. So sad, but at least it wasn’t as bad as Belgium! 🙂

Greece: Sarbel

Ugh. I like this song, which bothers me, because he’s so boybandish but singing alone. I think that my experience with Greek people has ruined Greek men (in particular) for me. The whole hands on approach is too… Meddeterrian for me, and this guy is the embodyment of it. If he attemps to shake his shoulders any more, he’s going to start to develop moobs (man boobs), and that just creeps me out. It’s a good song, but it’s equally made bad with horrible dancing of a semi-attractive Greek guy. And to add to that, I don’t think he’s the type to be singing to a woman named Maria, ‘nuf said.

Georgia: Sopho
Personal Favourite

I absolutely love her, and I have continued to love her more and more since the semi-final. My love grew even further when I figured out that she was actually speaking English and what she was saying! Regardless this song is so sweet and cute, but the samauri dancers are a bit much, especailly when they try to seduce the camera. Unfortunately only in 12th place so no automatic qualification, which she so clearly deserved especially as a newcommer to Eurovision. Welcome Georgia, give me a good song next year so I can have a new favourite country!

Sweden: The Ark
Personal Favourite

How can anyone not like Ola Salo and his band The Ark? He comes from Småland (:O) but one could consider his second home Finland, which is always a help too. Famous in Scandinavia, and using Eurovision as a bouncing board into Europe, but it sort of failed in many ways. With a dissapointing 17th place finnish, after a poor performance it’s a bloody shame because it’s going to be difficult for Western Countries to qualify next year. His voice was way off compared to Melodifestivalen and it even looked like he put on a bit of weight, oh well I still voted for him! haha!

France: Les Fatals Picards

I’m torn, in the French “final” (hyperbole for the horrible competition) I actually voted for this song because I couldn’t stand to see anyone from the competition sent, and really the song isn’t that bad. But I do have some on stage comments. Pink, okay I can deal with that, but the cat on the guy’s shoulder? What the…? Also I did notice that the main singer was wearing girly shoes, they were like high-heals with those thick heals, so I laghed to myself when I saw. It wasn’t as horrible as everyone else had thought though, something decently performed that France has sent in the last years. I do want to take France and shake them up, in more ways then one; Presidential choice, Socieity and Administration, Eurovision Entries; get your act together you Frenchies!

Latvia: Bonaparti.lv

I continue to shake my head in shame for this entry. Come on Latvia; you can do much better than a singing hobo choir! They look like hobos who are trying too hard, and then can’t sing well together. Il Divo rip-off written all over them, but people actually voted for this? How could anyone be so blind and stupid? How could anyone want to see this come anywhere in the top 10? *shudders*

Russia: Serebro

I have some interesting comments for Russia, and I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing but I’m going to say them anyways. Russia sends good songs, it’s a fact, whether I like them or not they at least know who to choose, however this year reminded me a lot of a t.A.T.u rip off with three girls in black, but at the end of the night I had completely forgotten that they even performed. Now to me this is disturbing because I can’t even recall the tune of the song, which shows that it’s uninteresting to me. Even as I’m writing this I had to pull up the song to try to remind myself of what they did. And then the votes come in and it comes in the top5? How can a song that I don’t even remember, or like a huge amount do so well? It’s simply shocking to me.

Germany: Roger Cicero
Personal Favourite

Turn back the clocks babies, becuase Roger Cicero is here to bring us to a time that was prosperous, worry-free, and not like anything else in the competition. This was a huge favourite for me coming in, but it flopped in the voting results, so sad. He’s a good singer, he’s a good looking German man, with a band, and a good voice and good song! What’s wrong with it? It’s different, just like Georgia but in a different way! Votttee it! So as a result now I’m sad for it’s poor result.

Serbia: Marija Šerifović
Personal Favourite
Winner

I can honestly say that I was happy and relieved to see the best song of the competition win. She sang her heart out to a good song, despite looking like a man, but the song sticks in my head and it crys out to me! Great job, so everyone stop bitching about voting results. The whole of Europe voted for it, so it’s not all about voting patterns of the East; the truth of the matter is that the song is great and that everyone sees that for once!

