Phil: I have just witnessed the first goose bump moment of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest from an unlikely source. The Hungarian lady, who’s name I can not remember, has just come on with her suitcase and totally blown me away with that song. The people that are in the hall for this, which total 24 members of the press and two nurses have been treated to something very special. I usually don’t like the blues, but after this performance which was the best I have seen this year by a long country mile and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, i am converted to this particular song … It’s ace – and you lot have not heard that too often.
Nick: Ruzsa Magdi sings the blues, and this is exactly the problem I’ve had with this contest. The EBU is asking Europe to decide whether this is better or worse than Salvem Al Mon. It’s kind of like asking whether you prefer graphite worktops or The Muppet Show. They’re not even trying to be comparable, and yet we have to try and compare them. I’ve decamped to the OnEurope office momentarily, btw, to get the laptop powered back up, so I’m only hearing rather than seeing it. Ruzsa (or is it Magdi? Hungarian naming conventions confuse me…) certainly sounds like she’s doing a job on this, it sounds nice and languid and smoky and … well, bluesy, really. I don’t listen to the blues though, I don’t understand the nuances, so I can’t really tell if it’s good, bad or indifferent. What it definitely is, though, is a welcome change of pace in this land of contrasts.