Evrovisia 2008.
Another year, another Eurovision. Cannot say I’m at all impressed with the final outcome; Dima Bilan’s “Believe” for Russia was good, but absolutely not deserving of its winning title. Block-voting gone rife? This is the first year it’s really pissed me off; am very unhappy. “Believe” definitely joins the ranks of Lordi and The Olsen Brothers as the least deserving Eurovision winners in recent years.
At least it wasn’t Romania or Portugal though; god that was some awful rubbish, wasn’t it?
My full views on this years competition will be made available next week when I upload an mp3 of the Eurovision-focused edition of the Inside Splinters radio show, which will go to air this Friday night from 8pm on 94.7 FM. I’ll also have a couple of special guests; some fellow Eurovision nerds to discuss the competition as we play the best from this year, and the greatest some of the previous years have had to offer.
For those interested, here are my top 10 of the night. Please note; that was the best entry my home country of Bosnia has sent in their 14 year history with the competition, and I’ll never understand how it only managed to place tenth.
01. BOSNIA Laka - Pokusaj
02. UKRAINE Ani Lorak - Shady Lady
03. SWEDEN Charlotte Perrelli - Hero
04. ARMENIA Sirusho - Qele Qele
05. FRANCE Sebastien Tellier - Divine
06. NORWAY Maria - Hold On Be Strong
07. ICELAND Euroband - This Is My Life
08. LATVIA Pirates Of The Sea - Wolves Of The Sea
09. GREECE Kalomira - Secret Combination
10. RUSSIA Dima Bilan - Believe
May 28th, 2008 at 6:16 am
I am loving Iceland’s entry. Great song!
Totally agree with you on the Russian entry. Bunch of WTF-ery if you ask me!
May 28th, 2008 at 8:20 am
I would have been happier with your top ten results, though I’m not that surprised for Dima. After his second place finish in 2006, he returned home to become the megastar of Russia and its former states. No one thought “Believe” was his best effort, but it was as if Justin Timberlake entered a music contest to represent the United States. Is there any doubt that the East tripped all over themselves to vote for their superstar? At least he loves to take his clothes off, and is not at all bothered by the volume of nude photos of him that populate the internet.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Bosnia’s entry was SO brilliant–I really do love it. I’m not sure why it didn’t do better either; I’ve been annoyed by a few articles I’ve read recently brushing off the idea of Eurovision including actually good songs (well, almost all writers seem to acknowledge the French entry as some sort of lone exception, but I think that’s a case of these writers knowing about him and his musical connections in advance and therefore being accepting, not them kind of “discovering” a good song through Eurovision)–yeah, I know, I should get over it, that’s the usual reaction, etc. etc. etc.–and every time I read one of them I want to start shouting about Laka’s song.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:43 am
I can’t believe Catface Perelli did better than the UK. She was utter rubbish!