Ukraine: Verka Serduchka
Personal Favourite

Wow. I was actually extrodinary surprised by this entry. Tobias had told me that it was his favourite, and really I avoided listening to it because I thought he was just pulling my chain. I saw it, and the first time I was like “Huh” but then when they did the reviews of the song I started to like it more and more. With a song of about 10 words of lyrics, in several different languages, with a drag-queen that looks hotter than a supermodel as a man, this song came in a close second. The whole time the voting was going on, I was nervous because seriously you can’t have that win! I can see why people voted it, but that scares me a lot! The dance is funny, the singing is funny, the song is funny, it’s just funny! Entertainment factor is high, but just wow. I still thing he should have performed as a man, he’s way hotter, but the drag-queen was there for “shock factor” that didn’t exist anyways.

United Kingdom: Scooch

Oh you crazy British. With about as many sexual innuendos as lyrics for the song I can’t help but laugh and not be surprise that the UK chose this. It’s cheezy on the highest possible level, with guys that look like women because they have so much make-up on, and cheesy lyrics. At the same time as the cheezyness it makes me just want to get up and dance because it’s a sort of dance-hit in a way. Oh well, Malta gave you 12 points? I think they looked more surprised than anything!

Romania: Todomondo
Personal Favourite

Despite Romania being my favourite country for the last 4 or 5 years I thought that this year it would dissapointment this year, but after the performance I was happy to note that again it stays to the top. The song was lower in the quality scale than in past years, but it’s not bad, a multi-lingual song about love with an Eastern; Romanian feel. It was funny to watch too with the crazy French man. Bring me a better song next year please, I like you Romania, don’t fail me! We need another Mihai or Luminita to exite my soul!

Bulgaria: Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoukov
Personal Favourite

I was surprised by this one, it was a top5 entry! I didn’t think that people would like it that much, but I know I did. It was the mix of folklore and new-age music from the début country, Bulgaria. The performance was way better this time around, but I wonder why people chose it, because it really was different! Horrible English, however, but I won’t judge. 🙂

Turkey: Kenan Dogulu

This is my first of only two Go Home songs in the Final. All in all this show has been on a very high quality scale, but this song pisses me off. He’s a short, slimey Turkish singer, and the Turkish dispora in Europe always voting for their song just pisses me off! Go home and get something far greater so you can shut me up about the voting; because I actually did just throw up a little bit in my mouth!

Armenia: Hayko

The tree bothered me, plain and simple, and the guy with the breaking heart who looked like he could be well just someone different it bothered me. This is the second Go Home song of the show, and it got voted in the top10? What the hell was anyone thinking? I can’t imagine that there is a huge Armenian population in Europe, but there were much better songs. Having said all this though, he actually did sing well in English which was a surprise! But boooo!

Moldova: Natalia Babu

Rounding up the evening was the powerful Moldovan entry with a woman who sings low but belts the high notes with ease, although it’s true that she is actaully screaming. A Cher rip-off, possibly, but really the performance grows on me and I like the song much more than I did in the semi-final. The staff thing going on in the backgound distracts me and it’s pretty cool but with all the clothes on the stage it makes me sort of confused as to what’s going on. I just see like random things going everywhere, when we should be focusing on the fact that Natalia can actually sing, as a rocker!

Great show, 6 years later I finally add the images!

Welcome to Helsinki, Finland where the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest has come. After having watched the webcast online due to lack of TV and French coverage, I’ve taken it upon myself to a review and critqiue of each of the acts, because I’m that awesome. The stage was absolutely amazing, and the hosts were goregous. I epecially like when Mikko Leppilampi does his little twirl! It makes me just feel like a kid again!

Bulgaria – Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoukov
Qualified
Personal Favourite

Surprisingly I am into this music for some reason. The act was a bit boring with just two people on stage, but the mix of folk, modern music, and Bulgarian folklore was a really nice mix. I really wish that I understand what they were actaully saying. Vocals were half decent with a wonderful frog sound during one of her octave jumps! Most people will criticise this song for it’s lack of Eurovision, but I praise it for it’s different qualities.

