Eurovision 2005 – It’s all Greek to me

So here I’m sat, at Borospyl airport at getting on for six in the morning, having come pretty much straight from the after-show party. The flight’s not till nine, but the buses are at odd times round these parts, and I’m feeling a little perplexed about last night’s events. So it turns out that the one the bookies was telling us was going to win all along actually won it. The one we ‘experts’ kinda ignored in the hope that it might go away. Ah well, dem’s da breaks. And one can knock Athens in the Spring, can one. And on top of that, we won’t exactly be wanting for arenas and infrastructure.

So I’m tapping this out before I’ve read the inevitable complaints about this that and the irrelevant. Friendly voting? There was a little of it, but far less than usual. And the song with votes from the most juries won it again – and who apart from Cyprus ever claims to like Greece anyway? Western/Balkan/Baltic/Former Soviet fit up – don’t see what bill that would fit this time round either. What I did see was a great contest with the widest range of songs ever, and a neck and neck battle between a good dozen songs for at least two thirds of the voting that had us all scratching our heads, wondering where the next surprise was going to come from.

And I’m so dang chuffed for Moldova. It’s a shame the Bunika didn’t nick the gong, but Chisenau might not be the best place for the contest, in retrospect. And nice one Chiara for keeping up the high standard and showing us that a simple song sung sweetly can do as well, if not better, than a whole bundle of big boom bashers. And well done juries for giving 12s to no less than 17 different countries. That surely has to be some kind of a record.

But best of all, top job Kyiv. It might have been a little lumpy at times, but you did us proud. You set a new standard for Eurovision, both with the enthusiasm engendered in the city and the show itself. I’ve long thought Eurovision out to have some kind of fringe event for the people of the host city, and our generous hosts of the last week and a half did so much for its citizens that Greece has got to go one heck of a long way to beat it.

Athens is a great city, and despite rather having gone somewhere else (although it was looking a bit scary that we were going to double up with a Latvia, and Israel or a Denmark at one point) I can’t think of a nicer, more vibrant and historic place to hold it. The tour continues and I suspect this next port of call is going to be a doosie.

Signing off, tired hungry but glowing …

Roy D Hacksaw

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