Forgive the low quality photographs I snapped on the night. The security guards forced me to leave my camera in left luggage and charged me 50 krona for the privilege. Never mind. Watching the first semi-final of the 61st Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm in the world’s largest spherical building was an absolutely amazing experience, especially as I sat on the same row high on the terraces as six enthusiastic supporters of that famous European country – Australia. It’s gloriously kitsch with some of the entries instantly forgettable (or memorable for the wrong reasons), but it was a fabulous evening and left me wishing I had tickets for the second semi and the final too. Our audience was slightly restrained in terms of costume and banners (no ISIS flags allowed, the Welsh dragon eventually permitted) but everyone loved the Russian babushkas and, of course, there were Scandinavians aplenty. Our friends in the North are good at this kind of thing; out of the all-time top five point scoring songs, four are Scandi (Norway-2009, Sweden-2012, Sweden-2015, Finland -2006, and Austria-2014)
The hosts were fantastic with just the right balance of gravity and whimsy. Måns, of course, won last year’s contest with ‘Heroes’, which he reprised for us on stage, and Petra is almost a professional Swedish Eurovision presenter. But sadly our semi did not include the eventual winner Ukraine or even, alas, the land of Oz. The hapless UK entry went through to the final automatically. On the night, I liked Finland, Estonia, Hungary and the Netherlands but they didn’t make the cut. I’m a good judge of songs, you see. Now, here’s a fascinating fact. In between each act, a small army of men with mops come out and clean the stage so the next act’s special effects will look good. It’s pretty hot out there.
Outside in the rest of Stockholm, a Eurovision Village boogied into the chilly night flanked by stalls of the sponsors including, slightly bizarrely, Dailies one-day contact lenses, Osram light bulbs, the Silja ferry company and Schwarzkopf beauty products. Well-wrapped up fans clutching expensive beers jigging happily to the latest Euro-offerings and the least worst of previous entries. The traffic lights even played Sweden’s 2012 winner Euphoria instead of beep, beep, beep when it was safe to cross…
And, in the end, plucky Jamala defeated the odds-on favourite Russia to take the crown for Ukraine in the usual controversial voting. Never mind. See you in Kiev, Odessa or Lviv in 2017? Perhaps not Donetsk…
Around the world with kwjourno 