Israel – Teapacks

I really don’t know what to say about this act, it’s sort of a discrace on stage, especially with the costumes and hopping around all the time. “Push The Bu-Push The Bu-Push The Button” words are annoying. The language mix was nice, but seriously, for an act that aroused so much controversy really just made me want to revoke my comments about Eddie Butler last year. As I’ve said for awhile, Israel, if you’re not going to send even a half decent song, stay at home, for the sake of all of us. Funny enough, this was one of the only Eastern countries that didn’t qualify, thank God!

Cyprus – Evridiki & D. Korgialas
Personal Favourite

Bringing back the songs in French rocks my socks, especially when it’s a song that’s actually spoken in decent French, and is rock! She looked a little bit nervous on stage, despite rocking the way through her song which was really nicely written and a favourite to qualify. You should have gone on, but I’m confused about something. You’re  mic stand was sort of weird, and you seemed to have not much to watch apart from you singing. I like dancing and colours and cool things like that! Your outfit was cool though, thank you for not slutty it up like some others *cough FYR Macedonia cough*. Even the little mix of techno in it makes me want to just jump up and break it down like I did in Prague!

Belarus: Koldun
Qualified
Personal Favourite

Despite you being a really good song, you will never compare with “Moj Galilej” back a few years. Your song makes me very interested, and it’s actaully performed really well with good background dancers and things to entertain me. It feels wrong saying that I like Belarus, but you really brought it this year. Charisma, good looks, a good act, a good song; you’re dangerous. You’re Russian looking, which is exotic and the James Bond act makes me shiver a bit, especially your shirt which opens up a little bit at the bottom. Your English is a bit sketchy, but better than last year Belarussian entry. I think what would have made this act just go over the top amazing would have been some sort of a strip-show. The nasality of your singing is a bit bothering, however your dancers distract it so it’s awesome.

Iceland: Eirikur Hauksson
Personal Favourite

I’m absolutely gutted about the fact that you didn’t qualify. This is the second time that Iceland has been robbed in the Semi-Final. You are seasoned singer, a great rocker, amazing performer, and great song. What went wrong? Absolutely nothing, your singing is exactly like the CD, which is flawless. Your stage presence makes me want to like rock, but I won’t; but I feel so betrayed by the world that you didn’t qualify. It’s just kind of sad that when a country actually sends a good song for once, it’s not noticed, it’s not like you’re Silvia Night or anything. Nordic jury was right about you, surefire qualifier gone wrong! Save me from your caged heart, rock and roll will heal my soul cause my heart is out of control! Well I’ll let it show, rock and soul has healed my soul!

Georgia: Sopho
Qualified
Personal Favourite

I’m sort of confused by this entry, it’s a werid song sung by a newcomer country. Welcome Georgia, you made a splash certainly! Beautiful dress, beautiful woman, beautiful voice, all mixed with samauris and weird music from the East. Normally I would hiss at this and not purr but your exoticism makes me quiver with unknowns. I’m a bit surprised that you actually qualified, being my dark-horse qualifer! Your English is absolutely ghastly however, which takes nothing away from your other good apsects, change of dress of the Final? Methinks blue would suit you quite well, or purple. The thing on your back was so cool but what’s with the jolting around? I feel like you’re a turtle or something, it’s kind of scary that you’re going to jump at the camera. Yay fireworks, Boom-bang-a-bang om du kommer till mig!

Montenegro: Stevan Faddy

Go home, simply said I just can’t really put anything into words for this entry. Montenegro for the first time as an independant entry and country sort of disturbed me to a large extent. I’m at least glad that you didn’t qualify. Blonde guy with earings on stage, who is clearly very short; kind of creepy. Odly you look a bit Japanese maybe becuase of your clothes, but your hands are making me want to chop them off. End the suffering and enjoy the concert from the background! Nothing special, nothing interesting, I want ot know what the Serbian word “Voiko” means though, just because you have it damn near put into my head. Cursed!

