Eurovision was expected by most betting sites to be a duel between Austria and Sweden, perhaps Netherlands too. Austria won with some margin then Netherlands slightly ahead of Sweden. I found all the three songs quite ok but nothing special. Sweden a well done ballad with an excellent singer but nothing special in my opinion. For some reason they "aa aando just sounded horrible to me, not sure why as it was well sung. Netherlands? Two of my friends liked it a lot, one disliked it a lot and I found it decent. My friends who liked it called it perfect for a roadtrip movie, I can see why even if I can't really say I agree.
Austria stood out a bit with their Conchita Wurst, a lady with a beard. Obviously there are some people who hate transvestites and don't think that each person should be allowed to choose to look just like he/she wants to as long as it doesn't offend anyone. Just watch the comments field below the video and you will see what I mean. The song is a bit special, Conchita is a good singer but I didn't like the song very much from the start, after listening a bit to ift today I've changed my mind and find it quite good and 90% of all I've talked to liked it, a lot of people call it very much alike a bond ballad.
I'm not very happy that the song won even if I didn't exactly mind but I do like how tolerant people are, the song got 5 points from "homophobic" Russia which I found very nice, meaning 6th best. The jury didn't hate it and the Russian people had it as 3rd best. Perhaps Putin secretly voted and wants to be like Conchita? I actually think that originally being a man and showing it by not shaving her beard gave Conchita extra votes. Let's say 15% of the viewers planned to vote for her only because of the music and that 10% liked it less and 10% liked it more due to the singer. The 10% less means she loses 1.5% of the votes the song would get, the 10% more however gives her 8.5% extra, 1/10 of those who didn't vote for him. Regardless, well deserved.
The only thing that annoys me with Conchita is that I will always forget to say she, I have gone through this text many times correcting each "he" and "him" that I wrote by accident. I consider a person his/her biological gender, Conchita was born a man and hasn't undergone any surgery. Why I write she despite considering her a man? Because she wants people to and does that herself, no need to scream out that I disagree as it doesn't really matter if I do and some people might find it insulting. I guess writing that I don't think I should say what I think while at the same time saying exactly what I think might seem a bit contraproductive, the reason that I do it anyway is to give those of you who looks at genders the same way I do some food for thought.
What is the point in saying him if all it does is insult people. Same thing as the ever ongoing debate about "negerbollar", an old word for chocolate balls in Swedish. "Bollar" means "balls", The word "neger" is an insult to black people, I think you know a similar word in English. Those who wants to keep saying it gives the reason "It's always been called that and you can't tell me what to say." To those, well... is it so hard to say chokladbollar, literally chocolate balls, instead? It's always had both names so it's not like it's a completely new thing to call it and if you call it that everyone will be happy.
Lastly, how did it go for my favorites? Bad, really bad.
France, 3rd place for me, last place with only 2 points, 2nd lowest in eurovision history.
Slovenia, shared 1st place, 2nd last place.
Switzerland, shared 1st place, ended up in the middle, 13th place.
There is however one song that I'm actually starting to like now after listening a bit to it today that did well and took 7th place, Russia. It's quite tragic how people booed whenever they got points. I do understand why of course but taking their hate for Russia out on two teenage girls who simply likes singing and havn't said anything about politics is simply bad and idiotic. What made me a bit happier was that some people in the audience seemed to think the same and started trying to cheer louder than the haters. Still, poor girls... hope they remember the good things and not the bad things.
Well, that's my thoughts about Eurovision. I havn't disliked the results every year of course, I did want Lordi and Alexander Rybak to win when they did. I apologise if I've missed to call Conchita a woman somewhere in the text. One last thing about her 2nd name, Wurst. It means sausage in german, something I thought was a metaphor for a male thing, it does however also mean rubbish, as in that it doesn't matter. Well played Conchita, well played. Haters gonna hate, you sing pretty great.
Here you can see all the results and performances.
Gnight folks.