Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Wow, these past few weeks must have been great for the Russians. Their ice hockey team won the 2008 IIHF World Championship by beating their Canadian hosts in the final. Then, Moscow hosted the 2008 UEFA Champions League final, which apparently did wonders for the Russian capital & injected considerable tourist money. And now, Dima Bilan just won the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest for Russia.

The 2008 Eurovision was hosted by Belgrade, Serbia, courtesy of Serbia's victory in the previous year. Prior to the final round, they had 2 semi-final rounds to filter contestants for the final. I saw the semis & thought it was a shame that San Marino & Holland didn't make it through to the final round. But anyway, Marija Šerifović, who led Serbia to the crown last year, opened this year's final by performing last year's winning song.

Dima Bilan's winning song was titled "Believe". Though I quite liked it, I would have preferred first place to have gone elsewhere. I was most impressed by the performers from Albania & Armenia (nice ladies, both) & the pop performed by the duo from Iceland. I would have awarded these 3 the top 3 placings. I also quite liked the performances of Greece, Portugal, Norway & the Cher lookalike of Sweden - I found these 4 to be at least as good as the Russian performer. There were some strange/bizarreish performances, too - the pirates of Latvia, the angels of Azerbaijan & most of all, Spain's performer with Elvis-like hard hair who sang "Dance the Chiki Chiki". Uh huh, I think the Spanish guy takes the cake for clownish act....his song was so comical. Not bad, just amusing & weird. Ahh, well....it takes all sorts to make Eurovision....

Among the guests was the Serbian basketball legend, Vlade Divac. I remembered him from the 1990s when he starred in the NBA for LA Lakers (before he moved to other clubs) - that was when basketball highlights were shown free-to-air. Man, he has aged - his appearance on Eurovision was the first time I've seen him in ages, & he's now got grey hair. But good to see him.

The voting is almost as big a feature of Eurovision as the song performances themselves. Some 43 countries voted. And of course, as always, there was "bloc voting", whereby viewers' voting tend to lean towards performers of neighbouring or "nearby" countries. I suspect that this might have played a significant part in Russia's success. Russia got a lot of their points from the former Soviet nations, such as Ukraine, Latvia & Armenia. I mean, initially, Russia & Greece were neck & neck, but the Russians eventually pulled away & ended up winning by a very comfortable margin. The BBC commentator Terry Wogan would sneer (in a humorous, non-malicious way) as each bloc voting become apparent - everytime the Baltic states give first placing to Russia, everytime Greece & Cyprus viewers vote for each other, everytime the Nordic countries award top points to each other, etc etc. I enjoy Wogan's commentary.

Anyway, what's good about Eurovision is that we get to see glimpses of various cultures, listen to songs in unfamiliar foreign languages, see & laugh at some comical acts (like the Spanish "Chiki chiki" guy, as mentioned above), & well, just chill. Well done to Russia for their success. Next year, Russia will be the hosts, & Moscow will probably be the venue. Oh, well, guess that means next year's Eurovision will be brought "from Russia with love". Hahaha, pardon the silly attempt at "pun". Anyway, that's it for this year's Eurovision. Next month, my attention will once again be weighed in on Europe. Because coming up, it's....Euro 2008!