Switzerland: DJ BoBo
Personal Favourite

I am simply gutted by your lack of qualifiction. It’s not surprising because nobody votes Switzerland despite good songs, but Vampires, Tencho and Dance all in one song! *drools* I want to be in your act. Your dances are c
ool, costumes creative, great idea for the song, but the public didn’t take on it. :'( It makes me so sad because you were my favourite song for the Semi-Final and you didn’t make it! It reminds me a bit of Evan from Melodifestivalen, but it’s way better with Swiss people. It’s a happy song for me, despite being about dark things, what a paradox! I want to even learn your chorus dance, it looks funkadelik! Whoah nelly on the make up for the woman though, there are more sparkles on your eyes than on all of the black guy’s shiny gold vest thingie-ma-bob! By the way, a singer that can actually dance? Damn! I’m impressed! Shame I don’t get to see you again.

Moldova: Natalia Barbu
Qualified

I am a bit confused about this entry, as only after seeing the performance I remotely liked it. I hated it on CD but seeing it maybe got it to work for me? Something about the “I come from Moldova, play violin mixed with rock” maybe turned my crank? Also the usage of the clothes and stafs is really awesome, artistic and strong all at the same time. However, I need to take a moment to talk about the outfit chosen by her. She looks like a modern witch, and the fishnets on your stomach, sketchy! The English is horrible, “Let Nobody In” ? I would rather hear “Let No-one In”, but that’s a technicality. I had a vision of Gracia from Germany in my head whilst watching this, but I was more pleased by this performance. Another one of my surprise favourites that I thought would be a dark-horse. Stong voice also; girl, don’t become Lara Fabien though, please! But wait, someone has brought it to my attention that she’s more of a Cher rip-off looking girl, interesting concept.

The Netherlands: Edsilia Rombley

This isn’t one of my favourites, but it was a lot better than a lot of other songs and had high expecations only to flop; go figure! Is she going to go drama-queen like Dutch entries in the past? Song is good, singing is decent, she’s a pretty girl but I think for me it lacks uhmphf! I actually got slightly bored during this song and got distracted, so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t get top marks from me! Maybe the skanky dancers deterred my attention, but it’s a sorry rememberance of Andorra last year with those slutty dancers. While commenting on the Netherlands I’m gutted about how Paul de Leewue will be presenting the points again on Saturday night. This makes me depressed and irritated mostly because the way he talks is annoying, he takes forever, and everyone likes him? I do however want to see him hit on Mikko Leppilampi, the host.

Albania: Frederik Ndoci & Aida

Go home, I can’t find words to describe this. The singing was good, but the song just annoys me so much! The piano bits were more irritating, and just his look on stage makes me want to just shut down and die. Culture mixed is good, but too much violins in the Albanian entries in the recent years. And his huge blue ring on his right hand makes me think he’s the Godfather of gangs in Albania. Odd thought, I know but I’m just really biased about this song. As I said, go home; thanks!

Denmark: DQ
Personal Favourite

I’m not obliged to like this song, but I absolutely adore disco-schlager. I don’t like the fact that it’s a transvestite, but it makes it all the more funny. The dancers are brilliant with their fans drawing attention to the singer who is a great performer. The stripshow is amsuing, with a shocking three dress changes! Skimpier and sluttier each time, with the sexy robot dancers! The dancers are making me happy and the song is my happy song! The blonde dancer smiles too much bit it’s hawt, oh wait I realise that they all are blondes. The one on the left mostly! The feathers are amazing though, shake them you sexy dancers! So much going on, on stage it makes me feel a bit like I’m going into epileptic shock; this is a good thing! Yay and boo all at the same time for not qualifying!

Croatia: Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić

This is another go home entry. I don’t actually have much to say about this song, the afro hairdo on the chick was distracting. And Dado looked like a strung out rocker on coke; n’eugh said. Thank goodness for not qualifying.

