Eurovision Song Contest 2007

I just watched the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 which was held in Helsinki, Finland. The way the hosting works is that the given year's event is hosted in the country that won the previous year's edition. Since Finland's representative won the 2006 edition, it hosted this year's Eurovision. In the end, newcomers Serbia (who recently split with Montenegro) were winners of Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Some 24 countries took part in the final, & this is made up of the 4 automatic qualifiers, the top 10 placed countries from Eurovision Song Contest 2006 final & the top 10 countries from the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 semi-final (which was shown on Saturday nite). The 4 automatic qualifiers are France, Germany, Spain & the UK, & they earn their automatic slots simply because apparently (so I heard) they are the biggest financial contributors to Eurovision (or at least to the producers of Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Network).

As it turned out, the 4 automatic qualifiers did not fare well - they occupied 4 of the bottom 6 places. The UK finished 2nd last, ahead of only Ireland. France finished 3rd last. In fact, Western European countries did not fare well in this year's Eurovision - the highest from Western Europe is the host Finland, which took out 17th place. I have sympathy for Ireland's representative, who certainly didn't deserve anything like the last place.

The Eastern Europeans strongly dominated the final, with the top 5 spots filled by Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey & Bulgaria. Serbia's representative may have won, but I personally preferred the performances of the representatives from Turkey, Ukraine, & Russia. These 3 songs were the more "upbeat" dance/pop types, compared to the more passive/mellow ballad sang by the Serbian representative. If pressed to name my choice for winner from those 3, I'd pick Turkey, whose song "Shake It Up Şekerim" (a.k.a. Shake it Up Sweetheart) was peformed by popular Turkish pop singer Kenan Doğulu, accompanied by some British belly dancers (!) - they were awesome, Kenan's singing was good too. Having said that, I quite liked the Serbian entry, & congratulations must go to the Serbian singer Marija Šerifović, complete with her thick spectacles.^ I guess it's good that a country who previously never won the competition has now won it. Actually, that would be because Serbia never previously took part. So apparently, this is the first time a newcomer wins at first attempt. Well done to Serbia! The winning song is called "Molitva" (English translation is Prayer).

The televoting took place after all songs were presented. Viewers from practically all countries in Europe (even those not taking part in the final) get a chance to vote for their favourite song, athough they cannot vote for their own country. A spokesperson from each country announce the "top 10" results of the country's televote, from lowest (1 point for 10th place) to the highest (12 points for 1st place). This year, the European Broadcasting Network cut down on the broadcast time allocated for presentation of the votes, so that points 1 to 7 are shown automatically on the screen & only the top 3 votes (8, 10 & 12 points) are read out individually.

One entertaining feature of the Eurovision televoting is the voting bias or "bloc voting", where the trend is that viewers/voters seem to award points to neighbouring or "nearby" countries, or to countries which have a political relationship or some other commonality to the voters' own country. There's Greece & Cyprus. There's the Nordic bloc (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland & Iceland). There's the Balkan bloc, i.e. the former states of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, etc). There's the ex-Soviet bloc (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus etc). And then, there's the UK, Ireland & Malta. Some people say that the voting "bias" happens because people do vote for the country which with which they share similar culture, language & musical taste (& therefore more inclination to appreciate the music), rather than because of political ties between countries.

It's "hilarious" watching who gives top points to whom, & some of the results are rather predictable. Cyprus gave top points to Greece (as they do every year), & the only reason Greece didn't reciprocate this year is Cyprus didn't take part - so Greece gave top points to Bulgaria. And Bulgaria gave first place to....yeah, Greece. The UK got all their points from Ireland & Malta, & nothing from the rest of Europe. France got almost half their total points from tiny neighbours Andorra. Denmark & Norway gave top marks to Sweden. The Norwegian spokesperson jubilantly announced that 12 points go to "our neighbours Sweden" (hmm, what a surprise, I wonder why). The ex-Soviet states gave top marks to either Ukraine & Russia, so that greatly helped these 2 countries finished 2nd & 3rd respectively. And interestingly, voters in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia & Montenegro awarded top place to Serbia. It seems all that animosity from years of brutal Balkan conflict does not extend to music & entertainment. Oh and if that's not enough, Turkey got top marks from Austria, Belgium, Germany & the Netherlands - countries which have a sizeable Turkish population.

Eurovision's a once a year thing, it's quite interesting to watch. Needless to say, some performers are better than others, that's the way it is. Serbia will be next year's host thanks to this year's success. Oh, & next year, there's Euro 2008, too!

^ Hmm, speaking of spectacles, I think it's high time I get myself a new pair. That means scouting around for a suitable new look ;)