Live blogging the Eurovision Song contest

Good evening! Bon soir! Guten Abend! Welcome to the Persephone ESC Live Blog. I have my red wine and big night is about to begin! If you don’t have a TV or if the ESC is not shown in your country, you can join me at the live stream here: http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv.

Here are the countries of the Grand Final one more time:

1. Finland

2. Bosnia & Herzegovina

3. Denmark

4. Lithuania

5. Hungary

6. Ireland

7. Sweden

8. Estonia

9. Greece

10. Russia

11. France

12. Italy

13. Switzerland

14. UK

15. Moldova

16. Germany

17. Romania

18.Austria

19. Azerbaijan

20. Slovenia

21. Iceland

22. Spain

23. Ukraine

24. Serbia

25. Georgia

Who’s your favourite?

 

21:00 Welcome!!

21:02 Geez. I actually have goose bumps. Huh?

21:05 Oh dear. What are they doing?

21:07 Anke Engelke and Stefan Raab are actually really famous comediens in Germany. And Stefan Raab discovered Lena. I think he even wrote the song her winning song last year. Oh yeah, and he once was in the contest with the song ‘Wadde hadde du de da’.

21:08 Actually, not too bad of a start, is it? Looks like they’re having fun in Düsseldorf.

21: 10 Btw, I really love the stage they built. That huge screen in the back is AMAZING!

21:11 Oh, and if you still need a score card, you can get one here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/pdfs/party/11_scorecard_final.pdf

21:13 What is it with the beating up jokes?? I really don’t get that.

21:15 Well, first song! The song about a little boy, who wants to safe the world. Hmmmmmm. I actually don’t really like it. Nope, it does not warm my ice cold heart.

21:17 But I still like the song from Bosnia & Herzegovina. I don’t know why. But I just really like it. I mean, the name Dino Merlin alone ia kinda cool.

21:19 But…is she really playing the piano? Is there any chance that she actually hits the right tones??

21:21 Merlin is a huge star in the Balkan region, so he”l probably get plenty of votes.

21:22 Here we are. The Danes! The singer really looks like Damon Albarn, doesn’t he?

21:24 I can’t believe that he doesn’t fall! Song is ok, maybe a little boring? But gets stuck…after the smi-final I caught myself humming it all the time.

21:25 This is very dramatic. But she can sing. Not everybody in this contest can.

21:29 It was VERY Eurovision-ish, right?

21:30 So, the 36-year old mum of two singing “What about my life? What about my dreams?”

21:32 Background singers can be so off sometimes.

21:34 Jedward. Still don’t know what to think about them. But I bet you that they’ll get LOADS of points.

21:36 If I was 16 I’d have a huge crush on them. Now I think that they’re kind of adorable.

21:37 Sweden. I really don’t like Sweden this year. Ugh. Horrible.

21:40 Maybe I’m just too old to like it?

21:42 Next up: A little bit of Glee?

21:44 It’s not horrible. Just not my cup of tea, I guess. I see her getting quite a bit of points.

21:45 Oh dear. Greece. REALLY not my cup of tea. Quite bad, in my opinion.

21:47 I mean, what is this??

21:50 The guy who wrote the Russian song, has also written some hits for Lady Gaga.

21:53 It’s ok, I guess. Not amazing but not all that horrible either. He’s talking too much.

21:55 Big drama from France. His voice sounds a little off?

21:56 Ah, getting better.

21:57 Not much of an entertainer, though.

21:58 Italy. I really like the song. It’s nothing new. Nothing crazy special. But I like it. It has a nice and easy feeling to it.

22:01 I hate these interviews.

22:04 I mean, the Swiss song sounds happy and all. But…a little boring?

22:06 I know! No good Eurovision-chorus in this song!

22:08 Blue and their comeback. What do we think? Are boybands still a thing?

22:10 This doesn’t sound very good. Somehow really off?

22:11 See, I promised you funny hats!

22:13 Actually, they’re kinda cool.