Poland: The Jet Set

I really don’t know what to say about this song either. Polish singers trying to do rap in English, looking like skanks. This is another go home act! Seriously, it’s just sort of disturbing to have to watch this for three minutes. Maybe skank isn’t the right word, cheap whore perhaps? That guy’s pants are distracting, and the circle cage, which I would normally like I don’t because it’s cheap-whore material. All the thursting is just a bit over the top, no a lot over the top. Go home, oh and I just realised there is a point where she puts her leg up and it’s making her even more slutty and cheap-whorish. *shudders*

Serbia: Marija Šerifović
Qualified
Personal Favourite

Probably the favourite and by far the best written song in the competition this lovely Serbian entry is a bit contrasted with the fact that Marija looks like a man? She has an amazing voice, but the whole androgenous look isn’t working out for her. A performance of her life, as she stated, as well as a song to win the competition, she’s got it all and will be top 5 at least in the final. She just sings her heart out and it sounds great! It makes me want to learn Serbian and just sing with her. The part of the chorus: “Nebo zna, kao ja, Koliko puta sam ponovila, To nebo zna, baš kao ja” absolutely screams out tome!

Czech Republic: Kabát

Uhmm, this is a Czech rock Lordi rip-off I think. And it’s kind of creepy and not in a good way, but a decent entry for the Czech Republic’s first attempt. But I still can’t see how this would have gone anywhere even if it was a popular country or song. His deep voice is so raspy that it makes me shiver it’s so creepy! It’s not a go home song, but it’s just nothing that I’d normally be into!

Portugal: Sabrina

As usual Portugal is bang on with the crap songs. At least they are consistant, ya know? It would be really weird if it was flip-flop each year but it’s all good. It’s too, samba samba thingie with the huge fans that were just not cool. I don’t like the sound of Portugese either, so it’s not too much of a help. Maybe because they are so far away from Eastern Europe that they wouldn’t have a chance in hell; it’s just as well that way anyways cause it’s not a song worth voting for. Parisians would vote for them, cause
she’s hot, and Portugese, but it’s just too creepy for me to think about. I’ve not had good experiences with Portugese peoples so I’m also very biased, but at the same time it reminded me of Anna Book this year, but thinner better looking and less, “OMG LOOK AT ME”. She knew she wasn’t going anywhere, but still performed well within herself.

F.Y.R. Macedonia: Karolina Gocheava
Qualified

Why is it that you’re capiable of qualifying every year after year? It bothers me to a very large extent especially with this horrile song. Perhaps it’s the Na Na sounds that makes people think it’s decent? It just doesn’t float my boat. She had a nice dress on however, good colour but overdone with the same coloured make-up! The bottom of her shoes clashed tought, being red; how disturbing! It’s not that bad of a song however, I can see why some people would have voted for it, but personally I wouldn’t have touched it in a million years. It’s too, boring, too done every year by F.Y.R. Macedonia! Nai-na-nai-na die!

Norway: Guri Schanke

I have to take a stab at this song because it irritates me to large extent. It’s written by Thomas G:son, so it’s by someone decent, but seriously now, some salsa dance song sung by a Carola bo-tox queen wannabee? There are more wrinkles on her face when she smiles then in all of well, who knows. The point is that the song is a sticky annoying beat dance thingie that is making me want to shudder; yet dance a little bit. Scary combination, especially with the wardrobe changes, x3 into the skimpy little dress at the end. Uhm? You can do better Norway, or at least I’d like to think so.

Malta: Olivia Lewis
Personal Favourite

The conceptual act for this song is really good. Good singer, who looked a little bit awkward on stage, but the Chinese theme with fans was really quite nice to watch. The nifty things people can do with shirtless men and women with fans! Kind of nice for the “Vertigo” theme, with a catchy song filled with nice parts. Shame though that it was a favourite to go through and didn’t, Malta did well this year and unfortunately wasn’t rewarded. I cry for this song!

Andorra: Anonymous
Personal Favourite

I’ve never liked this kind of music, but this song is catchy and go team Andorra for finally sending something worth my listen! The band is cute, but very expresionless which is a sort of sad part, but not much to see or do but listen to the music. They speak English also; shock of the century! I really would have liked to see more effort with a band, since we all know that they aren’t actually playing on stage! This will probably be the first and last time that Andorra was a favourite of mine; sadly said! One of the background singers has an issue with harmony when going high in his register, cause it was like nails on a chalkboard at one point before the final Catalán chorus.

