| May. 20th, 2005 @ 12:22 pm So how was it for you? |
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Where do I begin?
I just had the one of the most wonderful but disturbing, exciting but
disappointing, evenings of my life. To use the cliche, it was a real
"emotional rollercosater". Our pre-show preparations began in a great
(and cheap!) Ukrainian canteen style restaurant where a gang of five UK
and Irish guys were joined by a local fan, and we compared notes on the
week and our hopes for the evening. We exchanged predictions before
heading to the venue. To get into the secure area around the venue we
had to pass through some locals demonstrating in a peaceful manner
(handing out leaflets). It would appear that for some people here the
"Orange Revolution" has not been the huge success it has been painted
outside Ukraine. There was really heavy security prressence all
evening.
In one of the bars outside the venue we sampled a beer and watched the
bus loads of supporters arriving. There was huge support for Belarus,
with Poland and and Ireland also well represented. Getting through the
metal detectors and into the arena proper was relativly problem free
(none of the nonsense of Copenhagen). I met up with Donna & Joe and
wished then luck. They were excited but nervous, but I never felt that
the whole week's events were getting to them. They seemed to be having
a ball!. All of the Irish team this year are the most friendly and
pleasant people I can remember at Eurovision. It was a pleasure to be
part of the Irish delegation.
We had a good seat in the front block, 13 rows in, and straight in
front of the stage. The perfect view!. As for the performances, the one
that surprised me, or were any different from expected;
MOLDOVA : A huge crowd favourite. I hate this drumming granny gimmick, but there is no doubt it is working.
BELARUS : Was it my imagination or was Angelica's microphone brought
down during the opening? Was someone trying to sabotage a favourite?
ISRAEL : Warm, professional, and I would have been very upset if political voting had stopped it qualifying.
NETHERLANDS : Amazing staging, great voice, but no matter how you dressed it up, it was an awful and unoriginal song.
ICELAND : Completly flat. This is one song which died because of a bad dance routine. I actually saw this bad result coming
HUNGARY : The dancing gets a huge reaction, but the vocals were still very shaky.
ROMANIA : Much better than before, but I still think that it lacked something.
NORWAY : A HUGE reaction in the hall (I'm hearing that there were sound level problems at home).
SWITZERLAND : I got really nervous because this was not as good as early in the week.
IRELAND : All the hard work paid off, this was as good as it was at any point during the week.
DENMARK : Much more confident than before. A real crowd pleaser.
SLOVENIA : The crowd loved it, my ears bled fropm he cacophany of the last minute.
The interval was fine, but left me cold, and as for the results;
HUNGARY (number 1 in the final) : I was not surprised to see this
qualify. It is a great show opener for Saturday, but it's not a winner
now.
ROMANIA (number 4 in the final) : This was a small surprise to me. I
had it as the 13th most likely to qualify. It will be some
contrast after Malta, but again it's not a winner.
NORWAY (number 5 in the final) : No surprise, I don't like it but it had to qualify, but this draw is doing it no favours.
MOLDOVA (number 7 in the final) : No surprise, I really hate this, but
those who backed it at 150/1 are smiling. Watch this, it is VERY
dangerous, even fro this draw position.
ISRAEL (number 11 in the final) : No surprise for me, I was delighted
that this quality song made it. A similar draw to the semi, but it's a
great contrast to the songs that come before it. This will do
well.
DENMARK (number 13 in the final, straight after the break). I would
have been shocked before seeing the show, but this caught a real vibe
with the audience, so it wasn't the shock to me that it was to some
people. However from this draw, I don't see it doing well.
FYR MACEDONIA (number 15 in the final). I was shocked and horrified, as
was everyone around me. How did this qualify? Friendly
neighbours is the only explanation for this. In a final
where they are fighting for votes with 8 other Balkan counties,
this must surely do badly.
CROATIA : Some were shocked, I wasn't. I always had this in my Top 10. Don't rule this out from doing very well on Saturday.
SWITZERLAND : No surprise and it would have been a disgrace had this
not qualified, and if any song can save Eurovision 2005 from gimmicks
and retro-nonsense, this is it.
There was one place left at this point, and we hadn't heard
Netherlands, Belarus, Iceland, Austria, Poland, Finland or
Ireland. It was sweaty palms time. For the last country, a great draw,
for everyone else, tears.
And finally.......... LATVIA ( number 23 in the final). Shock, horror,
dismay, gasps, tears, you name it. Some people had this on their "just
might make it list". I never saw it qualifying. It did work well in the
hall, but ahead of the others that missed out, this was a travesty.
Six of my predictions had made it. Netherlands, Iceland, Belarus and
Poland had missed out, with Romania, Denmark, Macedonia and Latvia
making it instead. Last year the most accurate prediction was
9/10. This year nobody seemed it get more than 6/10, and many had only
4 or 5. You could see the gloom descending on the Dutch and the huge
Bularus fan club. As I left my seat and went back to the foyer there
was one word being repeated over and over "Macedonia?". No one can
believe that this made it. People could understand Romania, Croatia,
Moldva and at a stretch Latvia, but Macedonia????
I decided to go to the "winners" press conference rather than go on to
the party . This was a really bad idea. It took ages to find the
venue and I had to endure some of the most stupid questions of the week.
Shiri "tell us a bout your country".... "Israel is a beautful place with warm weather and good food".
Martin " how will you celbrate winning on Saturday"...."If I do not get the win, I will be number two" (you said it!)
....and so it went on....there was good food and free dink at the party
and I had to endure "Jakob, do you think that Norway or Sweden is your
biggest rival". I was not impressed. I was told that the results
from 11-25 won't be announced until Sunday. So at the moment everyone
is claiming to be 11th!
When I did make it to the party there was what I can only descibe as a
"mood" on the delgrades. The Dutch were spitting fire. They were
confident that Glennis would qualify and they thought that Marian
(Dutch born but singing for Andorra) might give them a double
celebration. Instead they got nothing, and they fear that Dutch
television might now have second thoughts about Eurovision. The Finns
were disappointed but not surprised. The Poles likewise. The
Slovenians were sulking. The Belarussians didn't even show up,
before I left. Talking to Ukrainians about Belarus this morning
they say that there was a real "chill factor". Belarus (the country) is
not liked around here, being the last remnant of a communist
dictatorship in Europe. Add to that the one million Euro publicity
campaign for Angelica and many people were not going to vote for it.
For me, that's a shame because this was a good song, with a great stage
show, but politics is always an issue at Eurovision.
For Ireland it was a case of so near but yet so far. Coming here, most
of us thought we only had a small chance of making it, but as we saw
the performance get better and better during the week, and more and
more people thought that we would qualify, our hopes rose.
Speaking to Karl Broderick, at th party he just asked that I be nice.
That is no problem. I thought we did a great job this week. We may not
have made it, but we certainly did not disgrace ourselves like last
year.
Some Irish delegates were taking consolation that this result would be
the end of "You're A Star", and I suspect they are right. The show has
preobably run its course in it current format. I will post my thought
on the way I think Ireland should go, over the next day or two. The
news from local radio back in Ireland is that there is a huge negative
reaction to the result. "The Balkan are ganging up on us".
The first rehearsal of the final is on this afternoon, and I will cover it from the press centre.
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