22:15 And here’s Lena with her funny accent.

22:16 Hmmmm.

22:18 Not bad, not bad.

22:19 Yup, still like that smile. I admit it. (he’s an English guy normally singing in a Romanian Pink Floyd tribute band, if I remember correctly).

22:21 The pants are still HORRIBLE!!

22:23 The Austrian Mariah Carey is next!

22:25 Huh, better should charge my dead mobile so that I can vote later!

22:27 The next one has gotten a lot of praise in the media.

22:30 Wasn’t all that bad, was it?

22:32 BORING. Forgettable.

22:37 Tragic story behind the Icelandic song – the actual singer died in January and so his friends are singing it for him.

22:40 So. Spain. Hmmmm.

22:42 Actually, her voice is quite nice. With a good song she could have something really good.

22:44 Ukraine up next. And I really don’t like the song. No, no, no, no.

22:49 The cute Serbian song! VERY retro. But cute.

22:50 The German paper I read really doesn’t like it.

22:54 Georgia. Sounds like from 10 years ago, no?

22:55 They originally had another singer – but she got kicked out, because they were worried that she might not be good enough.

22:57 So, we made it. Heard all the songs. Who’s your favourite?

23:01 Well, I’ve actually voted for Moldova. Just because of the hats. Hmm, who else?

23:05 Have they always done two quick run-downs of all the songs? Seems a liiiittle over the top.

23:07 And another???

23:09 So, I voted for Moldova, Serbia, Germany, Italy and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

23:10 I’ve never claimed to have a good taste.

23:14 I did NOT expect that.

23:16 I mean, yeah, he’s famous and all. But. Could they not have found something ‘better’?

23:24 No more Green Room interviews, please. Ugh.

23:25 What ARE they doing?? Seriously don’t get their humor.

23:26 THE POINTS!!!

23:28 Greece?!?! The 12 are OK.

23:29 GREECE??!?!?! and Blue???

23:30 Good god. Sweden. Uh, hey, Denmark.

23:32 The funny hats! And Blue again. Hey, no 0 points this year!

23:33 Of course. As always.

23:35 Oh well. Ok.

23:35 That was different.

23:36 The Scandinavians are voting!

23:38 I expected more points for Jedward. Many more points!

23:40 The audience is horrible. What is it with the booing? Seriously.

23:40 An Iclandic hippie. Who would have thought?

23:41 The Swede is first so far. I’m a little worried.

23:42 I didn’t expect anything else from the UK.

23:45 She’s SOOO slow? WTF?!

23:46 He is wearing an Eric Saade T-Shirt. OMG.

23:48 This points stuff really is a little painful, isn’t it?

23:49 I HATE THAT THE AUDIENCE IS BOOING SOME OF THE VOTES!!!

23:50 What is it with Greece? Did I miss something? Wasn’t that a pretty bad song?

23:52 And it’s only about half of the votes. This will take ages.

00:00 Geisterstunde!

00:00 Is it called “ghost hour” in English?

00:01 Oh. Spain got 12 points.

00:03 I don’t think that anybody expected this so far fairly good result for Germany.

00:05 Maybe the Swede won’t win after all?

00:08 Oh, what a surprise :P.

00:09 Ok, I really don’t get why Ukraine, Sweden and Greece are getting so many points.

00:13 Do you think that Denmark got 12 points from Ireland because of the Danish singer’s hair?

00:14 I mean, it’s very Jedward-like.

00:18 Azerbaijan is winning! Wow!

00:19 French guy almost looks pissed off.

00:21 You know what? I’m ok with that. I’d been pissed off, if Greece had won. I can live with Azerbaijan.

00:23 But there are definitly countries that I preferred. A lot. But yeah. Better than Greece and Ukraine.

00:27 Well, that was it. Lot’s of strangeness and an unexpected winner. Thanks for joining me and have a great Sunday! And maybe next year I’ll be live blogging the ESC, when its broadcasted from Azerbaijan.