Hungary: Magdi Rúzsa
Qualified
Personal Favourite

Rhaspy blues for a great song from Hungary, a returning country to the contest. Her voice is powerful, low, soulful, with a great song, and I agree with Charlotte in the Nordic Juries on this one. It’s great, and I’m actually really glad that it was recognised as a good song and voted through. Maybe Hungary is just lucky to be in the East this year, not to arise controversy! But in all fairness it takes nothing away from her awesome performance on stage, what presence and talent! Ubsubstantial blues is an unfitting title, because it’s definantly substantiated! Go team variety this year!

Estonia: Gerli Padar
Personal Favourite

Sex appeal, great dancing, hot dancers, hot singers, great song with all just fitting makes me love this song more and more but makes me hate Europe for not choosing it to go on. Robb thinks that the act was over-acted, but I disagree, it was perfect and she actually dances with the dancers and sings at the same time; talent! It’s going to be a radio-hit for sure, and her and I are going to be forever Partners in Crime! That wide look in her eyes, when there’s the fire inside, it was the night that she was denied, she’s always a partner in crime! How lucky of her to get a little kiss at the end also. 😉

Belgium: The KMG’s

Go home; seriously. The intro to this song makes me want to rip my nails off, the disco look for the guy makes me want to die, and the song makes me want to fetch some earplugs. Love power? What power, I hope you came in last, or very close. This is definantly a go home song, but sadly I like disco, but this stuff is crap! I can’t feel the lover power coming my way, no, nor will I ever. Go home and put the bell-bottoms away brotha’.

Slovenia: Alenka Gotar
Qualified

Uhmm, what’s up with this? Opera can mix with dance or schlager, but I’m not feeling it. I like the thing in her hand, and her dress, but it just sounds weird. Why did we choose this song? What possesed us to want to see this song again? If the singer herself didn’t think she’d qualify then why should we vote her? Sure she can sing greatly and beautifully, but it’s just not doin’ it for me. I feel like she’s a female Nepoléon or something trying to conquer the stage with her weird attire and voice; sending shivers down my back. Drop this, pick up other songs pls.

Turkey: Kenan Dogulu
Qualified

Sexy and Turkish this song is, with the Shake it theme, but I don’t like the fact that “Shake It” appeared on the screen at each chorus; it’s very cheesy! Turkey is almost a sure-bet in to every Final these days, which is sad because sometimes it’s not worth it. The song is a nice mix between something and Turkish ethnic music, but I dunno. The guy is really short too, which makes me laugh, and his werid outfit was just uhm. Interesting? Good contempory artist, but I’m not a huge fan; could do without it I reckon. It’s differnet though, which I like of course but we’ve seen better.

Austria: Eric Papilaya

This was an interesting song, with focus on the pin of the red. Good message, but weird song; that I’m not that fond of. I see him and I think of a drug lord, creepy! Austria’s wecome back to the concest was a little annoying because of the text on the screens; that was bohering me most. See it’s the little things that do it for me; the weird cosutmes irritate me also just because they look like smurf blobs gone wrong, and I can’t figure out what gender they are. Boo ambiguity! He sings well, but it reminds me of my country music phase when I was babysat by my neighbours, I don’t know why but I also started to nod off becasue the show is so damned freaking long!

Latvia: Bonaparti.lv
Qualified

Finally we came to the end of the show that lasted far to long at a record 28 songs; and this song just makes me want to take a shower. They sing well, individually but not together. They are an Il Divo rip-off that sings songs that are much lower in quailty, and yet Europe still votes it in? Is this another Lithuania song for the year, coming from the Baltics? I’m just diturbed, especially that this is the song that I waited for the night to end! I could barely remember the first few songs, sadly by this point. But give them a freaking shower! Please. And on top of that, the whole missing in action thing during the week screams attention whore; what’s up with that? Not cool. Hobo opera? Charlotte said it best in the juries, give them a shower, seriously! As the lovely woman said: “Jag gillar det inte alls. Jeans, hög hatt, kavajer till knäna… De kan inte sjunga, ser inte bra ut, har inga ingredienser alls. Ge dem en dusch!”

And now for the general comments that are oh so much more important! One has to take notice of the obvious lack of qualification of Western-European countries. It’s simply unavoidable; true that the East produced some rockin’ songs this year, but at the same time so did the West. I don’t really know what happend, but to see that the only countires from the East that didn’t qualify were Poland (Thank God), Croatia (See Poland), Estonia (Sad), Albania (See Poland), and the Czech Republic (See Albania). Odd though, as I see a correlation quite frankly but even still the show was awesome. I just want to grab the cheeks of the hosts and tell them that they are so adorable and Finnish, God I ove Finland.

So much drama however, I just am in shock at the lack of qualificatino but oddly I got 6 out of my 10 choices this year, that’s the best I’ve ever done. Which means that 6 quality songs went through, according to my standards. Sorry for the over usage of the phrase “go home” but I can’t think of anything else, it’s simply go home material!

A day to recover and then the grand final, I’m so excited. I’m mostly excited about the diversity in the show this year, there is a little bit of everything; seriously! More schlager needed though, and for the record, who cares if Serbian singer is a lesbian or not; leave her alone!

Finland you say? Land of lakes and forests? That’s the understatement of the century…

So on the morning of December 30th, Robb and I woked up at 06.00 and left for Haparanda by car, which is on the border of Finland. We weren’t sure where we were going because the bus stop was an abandoned old train station that isn’t in use anymore, and the details were sketchy about the bus that I had to take to the closest train station in Finland. We got there and waited about an hour, and then the bus finally came. I had to say goodbye, which was difficult and very sad, going on the rest of my journey alone, especially to Finland. Oh well, yay for mobilephones!

So I get on the bus and I tell the bus driver “enkel till Kemi” and he stares at me with a blank look on his face. And then I say “Kemi” and he says something to me in Finnish, and I clearly understand. Then figuring out whether he wanted the money in Euros or Swedish Crowns was a struggle. Numbers in Finnish is messed up, and the fact that he spoke no Swedish or English didn’t help. I was the only one on the bus for the whole ride which was scary, but whatever. It’s the wierd thing about driving through Finland, there wasn’t much to see, and I was all alone reading a book which I nearly had finished. We got to Kemi, and I walked around for awhile looking for the train station; it turns out it’s right behind the bus terminal but I didn’t realize this. I had previously made my reservations for the train, but I had to pick up the tickets. Being the ditzy person that I am, I forgot that it was Sunday and that nothing would be open, so I had no way to get my tickets.

There were a few people in the termial building (small room) and I went to the machine to pick up my tickets but it wouldn’t take my number, or my credit card (surprise surprise) so I had no ticket, and only a pass for the train, so I hoped for the best. I got on the train with all the Finns and then found a seat, even though there were many cause the train was coming from Rovaneimi, one of the randomest places ever, heading for Oulu. The conductor came around and I showed him my pass, and tried to explain to him in 3 differnet languages that I didn’t have a ticket but I had a pass, he didn’t want any of it, and was rude and threw it back into myface and went on. How rude eh? Oh well, he probably understood what I said in Swedish but just didn’t want to aknowledge it because of rivalry. So I just slept and tried to keep the old man across from me from staring, by hiding under a blanket.

We arrived in Oulu, where I was to change trains and meet a friend who I would be staying with in Helsinki. Frankly, he was a friend of a friend, and I was sorta nervous about it, since it was New Years and all, but a free place to stay is nice. So he was at the station, and he came and told me that had about 8 boxes to load from the train because he was moving to Helsinki. I said I could help, but communication was difficult. Little did I know, but he is Russian, and speaks Russian, Finnish, and broken Swedish, and hardly any English. Communication was, how shall I say, a major struggle so I resigned myself to the fact that I would smile and nod for a few days, and sucked it up. The train ride was weird, because I was in the wrong seat. It was long too with nothing to see or do, but sleep. I tried to fall asleep but I kept getting woken by babies runnind, then somewhere halfway there I got my seat taken by someone, who wouldn’t get off until Tampere, a few hours from where we were. It turns out that he didn’t want to give up his seat becasue there were no other seats on the train at all. People were laying everywhere, in-between cars,on the floor, in the asiles.

Why would a company that has a monopoly of the train services sell more tickets then they have seats? It just doesn’t make sense, so I found a window and parked myself standing there reading my book for a few hours, how boring, tyring, and irritating to always have to move for people that were searching the non-existant bathrooms. Eight hours later we arrived in Helsinki where it was horrible rain weather, and I had to help him take about 100kg of things to a cab… I was irritated, tired, and just miserable at this point. This is the site of where the train arrived, some random train stop closer to where he lives. So we took the cab to his flat.

It turned out that he was moving into his flat just that day so he had nothing there, and I had to carry everything. I was becoming very annoyed, but I just pretended to be happy. He cook Russian food (disgusting) and I slept the earliest I’ve slept since I was about 9. The next day he decided to walk around Helsinki showing me around, which was nice, even though I didn’t understand anything he said to me. I will post all the buildings, but since I don’t know what half the stuff is I really don’t know what to write about it!
 

w Years Eve, everything was closed and they were closing all the roads and such for the celebrations that would come. The harbour was very nice, along with some curches, and many Russian tourists all over the place. Despite being the capitol city, it’s more of a large sized town and not city, very quiet and small which is quaint, but just weird being a capitol. Notice in the pictures that everything is just rain, rain, rain, rain. It rained a total of everyday that I was in Helsinki, and it never ceased. It’s actually quite sad, but apart from that, it’s a very pleasant place to be. I would have liked to go back in the summer when it’s probably warmer and more sunshine, but alas time is limited.

This buidling is actually quite important. Throuhout history Sweden-Finland relations have changed, and having wars and such, but this building is quite special because it’s a replica of the royal palace in Stockholm, and now acts as the official embassy. It’s quite a bit smaller, but it looks exactly like what I will see while in Stockholm soon, and notice the traditional candles in the windows; jättesvensk!

This building is super special and super sexy in my opinion. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated with them, but I love TV buildings. YLE is Finland’s national broadcasting company, and before leaving I said to myself that I had to go and visit it, and take pictures, being a tourist and all. So I was with all my luggage riding the public transit around Helsinki looking for it, and I was impressed as it’s a very nice building. Maybe Tobias works there? If so then whoohoo he gets to go into a really nice looking building everyday, lucky bastard!

What is the importance of this building? How could anyone ask such a question!? This is Hartwell Arena and will be the host for Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki. *drools* To me at this exact moment, this place is godlike in ways that can not be described in words. It’s just so sexy, but at the same time it’s really bland looking and nothing interesting is going on with it; and it’s in a really odd place that’s in the middle of an industrial part of Helsinki. Despite all this, go team ESC!

All of this was in the rain, by the way, so I was soaking wet and made my way back downtown since I had to get to the harbour to get on my cruise ship bound for Stockholm. Stockholm, yes that’s in Sweden you silly geese. I got there a few hours ahead of time scheduled (which was smart) and got through the lines and such then boarded the boat. I payed about 50€ in total for the ticket and cabin which is quite cheap. The place was just fantaboulus and beautiful, but there were tons of drunk Finns, Swedes, and Russians. I parked myself in my little cabin and took a much needed shower and went to get some things to eat before we set sail. I didn’t think that I would have any problems on the boat, but between the extreme fear of boats that I have, and the food that I ate, I felt extrodinarily sick for the duration of the trip. I felt like I was going to blow chunky chunks about a million times, and finally fell asleep in my bunk bed in hopes that I wouldn’t explode on the sheets. Luckily I didn’t and all was swell after 16 hours in the boat.

It was intesnse, it has everything! Disco, bars, performances, even a programme, which really impressed me, despite being too ill to participate. It was all swell until I woke up in the morning to see the clock at 10.00. Frankly, I freaked out because we were supposed to get into Stockholm at 9.30, and I thought that I was late getting off the boat. I forgot totally about the 1 hour time difference, so all was swell and I took another shower and calmed down trying to find directions to where my hostel was in Stockholm. Go team ditzy me!